Depends upon your kid's goals, your circumstances, and where you live. Goals: (1) If your kid wants to be a professional player, an MLS club obviously has a direct pathway to get there and an ODP program, even in the best of circumstances, will only be an identification program for scouts to find your kid. Of course, that doesn't settle the question even if your kid wants to be a professional. If your kid is going to an MLS program at U12, there's plenty of time for the MLS program to ditch them and replace them with someone better (that's more often the case then true development), whereas an ODP program and a local club might be a bit more patient. (2) If your kid wants to play high school, then an ODP program is the way to go because they permit it, while MLS academies (and all Development Academies) prohibit it. (3) (a) If your kid wants to play DI in college, either could get you there, but an MLS Academy is likely to be better at getting you looks at a DI program, while (b) a local club and an ODP program might be the better combination to allow your kid the time to excel in school too and go to a strong academic DIII school that also has good soccer. This is especially true for Academies that require your kid to attend their high school (like LA or Philly) or go to their affiliated high school that coordinates classes with practice times, since it will likely be a step down in terms of academic rigor (or at least perceived as such by top academic colleges). Financial Circumstances: If you can't afford pay to play, then an MLS academy is the clear way to go because they generally cover all costs. Not only do local clubs mostly require pay, but ODP can be very pricey in most parts of the country, with Cal South being a notable exception because their Pro+ program is underwritten by sponsors. In both cases, this isn't always true though. Some Academies do make you pay some money (especially non-MLS academies) and some clubs and ODP programs offer scholarships that help substantially. That's true with colleges too, where some DIII academic and financial aid packages are better than DI soccer scholarship packages. Location: In some areas of the country, the MLS Academy may have a particularly bad set-up or reputation and you're better off staying away. Hard to know without talking to locals. On balance, though, the Academies provide year-round soccer instruction and the ODP programs are only occasional, so the relevant comparison is the Academy and your local club option, not the ODP program, which merely supplements what you're getting at your club. In many areas of the country, ODP is not viewed as that big a deal anymore and Development Academies (MLS or otherwise) are the gold standard. Hard to generalize too much without knowing more.
MLS or non MLS DA/ECNL Club. ODP is nothing like it used to be before NPL, MRL, MDL and ID programs. It's fine for extra play time but not for college or beyond. Plus it may put your player in a bad position where they may have to miss team practices and games for ODP events. They may get kicked off or shit listed by their mates.
My 2003 son is trying to figure this out right now. He has decided not to go back to his current DA team even though he starts and plays 100% on a middle-of-the-road team. He will try out for the local MLS-DA team and has about a 15% chance of making it (they're good and it's hard to break into even though he has a good chance of being at least a contributing sub). If he isn't selected, he'll do high school and ODP. He loves the high school kickarounds so far because the coach is good and personable and the upperclassmen are supportive and impressed by him. He should make varsity as a freshman at a good program so that'll probably be as high of a level as DA would be next year overall. The hard part is figuring out what to do for the rest of the year. Regular club tryouts are before any of the DA, ODP and HS tryouts so he will have missed the boat on that. Although, he's good enough he can probably find a team up a year or two and walk on there just before the Spring season. He says he might like to try HS track too so maybe that will work if he makes the State team or more on ODP to keep his skills up. He would like to play in college. Is he making a mistake stepping away from a sure-thing program with his current club that he doesn't enjoy? It might be hard to break back in the year after next since the he would be the younger of the two-year age-group team. Lots to consider.
Thanks for sharing the story, would you say that the HS program will provide an increase in the level of your kid or it will stall it? maybe ODP or MLSDA tryouts will provide a better chance to land an scholarship. I'm guessing he's been Scout in the pass, did they give you any feedback? what's your State?
I wouldn’t think that to be much of a problem…with the whole age change, [in general] 03 Boys teams will be hurting for players in this coming Fall (just as the 02's were last year), as 8 month’s [in most states- ymmv] worth of that player pool will be Freshmen in High School that Fall, many likely playing HS soccer…in any case, I would think most clubs would welcome and make accommodations for those returning players in the Spring…they'd be pretty short-sighed not too....
We're in CO. We were wondering that same thing about if we'd be "stalling" him in HS. I suspect he would be fine for one year but more might be a step back. Next year is a single year U15 for the 2003 age group but the following is U16/U17 combined with the 2002s. If he doesn't advance much this year, he might have trouble making that team so may have to do HS for two years and try DA again as a Junior. He hasn't been scouted specifically by the MLS-DA team but they should have their pick of the litter. They're free -vs- ~$4k for the other DA teams here and we have 7 junior DA teams funneling down to 3 senior U15 next year. My son is a good poaching forward with wheels. The scorers for the MLS-DA team are mostly dribbling midfielders put up top so he might fit in nicely to give them that dimension. I think he's fine with either MLS-DA or HS but it's one of those things you wish you could see how it turns out before you sign up. Year-long commitments are tough.
I think you're right. I just heard most club teams are having a second tryout in Oct to catch those players. Who knows, he might be able to get back on DA after HS season as a "Developmental Player" and work back on the team.
Well, the decision was made for him last night. The MLS-DA "tryouts" were a farce. They just filled a newly-created club team with those that showed up rather than evaluating them for the DA team. HS and ODP it is for the boy.
Yeh - Odp just isn't anything special anymore.and with the DA starting at u12 that will take a lot of players. some who fill those spots might be good as well you have to assume that the vast majority of the best will not play ODP anymore. And it does cost a lot too for not too much in return. I know some players/families from E PA who have decided not play ODP anymore because they no longer provide enough extra training. College coaches seemed to have stopped going to those events not too. But it does give chances to kids who didn't get them before. Maybe some surprises can happen
I really wish USClub and US Youth can come up with a unified top tier. Youth soccer is such a god damned mess!
You are so tight on that but you have to add US Soccer to the mix. They run DA and they don't allow DA players to play ODP/ID type of things. Everyone hates each other but sometimesit is for a good reason. I am in the East (region1) and it is run by a lady who has no idea at all about the game and she makes big decisions that affect the game. Why would US soccer want to deal with the likes of her?I know that she has greatly hurt odp in the region with personnel and programming decisions that only someone who knows the game should have mad.e I am sure that is the same else where and I think that is a big reason US Soccer decided to to the DA
We just notified his current DA team he will not be returning but asked if if it would be possible for him to stay on as a "Developmental Player" for the summer futsal and Spring half of the season. That would be optimal if they and US Soccer rules allow it. Does anyone know of anyone else doing this?
ECNL is the newest invention. Every few years a new league or competition is created. It is the second envelope in the "Three Envelopes" joke. At one point ODP was the badge of honor, then somebody decided to make a league that was 'better'. As for people running things...for some it is about how many conventions and tournaments they can go to on the state/region dime. They have suites for entertaining, dinners, golf shirts and the ultimate perq, the golf cart at the tournament.
Old post I know....but IMHO this is a better approach than making the decisions based on a couple of hours at a tryout. Spotting the no hopers and the absolute stars is pretty easy in a condensed time frame....beyond that it takes a bit of time to scout and evaluate a player. Better to be done over the course of a several games or a season, and a couple of weeks in training. This approach allows the maybe's an extended evaluation period.
Have an '01 boy that was raised in the traditional club environment...played for state and regional ODP from ages 11-15...this spring / summer was asked to tryout for both the Barca academy and RSL, and was extended an invitation to join both academies...so after much discussion he decided to join RSL, and is currently in residency in Salt Lake...ODP provided some memorable experiences both thru tournies and camps, but just for a limited time (handful of training sessions, 4-5 game tourney, 5 day regional camp), so we felt the next progressive step was an academy, even though it's not easy sending your 16 year old 700 miles away.
I agree that a few days is hard to really evaluate a player but that doesn't change the fact that the MLS-DA pulled a "bait-and-switch". They said it was a tryout when in fact it was a recruiting tool and therefore a cash grab. The boy is really liking high-school by the way and the non-MLS-DA coach was happy to "DP" him so he got the best of both worlds: play HS and he rejoins his DA team in November. We haven't heard anything from ODP yet despite tryouts ending almost a month ago. No one has heard from them in fact...weird! That's OK by us though since he doesn't really have time to do ODP anyway since he already has limitless training opportunities as it is. The only thing OPD could do for him is identification if he made it to the Regional team. The State tourney is in January though so he'd have to wait much longer to rejoin DA.