U-17 Residency Programming Shutting Down

Interview of Tab Ramos on the end of the program: http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...-on-conclusion-of-us-soccer-residency-program

 

I am glad they're shutting down the two-year program because it has never worked. Bradenton would've been a great asset if it had lasted for four months but the two-year time period just brought on stagnation. I think a four-month camp before the under 17 qualifying may still be a great asset in addition to the development Academy. The most important thing though is to get rid of that two year camp.

 

To say it never worked is to assume there was something better in 1999. It worked in the sense there was nothing else.
MLS clubs were in its infancy and had nothing resembling professional academies. No club teams circa 1999 had any intensive training as a priority. It had a few practices during the week and tournaments during the weekends. There could be debate that it could have ended sooner or ran a little bit different through the years. To say it never worked ignores how backward we really were only 18 yrs ago. Now I hope we see more camps, more players, more International tournaments, but at the end of the day its about playing 90 minutes week in and week out playing up based on talent and less based on age.

 

I wonder where all the money that went into that program will be going now?

It is definitely time for it to go away. With more MLS expansion on the way and USL and NASL teams starting to field legitimate academies, the structure is now in place for professional academies to do what residency was set up to do. Granted, there are still issues with the structure, but as it is now, it is arguably doing a better job preparing kids for the pros than residency.

 

I get the sense the 2-3 million will be put back into general fund but I don't think its a coincidence that they also announce that Wijinker and Lepores promotion to develop the National Identification Department to increase and improve national scouting for USSF and MLS.

 

I thought the very first class turned out a lot of players. Whether it was just a great class to start with or there was something that was never replicated I will attempt to list those.
Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Alex Yi, Nelso Akwari, Beckerman, Convey and three more that played pro that their names escape me. That's a good haul.

 

I would like to see some regional camps now for the U17's, U15's, and U14's.

 

I would like to see more scouting in general then connecting those players to their closest DA, MLS team, or USL/NASL DA's that have good training for youth.

 

residency for coaches

 

But time. We have grown out of this.

 

Good riddance. It is not a coincidence that the must successful program was the shortest in duration. The closer you make your youth team selections to that actual competition, the more likely you are selecting true talent as opposed to the earliest maturing talent. Bradenton quickly devolved into the a country wide search of the earliest maturing kids in the country. It sent the wrong message to a lot of kids and squandered resources and opportunities on too many of the wrong players.

Early maturing benefit from confidence gained from being successful against lesser developed peers. The downside is that never develop a work ethic because everything seems to come easily. When you have a country wide selection process based on finding the furthest along the way to adulthood and tell them they are all such special snowflakes the problem is compounded. While some kids may have benefited I saw far too many that seemed worse for the experience. Similarly, the physical advantage of maturing early is an ephemeral one. Yet the national team label gave them opportunities far in excess of the eventual talent level.

 

Will they play in less big tournaments? If not, who cares they are shutting it down?

 

Because its a major shift in how we scout, evaluate, and train top youth players in this country. This is major.
I still think we have another 18 yrs before we fix all the gaps and restraints on our youth development programs to come close to European and South American teams. The next steps I'd like to see is increase and improve coaching and scouting. Create more direct partnership between USSF and MLS development programs. Loosening movement and signing of youth to MLS teams. Connecting non-MLS DA teams to NASL/USL teams.

 

I agree. I think the system needed some overhauling, regardless, but as to whether the players live in Bradenton and get day to day coaching from those coaches or get coaching at their academy teams, I don't think it particularly matters. Neither is great coaching. Obviously we'd prefer these players are playing with a first team day to day, but for most kids this age, that won't happen, so I don't think it really matters where they get their day to day coaching. These kids don't have that much to learn against other kids their age. They are the best in the country for a reason. At that age, they gotta start working towards being professional players.

 

We've got to set up what steps exist for youth players to move through and its not an obsession of getting 16 yr olds first division MLS minutes. The process ends with that but what infrastructure exists throughout the country for players to move through no matter where they live. I am so glad that the diversion of Bradenton is now off the table, not because I want to bad mouth it but rather that the DA and MLS now exist for that level of training in almost every area of the country. What are your thoughts on some of the deficiencies in our development infrastructure that should take priority?

 

One of the things that is actually exploding in youth soccer right now is the emergence of club alliances. The early days of the DA showed that a lot of individual clubs simply could not cut it at that level. A lot of clubs where dropped, but a number of clubs were able to stay in the DA by forming alliances with other clubs to form a more regional, all-star type of team from the combined pools of two, three or even four clubs. Once clubs that were on the outside, looking in saw that happen, a bunch of them pro-actively formed alliances with the ambition of forming DA level clubs from a large area. This is a new layer of youth soccer that is spreading throughout the country.

So now you don't just have rec soccer and travel soccer. You also have the alliance level above that. It isn't a full level yet but, with the way that it is spreading, it will be a full level throughout the country soon enough. To the DA's credit, they are admitting these teams and giving them a chance to prove themselves but, just like with anything else, there is a huge difference in quality between some of these new alliances. A lot of them will get into the DA, but I don't expect for all of them to last.

 

Well, I do agree, for the most part. I think there is a problem with the lack of youth team above the U-18 age group. I wouldn't have a problem if it became U-19, but U-18 is too young for it to be a situation of jump to the first team or go to college. Some can jump to the first team, but not all can, and these players should be given one more year or more. U-20 is probably ideal, although U-19 wouldn't be bad. The biggest problem though exists in the culture. Kids would rather hedge their bets, they want to go to college and get an education, and hopefully maybe they'll be good enough in four (or occasionally) less years to turn pro. If we are going to really improve, you can't have 2/3 of the 100 best 18 year olds every year deciding to choose to be part time footballers for the next four years. Of these players, most of your eventual best players should be coming from these players, they do in most countries, but so many of our players stifle their development.

My point about U-17 residency vs. their academy team is that it doesn't really matter. The DA is not of a very high level, the competition isn't that great. For these elite U-17's, most of them aren't going to do much improving in the U-18 DA, and almost all of them aren't yet ready to play first team minutes. So it does create a problem. Getting them in a competitive system where they are competing against the very best players their age should help most of them, and then the ones who are still really good at that level but not yet first team ready should be playing in professional lower leagues, like USL. These kids gotta constantly be challenged. It does them no good to be playing at such a low level where most of the coaching isn't even that good to begin with.

You are misinterpreting my point. I'm not saying they should all be playing in MLS or anything like that, I'm saying that these players are at an age where they have to be thinking about their professional career. Maybe its Europe, for a few it might be competing for MLS playing time right away, for some others its USL. College commitments shouldn't even be a consideration, nor should the U-18 DA. These kids should be beyond that level challenging them.

 

Good Post. Every top player needs to play up. We need that next level to play up. I agree top 18 yr old should not be playing in DA Academy U18. That's what USL is for. Efrain Alvarez is playing U18 as a 14 yr old. Many 16-17 yr olds are playing U18. So its happening it just needs to mature. Good news is there were something like 45 or so 18 yr olds this yr are all in pro environments. Its ok to sign amateur contracts with pro teams while still getting education on the side. Some have chosen that route too.

 

I don't think an education on the side is a bad thing for these players, but on the side. You either choose soccer full time or school full-time, can't be both. Do you think the best young players around the world attend school full time and play soccer part-time?

And until we have like 95% of our best players choosing soccer over school, we will continue to not maximize our development system. As things currently stand, we probably don't get more than 20-30% of players with real pro talent choosing soccer over school. And as statistics show, there aren't more than a handful or two of pro players with college degrees who play in the top leagues in the world. Is it a coincidence? I'm sure there are tons of people who want to try to do both, but if you are playing soccer part time for four important development years, you've probably lost too many development years to have a really good career, no matter how talented you are. There are only a few Dempsey's around the world who can end up having very good careers playing part-time for important development years.

 

As a parent, I'll say that the USA has it much better than the rest of the "soccer world" on this point. 99+% of the kids in soccer never make $1 playing soccer. Getting them educated is much better for the kids and for society as a whole.

 

And I agree, but this is a soccer forum. Its not better for our soccer.

 

I agree with your point, but the fact of the matter is that in our society, there simply aren't enough parents willing to have their kids skip college to play soccer when they know the odds of actually earning a healthy living. A lot of our best youth players come from families that are financially stable, which in turns means that they aren't willing to take risks. As a soccer fan, this isn't the greatest, but I completely understand it and that's something that neither USSF or MLS can ever change.

I think that this lends itself to a discussion on college soccer, and how we can change that system to take advantage of the massive amount of youth players in a critical stage of their development. Taken quite literally, the US probably ranks close to, if not the highest in active soccer players from 18-22. However, we all realize that these players aren't playing full time, which everyone knows isn't a good thing and has their own ideas on how to fix it. Personally, instead of trying to get these players out of college, why not just take advantage of them already being there? Full-year training is something that I'd love to see happen, and a full-year competition is even better. On top of that, I don't see why the best teams/players can't play with/against USL teams and such, just to make them compete at a higher level (UNC scrimmaged North Carolina FC a few weeks ago), something that I think should happen more often. Players can even leave early from college and come back after their career.

Anyways, changes to the college system are up for interpretation, and im definitely no expert, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect parents to keep their kids away from an education when a career is so much more guaranteed with a degree than with a soccer ball.

 

You're looking for the NCAA governing body to put the best interests of its athletes as their top priority. That's never going to happen. Soccer is a niche sport financially. It doesn't drive the bus, that's football followed by basketball and maybe partially baseball. Removing the amatuer status or increasing games, practice time, travel, and expenses is never going to be in their interest.

The NCAA only cares about itself, its financial bottom line, and to some degree its perception in the media. Supporting student athletes is PR so they look good and continue the gravy train. It's why hundreds of millions of dollars is not reinvested into universities or athletic conferences. They get their small cut and they'll like it because there's no negotiating. The fact that only the federal government can regulate them means they act with near impunity and the status quo is just how they like it. Students who don't get paid to play and are held near hostage to the higher god of you need a college degree to get anywhere in life.

Money is the only thing that's going to move the needle and college soccer doesn't have that and the MLS, USL, PDSL, NASL, etc are never going to share it with them either.

 

I haven't responded to one of theses soccer vs education posts in a long time. They are not mutually exclusive, nor does it have to be 4 years of college soccer then professional soccer. You can go to college after pursuing professional soccer whenever that time comes.