If you are bored this weekend and want to watch high quality youth soccer, come on out to Reach 11... 14 western states and their boys and girls ODP teams will be determining regional champions today thru Tuesday!
I hate to start this off on a trip to negative town. But it must be said after travelling to this event and spending thousands of dollars to get my child to this "level" only to watch him ride the pine. I was very dissapointed with ODP. I was a bit skeptical as so many people told me and after doing much research and hearing the same thing over and over about how ODP is failing. This past weekend was a very clear confirmation of what many have said. ODP has become a factory for developing the priviledged and "who knows who". We had a child on our team that could barely dribble the ball had absolutely no 1v1 skill yet he played the entire tourney due to his club coach being on the ODP staff, ODP Alumni, and a very prominant bay area college coach. It was even more sad for this kid to be rewarded by being place over a much more talented kid that saved our butts numerous times during the tourney. This kid was placed as the 1st team all star as a defender when he only played defender for a very small portion of the tourney. How are we ever going to get the right kids to the top when there is such clear and blatant biases? Of the teams we played only 2 could be considered top level and the others were beaten so badly it was almost sad for the boys that came soooo far. I dont want to share too much because I have come to learn that this upper level soccer world is very tight knit. However this will most likely be our last tango with ODP. My wallet is drained and PDP, MLS academies, and clubs are a beacon of light for the kids that have raw talent as there only vice.