In Illinois it has been about a week of High School soccer practice. Good ,Bad or what have you. How is the D.A. kids not being around impacted the team or are we seeing kids playing High School and hoping there will be a spot for them after the school year?
Bad soccer, but it's early. I'm sure they'll improve the technical and tactical skills during practice when they're not playing 3 or 4 games a week.
It looks to me that the Crew academy has no more than 2-3 players from any one particular high school. Most (not all) seem to come from the traditional central OH high school soccer powers (Gahanna/Dublin/Olentangy/Worthington etc). And it appears that just about every one has a kid or two in the academy now. So on a league/regional wide basis I suspect the same parity will continue. The difference may come on the state level with Cincinnati and Cleveland schools maybe not losing their 1-2 best players and therefore perhaps having an advantage in the state tournament. Although Crew does have some kids from up north and down south. Internationals in Cleveland are DA also but I have no idea if they have a high concentration of kids from any particular school i.e. one of the Catholics - St. Ed or Ignatius. Should be interesting to see what impact it does have here.
I lost 2 players to the Chivas academy. I hate this new rule as a high school coach, but it is truly needed to further develop our youth. My 1st question is, why can't they play for a 1/2 season? Let them continue to play for both teams for 2 months. The HS coaches should have the players practice only twice a week since they will be practicing with their academies. Academies feel HS is below them, but a player can work on finishing on inferior competition. If their academy forward scores four times for their DA team but 20 for thier HS, are they really losing on development?
We are running into a variety of Chicago area academy kids (Fire, Magic and Sockers) who are playing high school. I am surprised. Don't know why or how as we have not talked to them.
Interesting. We'll see how those teams do. After watching 5 or 6 games, I've noticed and incredible lack of talented strikers and generally, pretty bad soccer. Some seniors that have already signed letters of intent may have elected to play their senior year rather than do academy.
Also have been hearing some kids are playing both. Which will be a shame for the High Schools when they are suspended from play. Wake up High School coaches it is not worth it.
Most of the kids are playing for public schools so that would not explain it. Also in Illinois you are not allowed to play club when the high school season is in session
Please explain to me how the academy groups are playing matches this week-end, Fire, Sockers & Magic, and some of the "academy" players are indeed playing high school as well - personally saw some academy players playing high school last week.
Let me put it this way. If they are playing High School and the IHSA finds out they could cost the team the entire year of play,but they have to be caught. I do know of some kids that started Acd but went back to high school and they will become DP when they come back. Why should the academies not play matcheds this weekend . My sons practices are full teams so not sure what the problem could be.
In February, when they announced the shift to a ten month schedule, US Soccer did say that players attending a private school who were getting $$$ to attend the private school would be allowed to play with their HS team until ,Nov 1st, at which time they would then join their Academy team. And that there would be a limited amount of waivers for this, left to the discretion of the club. It seemed pretty clear cut. But now there are articles appearing on-line that indicate US Soccer may have reversed their position and are allowing kids from public schools to play with their public school team and then join Academy. You can’t find this discussed anywhere on US Soccer website. A couple days ago this article appeared and a Public school coach in NYC stated that six of his players are being allowed to play on their school team and then jojn their Academy team. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high-school/new-development-academy-schedule-put-place-u-s-soccer-federation-forces-players-quit-high-school-teams-article-1.1152799 And then there’s this link. Writer offers that kids can play high school (no mention of public or private) as long as the Academy team can fill their roster. This implies that kids can play high school and then Academy (where soccer is played in the fall) or Academy then high school (if HS soccer is in the spring). http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/soccer/09/07/development-academies-high-school/index.html Then on a web forum out of NC, two posters are claiming that two players in NC are being allowed to play HS and Academy at the same time this fall. And that this “waiver” was granted by US Soccer this week. So my question to anyone out there… is there a defined rule/exception that parents can read and understand or is this a case by case “exception” granted by the individual Academy club? Has US Soccer changed their mind on no HS rule (for public school kids) or modified the rules without publishing them?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/high-school/bal-boys-soccer-preview-0830,0,6904568.story from the Baltimore Sun. 3 academy teams in the area: Baltimore Bays, DC United, Potomac Academy. The Bays coach is also the head coach of an elite private school in Baltimore - talk about a conflict of interest.
Good heads up reporting. In IL there are, in fact, Academy players playing for high schools both private and public. Some are listed on rosters as FT some as DP. Some not listed on rosters at all, but are registered and will be returning as FT or DP players, according to their original offers I assume. I have not seen any Fire players playing. Nor did I expect to. As far as the soccer goes, I was just at Pepsi Showdown last week and the play looked similar to how it always has, imo.
So Fire DA players are not playing any HS soccer? For real? What about Magic and Sockers players, are any of them playing HS and why would they be allowed to return to the DA teams for these two clubs? Is the Fire just stricter in enforcing the new rule than Magic and Sockers?
Uof I, I'm thinking something went wrong when you created your post, but in any case you hit the nail on the head. It's going to become a non-issue eventually. Like almost all the Academy rules, some clubs will enforce the rule, some not. Most will do what works in the best interest of the club - and the USSDA will look the other way regardless. And what a difference a year makes for Magic U18s eh? They have a very interesting group this year...
Magic U-18s are a very different team than last years U-16. Many new players & some kids came from Fire (Kees influence?). Funny that many of these kids are playing high school, more than Fire or Sockers kids from what i have seen and heard. A reason to play for Magic because they let you do both? One team hurt by losing players to academy has been Sandburg
I am going to have to disagree with you on the many new players. The team that played in St.louis started all Magic players from the previous U-16 and U-18 team. Yes I think 3 or maybe 4 players from the Fire have come on over. One of them will be an impact player right away not so sure about the other ones. There are 4 players from the Magic team that should be playing on the team and they have decided to play High School.
What is the point of these rules then if they wont be enforced? If some DAs wont enforce the new HS rule, then they shouldn't be part of the DA program. It's BS in my opinion.
Indeed, but in fact many Academy rules are not enforced. One of the most important being the 25% start rule.
Fair enough, "many" would better describe the combo of new players on both U-16 and U-18 teams. Magic and other clubs go around saying no high school but then look the other way when some of their better players want to play high school. I won't name names but you and I both know who I'm talking about... Still, agree with Yonko's point about it all being BS. As far as I know this is not happening with Sockers, correct me if wrong. I still believe its a shame to keep a kid from playing for his high school. Two months is going to make a difference and keep him from being the next Dempsey or Donovan? Please.