"Earthquakes to Enter U-16 Team in Super Y-League"

This is great news.

 

and how!

 

Steps in the right direction. Maybe I will see the U.S. hoist the world cup trophy in my lifetime.

 

the next thing they need is a reserve/youth side...like an under 20s or something....

 

Funny how Dom is involved but no Yallop.......he hates youth. The next youngster he will run off will be Alvarez.

 

This may be old news to some of you....but the youth team they have brought on board as the Quakes' U16 representative in the Y-League is the FC Fremont Fury, Y-league national champs of a year ago in the U15 age bracket.

The Y-league is growing as THE premier league in the country and it is awesome that the Quakes are getting involved. Unfortunately there are other major youth leagues in the area who are trying to prevent this Y-League from succeeding.

Bottom line here is that the combo of MLS and Y-League will bring huge attention to more players than ever before in certain areas of the country and give them much more opportunity to be seen by the national and regional staffs from USSF.

There will be a few Y-League home games for Fremont (aka U16 Earthquakes) at Spartan Stadium this summer prior to the MLS Earthquake games....so stay tuned...

 

It looks like this is the first step toward establishing a reserve system. It's a great step...considering that to establish an infrastructure like this implies that the club is taking root and won't be easily relocated.

And, WHAT A SHOCK! There are other major youth leagues in the area who are trying to prevent this Y-League from succeeding? When will people stop playing politics with the growth of the game? Isn't "the good of the game" more important than who's "king of the hill"? Apparently not in this country...

 

This is a great way for the Earthquakes to enter the youth scene and have immediate credibility. As someone said earlier, the Earthquakes have taken the Fremont Fury U16 team and repackaged them as the Earthquakes' new Super Y team. These guys were U15 national champions (Super Y) last year and made the semifinals of the Snickers U14 championships the year before only to lose to a team from the DC area with a 12 year old kid on the team named Adu or something like that. As time goes on, I expect that the Quakes will have try outs to start to create their U15, U14, etc. teams, but taking this team in its entirety gives them a great start.

As far as why Dominic has been involved and not Frank, you have to understand that Fremont soccer and the Kinnears are joined at the hip. Dominic's dad coached the team that won the first national championship for Fremont many, many years ago and the whole family has been in the soccer scene there for many years. Dominic (along with John Doyle) have run camps there, although John now runs the program in either Pleasonton or Danville.

As an aside, 2 of the kids from the Fremont Fury sat with me at the game last Saturday (their dads were sitting in the box with Johnny Moore). When Arturo was put in, I commented that this guy was only a year older then them. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these kids in MLS someday. Some of them are going to pop up in major college programs, especially Stanford and Berkeley (where the coaches are from).

 

I'm so confused.

The SYL sounds GREAT! But how do players get recognized into this league? I understand that the SYL is granted ODP status. Does that mean it is legal for SYL to scout players? Is ODP the current vehicle that a youth player uses to make it onto a state, regional, or national team? Or do the scouts come out at State Cup or other tournament weekends looking for players to fill these slots? And if that's the case, then why have ODP tryouts? What if a kid doesn't participate in ODP tryouts? What are the chances of being recognized? How do they know where or who to scout?

I can see where the politics maybe come into play. How is the scouting of players to be fair? One thing about ODP is how do they choose players based on a couple of practice weekends (tryouts)? How can the skills of a kid be appreciated in such a short period of time? I think this is where the politics come into play because there is NO WAY that just two weekends of practice can show an ODP coach that one kid is stronger or better than another without also knowing or having "heard about" certain individuals beforehand. Is SYL going to be different than this?

My confusion is embarressingly obvious. I wonder what organizations are anti-SYL? I've looked around on the web and really couldn't find anything. Is it groups like CYSA? I would really like to read about WHY they would be against such a league.

 

See this is what concerns me. How is the common potential superstar kid going to be recognized in this game if their dad doesn't know Johnny Moore or their team isn't "joined at the hip" with someone that has direct involvement?

I'm NOT poo-pooing this great move by professional soccer, but there are unbelievable players everywhere. Last year a player from our team made our district's ODP team--he quit a quarter of the way through it--I'm not quite sure why. But is the soccer scene for up and coming youth going to be about who you know and how much status you have in the soccer community? Or is it like that already and I'm just starting to realize it as my son enters and competes successfully in the select U15 playing division--it's getting more and more shrewd every year.

 

Their dads were there because they are the coaches of the team and the deal had just been done. In any case, the primary discussions were at a higher level than these guys. From the kids' standpoint, nothing has really changed except the uniform. They have the same coaches, the same teammates, and the same championship trophy sitting on the shelf. This won't allow them to be looked at by anyone who hasn't already been looking at them. These kids are very, very good, so the right people already know who they are. They were lucky that they live in Fremont which has a great program. They were also lucky to grow up in a "soccer house" and had good training from the time they were pretty small. I don't see it being about "who they know" at all.

If your son is any good, the burden is on you to identify the top leagues in your area and make sure that your son gets to their try outs. I suspect that it's not all that hard to find out who's any good around here. Scouts do come out to State Cup and Super Y matches. The best coaches of these teams are also tied into the ODP and have relationships with more than one sanctioning body to increase the opportunities for their kids. There is a national movement toward "open boundaries" which will not force kids to only play in their town, but allow them to play in neighboring towns if they choose. Of course poaching has always been a problem and will probably get worse. In all of this, it's your job to do what's best for your kid and to have realistic expectations of his abilities.

 

This is great news for the future of soccer in the United States. But, will the Earthquakes (or whoever has a U-16 team) hold the rights to their U-16 players? When some of those players are ready for MLS, do they go throught the draft, or do they get called up by the parent team?

 

I agree completely with your statement. Problem for us is knowing what's best at this point.

I wish there was a class for parents of committed, bright, serious soccer kids. "Single Soccermom minus the minivan 101" maybe?

 

I wonder if the SYL be like ODP where you can play for both your club team and the SYL team? I wonder if a whole team can become a Y League team?

This is what I don't like and it's probably what's keeping me from registering my kid in the upcoming tryouts next month. It's also why I fret that there is more than just tryouts to making an ODP team. It isn't even required that a player tryout both weekends. One 2 hour showing is all they ask. How can they possibly eval a player from that? What if a kid is having a bad day...or a bad weekend.

The Y league's "season long" tryouts sound more like it. Actually, it sounds really too good to be true.

Our team manager sent parents and players an email at the beginning of this month mentioning something about the Y League. I didn't really pay attention to it then, but I just now sent him an email asking about it. The curiosity is killing me!

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post!
I appreciate it.

 

SYL is run through the United Soccer League which the organization that governs the "A" League, PDL and D3 pro/semi-pro teams. Like I said, it is completely separate from USYSA (which CYSA is affiliated through). Thus, it is very possible to be on a CYSA club team and a Y-League team at the same time.....or a CYSA ODP team and a Y-League team at the same time.

Just to give you an idea, most CYSA premier level youth teams forgo any affiliation with a CYSA league during the spring months right now and concentrate soley on Y-League. Then they pick back up with CYSA in the fall.

The regular ODP system through CYSA has its pros and cons. I think that if your son or daughter can make it to the state level, this is when the soccer and the chemistry on the field with other high caliber players really becomes rewarding and worth the sub-par 2 weekend tryout phases.

I don't care for the politics between leagues....if playing for the Super Duper Backyard soccer league got you a look by a few college coaches or even an ODP scout....it's all good to me. The point is to give the serious youth socce rplayer the best possible environment to succeed and progress.

 

Very cool. Thanks, that's all I really want to hear.

Maybe I DO belive he's in the best place right now with the BEST coaching and training (both soccer and fitness). Plenty of opportunities to be seen with traveling tournaments and one of his coaches is, after all, an evaluator with ODP (girls), at least he was least year.

We'll just keep plugging away, keeping our eyes and ears open about this Y League and other opportunities.

The boy has been told he's got something by people who have earned their respect in the soccer community. Now what that means, I don't know, but we are surely going to try our best to develop it further! The good thing is that it's something HE wants to develop and he works hard at it.

There's a few years left before college. We'll see. Will his name become recognizable in future years? I don't know. I don't think I'm being unrealistic at all, and we're not gonna give up on that quite yet.

Sorry to take this thread and turn it into something so personal, but there's lots of kids out there (not just mine) who have some potential to develop into something good. I'm just feeling a little bit like there are those chosen few for one reason or another--be it who they know, where they play, or who coaches them--who really really get a good looksee. The rest just make for a really good select league soccer weekend! Don't get me wrong....it's a lot of fun!

So, GO QUAKES Super Y League team!! This IS a step in the right direction for developing youth in this country!

 

'quakes Youth Team ?

I read a few months ago that we had a reserve / youth side. Since then, I've heard nothing. Are these guys playing yet or just training ? If they are having real games who are they playing and where ?

 

You can go to this link to see how the team has been doing:
http://supery.uslsoccer.com/standings/72170.html

The team is in first place (owning the tiebreaker over Santa Rosa which they defeated 4-0) with a record of 5-1-0, with 20 GF and 6 GA for a +14 Goal Differential. They are going to Rockford, IL to defend their North American Championship from 8/20-24. Last year, playing as the FC Fremont Fury, the team tied the defending champs, DC United, 2-2 in bracket play to advance to the semifinals and send DC home. In the semifinal that night, most of the DC United team came and sat behind the Fury bench and cheered the team on in a thrilling 3-2 golden-goal OT win over the Atlanta Fire squad. In the championship, the Fury won in PK's over Philadelphia powerhouse FC Delco in a game televised on Fox SportsNet.
In its only game at Spartan this year, the U-16 San Jose Earthquakes defeated San Juan 2-1 on 5/17/03, in a match played before the MLS Earthquakes exciting win over the Crew.

 

I'm glad that this team is getting some recognition and appreciation. I go to school with some of the players, and I have refereed (assistant, of course) them several times between their high school teams, FC Fremont, and the Super-Y League. The skill demonstrated in their games is very impressive and, more importantly, very exciting. I can't wait to see some of them play for the Quakes...Go Jeffrey and Alex!

 

San Jose Earthquakes Youth Team at Super Y Finals

The San Jose Earthquakes U-16 Boys team has reached the semifinals of the Super Y championships. They were the national champions of their age group last year as the Fremont Fury, and they are two games away from repeating as national champions (now as the San Jose Earthquakes). They were the only U-16 team to go through to the semifinals unbeaten and untied.

The semis are Saturday and the finals are Sunday. If you want to follow the progress of the tournament, check out:
http://supery.uslsoccer.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2:gp::72016+Elements/Display+E+46241++624722

 

San Jose Earthquakes Youth Team at Super Y Finals

Interestingly enough Santa Rosa United is in the other semifinal, who finished equal on points in the Northern California Super Y league. Potentially an all Northern California final.

 

San Jose Earthquakes Youth Team at Super Y Finals

How come no Socal teams in this Super Y League?

Just about every time our Norcal teams play the teams from the southland we get our butts whipped.