The Parade High School All American boys and girls teams are out and again this year the boys team features mostly players who do not even play "High School" soccer. In fact the boys player of the year is even stated in the article as being a professional player with the Red Bulls. While I guess it is really easy to just take the Brandenton class and post them each year as the High School team and then add in a few National pool players that are not at Brandenton, it really does a disservice to those who actually play High School soccer and perform well. It would be much more honest to call this Parade team the " already previously identified players in teh national pool who probably do not play High school soccer team".
I sincerely wish you good luck with this thread. I have made this same point many times over the years and have gotten shelled with some of the dumbest rationalizations imaginable. Of course you're 100% correct that a "High School" All American team ought to be made up of kids who play "High School" soccer, rather than just kids who are of High School age. There's an entire world of difference between working a few hours a day with a couple tutors at Bradenton and then training four hours a day under a professional staff and then jetting off to play the Argentines at some tournament in Rio and going to high school. But I've been told that none of that matters, because these kids are "the best" and so it would be a gross injustice not to fill up the High School All American team with these kids who haven't seen the inside of a high school in years.
Thanks. In my opinion they just do not want to take the time and effort to actually come up with a team of actual "High School" players so it is really easy to just copy the national pool. I probably would have just grumbled to myself again this year when I saw it but they actually had the arrogance (or maybe just lack of soccer knowledge) to actually state that their "High School player of the year" is a professional player for Red Bull. They do a lot better job on the women's side where they appear to use the NSCAA All American team as their basis. At least the girls actually have a "High School" after their name where they actually played. I also agree with your point around the differences between Brandenton and a real High School. It is a different world at Brandenton where they do not have 7 hours of classes every day, practice 6 days a week for coaches whose practices are often more suitable for cross country than soccer. Play against teams 3 days a week who often employ persistent fouling as their main defense against good players, etc. Plus teachers actually make socer players do all of their homework at most high schools during the season and do not give a darn that you will be away at a tournament all weekend.
I think this is an example of the difference between soccer and more traditional American sports and the difference between boys and girls soccer at the elite levels. While the road to the top for girls still includes high school, as is the case with other traditional sports, it is no longer the case on the boys side. I'm not sure I'd want to see boys listed simply because they played in the traditional high school soccer environment. To me that would be like giving out trophies simply for participation. The award should be for the best in the high school age group, but I do admit that we are transitioning to an environment where many of these kids are professional athletes in every way but name.
I admit that I have not gone through every name to determine if they play High School soccer or not. With the prevalence of Brandenton boys on the list it is pretty certain that a large percentage do not play High school soccer. I follow U/15 - U/18 boys pretty closely and I only saw a few names that match up with high level players outside fo Brandenton. If they would change the whole title of the list to something like " Boys Top Soccer Players age 15 - 18" or something like that I would be okay. But saying High School when many are not High School players is pretty misleading.
See, this is what makes me crazy about this whole discussion. You're just not following along here. If they want to publish a list called "Best 17-19 year old soccer players in America" then fine, have it your way. If, as you state, they make a list of the "Best Players in the High School Age Group" again, no problem. Fill it to the brim with MLS players, Bradenton kids and whoever else. But if you are making a list called "High School All Americans" why can't anyone see the reasoning behind insisting that the players ACTUALLY BE IN HIGH SCHOOL?? Suppose I started a "College All American" team and filled it with Danny Szetelas and Eddie Gavens and Tim Wards and DaMarcus Beasley's and Chad Marshalls and Jonathen Spectors? Since they are "in the college age group" I presume that that would be fine with you, make perfect sense. Right? Of course it doesn't. They are NOT IN COLLEGE and thus, regardless of how "good" they are, they have no business on a "College" All American team. Everyone sees the logic in that, but completely fails to see that HIGH SCHOOL ALL AMERICAN is exactly the same thing. And people who are NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL don't belong, regardless of how "good" they are. Frankly, by this logic, there is no excuse for them having left Freddy Adu off. Is he not "in the high school age group"? I'm sorry, but it just makes no sense.
Ummmm, well I was a parade all-american in '04 and I played 4 years of HS soccer at my local public high school.... As was one of my State ODP teammates.....
We're not saying that there are exceptions. Jonny Villanueva plays HS Soccer, but most of those guys dont.
What is even more important is that in some states, HS soccer season has not even started.... In Texas HS soccer starts in mid-January. I have also heard (but never taken the time to confirm) that unless your HS coach is a member of NSCAA or the HS equivalent, they cannot nominate you for this honor. (Or maybe that is for Adidas HS All-American?) At my sons' HS, the HS and district did not pay for the coach's membership, and he was not willing to pay for it out of his pocket. Regardless--the kids who are nominated are probably all deserving players, but all are not the most deserving, and too much emphasis is put on this "honor".
Probably close, but the ODP kids actually get on fields and play games, so there is probably a little LESS politics in the 'voting"!
Yeah well, maybe. You'd be surprised. But at least ODP looks sensible on the surface, while as Bill states the Parade All-American list is bogus straight from the start, since so many of the kids aren't even high school players. So I will give you this one, yes -- the Parade list is worse.