TRAVEL TEAMS: US Soccer Federation Continues to Make Life Difficult for HS Soccer Players
I had discussed this issue back in Jan and Feb of this year, and it was a serious issue then. Now, this issue only continues to spread, this time to Long Island, which is a long-time hot bed of excellent HS soccer.
In short, the US Soccer Federation, one of the nation’s leading travel programs, is insisting that talented HS soccer players make a choice: either play with us, or play with your HS varsity team… but you can’t do both.
Here’s the problem. There’s no real good reason why USSF should be forcing kids into this dilemma. Sure, we all know that college coaches recruit only from travel teams and showcases, but to make a kid walk away from his HS team and buddies for an extra 10 weeks of soccer? C’mon. That’s not only not fair, but it’s also wrong.
Dick Hogan, my guest this AM, is a long-time HS and college soccer coach on LI, and he was outraged by this mandate. Already HS programs are losing top players because of this. Then, Matt Allen, the highly-successful soccer coach at Byram Hills HS in Armonk, NY, called and complained about it. Byram Hills is losing two top players…Mamaroneck HS is losing 5.
And of course, it’s all being done in the pursuit of trying to gain a partial scholarship for college soccer. There are, of course, no guarantees here. USSF doesn’t guarantee anything more than each kid on its roster will get 25% playing time in a game. That same kid on his HS team would play 100% of the game. Plus, of course, there are no guarantees of athletic scholarships. And of course, a kid also has to pay hundreds of dollars to play on a USSF team.
To me, I just find this entire situation totally outrageous. Sure, the USSF people feel that an extra 10 weeks of training will help the American boys reach the Olympics in soccer. I’m not sure I buy into that. Besides, the American female soccer players didn’t seem to have any problem in being competitive, and of course, winning the gold in London. As of right now, the USSF doesn’t have the same mandate for HS girls.
It’s hard enough being a kid playing sports these days. Why does the USSF have to make it that much more difficult?
"The Sports Edge"
Doug Abrams
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Yes, agree. It is one thing if a talented soccer player makes this decision on his own for his own personal reasons, it is quite another when an organization (or coach) stipulates this as a mandatory requirement. You want to develop better players, top of the heap type of athleticism, do it by creating a deep desire from the inside, not by creating mandatory rules on the outside that force athletes down a certain path. That path, if it is to be successful, MUST come from inside the athlete. Doing it otherwise negatively impacts to many others and it is less likely to produce what it is one is seeking.
Kirk Mango
Author: Becoming a True Champion
This is par for the course with soccer, so there shouldn’t be any new complaints from you or from players/parents.
Soccer authorities are completely corrupt and completely oblivious to the real world. Not only is this a long standing tradition, but the dumb asses that run the sport take a lot of pride in that, and this stuff goes beyond the usual game fixing, hooliganism and murders of players and refs that we read about all the time.
Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, is on record as saying provocatively bad referreeing is good for the game.
That’s one reason for only one ref who can not see whether or not goals are scored, much less whether or not play is offside, is permitted per game under international rules enforced by bans from world cup play, and why soccer doesn’t use replays.
The other reason for enforcing bad officiating is a well worn claim that soccer has to be universal, ie, that games with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of prize money and league positioning and billions of dollars bet on them have to be played under the same conditions as sandlot games in third world countries. Yet the policy that is as bogus as a three dollar bill; in important tournaments and leagues, they use extra referees and goal sensors, stuff you don’t think they have at the “grass roots” level where local leagues are restricted from using enough competent refs in a game on their own under pain of sanctions such as exclusion from tournament play.
Beyond that, there are the plain stupidities: having the World Cup played in Qatar in 125 degree weather; scheduling MLS playoff games at 11 PM; scheduling playoff games opposite the World Series in the same city when it could have been played several days later; permitting the hoarding of talent at the professional level, and on and on.
In fact, for all the tens of thousands dumb things they do on purpose when running the sport, the fact that it is the world’s most popular tells a sas story about the people who participate and follow it too.
As far as I’m concerned, you, these parents and coaches cannot be heard to complain. If you lie down with dogs, don’t be upset when you wake up with the fleas.
Dear Mr. Wolff,
My son played high school soccer with yours. He also played premiere soccer for 6-7 years during his teens. He is now 29 and has long ceased playing.
I listened to part of the show this morning, and the part that I heard didn’t really get at the heart of the problem. In spite of playing 85% of his teen years for premiere teams, his fondest and most vivid memories today, are of competing for his high school. Nonetheless, at that time he might well have chosen to not play high school.There is so much more social and human developmental value in high school competition than premiere competition. His premiere team had kids scattered throughout 50-75 miles of Westchester and Connecticut, but his high school team consisted of the kids he saw every day. The experience was invaluable to his development as a person.
Yes, it’s true that his premiere coaches were better, but had he improved and extra 10% or even 50%, he was not a candidate for the Olympic team, and this is, of course, true about 99.9% of the kids who compete.
Mr . Steuer,
Oh how I wish there were more parents with your perspective . In fact if you or your son ever pass through Delaware you have an open invitation to speak at our school.
Readers should know that according to my son John who was a teammate of Conor’s in HS that Conor Steuer was not only one of the top soccer players in New York State, but indeed one of the nation’s premier players. After HS, I believe he played at Johns Hopkins. Yes, he was tremendous. Rick Wolff