One of the most confusing things about youth soccer today is trying to sort out all the top tier programs that exist in our country.
In most countries, the top professional teams all have a youth academy program which tries to sign the best youth players available.
They then train these players with the goal of either having them reach their top level team or selling the player to a larger,
wealthier professional team.
In our country, many of our top players aspire to play for the USA Men's team or at the professional level. But, many of our top
players simply want to be able to use soccer to help them get into a top level college and receive an athletic scholarship to cover
the costs of their education.
Our Men's National team has never gotten past the round of 16 in the World Cup. For decades, our governing youth soccer organization,
the United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA), has tried to create programs that would help us develop youth players that could
help our country someday win the World Cup. Along the way, they have changed the structure of youth soccer and created numerous
programs for the top players in our county. Most of these programs have met with limited success and were later abandoned.
Our country regularly competes in World Cups at the U-17 age group and older. Our U-23 team represents our country in the Olympic
games. All of these teams are formed with the goal of developing players to help us succeed in the men's World Cup. Our women's
team has had a lot more success, winning the World Cup in 1991 (the first year it was competed for) and in 1999. In 2011, our women
came in second in the World Cup.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the Olympic Development Program was in place to serve develop our nation's top players and help our
country succeed at the national level. Each state association would form one team in each age group U-13 and older to compete
against the ODP teams from the other states in the region. There are four regions in the country. Each region would pick a regional
team in each age group, comprised of the very best players from their state associations' ODP teams. I coached in the ODP program in
the 1990s for several years and always greatly enjoyed working with the top players in our state. Each year, a few of the best players
in our state would make it to the national team for their age group. Our state was doing well in terms of producing top level players.
We were behind Southern California and Texas in that sense, but we were still getting our share of players onto the national youth teams.
US Soccer is the governing body of soccer in our country and the parent organization for USYSA, the primary youth soccer organization
in our country. US Soccer has implemented several programs over the years to try and get our nation's youth players up to the
level required to play internationally. Years ago, they decide that college soccer was not an adequate stepping stone for players
to play at the international level since the NCAA limited college team's in terms of how many games they could play in a year and
what times of the year they were even allowed to train.
From 1997-2005, US Soccer sponsored "Project 40" in an attempt to develop our nation's top young players. The program was sponsored
by Nike. From 1997-2000, Project 40 formed a team of our top young men's players to compete in the 'A' league, which is one level below
Major League Soccer (MLS), our nation's top professional league. The intent was to develop these young players and get them ready to
move up to MLS teams. Several players from our state were a part of Project 40 during those years, including Ben Olsen (from Middletown,
PA, a former LMSC player who played 12 years in the MLS and also in the 2006 World Cup), Chris Albright (from Philadelphia, a 10 year
LMSC veteran now with the Philadelphia Union), Bobby Convey (from Philadelphia, a former player in the English Premier League and
current MLS player), Tim Sahaydak (Bethlehem) and Matt Napolean (Feasterville).
Project 40 was disbanded in 2005 and was replaced by "Generation Adidas," a similar joint venture between MLS and US Soccer. This
program encouraged players to bypass playing in college and go right to the MLS. Players who enter the Generation Adidas program
would be considered professionals and therefore forfeit their college eligibility. In return, they are offered significantly higher
salaries to play.
In 1999, another major project was started, called the IMG Soccer Academy. Located in Bradenton, Florida, the academy was a full-time
residency program for members of the Under 16 and Under 17 men's national teams. Players were given a chance to train in a professional
environment while continuing their high school education. One of the head coaches in the IMG Soccer Academy was John Hackworth, now
assistant coach for the Philadelphia Union. Hackworth coached at IMG from 2004-2007. Many current MLS players attended IMG Soccer Academy.
In 2008, US Soccer created the Development Academy (DA) in an attempt to significantly improve the soccer environment for youth soccer
players in the United States and develop our country's top players for our national teams. The philosophy of the DA was to increase
the quantity and quality of training, have the players play fewer overall games and have games played at a significantly higher level.
The Developmental Academy was limited to 78 elite clubs in the USA, each handpicked by US Soccer. Each club would have one Under 16
team and one Under 18 team in the Developmental Academy. These teams would play almost exclusively against other DA teams. They
play almost year round with a lot of support and scouting from the National Team coaches. Only two DA clubs exist in Pennsylvania,
that being FC Delco and PA Classics. One reason that US Soccer created the Developmental Academy was to take control of the top level
youth players away from the United States Youth Soccer Association. USYSA is a part of US Soccer, but the two are now competing against
each other. If you understand all this, please feel free to explain it to me.
In 2012, players on DA teams will no longer be able to play high school soccer since US Soccer has decided that not only is collegiate
soccer a drawback to player development, but high school soccer is as well. Players who were recruited by private schools to play
soccer however will still be allowed to play for their school. Confusing? US Soccer has decided to try and take full control of
the development of our top youth players in the country.
In this area, the Philadelphia Union runs a separate program, the Union Academy Program, but does not field teams to compete in US Soccer's
Developmental Academy league. The Union works with local area players to try and develop players for their parent team. This is
different from the goal of the Developmental Academy which is to develop players for our national teams. The Union Academy works
with players and teams from the DA, but their relationship is a total mystery to many people.
In the early 2000s, US Club Soccer emerged to compete with the United States Youth Soccer Association. Some leagues and clubs
wanted to play under US Club Soccer while others wanted to play under USYSA. This turned out to be one of the stupidest political
battles in the history of soccer. For awhile, Delco League and PAGS league would roster SOME of their teams with US Club and some
with USYSA. Many teams would have to get two sets of player passes in order to be able to compete in both local leagues play and
state cups. This was a huge inconvenience for many clubs like ours because our 'A' travel teams would have to enter a separate
spring league and play a few meaningless games in order to be eligible to play state cups. The whole battle was a clash of egos
between people running various leagues and youth organizations. Did I mention that this was the probably the stupidest thing I
have encountered in my 30 years in youth soccer? Fortunately, after about five years of this nonsense, the Delco League and PAGS
League were pressured into to having teams in their leagues play only with USYSA player passes.
Along the way, many other organizations have popped up to try to and run programs geared to getting elite players developed and
identified for our national youth teams. The list includes the Super Y League, ID2, Super 20 League and many other programs, many
of which I never understood what their purpose was. I'm sure that that the people running these different programs all have good
intentions, but it becomes very frustrating when so many programs crop up and go compete with each other for our nation's top players.
Everyone in our country would like to see our country someday win the World Cup, but so far we still haven't come close at any men's
national team age group. Hopefully the various competing factions won't spend too much time and energy fighting with each other so
that one clear system will emerge to enable our country to succeed at the international level.
Personally, in my opinion, the biggest problem our country faces at the international level is that young players in our country do
not simply go out in the back yard and organize their own soccer games in their free time. This is a common occurrence in other
countries where children regularly get together with their friends after school and organize their own fun, small sided games in
the park, the back yard or in the street. This happens all the time in the United States when it comes to basketball. People
can drive through most any city in the USA and see pickup basketball games being played in the parks. In America, youth players do
not play soccer unless it is organized by adults. It just isn't in our culture to do have our youth play pickup games after school
or in their free time. So, instead, various organizations compete with each other to try and run elite player development in our
country, all in the hope of the USA becoming a dominant factor in international soccer.
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