FCC Announces Academy Teams for 19-20 Season

You felllas are the limit lol..my younger son who plays for a club is an average athlete..plays a competent 6 because he finds feet and defends decently....snd can use his head..he may or may not even play in high school..he just likes to play...funny story that says a lot about these vaunted clubs...when he decided to try out I signed him up for a bunch...see if he would find one he liked...after his first tryout he decided he really like the boys and the trainers...so..we never went to the remaining tryouts..the funny part? I got emails from 2 big name clubs..”based on (name of my Son) ‘s performance at the tryouts he has been placed on (name of team/year/coach)....please visit our site in regards to paying fees and ordering kits...AND HE NEVER WENT TO THE TRYOUTS!...like I said this is all a big money grab...thankfully he is on a team with a great coach with good training and is enjoying it...was at the Loveland-Milford match...fantastic! Want to get to a Mason game and will want to see Wyoming-Indian Hill
 
The FC Academy team reached out to Kings Hammer and CU by and large,to fill their roster...no open tryouts...that is what I mean by “reaching out to well to do white kids”...some of you jump up and down and stamp your feet defending our current system...which clearly is limping along internationally...did you see that horrendous friendly with Mexico a few weeks back? We need to blow this thing up right down to the grass roots if there is any hope of competing and getting US players playing meaningful professional soccer...the current “pay to play system” is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...I am uncertain we can do anything about it...the system today makes big club owners a good living...they aren’t giving that up...the US Mens College programs (which seem to be the goal of most parents...spend 50k on club soccer to get a partial scholarship) are horrifyingly underfunded...9.9 scholarships per team! So I defy you to say I lack understanding of the current soccer scene for young men in the US. My son who played and started for his successful high school soccer team plays college basketball and lacrosse on the East Coast for a D3 school and is loving life...Academies are a start in the right direction BUT they seem like they are being hijacked by the current culture...
 
Sports Jock and Chad said:
The FC Academy team reached out to Kings Hammer and CU by and large,to fill their roster...no open tryouts...that is what I mean by “reaching out to well to do white kids”...some of you jump up and down and stamp your feet defending our current system...which clearly is limping along internationally...did you see that horrendous friendly with Mexico a few weeks back? We need to blow this thing up right down to the grass roots if there is any hope of competing and getting US players playing meaningful professional soccer...the current “pay to play system” is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...I am uncertain we can do anything about it...the system today makes big club owners a good living...they aren’t giving that up...the US Mens College programs (which seem to be the goal of most parents...spend 50k on club soccer to get a partial scholarship) are horrifyingly underfunded...9.9 scholarships per team! So I defy you to say I lack understanding of the current soccer scene for young men in the US. My son who played and started for his successful high school soccer team plays college basketball and lacrosse on the East Coast for a D3 school and is loving life...Academies are a start in the right direction BUT they seem like they are being hijacked by the current culture...
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You continue to show how much you don't know. That's okay. As long as you can recognize that.

The FCC Academy did have trials. That's why there are multiple kids from Lexington, Kentucky there. Then, they also have added Columbus Crew DA kids who are Cincinnatians. Why should they have an open trial if they did some scouting and reached out to bring in the kids they wanted to start? If you say they have "well to do white kids" then you haven't looked at their roster. NO pro academies across the world do open tryouts.

No one on here is truly happy with any of the current system, so...who are you referring to?

The "current 'pay to play system'" is not so current. It's been around for well over 20+ years. Clubs aren't new. Not sure why people are just now caught up in complaining about it?

Academies aren't really any different than what's existed previously. They actually don't make much better, and haven't. Talk to many of the coaches that get academy kids. They are robots. There's not much to play for, so they don't have that competitive mindset. Zero creativity. It's just another "club" that exists. We are now over 12 years into the USSDA setup, and look what it's "produced." You say it is headed in the right direction, but there's ZERO evidence that it is.
 
Yes, there are some LFC kids, and some Crew kids on the team, but they didn't scout. There really wasn't time for the newly appointed director to do any scouting. He took the Existing 04 DA kids from CUP that he wanted, and then took a look at the 03s from CUP, and a couple of other teams that were somewhat local to the area. It certainly wasn't an open tryout and shouldn't have been, but why wouldn't you invite the top 3-5 kids from the 06,05,04 State Cup champs from Ohio S, Ohio N, Indiana, and Kentucky? What, that adds maybe 36 kids across the two teams? I thought it was mishandled by FCC, but they will have to live with their decisions and change things if they don't get results.

If you have been involved in club soccer for the last 20 years then you have seen the shift. 20 years ago, there really weren't coaches being paid to coach (I am sure there are some exceptions). Most of the coaches did it for the love of the game and teaching kids. There weren't 50 different clubs per city, there were a handful of select clubs which aggregated the talent better than today. The rest played SAY, which was the right level for them to enjoy the game. Over time it started to move to a business and clubs started to do more marketing, hiring DOCs, and "professional coaches". People started drinking the koolaid that if they were on a certain team, or with a certain coach that they were guaranteed a college scholarship (no matter what the athletic ability of the child was).

I agree that there is ZERO evidence that the DA is improving soccer at the highest levels. It is more a marketing tool and they aren't measuring themselves realistically against the results, saying it just takes time. It is a systemic problem at the top of US Soccer with the Berhalter nepotism just one example. We need fiercely competitive kids that aren't in any mold, that didn't learn the gazillion "moves" from some professional coach to really advance soccer here in the US. It is tough for us to compete, despite our numbers with the other countries that treat soccer like we treat American football, baseball, and basketball, as a National pastime.
 
Gr8tS0ccr said:
Yes, there are some LFC kids, and some Crew kids on the team, but they didn't scout. There really wasn't time for the newly appointed director to do any scouting. He took the Existing 04 DA kids from CUP that he wanted, and then took a look at the 03s from CUP, and a couple of other teams that were somewhat local to the area. It certainly wasn't an open tryout and shouldn't have been, but why wouldn't you invite the top 3-5 kids from the 06,05,04 State Cup champs from Ohio S, Ohio N, Indiana, and Kentucky? What, that adds maybe 36 kids across the two teams? I thought it was mishandled by FCC, but they will have to live with their decisions and change things if they don't get results.

If you have been involved in club soccer for the last 20 years then you have seen the shift. 20 years ago, there really weren't coaches being paid to coach (I am sure there are some exceptions). Most of the coaches did it for the love of the game and teaching kids. There weren't 50 different clubs per city, there were a handful of select clubs which aggregated the talent better than today. The rest played SAY, which was the right level for them to enjoy the game. Over time it started to move to a business and clubs started to do more marketing, hiring DOCs, and "professional coaches". People started drinking the koolaid that if they were on a certain team, or with a certain coach that they were guaranteed a college scholarship (no matter what the athletic ability of the child was).

I agree that there is ZERO evidence that the DA is improving soccer at the highest levels. It is more a marketing tool and they aren't measuring themselves realistically against the results, saying it just takes time. It is a systemic problem at the top of US Soccer with the Berhalter nepotism just one example. We need fiercely competitive kids that aren't in any mold, that didn't learn the gazillion "moves" from some professional coach to really advance soccer here in the US. It is tough for us to compete, despite our numbers with the other countries that treat soccer like we treat American football, baseball, and basketball, as a National pastime.
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There used to be some fantastic coaches at CUP back when it was CUP Red and White but they all left when it became more of a corporate structure.
 
I follow the soccer threads only because one of my kids decided this was his thing and we have zero experience with soccer prior to the past couple of years. I signed him up for a rec level team, paid my $100, bought him some shin guards and a ball at then a couple of weeks later found out they didn’t have enough kids to make a team. I was surprised as I always saw so many kids in soccer uniforms out and about on the weekends, cars with soccer stickers and when I drove by the fields in my suburb there would be a bunch of kids dribbling around orange cones. So I asked around (Facebook)- who are all these little soccer kids playing for and was told the names of not one but 7 clubs in our area with about a dozen opinions of which was the “best”. I look up the websites of a couple and find out tryouts happened a few months ago, but one of my friends knows the “director of players” (wth?) at “the best” club and can see if they can help my kid get a spot on the “J” team (kidding, but you know that’s how it feels if it’s not A/elite/supreme/ whatever).
Why yes they can fit in our little soccer player- just need a check for several hundred dollars plus a uniform. Oh and we don’t have room in this region for your kid so you will have to travel an hour during rush hour ever Tuesday and Thursday for training. Gulp- well it’s for the kid, and he loves to play so you suck it up and pay. Then Karen the team manager/accountant/soccer mafia boss sends you the FBI forms to fill needed to ensure your kid is indeed 7 not a 15 year old masquerading as a 2nd grader and asks for ANOTHER check for tourney and league fees. Excuse me? At this point I just feel dumb- but the baby looks so damn cute in his $$$uniform and he practices in the backyard all day so...you write the check. Season happens, you don’t blow your brains out trying to find a parking spot at X field on a lovely rainy Saturday at 8 am- so that is my definition of success. You thank all the other soccer parents (who you don’t even know by name but secretly refer to by the phrases they scream repetitively from the sidelines-“Sweep left Jack” “come on ref- do you even know what offsides is?” ) for a great season and tell them you hope to see them someday again and they look at you like you have two heads. Are you not doing winter training? Futsol? A league? More checks are written, more hours in the car and when you go to your first winter league game this is what happens:
Your perfectly coordinated, fancy club team with all the trainers shows up to ply at 5:00 on Sunday night in a warehouse with turf a half hours ahead of time. Just as the warm up timer winds down, the other team of Hispanic kids with mismatched jerseys and shorts rolls in with about 7 family members per player. The ref blows the whistle and...your fancy little club team gets absolutely smoked. Like to the point where little Jacob and Tyler want to quit soccer forever. All the other parents look shell shocked and I am in the corner by myself laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants.
Anyway- it is a whole new world for us and we are trying not to take it so seriously.
 
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Kballer said:
I follow the soccer threads only because one of my kids decided this was his thing and we have zero experience with soccer prior to the past couple of years. I signed him up for a rec level team, paid my $100, bought him some shin guards and a ball at then a couple of weeks later found out they didn’t have enough kids to make a team. I was surprised as I always saw so many kids in soccer uniforms out and about on the weekends, cars with soccer stickers and when I drove by the fields in my suburb there would be a bunch of kids dribbling around orange cones. So I asked around (Facebook)- who are all these little soccer kids playing for and was told the names of not one but 7 clubs in our area with about a dozen opinions of which was the “best”. I look up the websites of a couple and find out tryouts happened a few months ago, but one of my friends knows the “director of players” (wth?) at “the best” club and can see if they can help my kid get a spot on the “J” team (kidding, but you know that’s how it feels if it’s not A/elite/supreme/ whatever).
Why yes they can fit in our little soccer player- just need a check for several hundred dollars plus a uniform. Oh and we don’t have room in this region for your kid so you will have to travel an hour during rush hour ever Tuesday and Thursday for training. Gulp- well it’s for the kid, and he loves to play so you suck it up and pay. Then Karen the team manager/accountant/soccer mafia boss sends you the FBI forms to fill needed to ensure your kid is indeed 7 not a 15 year old masquerading as a 2nd grader and asks for ANOTHER check for tourney and league fees. Excuse me? At this point I just feel dumb- but the baby looks so damn cute in his $$$uniform and he practices in the backyard all day so...you write the check. Season happens, you don’t blow your brains out trying to find a parking spot at X field on a lovely rainy Saturday at 8 am- so that is my definition of success. You thank all the other soccer parents (who you don’t even know by name but secretly refer to by the phrases they scream repetitively from the sidelines-“Sweep left Jack” “come on ref- do you even know what offsides is?” ) for a great season and tell them you hope to see them someday again and they look at you like you have two heads. Are you not doing winter training? Futsol? A league? More checks are written, more hours in the car and when you go to your first winter league game this is what happens:
Your perfectly coordinated, fancy club team with all the trainers shows up to ply at 5:00 on Sunday night in a warehouse with turf a half hours ahead of time. Just as the warm up timer winds down, the other team of Hispanic kids with mismatched jerseys and shorts rolls in with about 7 family members per player. The ref blows the whistle and...your fancy little club team gets absolutely smoked. Like to the point where little Jacob and Tyler want to quit soccer forever. All the other parents look shell shocked and I am in the corner by myself laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants.
Anyway- it is a whole new world for us and we are trying not to take it so seriously.
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That is a very accurate portrayal of the club scene and almost made me have a spit take! I laugh when my son’s team rolls a big club...and they frequently do...and the smug parents are shocked..his team trains once a week...(sometimes twice)..the players all play multiple sports..some are currently running x-country and 2 even play football ...no winter training although some of the boys play indoor (with walls)...some play basketball...they will reconvene in March...energized to hit the pitch again...most but not all will play for their high schools in 1-2 years...a few I think will be really good and I can’t wait to watch them...and listen to the other parents complain that their kid is a star on “club” and can’t get on the high school field...that never gets old!
 
Sports Jock and Chad said:
That is a very accurate portrayal of the club scene and almost made me have a spit take! I laugh when my son’s team rolls a big club...and they frequently do...and the smug parents are shocked..his team trains once a week...(sometimes twice)..the players all play multiple sports..some are currently running x-country and 2 even play football ...no winter training although some of the boys play indoor (with walls)...some play basketball...they will reconvene in March...energized to hit the pitch again...most but not all will play for their high schools in 1-2 years...a few I think will be really good and I can’t wait to watch them...and listen to the other parents complain that their kid is a star on “club” and can’t get on the high school field...that never gets old!
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Well count me as a “club” parent who hopefully doesn’t fit the mold- I find it all fascinating! They asked our kid to try out for the next level and we were like- more soccer?! He loves the coaches so we stay in it- for now...

Oh and the indoor is super fun- like foosball game with real players. Plus- beer
 
Sports Jock and Chad said:
That is a very accurate portrayal of the club scene and almost made me have a spit take! I laugh when my son’s team rolls a big club...and they frequently do...and the smug parents are shocked..his team trains once a week...(sometimes twice)..the players all play multiple sports..some are currently running x-country and 2 even play football ...no winter training although some of the boys play indoor (with walls)...some play basketball...they will reconvene in March...energized to hit the pitch again...most but not all will play for their high schools in 1-2 years...a few I think will be really good and I can’t wait to watch them...and listen to the other parents complain that their kid is a star on “club” and can’t get on the high school field...that never gets old!
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Cool.
 
Kballer said:
Well count me as a “club” parent who hopefully doesn’t fit the mold- I find it all fascinating! They asked our kid to try out for the next level and we were like- more soccer?! He loves the coaches so we stay in it- for now...

Oh and the indoor is super fun- like foosball game with real players. Plus- beer
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I know...and good craft beer to boot! I am hoping my son plays indoor again...he didn’t last year but his team this year seems motivated and fun...good thing to watch on those cold weekends in the winter
 
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