Cincinnati kids playing college soccer?

belied dat said:
A little technicality here, Pulisic did not "grow up in England." He spent a year there before he was even 7. Spent most of his time in Pennsylvania, with a stint in Michigan.
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I am from Hershey…his father played professionally for the Harrisburg Heat which was owned by a family friend Dr. Rex Herbert. My college roommate was the ticket manager. I had a friend who’s son played club with Christian at the Classics…So even though I moved to Cincy in the early 2000’s I followed his story (all of Hershey did of course)…he left for Germany at 16 …remarkable….so to my point..even Captain America didn’t play in college or professionally here…he did workout with the City Islanders/Penn FC academy but that was minor league….nothing like Europe.
 
CDRam84 said:
More pay to play…more money for big clubs already overstuffed pockets? The difference is simple…players don’t pay..they attend academies that are paid for by professional clubs…and there are tons of them around the world…sure our MLS clubs have academies but I am not seeing very many “homegrown “ players emerge…the structure and goals seem entirely different…we have minor league baseball and the G league in basketball which are similar to the system of world soccer (although not exactly). Pay to play is cork in the bottle here in the states…instead of identifying the best players…we (collectively) identify the best players who can afford exorbitant fees…severely limiting the scope and pool of players…just look at the USMNT…players raised in other parts of the world…Pulisic, from my hometown, grew up in England..and because of dual citizenship went to play professionally in Europe as a teenager. So, while there maybe regional leagues for young adults it would seem they are just essentially rec leagues? Pony up some $$ and play…which is fine..plenty of that in basketball as well…I was merely pointing out that outside of college…which seems to be dominated by foreign players we don’t have many avenues for high school players.
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Exactly my point. True academies are needed here. Especially from ages 14-20. Your parents income shouldn't matter. That's where we lose tons of kids.

That's also the ages where it gets crazy expensive. 5-10K for 'academy' when so many of these places are just academy in name? LOL.

Then you got these clubs that are just money grabs. You're seeing parents pay 200+ a month for club, 500 for uniforms, a boatload for travel and the kid comes back for HS the next season and hasn't improved a bit? Used to be the more club kids your HS had the better they were. Now it's so bloated you got club kids that can't even start at their HS

The clown show of pay to play has already hit it's ceiling for the USMNT.
 
Look, we can blame the pay-to-play all we want. It's not a good system, unless you are the one raking in the dough.

Bottom line is: US soccer players do not put in the time and effort needed to be better players. They (parents and players) rely on a coach and a system (HS/club/academy/privates/etc.) to make them better. Kids do not do much playing or training on their own. Parents would rather pay for the "professional coach" to make their little one better. Kids do not rest like they should. Kids do not get in the weight room like they should. Kids (overall) are less fit than they used to be.

This is a youth development problem, not just a soccer-specific problem. It's perverted all sports.
 
Rose Hulman has a fantastic engineering program and is D3. Let’s set something straight…D3 athletics are not even close to D1…I don’t mean talent..I like D3..the kids are actually students first and athletes second. The time commitment is WAY less in D3…it is more like high school with some travel..I played a D1 sport for 3 years and it was all consuming…all of the D3 athletes I know (my son was one) still have time for intramurals, clubs and general college hijinks😜…If you have good grades and ACT’s many D3’s give a fair amount of academic scholarships…so if you want to give it a shot it is feasible….the only problem being many of these programs are dominated by foreign players now…as for kids not working hard I can only speak for my son’s high school..they lifted year round…practiced as much as the OHSAA would allow and had plenty of player run open fields…in addition many played for clubs as well.
 
I kind of stumbled into this thread and wasn’t aware of the lack of D1 talent (or opportunities )in the Cincinnati area. My daughter was lucky enough to get a full ride to UC, she had other offers as well. I think they had 14 full scholarships to offer (not certain) and in her 4 years there were an average of 28-32 girls on the team. About 12-14 were usually from Ohio, N.Ky. 5-6 Canadians, 2 from China. Most of the teams she played had a high number of Europeans, Canadians, also New Zealand, Australia, Mexico. Overall I think the high ratio of non Americans is more a male than a female issue.
 
Irwin20 said:
I kind of stumbled into this thread and wasn’t aware of the lack of D1 talent (or opportunities )in the Cincinnati area. My daughter was lucky enough to get a full ride to UC, she had other offers as well. I think they had 14 full scholarships to offer (not certain) and in her 4 years there were an average of 28-32 girls on the team. About 12-14 were usually from Ohio, N.Ky. 5-6 Canadians, 2 from China. Most of the teams she played had a high number of Europeans, Canadians, also New Zealand, Australia, Mexico. Overall I think the high ratio of non Americans is more a male than a female issue.
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Thread is titled "Cincinnati kids playing college soccer" not D1 soccer. I'm willing to bet the list of kids playing college soccer from the Cincinnati area is pretty long. I don't buy into this "foreign players are taking our spots" crap.
 
Yes they are…just do the research…even at the small school level…for men…women is an entirely different story…women's soccer is not as big around the world with a few exceptions…hence our dominance in the World Cup and other competitions
 
Philly_Cat said:
Thread is titled "Cincinnati kids playing college soccer" not D1 soccer. I'm willing to bet the list of kids playing college soccer from the Cincinnati area is pretty long. I don't buy into this "foreign players are taking our spots" crap.
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Just looking at numbers for DI over the last 10+ years, the international percentage was up to nearly 31% of all men's DI roster spots are international. This is for fall 2018. That means roughly 1500 players in DI are international.

So...where exactly are these roster spots going for domestic players? There's no 1000-1500 roster spots magically appearing for domestic players across all other divisions.

Add into that, schools dropping men's soccer OR schools closing altogether. Roster spots are becoming sparse. Any schools that add the sport, aren't necessarily good schools that are attractive for many players to go to.
 
There are a bunch of local kids at MSJ…D3…I would say no scholarships and a pretty bad program keep it off the international radar…a few years back even Cincy State (a jc) had a fair number of international players
 
belied dat said:
When programs are cut, there aren't roster spots that just magically appear out of nowhere.

Add into that that roughly 50% of all college students go [maximum] 90 miles away from home, then the odds are even less -- especially when there aren't programs that are added when programs are cut.

Then, throw in that Thomas More now has 28 international players, which is probably the most they've ever had in a single season.

It's not always about "talent" as it can be about opportunities. When opportunities go away, the talent won't always end up on a roster.

Take these three programs (UC, CCU, TMU) as an example: maybe 90+ roster spots available (28 - UC, 30 - CCU, 40 - TMU). Take away the 58 from two programs cut and TMU now being very international, there are 76 less roster spots available for local players.
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Going back to the first page, here's my reasoning on why there's fewer players from Cincinnati playing...in general.

Transylvania will have a few more Cincinnati-area kids there this year as well.

But, overall, I do see numbers being lower from local players playing at the next level. Even add into that, FCC's Academy hasn't necessarily produced players going to the next level to play consistently. Yes, some are (couple going to Akron even for fall 2023), but some that were committed never matriculated to the soccer programs or even school of commitment.
 
MLS Academies are by and large a joke…is the goal to get guys to the largely mediocre NCAA? …or develop future pros? Since these guys are hand picked from big money pay to play clubs are they big time players or just rich kids?
 
And once again…I have no dog in the fight or axe to grind…just would love to see the US competitive and domestic players developed
 
CDRam84 said:
MLS Academies are by and large a joke…is the goal to get guys to the largely mediocre NCAA? …or develop future pros? Since these guys are hand picked from big money pay to play clubs are they big time players or just rich kids?
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Well, we all know the roster opportunities to go pro from any youth setup, let alone an MLS Academy, is VERY small. Look internationally, some Premier League clubs have less than 10% success rate to pro.

Either way, there's been some bad matriculation from FCC to college -- even with their commitments. Excluding any homegrown signings post college commitment.
 
belied dat said:
Well, we all know the roster opportunities to go pro from any youth setup, let alone an MLS Academy, is VERY small. Look internationally, some Premier League clubs have less than 10% success rate to pro.

Either way, there's been some bad matriculation from FCC to college -- even with their commitments. Excluding any homegrown signings post college commitment.
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So your point is that becoming a professional athlete is extremely difficult and rare? Well, duh. And you're upset that there isn't avenues that make it easy to be a pro? Smh

FYI, pro academies are free for players. And if you think the players there aren't some of the elite of the elite, I'm not sure what to tell you outside of maybe go watch them play and then make a real judgment.
 
Absolutely no axe to grind..in any way. Just a life long fan. Love the game…huge FCC fan and unfortunately Everton in the Prem..want to see us in a World Cup final before I expire…time is ticking 🤣. Played a D1 sport (not soccer) back in the 80’s so you can do the math…I have watched 3 academy games..a college buddies son was a keeper at one (not FCC, on the East Coast) about 5-6 years ago…
 
Philly_Cat said:
So your point is that becoming a professional athlete is extremely difficult and rare? Well, duh. And you're upset that there isn't avenues that make it easy to be a pro? Smh

FYI, pro academies are free for players. And if you think the players there aren't some of the elite of the elite, I'm not sure what to tell you outside of maybe go watch them play and then make a real judgment.
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What are you talking about?

Most pro academies in the US are free, but there are still some that do charge -- and still charge a pretty penny. The ones that are "free" also do a great job of scamming families with "affiliate" clubs to bring in millions to make the top academy teams free (for example: FC Dallas profits roughly $15m from their affiliate clubs).
 
And…the academy clubs are stocked with players from the top travel clubs…so really they are the best players who have parents that have bank as the kids say…us soccer is not identifying the best young players and developing them…we have a huge latino population that are passionate about the game..yet I see the top tier travel and academy teams and there are few latino players? 🤔….sure this isn’t just about 💰💰?
 
CDRam84 said:
And…the academy clubs are stocked with players from the top travel clubs…so really they are the best players who have parents that have bank as the kids say…us soccer is not identifying the best young players and developing them…we have a huge latino population that are passionate about the game..yet I see the top tier travel and academy teams and there are few latino players? 🤔….sure this isn’t just about 💰💰?
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I'm starting to wonder how much youth soccer you guys are actually watching. Do you all get outside of Ohio? There are tons of Latino players playing soccer in America. Some organizations are almost entirely Latino, players and coaches through all age groups. Blue Chip Showcase is going on as we speak. If you're in SWO go over to Voice of America and watch some soccer and see the diversity.
 
belied dat said:
What are you talking about?

Most pro academies in the US are free, but there are still some that do charge -- and still charge a pretty penny. The ones that are "free" also do a great job of scamming families with "affiliate" clubs to bring in millions to make the top academy teams free (for example: FC Dallas profits roughly $15m from their affiliate clubs).
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Again, my point is becoming pro is no simple task. There is no easy to find way to make it happen. It is something that the tiniest percentage of kids will achieve no matter their path. I'm confused at how many are so upset that no clubs near you are offering an easy cheap way to be a pro, and because they aren't they must be cheating everyone.

Saw this today...
 

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I am at VOA all the time and see the diversity there…Having been around the game here for 20 years I have tons of friends with kids playing, coaching etc…I coached and played till a bad (!!!!) ankle injury when I was 48. I am always at a soccer game (or basketball game in the winter)..I will be there in a few weeks for The Presidents Cup…where I don’t see it is on the Academy and higher level CUP teams…this isn’t about becoming a pro..that is hard…virtually impossible …it is about the opportunity…I can’t speak for other areas with the exception of Hershey (where I am from) and it is no different there. Until these academies actually scout talent throughout the region instead of grabbing a few CUP Gold and Hammer kids it will just be lather , rinse repeat. Anyone who thinks high level soccer here isn’t restricted by economics is drinking the kool aid. Basketball, whilst far from perfect and at times downright sketchy, does a better job…look no further than Lebron..he got to play high level basketball for free (some would say actually paid)….if his Mom would have had to dish out tens of thousands of dollars for travel basketball he would have just been the greatest black top player in Akron history.
 
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