Parent asks USSF to relent on camp policy

Below is an outstanding article by Bela Dziengeliewski about the challenges that the US Soccer Development Academy is presenting to their participants, which limits their opportunities to be recruited by college soccer programs.

I get it. The whole point of the USSF Academy is to simplify the training/game process for elite players, reducing burn-out and increasing their performance level. Having been the parent of three select soccer players for the past 15 years, I have seen burn-out first hand. Several years ago, my son actually played club soccer, Super Y, ODP, National Team, middle school soccer, 3v3, and trained at a club in overseas all in a 12 month span. That was definitely overkill, and we learned our lesson. I was relieved for him to join an Academy program last year where all he had to do was go to practice and play games, and it was all part of the same system. So I get it. He is rested, focused, and playing some of the best soccer I have seen him play in quite a while.

It's too bad the college coach that invited him to camp won't get to see that. You see, the school is on the other side of the country. We can send tapes, but it's not the same as going to a 1 ½ day camp in January where he will get to see the school, the dorms, and the coaching staff first hand. They asked him to come so they could observe him over a period longer than one game. They want to see how coachable he is, and what kind of character he portrays while at the camp. But without that opportunity, the coaches may pick someone closer to home that they have seen more than once.

The USSF Academy has it right in a lot of ways, but I must disagree with this one. I understand why they don't want kids playing in more than one league at once (though California teams have been allowed to play in the CSL and Academy at the same time for several years now), and why they don't want Academy and high school going on at the same time. But these very short college camps give both parties a chance to see close up if they like each other. Without that, the whole recruiting process is much more of a shot in the dark. Maybe the answer would be to limit the number of the camps, monitored by the Academy Director of the player's club. I think two would probably be as many as time would allow, and would keep the whole experience positive.

But forbidding players to attend these camps at all does them, and the schools, a disservice.