Sunday, September 29, 2013

Soccer: Academy Program or High School Program?


United States Youth Academy Soccer teams are transitioning into a 10-month season for elite soccer players.  This change is being done in an effort to further develop youth players into becoming more competitive on an international scale.  While this sounds like a great upgrade for elite players to train, it is creating a tough decision for many athletes.  The decision of playing for an academy team or their high school team is a choice that is now required of players that have the ability to play at the academy level.

The advantages for an elite player playing for an academy team is that the amount of instruction they would receive is be drastically increased.  According to the U.S. Soccer website, the 10-month season will add between 32-40 weeks of active training compared to the 12-weeks of training during a high school season.  This abundant amount of time allows for a high amount of valuable training time for the elite players.

However, there are downsides to academy players not being able to play with their high school teams.  While this not only affects the social aspect that players experience with a high school team, the high school soccer programs are now having to watch some of their star players walk away from the program.  While some players do not have a problem leaving their high school teams behind, others still wish things were different.  A player who has to leave his high school team in order to play academy was being interviewed by New York Times and stated, “you look at Lebron James, he played for his high school and went pro. Why do we have to give it up?”  This is a decision that many elite athletes have to make at 15-16 years old.  How many of us were making possible life and career changing decisions at this young age?

You Make the Call --- Are select sports leagues, such as Academy Soccer programs, putting too much pressure on young athletes?

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