The US Soccer Development Academy has instituted a new 10 month long season for their elite Development Academy Club Season. This new schedule will take effect for the 2012/13 season and will impact college soccer recruiting immediately. If you want to play at the NCAA D1 level, it almost forces you to play for a US Soccer Development team.
*image from http://academy.demosphere.com/
US Soccer Development Academy teams are the elite club soccer teams for U15/16 and U17/18 soccer players across the country. There are over 3,000 players, across the 78 club teams and 10 regions. These are highly competitive clubs, where the best young soccer players travel the country playing in the biggest tournaments. According to the US Soccer Development Academy, this change allows more time to focus on development of players, increase the time between games for player’s health and safety and get the most committed young soccer players into a training system that will make the US more competitive at the international level.
It is nothing new that the best players are playing with the US Development system. Originally, these develop leagues played a much shorter season, allowing players to play at the high school level or even other sports. From the perspective of college coaches, there will not be a substantial change. They will still recruit from the same powerhouse clubs and attend the same key showcases each year. These changes are going to impact recruits and families the most.
Here, are the Biggest Take Home Messages From a Recruiting Perspective:
- If you want to play NCAA D1 soccer, you are going to have to play for these elite clubs. Not every athlete who plays D1 will play for a US Soccer Dev. team and not every US Soccer Dev. team player will play for a D1 college. However, the vast majority of NCAA D1 players will come from these clubs.
- High school soccer will lose relevance in the eyes of college coaches. It won’t happen overnight, but with the elite young soccer players playing full-time at the club level, the standard of high school soccer will drop. With this drop, the attention given to club soccer will go too.
- Families need to identify where the elite clubs are and make the necessary sacrifices to be part of these clubs (see the map below).
- You are going to have to decide at a young age if you think soccer is the sport you want to play exclusively. These clubs have U15 teams, meaning if you will need to decide around the age of 13,14 or 15 that you are committed to playing soccer full time.
Do you have questions about the new changes in soccer recruiting? Leave your questions in the comments below or find us on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+!
im a soccer player residing in africa,is it possiable for me to be recruited if i played for a club and also a freshman.
It is certainly possible. Are you a freshman in college? Have you tried to contact the coaches at the school you are currently at? As an international athlete, it is critical you are proactive and contacting coaches on your own. Please let us know if we can help.
There are 30-50 or so non DA clubs that college coaches are very interested in also. I some cases because they may find find players that are NOT at the DA events. IF you can’t get to a good DA club (there are many areas underserved by the DA [e.g Pittsburgh], and there some DA clubs that college coaches don’t regard highly) at least get in club that has a track record with college placement.
Thanks for the information. Do you have a list of clubs nationally or at least in the Pittsburgh area you can recommend?
The clubs in the USYSA national league are a start. Beadling in Pittsburgh as well as Century United. Also look at the top two non DA brackets at the DIsney tournament in December- they will publish acceptances soon Go to clubs’ sites and look for the college alumni page – if they don’t have one that tells you something, but most do.
Some clubs may have one highly successful team with the rest merely good. So they may not have the experience working with college recruiters.
How much do these club teams cost for the year including travel? Parents need to know the expense before they go all in so they can decide if they should just save the money for college since most kids won’t get the money back in scholarship dollars.
Each team has different costs and they can range from $1,000/year to several $1,000/year. Many of the clubs offer scholarships on the team for players who can’t afford the yearly club due’s. i would recommend any athlete or parent research the club team and contact the coaches before committing any money.
You of course want to consider the costs of club teams closely if your over riding goal is to get a large scholarship for college. However, there is something to be said for paying these kinds of fee’s just for the opportunity to play against the best youth soccer teams in the country If you are only looking at youth sports as a means to a scholarship I think you need to reevaluate what it is you started playing for.
By the way, I am not accusing you of thinking like that, but we both know people do.