Post by enmorecat on Oct 16, 2018 12:42:58 GMT 10
Just back from a couple of weeks in the US, specifically to visit colleges and get a feel for the general standard and what opportunities there may be eventually for my son. The NCAA has three divisions for, "soccer", Division 1 & 2 colleges offer both academic and athletic scholarships and Division 3 ones only offer academic ones. Ivy League colleges are division one, but only offer academic scholarships, but attract pretty smart cookies. There are divisions outside of these, including two year junior colleges, which also may offer both or offer dramatically reduced fees compared to four year colleges.
We saw:
Division 1: Two games, Division 2: One game and Division 3: Two games and we saw them in the states of California, Texas, Florida and New York. With one of division 3 teams, a nationally ranked one, my son trained with them and we travelled with the team to an away game (two hours travel one way, plus pre and post game meals). My son is 16 and the players thought he was trialling for a spot for next year. It certainly looked like there was no issue on the technical side, but where all teams seemed superior to what I have seen here is the fitness. The teams do train every day and in the case of teams in the southern states, in pretty tough conditions. Drawn games can go to two lots of sudden death, "overtime", after which the game becomes a, "tie". Certainly, my son thought that whilst if he played there right now he would probably benefit from a season or two, whilst four years might be quite a lot of fun and a great experience, it's questionable whether there would be dramatic technical improvement, which was one of the things I was told about before we left.
On Saturday, we watched a division one Ivy League match, where we found the game quite exciting, but technically only so so. There were some genuinely good players (one who we subsequently found out was a US 16s and 18s squad member) but in general, our impression was that top half PL2 20s teams would probably beat them, allowing for the fitness aspect, which can't be understated. The games are super physical and amazingly, the referees seem particularly lenient, we saw numerous situations where it might have been a red card in Sydney, brushed aside. As a centre half, my son did kinda like that. We thought the two division 3 games we saw were only so so, lots of effort, but technically not great. Even watching warm ups, we noticed many missed passes, but of course, these colleges aren't giving scholarships for soccer. It was only in the final game we watched on the weekend that we actually saw a short goal kick taken and then it was a calamity of errors and it's clear that they are executed much better in PL youth/18s here. But for me the lack of confidence it shows was telling. I did quiz one coach about it and he said he was sure they had gone short on several occasions, but the subsequent review of the video revealed that wasn't the case. It's not a big deal, but it does tell you a little about the mindset I think.
It was made clear to us that scholarships which cover a fair chunk/close to all of tuition are definitely possible, but homework needs to be done. Accommodation is separate and depending on the institution, there won't be much change out of USD$12/14k per year. An Ivy League college will charge USD$50k plus for tuition, per annum. Players do progress to the MLS, via a superdraft, but it's clear that it is concentrated from a few specific conferences. Players will also play in the tier below and overseas, but our view was that the main benefit would be using your football to help subsidise a good quality education and have a pretty good time doing it. The facilities are amazing, we visited the set ups for a division 2 & 3 college and were blown away by both the athletic and academic sides. Talking to a few American colleagues in my bank's NY office, it was made clear that the alumni network around north-east colleges is particularly active and certainly, there is no doubt that contacts for life are made in this way. The question of course is whether you want that life to be in the US.
If anyone wants to discuss further, feel free to PM me and I can also put you in touch with the Sydney based agent we have used. It is a minefield in terms of do's and don'ts and I think you do need someone to guide you through. I think it does present a very different pathway and whilst it may not lead to a career in the game, it might provide a platform to use football to help get an academic qualification.
We saw:
Division 1: Two games, Division 2: One game and Division 3: Two games and we saw them in the states of California, Texas, Florida and New York. With one of division 3 teams, a nationally ranked one, my son trained with them and we travelled with the team to an away game (two hours travel one way, plus pre and post game meals). My son is 16 and the players thought he was trialling for a spot for next year. It certainly looked like there was no issue on the technical side, but where all teams seemed superior to what I have seen here is the fitness. The teams do train every day and in the case of teams in the southern states, in pretty tough conditions. Drawn games can go to two lots of sudden death, "overtime", after which the game becomes a, "tie". Certainly, my son thought that whilst if he played there right now he would probably benefit from a season or two, whilst four years might be quite a lot of fun and a great experience, it's questionable whether there would be dramatic technical improvement, which was one of the things I was told about before we left.
On Saturday, we watched a division one Ivy League match, where we found the game quite exciting, but technically only so so. There were some genuinely good players (one who we subsequently found out was a US 16s and 18s squad member) but in general, our impression was that top half PL2 20s teams would probably beat them, allowing for the fitness aspect, which can't be understated. The games are super physical and amazingly, the referees seem particularly lenient, we saw numerous situations where it might have been a red card in Sydney, brushed aside. As a centre half, my son did kinda like that. We thought the two division 3 games we saw were only so so, lots of effort, but technically not great. Even watching warm ups, we noticed many missed passes, but of course, these colleges aren't giving scholarships for soccer. It was only in the final game we watched on the weekend that we actually saw a short goal kick taken and then it was a calamity of errors and it's clear that they are executed much better in PL youth/18s here. But for me the lack of confidence it shows was telling. I did quiz one coach about it and he said he was sure they had gone short on several occasions, but the subsequent review of the video revealed that wasn't the case. It's not a big deal, but it does tell you a little about the mindset I think.
It was made clear to us that scholarships which cover a fair chunk/close to all of tuition are definitely possible, but homework needs to be done. Accommodation is separate and depending on the institution, there won't be much change out of USD$12/14k per year. An Ivy League college will charge USD$50k plus for tuition, per annum. Players do progress to the MLS, via a superdraft, but it's clear that it is concentrated from a few specific conferences. Players will also play in the tier below and overseas, but our view was that the main benefit would be using your football to help subsidise a good quality education and have a pretty good time doing it. The facilities are amazing, we visited the set ups for a division 2 & 3 college and were blown away by both the athletic and academic sides. Talking to a few American colleagues in my bank's NY office, it was made clear that the alumni network around north-east colleges is particularly active and certainly, there is no doubt that contacts for life are made in this way. The question of course is whether you want that life to be in the US.
If anyone wants to discuss further, feel free to PM me and I can also put you in touch with the Sydney based agent we have used. It is a minefield in terms of do's and don'ts and I think you do need someone to guide you through. I think it does present a very different pathway and whilst it may not lead to a career in the game, it might provide a platform to use football to help get an academic qualification.