US Soccer Makes Massive Overhaul Of Youth Academy System

By Sean Maslin | Dec 9, 2014

Part of making a great football program is adaptation and evolution. It is the ability to learn from one’s successes and failures and to build off of every experience. On Monday, US Soccer took that next big step, making fundamental changes to the entire youth academy structure.

In a statement released to the public on Monday, US Soccer announced an initiative focusing on Assessment and Evaluation of the existing structure, Training and Development, and Competition.

“We are better situated than ever with the resources to do that,” said US Soccer President Sunil Gulati in the statement. “With ambitious programming for our National Teams, new investments in education and technology, and a continued effort to align our technical practices with the best in the world, we are positioning ourselves to take another important step forward.”

The biggest change to the current system will be in training and development. US Soccer will add a U-12, U-16, and U-19 squads for both men’s and women’s soccer. It will also add additional training courses for coaches and create a Digital Coaching Center.

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US Soccer will also expand upon the Development Academy Scholarship Program, which assists lower income players in pursuing a career in football. For years one of the biggest gripes against soccer here in the United States was that it was a game that could only be played by those that can afford. The Development Academy Scholarship Program in its seventh year of existence has helped thousands of kids afford the costs of travel and coaching from US Soccer.

The other major change is with US Soccer, and MLS’, relationship with the NCAA. ” U.S. Soccer is collaborating with the NCAA to make changes to the college soccer model that will benefit the health and wellness of the athletes by extending the season over a longer period of time,” the statement stated.

One such change that is reportedly under consideration is going to a full year schedule. Currently soccer is only played during the fall in college. Many players currently play for their college team in the fall and then either with their academy team in the spring or in the NPSL.

Finally, US Soccer announced that Nelson Rodriguez will take over the position of Managing Director, National Team Advisory Services. Rodriguez, who was the former President of Chivas USA, will be tasked with providing ” counseling and education on a variety of career-related topics to members of the National Team player pool.”

While all of this sounds promising, there are still questions to be answered. The biggest one is how do these announcements affect US Soccer’s relationship with MLS? Does MLS want their college players to play in full seasons in college or do they want them back at their academy?

This is also the first time that Klinsmann has talked about women’s soccer in any regard and so it will be interesting to see what his ideas are on the game and the NWSL. The lack of initiatives being taken on improving refereeing is also a worry.

But the question in the long-term will be that will need to be answered is what the assessment and evaluation brings up. It will be an independent evaluation done on the entire US Soccer structure. No deadline of when the evaluation will completed nor is it known if it will be made public. But if one of Klinsmann’s main goals is to fundamentally change US Soccer then an independent evaluation is the only way to find out.

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