Recently I have been in contact with Coach David J. Horne of Centre College in Kentucky. He is the assistant coach there at Centre and he had some feedback on what I said about the United States Soccer system and my overall infatuations with the club academy system.
Here is Coach Horne’s thoughts:
I checked out your blog, and I think it looks neat. In it you compare the structure of soccer in the United States to the structure in other countries, and attribute the differences to the varying levels of success. I agree with you. The academy structure is a better strategy to develop players to reach their potential.
However, there is something about US soccer that other countries don’t have and that is…a highly organized and well structured college and university system serving as an outlet for soccer and player development. The US has the best colleges and universities in the world. The point is, in the US, players can play at a very high level while getting an education that will serve them for the rest of their life. Players in Europe are taking advantage of this opportunity, coming to the US on a student visa to play and get an education. However, there is NOT enough awareness on this.
I played in the USL second division last season for the Cincinnati Kings and am currently trying out for teams for the upcoming season. I have met dozens of guys from Europe who have taken advantage of what I have described.”
I agree with many points Coach Horne has made. And I do agree to a certain level that the U.S. does have some of the best Universities in the world…however England can argue that they do have Oxford, Cambridge, etc. etc. To sum everything up, the U.S. has one huge advantage that I really never thought too much about:
While many people can take other routes to being a U.S. professional player, most of them go through the college system. So, in a way, many of these players are forced through and get a degree or most of a degree. If for some reason they hurt themselves at the pro level, they do have a degree to fall back on.
