Scrap high school soccer, says club coach

This week, the founder of powerhouse Louisville youth soccer club United 1996, Muhamed Fazlagic, said that if he had any political power, he would shut down every high school soccer operation there is.
“Clubs are developing players for nine months and then high school soccer destroys everything during the remaining three,” he says. “It can take months for these players to get back to the level they were originally at.”
There is, he believes, a “huge disparity” in the quality of teams. And the coaches of these teams are, in the main, teachers with no real soccer experience.
“They concentrate more on conditioning than on technical development,” says Fazlagic. “And there are too many on rosters, meaning junior varsity and freshman players don’t get sufficient game time experience.”
The physiology is also “all wrong,” he believes, as players sometimes only have as little as 24 to 48 hours to recover between games.
In essence, he says it’s “parents’ fun time,” although he conceded the spirit in high school soccer is an undeniable positive.
So with the high school season kicking off in the next week across southern Indiana, we asked coaches, players and parents what they thought of it all.

A chance to have fans

Ronda Trimble, the mother of Floyd Central boys’ varsity senior Cray (above, No.7), says she agrees with most of what Fazlagic says, save for his view of the coaches and actually scrapping high school soccer.
“I think it is a well deserved break from their norm,” she says. “It is fun time for parents and players, and attaches kids to their school while promoting school spirit. It also gives them a chance to have fans -- only the parents cheer them on during the competitive season.
“I disagree about the coaches in this area. Most are not teachers and do have soccer experience. I think Cray has learned something from every coach he has had, from Dutch Vigar (with SIU, but also a New Albany boys’ coach) to Zach Watson (Floyd Central coach).”
However, a criticism is that they practice every day and can play several games per week.
“I attribute the three losses (in recent sectionals) to New Albany to fatigue,” she says. “We have one of the toughest schedules of any local team. We are still playing games the week before, and of, the sectional. Floyd Central is too worn out and beat up to perform to their ability and fall short.”
Trimble says she also understands Fazlagic’s point about kids going backwards due to the talent and skill level they compete against in high school.
“He is thinking of his team’s competitive advantage, but there is more to life than soccer -- like finding a place you belong in high school, bonding friendships and winning one for school pride.”

The coach and his keeper
This past spring, Charlestown goalkeeper Cody Brinck made it onto Southern Indiana United’s U16 team and really saw the difference in competition that his varsity coach Andrew Smith had been telling him about.
However, Brinck says he would not be playing with the club if it wasn’t for high school soccer, and his coach agrees.
“Cody was a sophomore the first season he played with the high school team,” says Smith. “He was under prepared, lacked confidence, didn't understand the game very well and had a limited skill set. I forced him to play the position as our starting varsity goalkeeper that season and by the end of that year he was doing very well.”
Brinck has been mowing lawns all summer so that he can rack up the cash required to cover the registration fees to play with SIU. But not everyone can cough up the loot for club, and that’s why high school is important, he believes.
“It may not be as rigorous as club soccer, but that is because it introduces the sport to kids who would never have the money to play club,” says the senior. “If we truly want the sport of soccer to be recognized in the US then we need to start treating it like a game anyone can play, not one where you must have the money or the dedication to play on a select club team. It needs to be accessible to America.”
His coach echoes the view.
“By focusing on club soccer only we aren't accessing the best athletes possible,” says Smith. “Instead, we are only accessing the best athletes who can afford to play club soccer, which as anyone in athletics can tell you, is a preposterous notion.
“The reason basketball and football draw the best athletes in this country is precisely because those two sports are accessible to the athletes through playgrounds and public schools. The same thing that makes soccer great in Brazil, is what makes basketball great here -- it's a playground game. The structure of club soccer has destroyed that accessibility.”
Brinck says he believes high school soccer is also very important because of the relationships that are created.
“When you play on a team with a bunch of kids, you develop friendships that easily carry into the classroom and life in general,” he says. “Even if that were the only reason to keep soccer in schools, I would think that it would be enough.”

The “sports junkie” and his daughter

New Albany senior Taylor Briscoe (far right in photo) says her best soccer memories, not to mention the most important lessons learned, have all come from her experiences playing high school soccer.
“I have played club soccer many seasons and have enjoyed it,” she says. “However, I believe high school soccer has offered me more. (It) keeps a player very active while strengthening the player's endurance, as sometimes there are multiple games in the same week, along with daily practices. The teams you play as a high school soccer player are very diverse and all have different skill levels.”
She thinks that high school soccer benefits a player equally, if not more, than competitive club.
“I know that my high school soccer coaches are all very experienced and knowledgeable on the sport,” she says. “And not only do you learn the skills of soccer and work your way to mastering them in the high school setting, but you also make connections with girls at your school and in your local area.”
Her father Doug is a self proclaimed high school sports junkie, attending basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball and “a little tennis and cross country”.
When he attends a club soccer game, of which he has attended many, he can feel the difference straight away.
“The energy is very low to the point I personally didn't like it,” he says. “You rarely see anyone at a club game other than families of the players. High school soccer and high school sports are much different. They play a very important part in the high school experience. It gets the parents, students and faculty involved and gives the players a sense of team work and school spirit.”
He added that since Julie Deuser and Jason Crane came on board as coaches at New Albany High School four years ago, the soccer program has gone to another level.
“The players, parents, students and faculty have really gotten behind the girls’ and boys’ teams, and without their support the program would be not survive.”
Briscoe says that he, along with other parents, give countless hours to promoting high school soccer and raise a lot of money to help support the teams.
“We also got the girls involved in giving back with our charity fundraiser, Passionately Pink,” he says. “Show me one club team that does as much for kids as high school sports does.”

Near regional misses -- success on the horizon?

Both Kentucky and Indiana will be without representatives at the U.S. Youth Soccer national championships for the second successive year, but a few came close to making the trip to Phoenix.

Mockingbird U18 girls made it to the final decider at the Midwest Region II championships in Appleton, Wis., but lost out to FC Milwaukee, 3-1.

University of Louisville-bound Casey Whitfield — a product of Manual High School — got the lone Mockingbird goal to make her top scorer at the U18 level with seven goals in five games.
It is the first time Mockingbird has had a representative in the regional final and coach Jonathan Velotta said he was “extremely proud” of the team's performance.
“Over the course of five games, we played with a lot of composure, focus, and commitment,” he said.

“Before the season started, our goal was to reach the regional final and to accomplish that goal is truly remarkable. We were obviously disappointed in the result, but FC Milwaukee was a deserving winner. The success of our team over the last three years has set a higher standard for girls’ club soccer, and for our club."

Velotta added that the success of the ‘93 girls at regionals will undoubtedly raise the profile of MVSC both locally and within the region.

“The players on this team have served as great role models of our younger players and have raised the standard for all of our teams. The team has had consistent success against some of the best clubs in the nation for the past few years and helped our club gain more credibility.”

Javanon, meanwhile, had three teams make the semifinal stages, two of which had local representation.

Two-time national finalist Javanon ‘92 boys, featuring Jeffersonville’s Trevor Bruner, lost their last competitive game on penalty kicks to KCFC Force in the U19 age group.

Javanon ’94, with the Southern Indiana trio of Nick Blackwell, Matt Kelecy and Jordan Vejar amongst its ranks, was edged out, 2-1 by Grand Rapids Crew of Michigan, who went on to retain its crown.

The fourth team to get past the bracket stages was Javanon ’97 girls, which lost to Kings Soccer Academy of Ohio South 3-1.

Of the 14 Region II champions crowned, eight were from Illinois, two each were from Minnesota and Michigan and one each came from Kansas and Wisconsin.

For “Illinois,” read Chicago, with Eclipse Select (three, all girls), Fire and Magic (two each) and Sockers FC (one) dominating.

So should those involved in the game in Kentucky and Indiana be disappointed about not having a representative or two at the past two national championships, or was success in the past just a case of teams punching above their weight?

There were some interesting comments on the HoosierFutbol.com website forums after the event.

“Straight Up” said that the lower populated areas, including Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas, will generally be less successful than some of the more populated states and cities, such as Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.

“Indiana’s 91s, 92s, 93s and even the 94s all had way above-average success at regionals,” Straight Up said. “And if you look at the results this past time, there were quite a few teams in favored positions on the last day of pool play, only to fall short. Indiana soccer is alive and well. We are not Illinois and we never will be unless our population density changes with respect to our counterparts.”

“Reality” said other states play a more physical, more intense style of soccer at an earlier age, while another said there are too many clubs, diluting the talent.

Kentucky seems to be in the same boat, but has fared better in recent years, especially in the older boys’ realm, where it has a full pool of the area’s best players to choose from in the U16-U18 levels because of the absence of a development academy.

Many see academies like Indiana United as the way forward for elite player progress. But whatever their advantage, they eliminate the cream from playing for a club in the U.S. Youth Soccer championships.

In Louisville, having more teams play in the Midwest Regional League and top tournaments has helped some squads compete with the best on a year-round basis, preparing them for state, regional and possibly beyond.

Other than the achievement of Mockingbird ’93 girls, going out to a defending regional champion while playing with 10 men and being a goal up (a la Javanon ’94), or missing out on a final berth due to penalty kicks (Javanon ’92) suggests the game in these parts isn’t in too bad a shape.

And then there’s United 1996, which has emerged as the main boys’ force in Kentucky after it took four of the seven state titles between U13 and U19 this year.

None of its teams got out of the bracket stages, and while founder Muhamed Fazlagic told “Kick It” they were “very pleased” with their performance as a whole — given the number of injuries to impact players — they were also slightly disappointed with their U16s, a team of which much was expected.

“I don’t think they reached their performance level at all at the tournament,” he said. “All other teams had a much better tournament in every aspect.”

The future is bright, though, said Fazlagic, as recent local success — especially in the past two years — has attracted a great number of athletes to the club.

“We will not change much in our philosophy, where the main objective is individual player development. But with an improved players’ pool, I think we are much closer to the title at the regional level,” he said. “My personal prognosis is that it will happen in a two-year time frame.”

Which seems to give credence to the dilution suggestion, perhaps. That is, that talent is there, albeit on a smaller scale to the Chicagos of this world. And all that needs to happen with that said talent is if you want to beat the best and bring in the hardware — whether you agree with or not — is to have it deeply concentrated at fewer clubs.