I want to congratulate Brooke Elby and Taylor Ramirez and wish them the best in their next soccer chapter. North Carolina head coach, Anson Dorrance, recruited and got verbal commitments from the girls in the first half of 2010 during their U17 season. And last week he got their signatures.
What They Can Teach Us
There are many lessons that can be learned from these girls’ accomplishment. The one we’ll focus on today is you don’t have to play in the top flight, or for the most winningest teams or club to get recruited into a National Powerhouse. This is particularly important for parents to understand, as I see so many of them going bananas to get their kids on those teams. Actually this is an important lesson in so called “pedigree” for all involved in this country’s soccer.
National Team? ODP you ask? Nope, never included in any pool!
Below you can see their youth club trajectories.
NOTE: For those not familiar with our leagues bracketing …
In order from lowest to top flight: Bronze, Silver, Silver Elite, Gold, Premier
Brooke Elby
Taylor Ramirez
Thoughts? Questions? What possible conclusions, if any, can you come up with? Let me know, and I can follow up.
And again, congratulations girls and thank you for teaching us there’s more than one way to “get there”!
Congratulations, that’s great, I’m sure you have seen this great Xavi interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/11/xavi-barcelona-spain-interview
Love for you to comment on it.
What can I say, all his responses are true.
Some thougths:
1) On the Barca/Madrid game …
How many American soccer outlets/blogs/players/coaches/etc … mentioned it was the greatest display of futbol they’ve seen (or something to that effect)? Hmmm …. makes one think of how rampant the ignorance out there is.
2) On English soccer …
I agree, I’m certain the stadium atmosphere is the absolute best. And the culture and aura around the game is second to no one. However, the soccer itself – like the States – leaves much to be desired.
Rivelino,
We need minds like Xavi in US Soccer! Loved this article.
Gary,
Great post, it’s affirming to see that there are many paths to success for committed youth players!
Gary,
Your thesis is timely, especially with so many people currently holding Barcelona’s development system as somehow singular. I am reminded of a comment that Cruyff made a few weeks ago, where he said something to the effect that Madrid’s academy was every bit as good as Barcelona’s at developing players, perhaps better. The only difference being that Barcelona is giving those developed players a chance to play on the first team, which “finishes” the work.
Also it seems one of the girls changed clubs often, though it doesn’t appear to have hurt her at all. I often hear coaches criticize this practice. Myself, I think switching clubs often is not ideal, but sometimes you have to take your kid out of a situation where they are not growing or are even “shrinking”. What is your opinion?
Hi Alberto,
The critical thing for development is the coach, not the club. Now, it’s true that if you play for a prestigious club in the highest bracket, almost by default you will get recruited at least somewhere. If you can’t make it on the “top teams”, then it’s even more important to get with a coach that can not only raise your level, but has influence within the network. Otherwise, you have no chance. I suspect this is what happens with many players/parents who desperately want to get to the highest level and eventually the coveted college prize. They are constantly on the lookout for what they believe is the next best thing.
Parents try to do what they believe is best. Unfortunately, most of the time they just don’t know the difference between quality of instruction. In this case, and please forgive me, these girls got lucky.
Getting more direct to your question of club hopping … I think continuity is important if and only if you’re with a coach that is truly developing players. If the coach is not capable – which I swear to the good lord is 99% of all cases – then by all means jump ship if you think another guy is better.
… then again sometimes there are extra-soccer motivations for people switching teams.
One small observation: The USA Women’s team is less dominant than before, and may now be playing catchup. This too is indicative of the problems with USA’s youth development. Despite all the advantages we have for the women’s game, we are falling behind the traditional powers of Germany and Brazil.
No doubt about it!
Now that other countries are beginning to take the women’s game a bit more seriously, the US (ie players & coaches) are starting to get exposed for what they truly are. Underdeveloped & uneducated.
Which women’s college teams play a possession based game? Are any jungle ball programs showing signs of changing?
I hear great things about Stanford.
Beyond that, I don’t know.
I’ve heard the same thing about Stanford. Also Notre Dame. Anyone else have any insight? Looking for some programs to encourage my daughters to follow. What about the WPL?
UCLA has been averaging around 250 passes per half this season. Their possession game is outstanding.