The pressure on D1 select soccer players to not play at their high schools is there to varying degrees depending on the club. The high school coaches obviously want those kids to play. Some clubs encourage it if all the kids on the team will be the club players and discourage it if it will be 3 D1 players and 8 non-D1s simply because of a fear that the less skillful players will hurt the D1 players by being overly aggressive to make up the skill level difference.

Flip side of that is you see kids like mine that played varsity soccer and basketball as a freshman and sophomore, but did not play her last two years in high school (she continued to play club/AAU) because the A in athletics those last two years would have hurt her GPA!

As the colleges look more to the clubs/AAU to recruit and less to high schools, I think the trend away from high school sports will continue. But the club option has to be viable and outside of soccer and basketball and baseball, I don't see widespread viable club options.

JMHO.


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From my HS experience, there was pressure from elite club coaches for their players to skip HS soccer, but the club players still wanted to play HS soccer out of school pride and the fact that HS soccer results got some media attention in the newspaper. The public never cared about club soccer results, but the public did have some interest in how their local HS team was doing.

If a player is seriously interested in a professional soccer career, D1 soccer should actually be avoided. The D1 season is not nearly long enough for professional development, and the 18-22 age range is crucial for establishing oneself as a professional 'star'. The 18-22yo should be playing top-flight soccer as much as he possibly can. D1 soccer doesn't provide this opportunity.

It's sad that soccer parents get so crazy about the kids getting D1 scholarships, since 1) full scholarships are relatively rare and 2) they are not the path to professional soccer. It's better to let the kids enjoy the game (especially without all the tiresome travel) and let them then choose the college that best fits their needs and aspirations (as opposed to the one that might offer them a D1 scholly). Put all the money spent of elite clubs and travel into a college fund!