Premier League West Champions.

With the season's last games finally played last week the Odyssey 96boys have been officially declared the U16 Premier League West champions. Congratulations to the guys and good luck in their quest to win CL as well. Well done guys.

my2cents wrote:With the season's last games finally played last week the Odyssey 96boys have been officially declared the U16 Premier League West champions. Congratulations to the guys and good luck in their quest to win CL as well. Well done guys.

As the parent of a younger player, I hear the debate about classic league vs. Academy on these forums and the pros and cons of each. A team like this Odyssey team will be interesting to follow over the next few years if they stay together.

It will be interesting to see how many of these top players from this Odyssey team will get top level scholarships to play in college. They can obviously play at a top level but will they get the exposure. I hope so, as it is good for them to have the option to play on a top club team and still be able to play in HS.

I know they are still young, but are any of the kids getting recruited or looking at colleges yet?

I can only speak for one but he is one of two hs juniors on the team. At this point most of his exposure is coming from being on the ODP Region III 95 boys team. He is both contacting and getting interest from colleges. This coming year will tell as all the others go into their junior year.

Running wrote:

my2cents wrote:With the season's last games finally played last week the Odyssey 96boys have been officially declared the U16 Premier League West champions. Congratulations to the guys and good luck in their quest to win CL as well. Well done guys.

As the parent of a younger player, I hear the debate about classic league vs. Academy on these forums and the pros and cons of each. A team like this Odyssey team will be interesting to follow over the next few years if they stay together.

It will be interesting to see how many of these top players from this Odyssey team will get top level scholarships to play in college. They can obviously play at a top level but will they get the exposure. I hope so, as it is good for them to have the option to play on a top club team and still be able to play in HS.

I know they are still young, but are any of the kids getting recruited or looking at colleges yet?

Running, you can see for yourself what happened this year on the link below. It looks to me like all the North Texas commitments to Division I,II or III schools were from the 4 DA clubs and Texans and Solar had a few from their top CL D1 teams. The only exception I can find is a kid from TFC that is going to Houston Baptist. There is no doubt the larger clubs give the kids much more exposure to college coaches.
http://espn.go.com/high-school/boys-soccer/commitments/story/_/id/7149877/2012-high-school-boys-soccer-ncaa-verbal-commitments

I don't think all commitments are reported though. I know of a kid that committed to a top 10 DIII but no one cares because he is not a from a big club and it is DIII. UT Tyler, Howard Payne, and Wesleyan are full of local players. Tyler Junior College and Richland have alot of locals and are known for producing D1 transfers. The commitments for these schools and hundreds of others around the country do not get reported. If you look on topdrawer soccer they only list D1 commitments.

my2cents wrote:I don't think all commitments are reported though. I know of a kid that committed to a top 10 DIII but no one cares because he is not a from a big club and it is DIII. UT Tyler, Howard Payne, and Wesleyan are full of local players. Tyler Junior College and Richland have alot of locals and are known for producing D1 transfers. The commitments for these schools and hundreds of others around the country do not get reported. If you look on topdrawer soccer they only list D1 commitments.

Might be because DIII schools cannot give athletic scholarships.

Regardless of Classic, Academy, D1, 2, or 3, NTX is grossly under represented compared to other states... NY, CA. Someone remind the masses why we pay so much for club soccer here in NTX!

Actually the number of DI, DII, and DIII commitments from 94 Club teams will go up in the coming months. The club team players make commitments later than the Development Academy teams. Yes, a great player on a classic league team can get a partial to full scholarship at a DI school (combination of academic and athletic). Yes, a classic league team with the right level of marketing players through showcase events and college coach networking can land a large number of their players with athletic and academic scholarships in men's college soccer programs. Development Academy teams have more visibility with college coaches earlier in the process and make commitments early and up to NLI signing day. The Solar Development Academy has done a great job helping their players land in DI programs. The DA teams will still have players making commitments after NLI day.

Club teams will have alot of players that commit after the NLI signing day needing a few more showcases to make their final decisions and get their best offers (e.g., FC Dallas Showcase and Dallas Cup locally). Our team plans to submit our signings for the 94's once our players begin making formal commitments. We have multiple players with DI athletic scholarship offers from partial to full scholarships including top DI programs. Our team like this 96 team consists of players who have mostly stayed in one place with the club and same coach from pre-select to graduation. It has been a great experience for those players without alot of drama. I will say college coaches have rated our team very high on technical ability which is something that is absent in many of the Development Academy programs. This has helped alot in placing our players with college programs.

We are hoping to place all of our players who want to play college soccer in a university or college that meets their academic, athletic, and social requirements. I believe our club investments have been worthwhile our kids are fine young men, technically sound soccer players, and good students. The academic and athletic scholarship amounts combined due repay a portion of the club costs over the years. For players with partial or full scholarships who have been on a scholarship for club dues, they are making an excellent ROI on their club investment.

For a Development Academy player who pays no dues and fees including travel, the college scholarship is a real big deal. I believe that the Development Academy's with good technical development ratings are a great place to be if you want to try to land a big scholarship for college and teach your player to play good quality soccer. It can also be done with the club teams but not many club teams train their players well technically. There are a few clubs that do like our club and if they are playing in DI and going to the right showcases at the right time, the players can do quite well landing scholarship offers.

ESPNRISE reports DI, DII, and DIII college commitments. Check it out you will see DA and club related commitments as they get updated throughout the remainder of this year.

College coaches will tell you that the best DII and DIII teams can beat a DI college team especially the mid-tier to lower-tier DI programs.

Just like in football, the top echelon of players in DII and DIII along with NAIA can get invited to the professional combines and get scouted for landing a contract professionally.

Most players are focused on getting a good education #1 and getting to play #2. A player may select a DII or DIII school even though they have DI offers for academic and playing time reasons. One coach said, it may be better for a player to go to a program where they will play as a freshmen and be an impact player versus riding the pine and getting beat up every day in practice by better players.