New Youth HPL league

[bettermirror]

MTKB - how many professional players has your club produced? How many scholarship students? The reason I ask is not out of spite. Your club might have done very well. But clearly Canada, and BC specifically, is not producing players at the rate they should at those levels. Which means the status quo has not been working and must be addressed.

 

[Kool_Beans]

Now that we have the end all be all youth soccer program for U13 - U18 looked after .... With all the "best" coaches being funneled to HPL what is going to happen to U12 and down. If all the focus is on U13+ how will this affect U12 and down which ultimatly feeds the HPL. What will happen to regestration of non HPL clubs? Are they going to decline? As kids move up in age around U9 parents will start to realize that they'll need to move their kid to an HPL club to give them a better opportunity to make a HPL team at U13.

HPL is not going to be a quick fix to the challenges that the youth program faces. It will take years before we see the results. If we don't build a foundation with the U6-U12 age groups, what we do from U13+ won't matter.

 

[Masry]

MTKB - how many professional players has your club produced? How many scholarship students? The reason I ask is not out of spite. Your club might have done very well. But clearly Canada, and BC specifically, is not producing players at the rate they should at those levels. Which means the status quo has not been working and must be addressed.

Bettermirror, Gianluca Zavarise is one player that has gone on to play professionally in Germany now, also David Zaharija was just in Greece and they all played for the Burnaby Selects. Also, there were a lot of quality players who played on the Burnaby Royals team which Mimmo Marrello coached. The likes of Admir Salihovic, Colin Streckman who won player of the year in the NAIA last year, Keegan Ayre who played for the National team along with Alex Marrello as well. I'm sure there are other guys who have gone on to do well after their youth. That Burnaby Royals team has players all playing at Trinity, UBC, and SFU and other Colleges and Universities.

 

[djones]

Masry is right. I will admit that Marrello's Burnaby Royals team was outstanding as far as youth teams go and had tons of success on and off the field but claiming Keegan Ayre as a Burnaby product is a stretch. CMF product.

 

[Masry]

Not a product djones, he came to play with the Royals. I was only stating the players who played for Burnaby. Keegan only played one year I believe, is that right?

 

[djones]

I think so. Did they win it all that year?

Must have because they were stacked with talent. May have been the last years before heavy restrictions on out-of-district. Marrello was an awesome coach so no wonder he would have attracted top talent to his already well developed side... and rightfully so!

Reminds me of the Vancouver side that Nonni, Haber at al who also went to R Tulis that terrorized their age group.

 

[Masry]

Yes they won it. They only had 3 out of districts (before the league switched it to 5) That Vancouver team was very good as well with Alex Martinez who went on to play for Atlas in Mexico and Brandon Bonifacio who also played there who went on to play at Cambuur Leeuwarden while Robbie Giezen joined Haber and Nonni at Groningen. There were defiantly some other notables. All of which have Caps for either the U-17 or U-20 Canadian National team.

 

[4thplacetrophy]

I think so. Did they win it all that year?

Must have because they were stacked with talent. May have been the last years before heavy restrictions on out-of-district. Marrello was an awesome coach so no wonder he would have attracted top talent to his already well developed side... and rightfully so!

Reminds me of the Vancouver side that Nonni, Haber at al who also went to R Tulis that terrorized their age group.

they won everything every year except the provincials in which abby won one year, and the coastal cup one year which was won by that same abby team.

 

[Masry]

That was the year when the Royals won Nationals in their U-17 year. They played up in the U-18 Division only using 2 players who were actually U-18 players and they ended up winning nationals that year.

 

[Captain Shamrock]

MTKB - how many professional players has your club produced? How many scholarship students? The reason I ask is not out of spite. Your club might have done very well. But clearly Canada, and BC specifically, is not producing players at the rate they should at those levels. Which means the status quo has not been working and must be addressed.

And HPL is the only way to do this......... FML Well at least the families who can afford it will do this.....

 

[bettermirror]

Masry, I mean no disrespect to lads who have gone over to Europe. My point is BC has not been producing national players (just look at the u17 camp right now) nor the national team results and thus we can't sit on our laurels thinking we've all done a great job. HPL may or may not be the cure, and that's to be determined of course. I am well aware of all the lads you pointed out and am fully supportive of them. Oh, speaking of Streckman, any chance he'll move beyond NAIA? Even to 2nd or 3rd tier Scandinavia which has been an excellent launching pad for many Canadians, and gives a decent payday?

 

[bettermirror]

And HPL is the only way to do this......... FML Well at least the families who can afford it will do this.....

I deserve that. I didn't explain the respect I do have for the people who have gone on to great things and was moreso speaking of BC as a whole producing little to no national players of any repute these days...

 

[bettermirror]

Yes they won it. They only had 3 out of districts (before the league switched it to 5) That Vancouver team was very good as well with Alex Martinez who went on to play for Atlas in Mexico and Brandon Bonifacio who also played there who went on to play at Cambuur Leeuwarden while Robbie Giezen joined Haber and Nonni at Groningen. There were defiantly some other notables. All of which have Caps for either the U-17 or U-20 Canadian National team.

What is Martinez up to these days? The more Latin-playing professionals we can get in our Nats the better!...(ie, Isidro Sanchez and Pedro Pacheco)

 

[Masry]

What is Martinez up to these days? The more Latin-playing professionals we can get in our Nats the better!...(ie, Isidro Sanchez and Pedro Pacheco)

Martinez is with the University of Michigan. He has been for the past 3 years.

 

[bettermirror]

Entering MLS draft?

 

[Masry]

He's debating it. Maybe next year with Nonni.

 

[bettermirror]

Here's hoping they get drafted! The more the better for Canada MNT.

 

[mtkb]

MTKB - how many professional players has your club produced? How many scholarship students? The reason I ask is not out of spite. Your club might have done very well. But clearly Canada, and BC specifically, is not producing players at the rate they should at those levels. Which means the status quo has not been working and must be addressed.

Your question assumes that placing players on professional teams is proof absolute of a club's success / failure. I am not so convinced. But to answer your question, I do not have exact numbers. I suspect the number of our players that have gone on to collegiate careers is at if not better than the league average. Professional players? Alexander Marrello is playing professionally in Europe... Gianluca Zavarise certainly was...

I would argue that you are falling in to the trap the Whitecaps have set for all of us... They're happy to take our best players after they've been developed in their formative years, train them for a few seconds, and then sell whoever they can for a profit and take all the credit for the player's development... Point being its hard to put a finger on who exactly is responsible for a player's success or failures...

Incidentally, I would argue that we do a pretty good job with our youth until BC Soccer gets their hands on them... At that point, things have tended to go downhill pretty fast... I agree that the placement of BC players on national teams is the raison d'etre of HPL.... but I completely disagree that the fix is with changing grassroots...

 

[bettermirror]

I thought I had clarified my point, MTKB. I guess not. My point is not to judge youth clubs on if they are producing professional players. I actually think they could be fairly judged on how many go on to get university soccer scholarships. USA or in Canada, for what the Canuck ones are worth.

My point is BC as a province has not been developing national team players well lately at all, starting with our BC Provincial Teams, and poor showings at the National Club finals as well on both youth and senior levels. Recognizing there are exceptional teams from time to time.

So wait, you recognize HPL is intended to improve the provincial and national teams in the long run? But you think changing grassroots is NOT the way to do this? What do you suggest as an alternative to HPL to address this?

 

[Regs]

poor showings at the National Club finals as well on both youth and senior levels

While the number of senior Championships have been disappointing, I think it is a stretch to characterize how we've done as "poor".