Recruiting

For both new and experienced soccer parents, there are a few rules we should always follow. Here are our choices for the top seven. Let us know if you have any additional rules that you think our list can’t do without!

Every serious soccer-playing kid in the United States strives to play ODP.  Created in 1977, the Olympic Development Program strives "to identify a pool of players in each age group from which a National Team will be selected for international competition; to provide high-level training to benefit and enhance the development of players at all levels; and, through the use of carefully selected and licensed coaches, develop a mechanism for the exchange of ideas and curriculum to improve all levels of coaching."  30 years after its creation the question must be asked, how well has the ODP system identified and developed the talent of the American youth at all levels?

The US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program was formed in 1977 to identify a pool of players in each age group from which a National Team will be selected for international competition; to provide high-level training to benefit and enhance the development of players at all levels; and, through the use of carefully selected and licensed coaches, develop a mechanism for the exchange of ideas and curriculum to improve all levels of coaching.

The Olympic Development Program, better known as ODP, is a program separate from, and above normal travel team play. The goal is to find and develop young players who may later make a major league soccer team, the US Soccer team or US World Cup team. While Fred himself never made it to those levels, we know several players, including Fred’s best friend, who play for MLS teams, and even a couple who made it to the 2006 US World Cup Team. The ODP team is in addition to your regular league team, so you have even more practices and more games. It is also one of the things that high school and college coaches took to see on your resume, if you are looking to play at those levels.