Parent’s Sideline: ODP- Local and State levels
Friday, 03 August 2007
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.
Fred was eligible to try out for the ODP team at the age of ten. He had eagerly waited for tryouts for over a year. In Virginia, our district tryouts were over a two weekend period in August. I don’t know who was more nervous, my son or me. Not being one to sit at home and wait for the outcome, my best friend, Darlene (the mother of my son’s best friend) and I volunteered to help with registration. We were there at 7:30 a.m. to help set up and register all the ODP hopefuls, from age 10 through 18. There were over 150 kids just in our sons’ age group alone.
Both weekends the weather was hot, in the 90s, and the practices were grueling. While Darlene and I ran the emotional gamut of elation and fear as we watched our sons play their hearts out. In the end, both boys made the preliminary pool of 40 or so U-11s. I don’t know who were more physically and emotionally drained after the team selection announcements, our sons or Darlene and I!
This was also my first experience with the real politics involved in high commitment sports. We listened to experienced moms tell about their son’s first experience with ODP, both those who made it and those who didn’t. We listened to parents talk about other parents, other players, and other teams. We learned about the importance of volunteering and being there. We learned that our volunteering didn’t guarantee the selection of our sons to the ODP teams, but that our time and effort were noticed. It also gave us the opportunity to learn who had the local power, who were the good coaches, who scouted travel team for potential ODP players (our sons had already been noticed) and what was happening in soccer in our area.
I’m going to use that big C word again, because commitment is at a whole different level with ODP. Practices for the ODP teams must now be juggled with select team practices and games. There are often two practices a week, and the location is chosen based on availability of fields and, hopefully, a central location for all ODP team players. Now your role as a parent becomes even greater, as going to practices and games becomes almost a daily event.
For your son or daughter the commitment now also involves time management as homework and school activities have to be sandwiched in somewhere. These young athletes also have to deal with the mental stress of additional tryouts (the coaches are watching you to see if you make the final cut), physical endurance, and fatigue; it is not uncommon for a player or two to play even though they are sick. To their credit, ODP players take these practices seriously, and know that they have to be “on” all the time, if they are to make it to the next step.
And make the next step many of them do. Once the final area team is selected, you go through the process all over again at the state level. Both our boys made the Northern Virginia ODP team and went on to state tryouts. That first year was a real eye opener, as there is a great deal more stress on the ODP players as well as politics on the sidelines.
The ODP coaches are supposed to show all their players equally, but that doesn’t always happen. The selection committees also already know something about many of the players from around the state that they want to watch and are already aware of those players’ assigned numbers. And while most parents are wonderful, and are there to support their own child, a few carry politics to an extreme. So a word to the wise, if your son or daughter wants to succeed within the ODP system you will both have to become politically astute. You must both be polite to everyone, and keep that temper in check, or your criticism about another player to yourself. Remember that all the players at this level are great players, and all of them want to make the team. It is an exciting yet very stressful time for them and they need your support and your presence. I have been to many of these tryouts, and those players who have a parent there to support them always seems to play just a little bit harder and a little bit better when the going gets tough.
Fred was eligible to try out for the ODP team at the age of ten. He had eagerly waited for tryouts for over a year. In Virginia, our district tryouts were over a two weekend period in August. I don’t know who was more nervous, my son or me. Not being one to sit at home and wait for the outcome, my best friend, Darlene (the mother of my son’s best friend) and I volunteered to help with registration. We were there at 7:30 a.m. to help set up and register all the ODP hopefuls, from age 10 through 18. There were over 150 kids just in our sons’ age group alone.
Both weekends the weather was hot, in the 90s, and the practices were grueling. While Darlene and I ran the emotional gamut of elation and fear as we watched our sons play their hearts out. In the end, both boys made the preliminary pool of 40 or so U-11s. I don’t know who were more physically and emotionally drained after the team selection announcements, our sons or Darlene and I!
This was also my first experience with the real politics involved in high commitment sports. We listened to experienced moms tell about their son’s first experience with ODP, both those who made it and those who didn’t. We listened to parents talk about other parents, other players, and other teams. We learned about the importance of volunteering and being there. We learned that our volunteering didn’t guarantee the selection of our sons to the ODP teams, but that our time and effort were noticed. It also gave us the opportunity to learn who had the local power, who were the good coaches, who scouted travel team for potential ODP players (our sons had already been noticed) and what was happening in soccer in our area.
I’m going to use that big C word again, because commitment is at a whole different level with ODP. Practices for the ODP teams must now be juggled with select team practices and games. There are often two practices a week, and the location is chosen based on availability of fields and, hopefully, a central location for all ODP team players. Now your role as a parent becomes even greater, as going to practices and games becomes almost a daily event.
For your son or daughter the commitment now also involves time management as homework and school activities have to be sandwiched in somewhere. These young athletes also have to deal with the mental stress of additional tryouts (the coaches are watching you to see if you make the final cut), physical endurance, and fatigue; it is not uncommon for a player or two to play even though they are sick. To their credit, ODP players take these practices seriously, and know that they have to be “on” all the time, if they are to make it to the next step.
And make the next step many of them do. Once the final area team is selected, you go through the process all over again at the state level. Both our boys made the Northern Virginia ODP team and went on to state tryouts. That first year was a real eye opener, as there is a great deal more stress on the ODP players as well as politics on the sidelines.
The ODP coaches are supposed to show all their players equally, but that doesn’t always happen. The selection committees also already know something about many of the players from around the state that they want to watch and are already aware of those players’ assigned numbers. And while most parents are wonderful, and are there to support their own child, a few carry politics to an extreme. So a word to the wise, if your son or daughter wants to succeed within the ODP system you will both have to become politically astute. You must both be polite to everyone, and keep that temper in check, or your criticism about another player to yourself. Remember that all the players at this level are great players, and all of them want to make the team. It is an exciting yet very stressful time for them and they need your support and your presence. I have been to many of these tryouts, and those players who have a parent there to support them always seems to play just a little bit harder and a little bit better when the going gets tough.
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