Greater Experience Sports Academy
March 20, 2009
TO: All Member Clubs, Directors of Coaching, Technical Directors, Club Coaches
FROM: Jeff McRaney – Senior Director of Youth League Development
SUBJECT: Super Y-League Olympic Development Program
In our ongoing effort to enhance the Super Y-League Olympic Development Program and communicate these changes to our members, we are following up the 2008 ODP cycle with a recap of the past year and information regarding the upcoming cycle. For these enhancements to work most effectively, it is imperative that each member club educate and demand the involvement of each and every club coach in this process starting with a complete review of this letter.
2008 Season Recap (including recent Feb/Mar 2009 camps)
2008 Goals - Integrate, Analyze, and Make Adjustments
- Integrate: The ODP
program was fully integrated into the Super Y-League Operations Dept.
- Analyze: ODP was
reviewed from top to bottom for process effectiveness including direct feedback
from most current SYL clubs.
- Make Adjustments:
Moved camps to Tampa to provide better venue/accommodations; brought less
players to camp to ensure highest quality camp; altered the selection process
to be more open, objective, accurate, and valuable (more on that below);
continually enhancing communications by updating member clubs earlier and more
effectively beginning with November 2008 member divisional conference calls,
divisional meetings between Jan – Mar 2009, and with this letter directly to
clubs, DOC’s, and coaches.
2008/09 Camps
By all accounts, these were some of the most successful camps that we have ever held. Not only did the coaching staff indicate that the overall quality of players was better than in recent years, but the U.S. National Staff coaches identified several players that they felt deserved a look in upcoming National Team events. Several players from the last SYL ODP cycle were invited into National Team camps already and one just recently joined the U-17 Men’s Residency at IMG Academies in
As a follow up to the recent camps, USL is engaging in discussions with several groups about additional events for the most select group of players that attended the camp. It looks as if we will have another opportunity to introduce several of the boys to the famed
Finally, it is always our goal to provide the highest level of service to all member clubs and players equally, but we are currently reviewing the best methods of implementing the ODP program. As indicated before, the national and international scout focus along with other program limitations kept us from hosting camps for the older players this past year (90/91’s). In considering the implementation of this program for 2009/10 and future cycles, a more thorough review and subsequent communication of the findings will be forthcoming over the next several weeks.
2009/10 Goals, Objectives, and Identification System Design
How it works
Every
Super Y-League coach will now be a scout for the ODP program. This will
be achieved by implementing a nomination process similar to what we use for our
North American Finals. The 2009 season score sheet will have three
nomination boxes on the bottom of the score sheet for coaches to identify the
most skilled and effective impact players in each and every game from the
OPPOSING team. This is how we can ensure that the nominations are as
objective as possible.
Although
coaches will be heavily focused on their own team, it is important for them to
also identify the players on the opposing team that are deserving of
recognition from each match. This ongoing tally allows for every player
to get scouted while playing with their own team during each and every match in
which they are involved. This is also a part of analyzing ways to counter
an opposing team’s strengths, so this should come naturally to club coaches.
No more
than three players can be nominated from each game, but it is important not to
only recognize goal scorers or shut out performances by goal keepers.
Identifying the most effective players and playmakers is the key to this
process. Each coach should treat this as if they are identifying players
for their own national identification program. The involvement and
education of your club coaches is critical to the success of ODP selection
process and everyone must take ownership of this system.
The
nominations will be tallied each week and posted on our website. Clubs,
players, parents, and college coaches can follow these nominations weekly
through the club rosters. By the end of the season, this more automated
system will provide a more complete list of nominations earlier than methods
used in past years. At this time, the combined nominations will be used
along with proportional allocation to determine invitations to the 2009/10 ODP
camps. The overall number of games and teams will also have to be
factored into this process. Other things that must be taken into account
are:
-
Strength of teams in the standings (as
is done overseas for many national programs)
-
Players playing up in an age group that
deserve to be recognized in their own age group
-
As only three players per team can be
nominated from each match, teams with more than the same three players that may
deserve recognition will get consideration (an undefeated team may earn more
allocations than a last place team)
Following
the success of the most recent ODP identification cycle and camps, we are
excited about the changes and improvement we have made to the program for the
upcoming cycle. Feel free to distribute this to your parents. The
greater the understanding everyone has of the system, the more effective the
system becomes. We not only believe that this program is valuable to the
players for national identification, but that it is also a way to differentiate
your club from non-SYL clubs around your area. We appreciate your ongoing
support and look forward to your continued feedback.
All the best,
United Soccer Leagues
813.269.1354 direct