Consistency is the key for Girls DA

Consistency is the key for Girls DA
by J.R. Eskilson
September 1, 2017

The inaugural season of the Girls Development Academy kicks off this weekend. The league represents a shift in the club soccer landscape as the U.S. Soccer Federation run venture immediately becomes the pinnacle of the youth sport landscape on the girls side. 

The boys Development Academy has been in place since 2007 with U.S. Men’s National Team regulars Christian Pulisic, DeAndre Yedlin, Jordan Morris, and many others passing through the league’s structure before reaching the professional realm. 

Prior to the first kick on Saturday for the Girls Development Academy, U.S. Soccer officials had a conference call with reporters to discuss the launch of the new league. The key word of the day ended up being consistency. 

From the top to the bottom, U.S. Soccer is trying align a path for the elite soccer player to reach her full potential in the club soccer game. The push for the implementation of a Development Academy for the girls came down to raising the level of training, coaching, and competition all year for the best players. 

“If we look at the past, our players were playing 90 games a year in several environments. They were not in a consistent environment,” Girls Academy Director Miriam Hickey told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday. “It is very important that we start this so there is environment that it is streamlined.”

Four practices a week, educated, motivated coaching, and meaningful games, the U.S. Soccer Federation is selling the ideal that this utopia of player development is the way forward for improving the game on the women’s side. 

MORE: TopDrawerSoccer.com's Development Academy coverage

“We do expect over time that players will be more well-rounded and they will compete better internationally,” Hickey said when asked if there was a five-year goal or objective for U.S. Soccer with the launch of the Girls Development Academy. 

The reality is that there is not a fallback plan for U.S. Soccer either. The federation boasts that 92% of the players called up to a Youth National Team camp in 2016-2017 were from a Development Academy club. While the Federation has said in the past that they scout other leagues, the vast majority of scouting for the Youth National Teams takes place in the Academy setting and thus most national team players come from that league. 

The consistency of the approach leads to an expectation that standards will be higher in the new league and the players produced from this environment will be more sophisticated than those from the previous regime. Added to the hyperbole, U.S. Soccer’s bountiful resources make this an all-steam ahead approach to a league that does not have a duplicate anywhere else in the world in women’s soccer. 

“When U.S. Soccer makes a decision like the Girls Development Academy, we are pouring resources into it. We are trying to put the player first,” U.S. Soccer Technical Director April Heinrichs said. “When you put the player first, you want to have meaningful games. You want to have four trainings a week. When U.S. Soccer asks for a player development plan, clubs will be rolling those out with an education from the Federation. We will be giving that guidance to clubs. That environment gets consolidated into a better environment.” 

Better, improved and other positive words are the sell at this point while the Girls Development Academy gets off the ground. Throwing the U.S. Soccer money and support behind the league already ensured that the best players will find a way to follow the trail to the Youth National Teams, and the college coaches will be close behind as they search the sidelines for their next big time recruit. 

In the end, the collegiate scholarship dollar is still the driving force for the majority of players in the elite club soccer game, which makes the Girls Development Academy so attractive.

However, the collegiate path was not discussed to the conference call, and only mentioned in passing in much of the media handouts about the Girls Development Academy. There is little doubt that the first Showcase event in December will be well attended by the Division I coaches from across the country, the only question is what will this league do differently than the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) or any of the others that came before it. 

With the help of the U.S. Soccer finances, the biggest avenue for improvement comes from the Technical Advisors. There are nine Technical Advisors across the country who can help guide clubs with a hands-on approach. These advisors are going to be the ones out there improving the everyday training environment for the player with suggestions and feedback for the clubs from practices to games. This is something that no league in history has had the authority to suggest or successful implement. 

U.S. Soccer’s staff handpicked these advisors so the message from them would be the same across the board. This type of control can lead to successful outings that benefit the players first and foremost. 

“We always provide a pathway for a player to develop that is consistent,” Development Academy Director Jared Micklos said. 

The league kicks off on Sept. 2 with 69 clubs taking part in the inaugural season. The expectation is that more clubs will be added in the future. 

Related Topics: Development Academy
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