Golazo10

I just wanted to point out a correction or clear up some information given in a post for anyone reading or following the discussion. There are no "full rides" given in Division III or the Ivy League schools because there are no athletic scholarships.

There are some very good players that don't go through ODP on the girl’s side. My definition of very good is probably different. I am not aware of any players in the higher echelon of Division I program; such as the ACC or SEC that starts or play significant minutes, and did not go through the ODP process in Tennessee. There are always exceptions. There are other avenues to playing on a higher echelon college team but in Tennessee you will typically need to be involved in the ODP program or on a good club team with a good coach that is well respected by college coaches. There are many ways to play in college, at various levels, and to get scholarships or get accepted into better academic school through soccer. Players should not be under the illusion that they will get a full athletic scholarship unless they are a Regional Team or higher level player, depending on the program. Charles De Gaulle said “the graveyards are full of indispensible men." Anyone in college sports should understand that anyone could become expendable, probably more so than their classmates. This is no different than any other area of life. If you like, I would be more than willing to have a discussion in regards to the plantation economy aspect of big time college football and basketball. As it has been noted, a players experience is specific to the program. In addition to what's been said before, a player should do their due diligence before committing to a program to have an idea of what to expect. Just as Bean knows players that are enjoying their experience at a lower division, I also know players enjoying their experiences at higher divisions. It's all anecdotal.

As a comparison of states, in Georgia, there were 77,000 players registered in 2007 from the ages of U6 through U19. Contrast that with the numbers in Tennessee for 2006, in which there were 37,238 players registered from U5 through U19. As a general rule you will find higher level players and teams in larger population areas. It would probably be a better comparison to use a state that has similar players enrolled in youth soccer because Georgia has more than double the numbers of players as Tennessee. Ones definition of a top player can be a lot different than what a college coach at an SEC or ACC team, let alone a State, Regional, and National Team coach is looking for in players. Often, a player that one might think of as a top player is exposed in other environments because they are simply not good enough at a certain level. There are various reasons for this; however, for a player to compete at the higher levels they will need to be very good in all 4 of the components of the game relatively speaking. Of the 4 components of the game: Technical, Tactical, Physical, and Psychological; the players that don't make it to the higher levels usually all come up short in the technical and tactical component to compete with the top players in the region. In regards to the ODP program, of the 5 girls that made the regional team or above on the girls side, I don't believe any live in Middle Tennessee. There were 3 players on the 94 team and 2 players on the 95 team. I believe the 96 group will be pretty strong too, but there is no regional team selected at that age. As far as exposure, I think one would have to look at the coaching staff and recognize that there are a number of college coaches involved in ODP in many states. If we are still using Georgia for comparison, the state training for ODP is in the Atlanta area because it is where most of the players live and it's centrally located. Middle TN is also centrally located and cuts down on the need for someone in East or West Tennessee to drive 5-6 hours. When one talks about top players, which players went to nationally ranked soccer schools in Division I that play consistently, that were not involved in ODP?

Bean, You have to realize that Metro Atlanta is probably larger than the 4 largest Metro areas in Tennessee; thus more potential players to draw from in the Atlanta area alone. Some players in Tennessee that could have played at a higher level when they were older were the young players that played on club teams that emphasized winning now, more than developing the player in all components of the game. If you go to one of these coaches training sessions you will see them spend a lot of time running and involved in sessions that are drills and do not resemble the game. If you are at their games, you will hear the coach tell the players what to do constantly, and often demeaning the players. I believe the ODP numbers are actually up and more and more players are making regional and national pools and team(s). I believe that in most cases, clubs mergers will probably be the best way to get the best players together to compete, train in better environments, and get the exposure you mention. I am not sure why there is a reduction in teams playing Division I. That might be a case by case question. I think the recent mergers probably have a contributing affect on the number of teams still competing in Division I. Many of the girls not on the teams that merged probably leave teams to join more competitive teams to get a chance to be seen and compete at a higher level.

Some possibe considerations that you might not have taken into account. 1) Players could have left a team and the team is no longer able to compete at the Division I level. 2) The team might have decided that they didn't have enough players interested in pursuing soccer after high school. 3) Talent tends to pool after a certain age and many teams no longer have a reasonable chance to compete in the Division I State League or even get into the tournaments and showcases that college coaches will attend. There are other considerations. Maybe you are insinuating that some teams want to win a State Championship, so they are dropping into a lower division?

Looks like Brentwood had a team in the Boys State Cup in each age group finals for the top division except U16. U12 Finalist U13 Champions U14 Champions U15 Champions U17 Champions U18 Finalist

I think there have been more than enough reasonable suggestions proffered. Banning slide tackles is not a reasonable option. High school rules have already distorted the game enough.

Should we next ban women from competitive sports played on a field or court because they are more likely to suffer an ACL injury? A Unites States Naval Academy study of college athletes found women suffered ACL injuries at the rate of four times that of men. The list of theories for this are: - An imbalance between a female's hamstring and quadricep muscle strength that results in heightened pressure on the ACL. - Women's smaller, and thus more vulnerable, knee ligaments. - The angle at which the female femur (thighbone) connects to the tibia (shinbone), placing greater stress on the knee and its ligaments. -Increases in estrogen levels during the menstrual cycle, which weaken ligaments.

There will be players from TN on both teams. I bet they will slide tackle...well maybe only one of them that I know will slide tackle!

Is it that some here are concerned about slide tackling in general, or slide tackling that isn't done properly? As I indicated before, players must be taught how to protect themselves, too. It is the coach’s responsibility to instruct the players, and the referee responsibility to look out for the safety of the players, and the player’s responsibility to learn. It is a physical game and injuries happen. If someone gets injured, it is unfortunate but it's part of the risk involved in the sport and I could not support anything to remove a skill from of the game, which slide tackling is one of many. People get injured, legs broken, and ligaments torn in many other ways. Girls and Women have a higher incidence for torn ACL's. Do we just stop them from playing basketball and soccer due to the high number of torn ACL's? I am not sure why we have such low expectations of players that some believe that can't slide tackle or that your gender affects your ability to slide tackle. Are we aware that the top high school age players in other countries would not be playing high school soccer? They would be in the youth team of a professional club, the reserve team, or the full professional team.

As has been stated previously, the game doesn't need to change, it is the players that need to play at higher levels if they can make a team, they need better coaching and parents that understand what better coaching would look like, better referees and fields. I don't think it's a coincidence that the people that have played at a certain level have a certain opinion, while those that have not, have another opinion. I believe the reason is that often people come into the sport with the misconception that it is not a physical game. Many spectators and players have no background in the sport besides watching their children play and have never been to a professional game in person, watch it in person, or on television on a consistent basis to know the physicality of the sport.

I see several issues tied into this subject. I would start off by saying that one cannot take a skill from the game. Slide tackling is a skill, just as heading, passing, receiving, shooting, ect. If it is not done properly, then injury is possible, as with any other skill. Even if done properly, injury is possible, just with any other skill. I would highly doubt that you could find one person that has played the game at a high level that would advocate for removing slide tackling. As an analogy, a technique in American Football is tackling. The game has changed from what it started off as, essentially rugby and tackling is permitted below the waist. You have players that intentionally try to tackle to cause injuries to the knee. You also have players try to put their helmet on the ball. Both of these ways of tackling are cause injury, paralysis, and death. I don't see a call to end tackling below the waist or seriously penalizing or ejecting players who use their helmet to tackle. One aspect that nobody has mentioned is the skill of avoiding injury and protecting oneself. If a player is coming in for a slide tackle, the player should know that they should not have leave their leg planted and bearing weight, upon contact. As a coach, you must also instruct your players how to avoid injury from players that are intentionally try to foul, or in some cases injure. I have also read some very sexist post about how girls cannot slide tackle and removing it from the game at younger ages and for females. Gender does not affect the level of technique in slide tackling. I have seen a number of 10 and 11 year old girls execute great slide tackles. Additionally, the referee ranks are not strong across the board. There are some very good referees and others that do a fine job. It is mainly at the scholastic level that you see an even greater drop in the level. I would seriously question the number of referees that watch professional soccer on a regular basis. I would also question how many take the time to improve by obtaining higher level badges or do something for continued education. The same applies for coaches. The game changes to a degree over a period of time. There are some good high school programs with coaches that haven't bothered to improve themselves and are stuck playing the game as it was played more than 20 years ago.

brazil, There was no one at Brentwood that was "kicked out" of TNFC. The Boys DOC position at TNFC was cut out to save cost, we were told in a general membership meeting. The coach remained after the position was eliminated to coach his teams. Maybe this is what you are referring to as "kicked out;" however, it is untrue to say that anyone was kicked out of TNFC. Maybe you can call that a de facto firing from the Boys DOC position. To my knowledge, every single coach that left TNFC to go to Brentwood left because they wanted to coach at Brentwood. They didn't leave because they were "kicked out." I don't know what happened to the coaches that left to go to other clubs. You would have to ask each of them why they left. When you say TNFC's membership is growing, you leave out the fact that it decreased after tryouts two years ago when many people left to Brentwood. TNFC did grow, but that was only because there was a merger with Impact. Maybe you weren't aware of what transpired and why people choose to leave. Good luck to both clubs going forwards.