As sports parents, we often try and put our kids on an athletic path to realize their highest potential.
But, even if you’re a former goalkeeper for the USMNT and in Major League Soccer, you also want your child to experience different levels of competition and find the one where they are most comfortable.
“My 8-year-old daughter tried out,” Luis Robles says of a recent interaction with his local club team, “and I could tell in the email they were posturing: ‘She’s not ready for the A team so we’re gonna put on the B team, but she’s gonna get play a lot.’ ‘
“It’s like, ‘I don’t care. I just want her to play soccer.’ ”
For kids who are a little bit older, Major League Soccer announced last week it is creating a new competitive tier through its MLS NEXT Program with a similar line of thinking.
‘We’ve realized that there’s a real appetite to expand the access to MLS NEXT to more players, coaches, families and clubs across the landscape,’ says MLS NEXT general manager Kyle Albrecht.
What does this mean for your son or daughter? USA TODAY Sports asked Albrecht and Robles, MLS NEXT’s technical director.
How does MLS NEXT work?
It focuses on developing elite soccer players while providing clubs with top-level coaching, training and competition.
It has clubs in 34 states plus the District of Columbia.
Clubs agree to meet MLS technical and training standards and “safety and well being” standards to protect against physical and emotional abuse.
While MLS NEXT strives to develop players to compete on national teams, it’s second tier of competition opens up an opportunity for those who want to play at a high level but don’t necessarily view that goal as realistic.
Can boys and girls play MLS NEXT?
MLS NEXT is a boys competition but member clubs can invite girls to play on their teams. USWNT players Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, for example, played on an Under-19 MLS NEXT team.
MLS NEXT also announced in December it had formed an alliance with the Girls Academy. Albrecht, the MLS NEXT GM, said the organizations will work together on technical standards and team opportunities.
According to MLS, the Girls Academy has 114 clubs and more than 16,000 players (including 48 clubs that have a boys team in MLS NEXT) from the U13 to U19 age groups.
What type of athletes is MLS NEXT looking at for its second tier?
Are they kids who have Division I or national team aspirations or is MLS trying to open itself up to as many kids as possible?
“It’s both,” Robles says, “because our objective from a player development strategy in Major League Soccer is to develop the next generation of talent that will affect the pro game, and the pro game includes Major League Soccer, it includes national teams.
“But within that object is another sub tier of ‘how does that play itself out?’ We saw an opportunity to deepen the player pool, to give more families that experience. … So it is the aspirational athlete, but it’s also just the athlete that wants to continue to play soccer with their friends. So it is a combination of everyone.”
There are 29 MLS academies and 122 elite academies within the 151 clubs that make up MLS NEXT. The league operators once a tier below MLS NEXT will now operate the new tier of competition.
Do players in Tier 2 get the same benefits as players in Tier 1?
Tier 2 will allow clubs that are affiliated with MLS NEXT to play their second-level clubs (often referred to as “B” teams) under the MLS umbrella. They will have MLS NEXT standards and guidelines and best practices from a technical perspective.
Tier 2 will play more regionally than Tier 1 teams but have an opportunity to attend MLS NEXT Fest and qualify for MLS NEXT Cup.
What are the coaching standards for both tiers? Are parent coaches involved?
All MLS NEXT coaches have access to training in MLS environments. Some get an opportunity to acquire an EFCL (Elite Formation Coaching License), through Fred Lipka, MLS’s vice president and technical director of player development.
“There’s a license standard, but we also create considerations, because we want aspiring coaches to be a part of this, and just have to show there’s progress towards getting the top license as possible,” Robles says.
“For the most part, it would be non-parent coaches,” he says. “I know a lot of these coaches have a kid, but what’s different is their passion for coaching goes beyond just their kid, and so even if that kid graduates, they’re still coaching.”
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Will more players now make national teams that are not MLS Academy players?
Like the MLS academy and elite academy teams, the Tier 2 teams will have a chance to compete at MLS NEXT Fest (at the U15 through U19 age groups) and the MLS NEXT Cup (should they qualify through one of eight regional tournaments) and have the same opportunity to be seen at those events.
“Between MLS NEXT Cup, which was this past June, and Fest in December, we had over 1,000 scouts between college coaches and national team scouts on site,” Albrecht says.
According to Albrecht, more than 90% of U.S. youth national teams are coming from MLS NEXT clubs.
Tier 2 players will be eligible to play high school soccer. Is MLS encouraging kids to play high school soccer?
“I would stop short of encourage; it’s just allowed,” Robles says. “I think what we encourage is them to identify the best environment possible for them to develop. And what we’ve identified as what would be the best environment is, where are the best coaches?’
MLS NEXT players agree to forgo participating simultaneously in both MLS NEXT and high school soccer, according to an MLS spokesperson, though clubs can submit a high school waiver. If approved, it allows them to play high school soccer.
‘What we’ve identified as optimal is if they can stay in the highest level possible for as long as possible,’ Robles says. ‘And the standard really is an MLS Academy, and you can only give that to X amount of kids. And so if we can create an extension, which is the elite academy, and now they have a 10-month season where they’re in the same environment with the same coach and the same competition, we do think that is optimal for player development, but we want to create flexibility.
“There’s different ways for players to develop, and they’ll choose what’s best for them.”
Will kids that play high school soccer in the new tier run into trap-year issues?
A so-called “trapped” player is an eighth-grader who plays on a U15 team, which is usually comprised of ninth-graders.
In 2017, U.S. Soccer changed its age eligibility for team rosters from school year (Aug. 1-July 31) to birth year (Jan. 1-Dec. 31), a topic that has been hotly debated across youth leagues.
“I think school year is really important for social development in the early stages,” Robles says. “Let’s call it before pre-professional; it’s just playing soccer, right? You want to be with your friends.
“Once you enter into the stage of what is pre-professional, then you sort of want to align with what’s gonna give you the most opportunity.”
MLS NEXT determines a player’s team based on their individual situation.
“If the club thinks the player should play up, the player plays up,” Robles says.
Cost is a major issue with parents and with club teams. How is MLS NEXT able to control cost?
If you’re part of the club team culture, you know costs can fluctuate wildly, from several hundred dollars at young ages to $10,000 to $20,000 (or more) for teenagers when you factor in all of your expenses.
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Fees vary for each MLS NEXT club but an idea behind the new tier is for participating teams to play more locally and regionally against strong competition instead of traveling farther away (and paying more) to find it.
“If you qualify for (MLS NEXT) Cup, then absolutely, that’s something that you participate in, but even through the schedule and the events, (cost) is taken into consideration,” Robles says.
If your child joins MLS GO (MLS’s recreation program for ages 4-14), does that put them on a pathway to get into MLS NEXT later on?
Albrecht says MLS and its clubs have spent more than $100 million annually in the player development space, investing in areas such as facilities, coaches and talent identification.
But how early does that identification start? From the beginning, they think about the player experience.
“We’re not trying to create world-class players from the time of five or six years old,” Robles says. “The idea is for them to enjoy (MLS GO) so they keep playing. If they keep playing, then maybe within their club, they’re able to find another opportunity. But the key part is that they keep playing.”
He goes back to his daughter as an example.
“I don’t care what team she’s on, because if she loves it and she’s having fun, she’ll keep playing,” he says. “And if she keeps playing and she wants to get better, then she’s gonna seek it out herself. That’s all we care about.’
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.
