[quote=Anonymous]The good thing about the academy is that you have committed players and parents who attend practices and games. They are some, not all, but some of the better players so that elevates practices and games.There are a good number of games and tournaments that allow the kids and parents to judge themselves as to where they are and develop. The college coaches are there mainly at games occasinally practices but not by the hundreds and it is mainly coahes from the area until you get to the 2 yearly showcases where there are coaches from all over. The coaches will watch a game for 20 to 30 min and are gone so you have to start to be identified. They don't stay all game.The national evaluators never tell the kids a thing. Who knows if they are there or not and for how long.The bad things about the academies are , The coaching stinks.The coaches are political animals and are often bought by the parents . The coaches are there not to develop the players but to win games. They do not care if the kids are recruited or not or developed and will say so. They want to look like winners so that the national evaluators will rate them highly and they can move up and maybe get a national coaching job. The politics on the academy are worse than any club team. Who gets picked to go to a national ID camp is sold to the highest bidder and at the whim of the coach even at the free academies.They are more expensive than any club team no matter how many tournaments you go to.Most of the academy kids that are recruited would have been recruited any way and the colleges that most go to well they could have gotten into without the academy status. Yes there are a few great schools that academy players get into but what you don't know is that many of the parents are alumni or benefactors of those schools. There are a handfull who make it with no pull but few. The club managers want their academy teams to follow all the rules in hopes of moving up into the higher echelons of management of the national teams and they can only do that if they force the kids to follow all the rules whether it makes the kids happy or not.It should not be a 10 month academy it should run all year long.Why would you give July and August off in the East. You should give off Jan and Feb.off if you want to give time off. The USSF interested in developing players should build indoor turf field at the academies then it can run all year long european style.As in most soccer it is never about the kids. There is a NY kid who dropped out of high school after the 9th grade played on no high school team, academy team state or regional team. He played for a local club and was seen by scout and sent to a pro team and will be there for the next 6 months