Prep game continues to prosper in 1st year of controversial Development Academy rule
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On May 19th, a Saturday morning, the hot air broke hard across the field at Deerfield. The atmosphere was electric and elevated given the stakes. The championship game of the Class AA Deerfield Regional final between the Warriors and Grayslake North pulsed with meaning.
Malori Killoren ran free and unopposed in her element, negotiating the open spaces and seizing her chance. As one of the best sophomores in Illinois, Killoren is one of those coveted talents who comes with classifications like “elite” and “game-changer,” terms that suit her particular skills along with the ability to work within the framework of the team.
Within the game activity, it is always possible to isolate and catch sight of the machinations at work. Killoren stands out -- watching her is its own reward.
In the regional title game, she quickly demonstrated what sets her apart. In the third minute, she accepted a ball from senior forward Chloe Cappas and smashed a laser shot for a early game-defining goal in the Warriors’ 2-1 victory.
The goal was her 24th of the year. Last year, the Warriors struggled in the scoring third of the field and went just 9-10-4 after playing in the state title game in 2016. The emergence of Killoren changed everything. This season the Warriors set a new school record for goals in a season as Deerfield doubled its win total with a 18-5-3 mark.
Deerfield coach Rich Grady calls Killoren “the most technically gifted player I have ever coached -- great touch with either foot, excellent vision, and a real sense of the game.”
But everything the burgeoning prep star accomplished with Deerfield almost never happened. Leading up to the start of training in early March, Grady was not certain Killoren was going to playing for her school this year.
Killoren played with the vaunted and highly-regarded Northbrook-based FC United club program. The program culled many of the top players from New Trier, Loyola, Barrington and Glenbrook South in establishing its national reputation as a crucial centerpiece for player and skill development.
The club rarely conflicted with the traditional high school game. Just the opposite, the various parts synchronized and played off each other. Former Loyola coach Craig Snower and Glenbrook South coach Seong Ha had a foot in each world, coaching their high school teams while being part of the staff at FC United.
The backdrop created a seeming win-win for the players as well. Playing club was necessary and vital for developing skills and testing their abilities against national competition, offering a stronger and more precise gauge of their ability to play at the next level. The players drew off the organizational infrastructure of a national club circuit and achieved ever greater exposure with college coaches.
The model changed dramatically last fall.. FC United made the jump from Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) circuit to the U.S. Soccer Girls Development Academy (DA). Nationally, the Development Academy has 70 clubs who compete in seven divisions encompassing four age groups (U-14, U-15, U-17 and U-19).
FC United is one of three Chicago-based clubs who make up the Mid-America region of the DA. The others are Oak Brook-based Eclipse Select and the Palatine-based Sockers FC. Structured after the boys model instituted in 2007 to develop national talent for international competition like the Olympics and World Cup, the DA mandated very strict participation rules. The rules stated, unequivocally, “players cannot play in both the academy and high school simultaneously.”
In an interview with the Denver Post, Miriam Hickey, the director of the DA, explained the rationale behind the organization’s participation rules.
“Our goal is that over time, the clubs create better environments so more players can reach their top level,” Hickey said. “It’s about clubs that are more concerned in making sure that every player gets what she needs, rather than clubs who want to win at U-14 and U-15 with a win-at-all-costs mentality.”
It was generally thought the new alignment would negatively affect the high school game by drawing away players.
The repercussions were potentially profound and caught bright young talents like Killoren in the middle.
“It was a really hard decision,” Killoren said. “My club does not let people play in high school. Either you are stuck with the club or you decide to play high school. I was going back and forth, and it took a while to come up with something that would be best for me. I just decided to play high school.
“I love playing with people from my school.”
Killoren was not alone. The fear of the impact of the new policy dissipated. High school soccer not only held steady, it prospered. The worst fears for the girls spring season never came to pass. The projection of a massive talent breach that siphoned off the best players from high school teams and negatively upended the level of competition and quality of play never materialized.
As the girls season nears its apex with the large school divisions, Class AA and Class 3A, state finals on June 1 and 2, the Illinois high school game remains as relevant, emotionally charged and legitimate as ever. The elite programs like New Trier, Barrington, St. Charles North, Naperville North and St. Francis each competed for finals bids in supersectionals on May 29.
For the most part, the prep game stayed status quo.
Ryan Stengren is the coach of defending Class 3A state champion Barrington. The Fillies earned a chance to repeat with a supersectional win over St. Charles North after they captured their 10th-consecutive sectional title under Stengren with a riveting shootout victory over Cary-Grove last Friday at Guilford.
“I come from both sides, because I used to coach at Eclipse, and this is my take,” Stengren said. “Some people think of clubs as the be-all and end-all for soccer.
“If you come from a major program like New Trier, Barrington or Naperville North, where you know you are getting good coaching and you are going to play great competition, nothing really compares to the high school experience. At Barrington, the kids are treated like rock stars. It’s an incredible feeling to be part of that.”
Players acknowledge the emotional difficulty of having to make the decision. The binary rules of the DA appeared to only deepen their resolve and tighten the emotional bond to their high school.
Carmel defeated Libertyville 2-0 to capture a sectional title before it fell to undefeated powerhouse New Trier in the supersectional at Evanston.
Identical twins Skyler Thomas and Ciara Thomas are part of a gifted nucleus of juniors for the Corsairs. Both are two-year starters. As a propulsive offensive talent, Skyler Thomas is exactly the type of athletically skilled players to draw the attention of top club programs.
Skyler Thomas was pulled in both directions. In the end, her commitment to Carmel was too strong.
“Last year we had such a great season that I was almost certain that I was coming back this year instead of playing club,” Skyler Thomas said. “With these clubs, it is a very good way to get college exposure, and I want to play Division I. It was such a hard choice and for the league to put us in that position was difficult.”
Commitment goes both ways, and so far the players seem to naturally align with a system that is open to choice, freedom and possibility.
“It was kind of unfair to be put in that position to have to make the choice, and I felt in a way like I was ripped from my team,” Warren senior defender Jamie Kwon said. “I played with FC Libertyville 1974 for a long time, but then our team kind of split up, some girls decided not to play and some others were separated by age.
“Then I went to FC United Developmental Academy. It was fun, but it was just not the same. You build these bonds and these relationships with these girls, and you play with them and you have this chemistry and then you have to start all over, especially in my senior year and that was hard.”
After playing for a Warren team that set new standards for wins and state tournament advancement last year, Kwon was not about to give up the high school experience, though, she was also quick to point out her club involvement had many positive developments.
“Now I am going to college [Winona State], with a new coach, a new system and a new players, and it is going to be a new experience and point of emphasis, but playing club definitely got me prepared for that.”
Lake Forest High School that was the outlier in the Chicagoland area, the one program that unquestionably was the most impacted by the advent of the DA. Before the season, the Scouts were likely a top-five team in Illinois and a serious threat for a Class 3A state title. Coach Ty Stuckslager started as many as seven freshmen a year ago.
The combination of talent and skill was eye-popping and evident when the Scouts reached the championship game of the PepsiCo Showdown, losing to St. Charles North on penalty kicks. They administered Warren’s only regular season loss.
Their future appeared bright and unlimited. But Lake Forest lost nine sophomores to the development academy. Eight of those players make up the foundation of FC United’s U-17 team. Bridget Mitchell, who did not play last year at Lake Forest while recovering from an ACL injury, is the leading scorer for the FC United.
Mitchell, defender Nicole Doucette and midfielder Ingrid Falls have already committed to play at Northwestern University.
As a coach and director of the club program Lake Forest Soccer Association (LFSA), where many of those players started their experience with organized competition, Stuckslager understands the pull of the DA.
“It was unfortunate what happened to our team, but those are a great group of girls who are very talented,” he said.
“It just meant a lot more opportunities for other kids. Players that might not have made varsity or gotten limited time all of a sudden had a big role to play this year. They played against great competition, Sydney Parker and Emma Weaver at New Trier, Loyola, Glenbrook South and not to mention the great teams we played in our conference -- Lake Zurich, Libertyville and Mundelein.”
The one returning highly regarded sophomore, skilled keeper Sophia DiVagno, anchored a tough and aggressive defense that held the team together. Lake Forest finished 8-7-2. New talent emerged and the program stayed aloft.
“Who knows what is going to happen next year?” Stuckslager said.
The DA is already evolving. Two prominent national programs, Eclipse and the Michigan Hawks have already announced they are withdrawing after this spring.
Michael Gans is a former academy coach who also served on the board of directors of the Boston-based Bolts program and the father of two longtime DA players. He campaigned unsuccessfully for the U.S. Soccer presidency. In a wide-ranging interview with the website Soccer America, Gans said the restrictive clause of the DA has contributed to alienating many prospects.
“U.S. Soccer has to liberalize the restriction on high school play, so that it is a choice for all players at the outset,” Gans said. “If it is not, it will lead to burnout and indeed in many cases, actual resentment of the sport. In its myopic view, U.S. Soccer over-discounted the significant fact that playing high school sports is a quintessential [American experience], and denial of that experience has some important detrimental effects.”
Gans’ point of view is bolstered by a parent of a prominent North Shore player who asked not to be identified.
“I think the general consensus around here as well as other parts of the country is that U.S. Soccer greatly underestimated the draw of high school soccer,” he said. “I think you see that around here. The rosters of the local developmental clubs, both U-17 and U-19, were decimated as girls choose to play high school.
“While the development academy has been in place on the boys side for more than 10 years and has always excluded high school play, the boys and girls situations are fundamentally quite different. For young women, there is no real path to professional play that any high school player I know is interested in following.
“The question becomes about whether people are willing to sacrifice the potential benefits of playing for something, for classmates or for [their] school. That part has been undervalued as an important development characteristic for girls who want to go on and play college.
“I have had college coaches telling me [playing for] something you care about as opposed to your travel club teaches lessons they’d rather not have their players learn for the first time representing their college.”
By Patrick Z. McGavin
On May 19th, a Saturday morning, the hot air broke hard across the field at Deerfield. The atmosphere was electric and elevated given the stakes. The championship game of the Class AA Deerfield Regional final between the Warriors and Grayslake North pulsed with meaning.
Malori Killoren ran free and unopposed in her element, negotiating the open spaces and seizing her chance. As one of the best sophomores in Illinois, Killoren is one of those coveted talents who comes with classifications like “elite” and “game-changer,” terms that suit her particular skills along with the ability to work within the framework of the team.
Within the game activity, it is always possible to isolate and catch sight of the machinations at work. Killoren stands out -- watching her is its own reward.
In the regional title game, she quickly demonstrated what sets her apart. In the third minute, she accepted a ball from senior forward Chloe Cappas and smashed a laser shot for a early game-defining goal in the Warriors’ 2-1 victory.
The goal was her 24th of the year. Last year, the Warriors struggled in the scoring third of the field and went just 9-10-4 after playing in the state title game in 2016. The emergence of Killoren changed everything. This season the Warriors set a new school record for goals in a season as Deerfield doubled its win total with a 18-5-3 mark.
Deerfield coach Rich Grady calls Killoren “the most technically gifted player I have ever coached -- great touch with either foot, excellent vision, and a real sense of the game.”
But everything the burgeoning prep star accomplished with Deerfield almost never happened. Leading up to the start of training in early March, Grady was not certain Killoren was going to playing for her school this year.
Killoren played with the vaunted and highly-regarded Northbrook-based FC United club program. The program culled many of the top players from New Trier, Loyola, Barrington and Glenbrook South in establishing its national reputation as a crucial centerpiece for player and skill development.
The club rarely conflicted with the traditional high school game. Just the opposite, the various parts synchronized and played off each other. Former Loyola coach Craig Snower and Glenbrook South coach Seong Ha had a foot in each world, coaching their high school teams while being part of the staff at FC United.
The backdrop created a seeming win-win for the players as well. Playing club was necessary and vital for developing skills and testing their abilities against national competition, offering a stronger and more precise gauge of their ability to play at the next level. The players drew off the organizational infrastructure of a national club circuit and achieved ever greater exposure with college coaches.
The model changed dramatically last fall.. FC United made the jump from Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) circuit to the U.S. Soccer Girls Development Academy (DA). Nationally, the Development Academy has 70 clubs who compete in seven divisions encompassing four age groups (U-14, U-15, U-17 and U-19).
FC United is one of three Chicago-based clubs who make up the Mid-America region of the DA. The others are Oak Brook-based Eclipse Select and the Palatine-based Sockers FC. Structured after the boys model instituted in 2007 to develop national talent for international competition like the Olympics and World Cup, the DA mandated very strict participation rules. The rules stated, unequivocally, “players cannot play in both the academy and high school simultaneously.”
In an interview with the Denver Post, Miriam Hickey, the director of the DA, explained the rationale behind the organization’s participation rules.
“Our goal is that over time, the clubs create better environments so more players can reach their top level,” Hickey said. “It’s about clubs that are more concerned in making sure that every player gets what she needs, rather than clubs who want to win at U-14 and U-15 with a win-at-all-costs mentality.”
It was generally thought the new alignment would negatively affect the high school game by drawing away players.
The repercussions were potentially profound and caught bright young talents like Killoren in the middle.
“It was a really hard decision,” Killoren said. “My club does not let people play in high school. Either you are stuck with the club or you decide to play high school. I was going back and forth, and it took a while to come up with something that would be best for me. I just decided to play high school.
“I love playing with people from my school.”
Killoren was not alone. The fear of the impact of the new policy dissipated. High school soccer not only held steady, it prospered. The worst fears for the girls spring season never came to pass. The projection of a massive talent breach that siphoned off the best players from high school teams and negatively upended the level of competition and quality of play never materialized.
As the girls season nears its apex with the large school divisions, Class AA and Class 3A, state finals on June 1 and 2, the Illinois high school game remains as relevant, emotionally charged and legitimate as ever. The elite programs like New Trier, Barrington, St. Charles North, Naperville North and St. Francis each competed for finals bids in supersectionals on May 29.
For the most part, the prep game stayed status quo.
Ryan Stengren is the coach of defending Class 3A state champion Barrington. The Fillies earned a chance to repeat with a supersectional win over St. Charles North after they captured their 10th-consecutive sectional title under Stengren with a riveting shootout victory over Cary-Grove last Friday at Guilford.
“I come from both sides, because I used to coach at Eclipse, and this is my take,” Stengren said. “Some people think of clubs as the be-all and end-all for soccer.
“If you come from a major program like New Trier, Barrington or Naperville North, where you know you are getting good coaching and you are going to play great competition, nothing really compares to the high school experience. At Barrington, the kids are treated like rock stars. It’s an incredible feeling to be part of that.”
Players acknowledge the emotional difficulty of having to make the decision. The binary rules of the DA appeared to only deepen their resolve and tighten the emotional bond to their high school.
Carmel defeated Libertyville 2-0 to capture a sectional title before it fell to undefeated powerhouse New Trier in the supersectional at Evanston.
Identical twins Skyler Thomas and Ciara Thomas are part of a gifted nucleus of juniors for the Corsairs. Both are two-year starters. As a propulsive offensive talent, Skyler Thomas is exactly the type of athletically skilled players to draw the attention of top club programs.
Skyler Thomas was pulled in both directions. In the end, her commitment to Carmel was too strong.
“Last year we had such a great season that I was almost certain that I was coming back this year instead of playing club,” Skyler Thomas said. “With these clubs, it is a very good way to get college exposure, and I want to play Division I. It was such a hard choice and for the league to put us in that position was difficult.”
Commitment goes both ways, and so far the players seem to naturally align with a system that is open to choice, freedom and possibility.
“It was kind of unfair to be put in that position to have to make the choice, and I felt in a way like I was ripped from my team,” Warren senior defender Jamie Kwon said. “I played with FC Libertyville 1974 for a long time, but then our team kind of split up, some girls decided not to play and some others were separated by age.
“Then I went to FC United Developmental Academy. It was fun, but it was just not the same. You build these bonds and these relationships with these girls, and you play with them and you have this chemistry and then you have to start all over, especially in my senior year and that was hard.”
After playing for a Warren team that set new standards for wins and state tournament advancement last year, Kwon was not about to give up the high school experience, though, she was also quick to point out her club involvement had many positive developments.
“Now I am going to college [Winona State], with a new coach, a new system and a new players, and it is going to be a new experience and point of emphasis, but playing club definitely got me prepared for that.”
Lake Forest High School that was the outlier in the Chicagoland area, the one program that unquestionably was the most impacted by the advent of the DA. Before the season, the Scouts were likely a top-five team in Illinois and a serious threat for a Class 3A state title. Coach Ty Stuckslager started as many as seven freshmen a year ago.
The combination of talent and skill was eye-popping and evident when the Scouts reached the championship game of the PepsiCo Showdown, losing to St. Charles North on penalty kicks. They administered Warren’s only regular season loss.
Their future appeared bright and unlimited. But Lake Forest lost nine sophomores to the development academy. Eight of those players make up the foundation of FC United’s U-17 team. Bridget Mitchell, who did not play last year at Lake Forest while recovering from an ACL injury, is the leading scorer for the FC United.
Mitchell, defender Nicole Doucette and midfielder Ingrid Falls have already committed to play at Northwestern University.
As a coach and director of the club program Lake Forest Soccer Association (LFSA), where many of those players started their experience with organized competition, Stuckslager understands the pull of the DA.
“It was unfortunate what happened to our team, but those are a great group of girls who are very talented,” he said.
“It just meant a lot more opportunities for other kids. Players that might not have made varsity or gotten limited time all of a sudden had a big role to play this year. They played against great competition, Sydney Parker and Emma Weaver at New Trier, Loyola, Glenbrook South and not to mention the great teams we played in our conference -- Lake Zurich, Libertyville and Mundelein.”
The one returning highly regarded sophomore, skilled keeper Sophia DiVagno, anchored a tough and aggressive defense that held the team together. Lake Forest finished 8-7-2. New talent emerged and the program stayed aloft.
“Who knows what is going to happen next year?” Stuckslager said.
The DA is already evolving. Two prominent national programs, Eclipse and the Michigan Hawks have already announced they are withdrawing after this spring.
Michael Gans is a former academy coach who also served on the board of directors of the Boston-based Bolts program and the father of two longtime DA players. He campaigned unsuccessfully for the U.S. Soccer presidency. In a wide-ranging interview with the website Soccer America, Gans said the restrictive clause of the DA has contributed to alienating many prospects.
“U.S. Soccer has to liberalize the restriction on high school play, so that it is a choice for all players at the outset,” Gans said. “If it is not, it will lead to burnout and indeed in many cases, actual resentment of the sport. In its myopic view, U.S. Soccer over-discounted the significant fact that playing high school sports is a quintessential [American experience], and denial of that experience has some important detrimental effects.”
Gans’ point of view is bolstered by a parent of a prominent North Shore player who asked not to be identified.
“I think the general consensus around here as well as other parts of the country is that U.S. Soccer greatly underestimated the draw of high school soccer,” he said. “I think you see that around here. The rosters of the local developmental clubs, both U-17 and U-19, were decimated as girls choose to play high school.
“While the development academy has been in place on the boys side for more than 10 years and has always excluded high school play, the boys and girls situations are fundamentally quite different. For young women, there is no real path to professional play that any high school player I know is interested in following.
“The question becomes about whether people are willing to sacrifice the potential benefits of playing for something, for classmates or for [their] school. That part has been undervalued as an important development characteristic for girls who want to go on and play college.
“I have had college coaches telling me [playing for] something you care about as opposed to your travel club teaches lessons they’d rather not have their players learn for the first time representing their college.”