This may not be the kind of topic that’s ideally suited to a place like LLT, but I believe it generates opinions one way or another. I heard from a few colleagues at my other writing job and local soccer coaches who didn’t understand why Hispanic kids weren’t competing on their local teams and they found out that Hispanic media (Univision, Telemundo, Fux Up Sports and Gol TV) completely ignores the college game.
I was stunned when I heard this. It was ridiculous.
The Hispanic media ignores college ball because that would be like ignoring Super Bowl ball for Pop Warner ball. It’s also because college football has kind of ignored Hispanics. This topic was generated by a thread on the BigSoccer forum and there were various views.
The “elitism” of it all
Here in the United States, football is a middle-class, even elite, sport. This is no way to come out of the “hood”. Unlike other countries, it is playing on dirt roads laden with stones with a ball made of rags and socks that dreams come true. I will discuss this until the day I die. The day football becomes a way out of poverty – not a way out of college – a way out of the inner city, then it will become one of the Big Four. When football becomes a legitimate way to get your mother her dream home, it will become popular here in the United States. College football doesn’t offer that to hundreds of thousands of players in the United States.
When people talk about few Hispanics playing at this level, that’s the truth. There are reasons for this though, and it’s sad. Organized clubs, travel teams, high schools, and colleges do not welcome or encourage young players of Hispanic descent to play at the college level.
Various players I grew up with, some of them 20 times better than some of the best college players, were never even considered because they weren’t part of the “program.” Most of these kids could not afford the expenses of a traveling team or ODP program. When I spoke to a close friend of mine, he mentioned that it cost him about $200 a month for his child to play on a travel team. In addition, travel costs (airfare, gas, hotel, etc.) must be added for tournaments that take place every other weekend and tournament fees. It could cost a parent nearly $10,000 a year to keep a child on one of these elite teams. Now tell that to a family that has to live on $20-30,000 a year. This is why many children have fallen through the cracks throughout history. I can tell you from personal experience that it is very difficult for a family living on less than $20,000 per year to be able to pay monthly for their son or sons in addition to surviving. .
Rather, these kids were playing in an adult league in which college recruits wouldn’t even be caught dead. For the college scene, that’s not where football players develop. Adult leagues, as competitive as they are, become a wasteland for young players. They stagnate and stop developing.
In recent years, other options have emerged for young people. Mexico has shown interest in players ignored by the American soccer “intelligentia.” In place since the start of the decade, Mexican managers have gone north of the border to find these talents and develop them at some of the country’s big clubs.
Other options
There is also the possibility of going directly to MLS, its development teams, the USL or abroad. Players like Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu took advantage of this and made professionalism a viable option for the American soccer player. Giuseppe Rossi and Jozy Altidore took it to the next level and made it possible for American teenagers to look to Europe to achieve their dreams. Clubs like Real Madrid, Everton and many others have brought youngsters from the United States to develop in their academies across the Atlantic. This in itself makes studying much more exquisite than academic studies.
I am in favor of the fact that these young people seek money first. The university will always be there for them, but not the dollars or euros. So why play for free? At the same time, if the best players aren’t there, why bother? If college football gets little viewership in English, why bother in Spanish when you can watch other leagues on a Saturday?
Special feature
Across the world, universities are not used as feeder programs. This is the clear difference between the club and franchise models. Universities in other parts of the world are options for people to get an education and not become a professional athlete. Let’s not be naive, in the United States many athletes go to college to become professional athletes. Hell, many are somewhat of a professional athlete with the amount of money they generate and the investments that are made to help a program grow.
In various countries, clubs help children grow and see them develop into young men and professional footballers. The club development model has a curve that will have a player. If there’s one thing the university benefits from, it’s that it can help cope and manage everything that comes with playing football. If one were to track the improvement of one player here in the United States and another in another country, the vast disparity would only really become evident when the American child reached college. Foreign kids will take off and continue to improve. During this time, the student will grow physically, but their skills will remain the same or deteriorate because the game is not aimed at being a skilled player or keeping the ball on the ground.
Let’s be honest. UCLA or Virginia don’t generate as much passion as Boca Juniors, Real Madrid or Barcelona. The problem is that people who were raised and raised on college sports and school affiliations simply don’t understand that the same way of thinking doesn’t apply. The NBA Developmental League doesn’t generate as much passion as the NBA. In baseball, a rookie league team is not the same as a Major League franchise. A high school football camp is not the same as playing on Sunday.
It’s really bad
College football isn’t that good. The game itself has gone from being a “premier division” in the United States to simply being an option for MLS and USL teams to fill gaps. This was looked down upon because of the NCAA’s prepotence in doing things its own way. Their stops and starts and unlimited substitutions have changed the game and the fluidity that football fans are accustomed to is non-existent. The pace of the game is pretty much the same. Three long passes and a cross to the middle of the area. You can only accept so much kicking, rushing, and unimaginative play. This is what frustrates fans who want to see a show and what they get is a tug of war between two narcoleptics.
Tell us what you think?
