High School Soccer

The All-Orange County Boys Soccer Team was announced yesterday, and Servite had the player of the year, the coach of the year, and four players on the first team of eleven. Congratulations to them, but it raises some questions. Mathematically, it's almost impossible that four of the eleven best players in the county would all randomly end up at one school. So does Servite recruit and "bring in" all these great players? Are they doing something shady? Have they become just a local "AAU" club team? Should SoCal schools refuse to play them and force them to travel all over the country and play a "national schedule"? Or is it possible that the best players just naturally want to play for the best programs and the best coaches? There are some who make a habit of criticizing Mater Dei and St. John Bosco for the things I mentioned above. Perhaps they can think of this before they feel compelled to do so next time. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Unlike football or basketball, the best HS soccer players are playing 12 month club ball for MLS academies.  In rare cases kids sign full professional contracts at 16 year old.  The Chicago Fire #1 goalkeeper (Slonina) was signed full professional at age 14 (MLS) and played 3 games as keeper at age 16 for the full team.  BTW-he's 17 now, definitely in US national team pipeline, and will probably be sold to one of the big teams in Europe within the next 2-3 years.  

Even the kids who don't go pro out of the academies get first crack at college scholarships.  Therefore-no HS soccer can be considered elite.

As soon as Servite starts offering free tuition to top recruits like Mater Dei and St. John Bosco do in football, then your argument might hold water.

That, my friends, is the "secret sauce" that has catapulted those two schools to unprecedented levels of dominance in HSFB. I'm sure the coaching and the facilities are nice, but $$$ is king.

Credo, you know I respect you man, but that respect is tested a little bit when you post stuff like this.  If you know of a past or present football player at Mater Dei who paid no tuition, please send me his name via private message.  Just please don't become one of those guys who says, "I know more about what goes on at Mater Dei than you do, and I know they offer free tuition to top recruits, but I just don't know of any specifically."

I'll respond with three points:

First, yes, there are football players at Mater Dei that attend tuition-free.  Every year, the school sponsors two boys and two girls from the Boys Hope/Girls Hope group home in downtown Santa Ana.  Those students attend Mater Dei with free tuition, free lunches, free books, free iPads, free school uniforms and free sports participation if they choose to do so.  Over the years, four or five of those boys have chosen to join the football team.  I don't remember any of them ever playing a down, but the last two did earn national championship rings.

Second, I began working in the program in 2002, and in those 20 years there has not been any other kid who wasn't from Boys Hope/Girls Hope who played football without paying some tuition.  Again, if you know of one, let me know.

And third, I had the opportunity to speak with the fathers of Titus Toler, Luca deLancellotti and Jack Kane after they transferred from Mater Dei to Servite.  I also spoke with the parents of Raymond Leutele after he transferred to Servite and then returned to Mater Dei a year later.  So I have a pretty good idea what kinds of deals are offered.  I didn't have the chance to speak with the parents of Trent McDuffie or the Leuta-Ulu brothers, but I have no reason to expect their stories would have been any different.  I became pretty good friends with the parents of Osiris and Amon-ra St. Brown after they arrived.  They were somewhat surprised that even after they qualified for need-based financial aid, they still had to pay four times what they paid at Servite for the two boys to attend.  I've also heard Les Fifita speak to our coaches a half dozen times about the wheeling and dealing and financial shenanigans that were arranged to bring his national champions O.C. Buckeyes U14 team into Servite en masse four years ago.

So when it comes to "secret sauce", I think the pantry at Servite may be stocked with as much or more Sriracha and Tapatio than the schools you're complaining about.

Happy Easter!

Servite's nine straight Trinity League Championship streak has come to an end. Congratulations to J Serra, the new champions. On to the playoffs

Frankyboy, that is a huge flip.  How??  Was it just "on any Friday...."?