Unlike other American sports like gridiron football, school teams aren’t the most reliable source of recruitment for top tier teams in soccer. There’s exceptions to the rule of course; both Cyle Larin and Tajon Buchanan, two of Canada’s best players, got their first professional contracts through being drafted from their respective universities, and one of the MLS’s best midfield prospects, Aidan Morris, played at Indiana University.

Most of the time, however, collegiate players either just stop playing to pursue a career elsewhere or end up playing for subpar clubs. In both cases, these players aren’t even close to being good enough to represent their countries at the international stage. On the other hand, most high — ceiling youth prospects simply don’t play for schools and know at a young age that soccer is their future. I mean, there’s a reason why both Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna had the guts to move to Germany at such young ages.

However, that’s not to say that it’s impossible for players at the school level to be better. A lot of these guys have the potential to be top quality players, but I’d argue that playing in high school soccer programs is one of the worst things a prospective player can do. Some of the practices by high school coaches simply destroy their players’ chances of ever developing into high quality talents.

Do note that some of the things I talk about might not apply to all American high school soccer programs, but these things certainly occur at my high school, and I’m sure they happen at other schools too. Also, none of these are in any particular order of significance. I’d say they all have a part in making American youth soccer not as good as it could possibly be.