ODP Soccer Locations

I don't think GA Soccer determines the venues, I believe it's the clubs that offer their locations and open them up to the ODP teams, maybe clubs don't offer due to field space or not wanting additional impact on their fields. My first year in ODP the boys practiced at the East Cobb YMCA, then next year a few sessions were at Silverbacks Park, then two years at South Forsyth Complex (UFA) and we've been at RYSA the last two years,  I believe the girls were in Gainesville last year. I will say last year we practiced on Friday nights at RYSA and trying to get out there by 7pm in 5:00pm traffic was a tall order.

Doesn't having Odp tryouts and practice in north Atlanta limit participation for players in the rest of the state? I've seen some excellent players from Savannah, but it would be hard to get to a tryout in north Atlanta, much less any practices. Certainly a majority of the top players are from the Atlanta area, but not all. It's my understanding that SC holds it's tryouts and practices on the weekend in Columbia, which opens it up to the entire state.

I'm not sure that's the case, I'm sure most clubs don't want 4 or 5 teams practicing on their fields on a Friday night after they spent the entire day lining the fields in preparation for games the next day, or hosting 3 to 4 teams on a Sunday with a crowded game schedule.

As far as the travel to Metro Atlanta is concerned I may be mistaken but I think players in Savannah can try for Florida ODP, I know when I was with the 97 Boys we had a player that lived in Chattanooga and played club in Chattanooga on the GA team.

I understand the frustration of the Savannah parents but most of the players come from this area and not there. I already hate driving to Canton and I dont want to drive any further. Im sure theres some good players out there but again the majority of the kids in odp are in metro atlanta. My daughters team traveled to Savannah last spring for a whole weekend, played the top u12 boys and girls team and beat them both by at least 5 goals.

Again im sure theres some good players out there but the numbers are not enough to merit a change.

Storm SA I believe? The girls were definitely better than the boys. I dont recall the exact scores but i know the boys werent able to score on us at all.

Again I would encourage you to email Jacob Daniel at GA Soccer and ask him what your options are. As I mentioned previously when I was coaching with the 97 Boys ODP a few years ago we had a player that lived in TN and played for a club in Chattanooga (Premiere Soccer Academy) but participated with GA ODP, I'm not sure the proper channels his parents went through to do that but he was registered for a TN Soccer Association club team and still made the 2+ hr drive on Fridays to our practices in East Cobb YMCA and then South Forysth Complex when we moved out there.

cant hurt to email and get clarification, hope it works out.

This is a reasonable theory, but one wonders whether things could change a bit if circumstances in the state were different. One undoubted fact is that kids will get better playing against better competition. This is an advantage for players playing in metro ATL. There are limited opportunities for players outside of mATL to play high level competition on a regular basis. It is possible, indeed probable, that the same percentage of kids identified as being top 10%ers would show up in the outlying areas of the state. Speed of play, especially every day in training. Children in mATL are fortunate as a result of their place of residence. Take those same kids and have them grow up in Waycross and let's see what happens.

This is where parents in mATL, I think, lose their perspective a bit. I am not saying kids in our area are not good; there are some very good players here in the ATL. But they are not good as a function of constitution alone (there is no soccer gene); their advancement is most likely largely a function of the accident of their home location. And this is where the state has fostered a certain sense of entitlement and superiority that comes from the average mATL soccer parent. This was one of the motivations for my thread on how to improve soccer training for the most kids in Georgia. The state has the DTCs, which are a very good thing, but then they require kids to travel to mATL if they want to continue participation in the state ID system. I believe training should be regionalized. and there should be more such opportunities at earlier ages. Let's see what happens if more kids, even those south of I-20, got to play with and against a higher level of competition on a more regular basis in their own areas. I will post more about this at a later time in the other thread. But the way ID is done in the state now essentially fosters a sense of superiority among those in mATL. Let's have Jacob Daniel live in Tifton or Richmond Hill instead of mATL and let's see how things change.

when i grew up playing in the late 80s, early 90s, ODP and the regional team were pretty much the only way to get recognized by a big division 1 school. during that time it was the most consistent way to validate a kids playing ability. it was a different era for sure though, from 8 years old we were putting teams together with only one thing in mind, and that was winning!

times have changed. ODP is not the only game in town, and I'm not sure if you can expect the state program to handle that much responsibility for every player in every small town.
there are many other options now to get exposed to hire level soccer.
super y, national premier league, rpl, national league, DA, ECNL etc. i'm sure i'm missing a few.
ga soccer could easily rotate training sessions across difference areas of the state, but i can tell ya, the metro atlanta folks won't go and will end up defeating the purpose in the first place.

i do agree with you there, it does suck if you are a quality player and you live more than 1.5 hours from metro atlanta. but that's where you as a parent have to decide what sacrifices are you willing to make.

i personally thing that for every game played in league play u13 and above, each coach should have to identify X players from their and the opposing teams. similar to super y. then make sure those players are invited to certain camps along with others etc. i've seen many top players show no interest in ODP for various reasons.

lets be honest though, the big clubs in ga soccer carry all the power and will continue as such as DA and ECNL continue to mature.

I don't even think of Canton as being Atlanta. It's North Georgia, lol!