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 Elite boys soccer players in Wisconsin won't have to choose between playing in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy and high school soccer next fall. But they will have a new option for the fall.
Members of the Academy's Central Conference Great Lakes Division, including FC Milwaukee, decided to stay with the current setup for the 2011-12 season and won't expand the competition.
A proposal was made to adopt a 10-month season, which would mean players would have to choose between the Academy and high school soccer.
Three divisions have chosen to switch to the 10-month season, the Texas Division in the Central and both divisions in the West Conference, Northwest and SoCal.
The five divisions in the East and South conferences joined the Great Lakes and Frontier divisions from the Central in sticking with the status quo, with league matches in the winter and spring to avoid conflicts with the prep season.
"The arguments from a developmental standpoint are pretty obvious and incontrovertible," FC Milwaukee Academy Director Christian Lavers said. "But when high school sports are a big part of the culture, it's a difficult thing.
"I think U.S. Soccer, they don't want to mandate anything. They want to lean more toward a type of choice ... where people are opting in to do it instead of having any type of a mandate."
However, Lavers said FC Milwaukee plans to field a fall boys team for the first time this year. It has offered a similar girls team in the spring for five years, and Lavers stressed that participation on those teams is optional.
He's been told that several other Academy teams in the region will be fielding boys teams this fall, too.
"So it may be a very different question next year," Lavers said.
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