Coach Mario

So many things in life that seem phenomenal in theory are terrible in reality. The proposed split season for college soccer is one of them. Do I get the practical applications of a split season??? For sure! We complain all the time that soccer is the most demanding sport with the shortest runway. It’s crazy that we go to 0 to 60 in the amount of time that we do and cram all our games into an 11 week season. (tho at least they extended our season this year). But there are so many variables at play here. Think back to Covid when most conferences had their seasons cancelled but the P4 did not. They played all fall when the rest of us did not. Then when the NCAA announced we would have our official season in the spring, they all got a second season. This was in essence a trial run for the split season. One of my close friends who coaches at a P4 school detailed an eye opening account of all the reasons why the coaches and the players absolutely hated it. (And keep in mind this is a big time program, lots of national team players, and presumably, the most talented and most committed college players there are) 1) The obvious answer was it was just too long. He said they were all absolutely fried and over it by the end of the spring semester. And again, you are talking the upper echelons of talent and even they were miserable 2) When we are in season and focusing on games, the training is completely different than the spring. We are basically surviving and preparing for each subsequent game. We often say that every bit of player development comes in the spring. Hand in hand with that also comes playing time for the entire bottom, half of your bench who are given game opportunities to prove themselves. The same coach elaborated that those players we’re very discouraged after basically sitting on a bench, the whole YEAR and feeling like they were not getting the individual development that had occurred in a real off-season. 3) After sacrificing more than a decade of life, our seniors are so looking forward to being a “normal“ person for senior year spring semester. For the first time in life, as long as they can remember, they are able to relax and not have every single choice dictated by a sport for their last few months of “childhood”. The split season obviously requires that they play right up until graduation. 4) College athletes have a huge burnout factor, and the winter break is such a great opportunity for them to take a breather and recharge and come back with a renewed sense of commitment. A split season means that Christmas break is spent grinding with zero downtime as they prepare to come back and play games out of the gate. 5) Never mind where recruiting fits into all of this? Spring is huge for our recruiting efforts and we all just might lose our minds if we are trying to juggle all of that with also running an entire real season. 6) The entire northern half of the country will be completely screwed with this. This past winter that was so cold and snowy is a perfect example. There would have been no way in hell that games would have been able to be played in parts of February and March in many places. There are plenty of schools who have grass fields in cold climates as well—are they just supposed to now play some games on grass and some on turf and have zero consistency? 7) This will undoubtedly result in schools being forced to build turf fields and create logistical administrative nightmares given that many lacrosse teams and soccer team share fields. Someone else pointed out that it will be a good excuse for schools to eliminate more soccer programs especially when we are at a point with NIL that schools need to figure out how to save money on Olympic sports not create monumental new costs

Most children playing grassroots football will not go on to become professional players. Keeping this in mind as a coach or parent helps you focus on creating a fun, positive environment for everyone on the team.

Coming soon: MNUFC is hosting a first-of-its-kind amputee soccer clinic in collaboration with the American Amputee Soccer Association and Minnesota Amputee FC. This inaugural clinic will be led by U.S. Men's National Amputee Soccer Team captain Nico Calabria, and features a familiar face. Minnesota Amputee FC was founded by Tommy Schweinitz, the amputee soccer player who signed a first-team contract last year with the help of Make-A-Wish Minnesota, his mother Liz Giel and father Gerd Schweinitz.

There seems to be an escalating arms race happening in American soccer. USL recently brought in the BellTower Partners investment group, while MLS NEXT Pro partnered with global private equity giant KKR through Hometown Soccer Holdings. Billions are being raised and spent in a battle to grow professional soccer in the United States. But here’s the uncomfortable reality: you cannot buy culture. You cannot spend your way into creating a true soccer nation if the game is disconnected from the everyday lives of children and families. While billions are being poured into leagues, stadiums, media rights, and a one-month tournament, our children are becoming less healthy, less active, and academically weaker. In New York City, where the FIFA World Cup Final will be played in 2026, nearly 50% of K-12 students are failing reading proficiency standards, around 70% are failing math proficiency standards, and one in three children in grades K-3 cannot read at grade level. This is happening while NYC’s public school budget approaches $44 billion annually. In October 2023, I met with one of MLS’s top executives and presented research from a pilot study we conducted in Houston alongside Houston Dynamo and the University of Houston. We studied several hundred children and the impact Ball Mastery training had on academic performance and physical activity. The results were encouraging: improved mathematics scores, improved reading scores, and reduced sedentary behavior on weekends. More research absolutely needs to be done, but the findings suggested something important: simple soccer-based movement activities, supported by parents, teachers, and schools, may positively impact both learning and health outcomes. The Houston pilot was conducted with KIPP Schools, an organization widely respected for producing strong outcomes in underserved communities. Because KIPP operates nationally, the model has the potential to scale nationally as well. I suggested to MLS that, with the 2026 World Cup approaching, they should work with the New York City Department of Education to explore piloting this approach in NYC and eventually across the country. Unfortunately, nothing came from those discussions. To me, this should have been the true legacy project of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Not another sponsorship deal, celebrity investor, or billion-dollar valuation, but a nationwide initiative using soccer to improve childhood health, learning, confidence, focus, and family engagement. “Soccer Starts at Home” is simple, affordable, scalable, and inclusive. Several CONCACAF member associations have already reached out asking how a program like this could be implemented in their own countries. That tells you everything. The future of soccer in America will not be determined by how much money leagues can raise. It will be determined by what the game actually does for children. Right now, this feels like a massive missed opportunity.

NEW: Youth sports is now costing parents as much as $25,000 a year. Private equity and corporations are turning a childhood pastime into something only the wealthy can afford. Youth sports has become a $40 billion industry, and the steep costs are crushing American families.