An article titled "Is this the end of St. Louis soccer as we know it" appeared in the Ladue times on October 2nd as a response to the winning of each division in the CYC Tournament by 3 teams from outside St. Louis; in fact, all three were from Illinois (O'fallon, Granite City and Triad). The author makes several arguments ranging from the fact that St. Louis doesn't produce the same number of top tier talent as in the past, that the merger of the youth clubs in St. Louis has not materialized in a higher quality of player, and the fact that the St. Louis area are not placing players in top Division I programs.
While Mr. Kvidahl's focus on the west side of the river is understandable and to be expected given his employment with a St. Louis Paper, we thought there was an important and interesting perspective missed: what is happening to soccer on the east side of the river. One of the reasons we felt this was important is because our experience is much different from what Mr. Kvidahl described in his article. From our perspective, soccer is very much on the ascendency in the Metro East and Southern Illinois. The winning of the CYC by 3 Illinois teams is just one example; however, there are other numerous examples in the past year alone that one could point as evidence of this ascendency of soccer in Southern Illinois. For example, all three IHSA girls state soccer champions were from Southern Illinois, the U14 US Club National Championship was won by the SLSG Metro U14 Boys' Pre-Academy, the SLSG Metro 18 US Development Academy team won the Frontier Division of the Central Conference (a conference which contains two MLS Youth Programs in Sporting KC and theColorado Rapids), the promotion of the SLSG Metro U16 girls to the Premier Division of the Midwest Regional League and too many others to list here individually.
While team accomplishments are important and garner the biggest headlines, the development of top tier players or "difference makers" as they are called in Mr. Kvidahl's article, is what all respected and reputable soccer clubs should be most proud. In the last year, Vince Cicciarelli was called into the U18 National Team camp, Clayton Pearson and Jordan Blasingame have been selected to US Club ID2, Kayla Delgado remains a top player in the Illinois ODP program, Rachel Tejada is ranked nationally in the top 10 points leaders in Division I soccer as a Freshman and Lauryn Knight traveled to Holland with the Region II ODP team scoring the only goal for the United States in a 1-2 loss to Belgium. The reality is that Southern Illinois is producing more difference makers than ever.
The last argument made in the aforementioned article states that the collegiate opportunities for players in the St. Louis area have diminished. At Metro United and now SLSG Metro, we have always prided ourselves on the development of future opportunities for our players. I can not speak to the validity of Mr. Kvidahl's assertion that "If not for Saint Louis University and Southern Illinois University—Edwardsville, most of the St. Louis talent wouldn’t have the opportunity to play Division I soccer as both programs are stocked with locals"; however, the top Illinois talent is taking their trade across the country to top college programs. To provide a complete list would be exhaustive; suffice to say, that over the past four years we've placed players in top programs across the country, including but not limited to: Wake Forest, George Washington University, DePaul University, Illinois State, University of Evansville, South East Missouri State, University of Missouri, University of Illinois, Stetson (Florida), Bellarmine (Kentucky), Ball State (Indiana), Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Rockhurst (KC), Mercer University (GA), Colgate (NY), Northern Illinois-Dekalb, University of Tulsa, Drake University, Missouri State and numerous other high level programs. According to SLSG Metro Program Director, Dale Schilly, "Interest among college coaches for our players is higher than it has ever been in the past. There are more opportunities afforded to our players than ever before."
The success of our players and teams as well as the Southern Illinois soccer community, in general, experienced in the past year didn't just happen over night and is in no doubt inextricably linked to the work that has taken place over the past 5 years in working with these players who are now blossoming on the local, state, regional and national stage. The seeds of this recent success enjoyed by Southern Illinois players can be found in the merger of Metro United with SLSG as that relationship provided for the expansion of quality, professional full-time staff who are driven to make the Metro East and Southern Illinois area, who like St. Louis was once a great soccer powerhouse, a breeding ground for high level soccer players once again. The development of a standardized curriculum, a dramatic increase in the overall number of training opportunities afforded players, more teams coached by full-time staff, more nationally licensed coaches, a significant increase in the number of players exposed to top level competition from across the region and country, as well as the exposure of our top staff to players at younger and younger ages have all played an instrumental role in the success we are seeing in our area.
With respect to Mr. Kvidahl's article, St. Louis holds an important place in the history of soccer in the United States and served as a beacon for the game when it was not well known or well respected in other parts of the country. While I can certainly understand why the winning of the prestigious CYC tournament by 3 teams outside of St. Louis, and from of all places Illinois, may illicit a reactionary response that St. Louis has somehow dropped off, I would like to posit an alternative argument: perhaps it is merely representative of the fact that Southern Illinois and other areas around the country have gotten better. It is not that St. Louis players have gotten worse, its' that players in other areas, including ours, have gotten better; there are not less difference makers, rather there are more difference makers which are distributed more evenly than in the past. Furthermore, these difference makers are playing against better first and second tier players as the bottom bar has been raised which makes it a better developmental environment for all players. Again, I can't speak to the experience in St. Louis, but with regards to opportunities both, present and future, it has never been a better time to be a player in Southern Illinois.
To read David Kvidahl's article please click HERE
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