Wilbur Avataria is a good soccer player. He's been in touch with a dozen or so college coaches, visited a handful of those schools, and scored a stunning goal at Dallas Cup. Recruiting is moving along pretty well for him. But there's one glaring exception: he has no idea how serious any of these coaches are about having him on their teams.

It often feels to the parents as if their child is a commodity. At one end they experience pressure to commit and on the other selling approaches that can be unsavory and even dishonest.

It was 35 years ago when Manfred "Manny" Schellscheidt became the first coach granted an "A" license by the U.S. Soccer Federation. He has since coached at every level of the U.S. men's national team program and is now enjoying his role as technical director of U.S. Soccer's U-14 boys development program.