Let me start this off with the short answer: a skilled sports knee surgeon has about a 90% chance of diagnosing an ACL tear based off the type of injury and the examination of the knee. So in the vastmajority of injuries to the ACL, we use MRIs to confirm what we already suspect. And […]
youth boys
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
A soccer parent for 20 years: What I'll miss most
In the pre-dawn damp and cold of a Saturday morning in the fall of 2016, as I drove on a county road south of Atlanta, with my 17-year-old son half asleep in the passenger seat, I understood how muchI would miss it. Twenty years as a soccer parent would end with his last club and […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Here's the best part of U.S. Soccer revamping its grassroots coaching courses
Three years after introducing a new $25 online F license course, U.S. Soccer has again revamped its coaching license pathway. It has eliminated both the F and E license, and is now offering a free20-minute online “Introduction to Grassroots” module as the first step into its coaching schools.After completing the online “Introduction to Grassroots Coaching” […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Soccer America Q&A Archive
Here’s an archive of Soccer America’s last 70-plus Q&As: Bob ContigugliaOn his faith in new president Carlos Cordeiro, why the othercandidates fell short, and Sunil Gulati’s legacy Joe MachnikHall of Famer Dr. Joe Machnik: On New York soccer in the 1960s, his move into refereeing and break into TV Brady ScottTo go pro or play […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
A wonderful side of soccer — helping kids feel like they belong
Gerardo Mercado is a 19-year-old Salvadoran who arrived to the United States in 2013, just before the height of the United States’ unaccompanied minor crisis — when tens of thousands ofchildren and youth began crossing our southern border without papers or parents, looking, like Gerardo was, for safety and a chance to start anew. Soon […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Concussion study indicates higher risk for females — another reminder for coaches to review recognition protocols
My colleagues at Stanford and I have had a feeling that women are more likely to sustain concussions than men, and that the women often took longer to recover from the concussion than men. Most ofthis thought was based upon our possibly unreliable experiences, with not a lot of hard data to back this up. […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
U.S. Club Soccer's Phil Wright on the big election, empowering clubs, and the quest for A+ players
Since 2003, Phil Wright has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of U.S. Club Soccer, which was founded in 2001 and is one of the four youth governing bodies under theU.S. Soccer Federation umbrella, along with U.S. Youth Soccer, AYSO and SAY Soccer. U.S. Club Soccer’s member leagues include the ECNL,ENPL, NPL, and […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
The Importance of Being an Assistant Referee
I started refereeing in New York in 1978. One of the things that was interesting about refereeing is it was very much an individual pursuit for me as nearly all games in New York in the 1970s and1980s, with the exception of semifinal and final games, plus a few other notable games, were officiated by […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
How to navigate your child's path
The choice of where to have your child play youth soccer can be very difficult. Multiple clubs, “select teams,” or leagues will tout their services or programs, oftenwith promises of glory down the road. There is no shortage of choices for where your child can spend the next year of development – and in the […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Lynn Berling-Manuel, United Soccer Coaches CEO: 'We need to start thinking about youth soccer in a different way'
Lynn Berling-Manuel is the Chief Executive Officer of United Soccer Coaches, which was founded in 1941 anduntil last year was known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Berling-Manuel had served as AYSO Chief Marketing Officer for eight years before becoming in May 2015 the CEOof United Soccer Coaches, the world’s largest soccer […]