Quote:
Originally posted by Bucweet X:
What happens to all those kids riding around in the soccer mom driven SUV's?

Soccer seems to have emerged as a strong pastime for the youth of this country, yet the appeal seems to wane after the middle/junior high years.

I've always been curious, since the popularity is there early on, why doesn't that popularity continue on to the high school, college, and pro ranks for U.S. kids?
Because it (youth soccer) has just emerged relatively recently (last 15 years, really taken off in last 7 years). The high schools are kind of locked into the traditional sports program such as (American) football and baseball, and they are slow to develop their soccer programs. But those soccer programs are growing.

At the schools, there is a lot of infrastructure tied up into the traditional sports programs of football and baseball (fields, equipment, personnel, schedules, tournaments, playoffs, mom and dad's and other donors' money (who probably never played soccer), etc.). So new sports programs have to "work around" the other established programs. Result is that the new programs are slow to grow. But they are definitely growing. Soccer will be a strong high school sport in the future, I believe.
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bennet