Dick Howard and High-School Investing in Soccer

[Toronto MB]

Have a bit of a promising development going on at my old high-school that I wanted to share:

So I am back in Toronto for a few days before heading back to the UK to start my university season with Goldsmiths College, and I gave my old high-school coach a shout to see if I could come train with the team to get ready for my season in Europe.

So I joined the Crescent School Varsity Team in Toronto for a 90 minute session at their brand new multi-million dollar field turf facility (photo here - http://www.crescentschool.org/rentals.asp#innes).

Upon arrival at the pitch, I see Dick Howard stalking the side-lines and have a quick chat with him. (He used to be Atheltic Director at the school)

He told me how he had been re-hired as 'Director of Soccer' and had implemented a coaching manual and technical regiment for U-10 right through to U-20.

I then spoke to the director of admissions who mentioned that the school saw soccer as the sport of the future, and how they were in the process of 'actively recruiting' talented players from around Toronto. (presumably by scholarship)

The surface is soccer specific and was a treat to play on, even in the rain. The ball ran smoothly and made small-sided passing games much more genuine than 99% of the natural surfaces I've played on in Canada.

So effectively the school has:

- singled out soccer as THE MOST IMPORTANT SPORT moving forward

- invested in a multi-million dollar soccer specific match and training facility

- started actively recruiting some of the best players from around the GTA (including one young fellow who is already at TFC academy)

I think if more of the big private schools and major universities in Canada start taking this much of an interest in soccer, it can only be a good things for development.

(Best of all, no CSA inolved...)

[L.T.]

The Country Day School in King City is doing the same thing... They have 5 full-sized pitches (include a turf field with lights) and are awaiting city approval for a bubbled 60m x 40m pitch.

It is also the home of a private soccer academy (ANB Futbol) and hosts matches for SAAC.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

Played a match this summer on that pitch. Very nice for an artificial surface, I thought.

Good to hear it's there for an investment in the game and not just because they could put it in.

[squizz1402635577]

Kinda funny, Crescent School had two fairly high-quality grass soccer fields there before they installed the new turf fields. I kinda wondered what their motivation was, but if they do plan to bank* on soccer as the "sport of the future", I guess they figured the artificial turf could handle the strain a bit better.

*(And, having heard what they charge people to rent the field, I do mean bank.)

[Vigilante]

I dont know whether to be impressed or disgusted [:I][?]

I think its absolutley incredible that they have built a 'soccer-specific' turf for their school. Crescent has always been known as a great athletic school within the independent schools and the turf is because they dont have many fields but have so many teams

At the same time, I went to a private school in the same conference against Crescent and these are amongst the most prestigious in Canada. Why are they recruiting soccer players? Is it going to help them win money? Are they going to get international recognition? Why priviledge players solely on their athletic ability - I guarantee that almost all of them are not meeting the academic criteria. I guess Crescent is tired of losing... so change the coaching not the turf

(I also met Dick Howard a couple of weeks ago too)

[Guest Jeffery S.]

Goldsmiths, the art college in London, has a competitive football team? Just curious.

Since I teach at Emily Carr and they've been given university status, I suggested to the dean to start a soccer program. This was taken as me again with my usual good sense of humour.

[NPE]

Seems like a good sign...but private schools investing in soccer will only impact kids from fairly properous back grounds? Based on my experience, this sport (at the youth competitive levels) is becoming increasingly for those who are not badly off or those who are willing to sacrifice big time.

[futsal]

I run at Crescent every night and live a hop skip and a jump away. Across the street is the Toronto French School and they also put in a fantastic little new artificial pitch to compliment their enormous gym.

I think the private schools have the money to do what the public and catholic systems cannot. They love bragging rights in their brochures, especially to foreign schools where soccer is obviously quite popular. If they ever put down a dome that's going to be one very busy place to play

[Toronto MB]

Many points to address:

- Jeffrey: Yes hipster-leftist-Goldsmiths has a competitive football team. 3 of them in fact on the men's side and 1 on the women's. And we have one of the nicest natural grass facilities you can find in that part of the world.

- Re: the turf as a financial incentive - This is very true as well, I know that much of the original motivation from certain directors was the ability to rent out the facility for maximum profit. I'm just glad that the soccer brains have been able to put the idea to use for them, and set up all kinds of grids and training pitches off the side of the main pitch.

- Re: what do they get out of recruiting players? - Winning, basically I think. Having captained the team when I was there, I always felt frustrated at coming up against teams (in various sports) that quite actively recruited players from Europe, the States and Latin America. I also think that a school should be able to invest in any kind of development it wants to, and this particular school does plenty of work in the academics and the arts as well, so why not in athletics...

I think the main point of the anecdote was to express that this very white-bread, Maple Leafs supporting community has taken a serious interest in soccer, and developing young soccer players properly.

I hope the trend continues elsewhere.

And don't tell me the drive for young Americans to be part of the NCAA soccer system doesn't push the standard across the country. I think the education system can play a big part in athletic development.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

Private schools invest private money to win at sports. It is not unusual. A friend's kid rows at Brentwood, the school pays 85% of tuition and flies him around the world for competition. And alumni throw a lot of money into the school to keep things like their rowing program intact.

If Brentwood and Shawnigan did not spend big money on rowing and rowing facilities, Canada would not have have the modest success it has internationally in the sport, because it cannot develop all that starting at first year university, however serious the programs.

[Vic]

It's not just alumni. The Canadian government contributed public money from their federal infrastructure program to turf fields at a private school in Ontario with $10k+ per year tuition.