American info needed
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Hello there
This question is aimed at our american members ,
I myself am a big fan of american football and have followed the bears since the 70s i understand how the game works etc so am not a novice although i never played it.
myself i played rugby and what you would call soccer , i played both for school and club teams , i continued to play rugby in the army until age dictated i hang up my boots ,
I realsise the school/collage system is different in the states to that of europe but from what i have seen
it appears a boy plays for highschool team , if he goes to collage he plays there then may get picked up by a pro team ? this seems to an outsider how the system works ?
what i want to know is if there are any other local leauges you can play in or local teams , it seems towns follow the school teams and not the actual town teams ?
it seems to the outside world this is how it works school-collage-pros and nothing else inbetween?
lol i did watch friday night lights and it looks like if you dont go to collage at 18 your playing days are over? :?:)
where i live the rhondda valleys south wales , young lads are taken to rugby training from around six years old , they will start to play for their local team from seven , their school from twelve , going on to uni or collage does not mean he will get to play at a higher level , what happens is from around sixteen they play for a local team , if they are any good they get noticed and will get picked up by a team in a higher division , there is a very active scouting system in place that singles players out in their early teens as potential professionals , these are signed as youth by one of the provincial teams , they train with professional coaches and if good enough they are signed by one of the pro teams ,this would equate to being signed by the NFL , now where i think things differ is the ones that dont make it pro still play every week in very active leauges with promotion and relegation ,i would guess within a five mile radius of where i live there would be around 15 rugby clubs with teams from kids/youth/adults first team and adult second teams.
when you finish playing for your school your real education begins because your straight into adult as early as sixteen playing against men ,
what i am trying to say is , you dont stop playing when your to old for school , infact its then you step into adult lgs. with semi pro coaches that bring the best out of you , if you leave school and want to carry on playing rugby you can until your into your early 30’s. it seems i stress seems your finished if you dont go to collage in the states ?
Soulza
There are a few different options for a person after high school. If you did not receive scholarship offers from a D- 1 or 2 school you could try and walk on then there are D-3 and NAIA schools and Junior colleges that you can also play at, you would be recruited still for this these schools just dont have the full scholarships that D-1/2 schools have. As for options other than a college there are semi pro teams in larger city that a person could play on. The other option would be adult flag football leagues. Hope this answers your question
Soulza, there is definitely a pro sports for junior and highschoolers that is called “Select” leagues that are not aligned with academics. These are pay to play leagues and they are called Select because they require the kids to try out and qualify. Membership is very expensive and oftentimes driven by the parents. Games are all over the States so travel becomes an issue — but the expectation is you pay/play or you get kicked off. very competitive. It is often said that being on a Select team is a requirement for moving into Junior Varsity/Varsity High School play then on to college play. BUT, these select teams are not followed by the local towns or papers — especially in Texas we follow the Junior- and High School football teams and build stadiums to match the size of Texas. I just read of a new stadium going up close to Dallas that is running the town $60 million dollars. For High School football.
There are football and baseball select leagues and I believe soccer as well. Could be others.
Then as Heavy says there are after college leagues like the semi-pros, and I have seen older guys playing in what are called “Farm Clubs” in baseball (the Pro team can call up a player from a farm club) because they love to play but they know they are not good enough for the pros. There is arena football that is strictly indoors and follows rules that are football-like but more suited to what one runs into in an enclosed arena. Softball is one that is pretty big for us older folks – and it gets very competitive.
Arena Football, were the endzones and the sidelines are padded.
I dont think there “select” teams for football. Maybe 7 on 7 teams but not full teams least none I have ever seen
there seems to be an awful gap in the system that must be letting a ton of talent slip through the net , the NFL is the endgame and where every player wants to end up , yet it seems and again i use the word seems , that the players that do end up there have been selected at a very early age be it in junior schools or high schools , they must attend collage , what happens to a youngster that doesnt fully develop until he reaches 21 ? or for one reason or another be it money or a criminal record does not attend collage , he may be a great player or develop into a great player but will never get a chance to make it ?.
this is why i think the rugby system we have in Wales works ,take someone who was a tall lanky string of piss in school , 6 foot 2 inches tall and nine stone soaking wet
, played rugby but was never really physical enough to be an impact type player, but he leaves school , and carries on playing for his local team , he weight trains , eats healthy , gets really fit , his confidence grows as he bulks up etc. etc. at 20 year old four years down the line , he is a totally different player that starts to get noticed , he will move on and up if he chooses ,many many players due to things happening in their lives choose to stay and play at their local team , my local team has risen three divisions in three years due to players that played as youth together stayed and played together as adults, and good youngsters coming through the system , if one of our players is head and shoulders above everyone , we want him to move up to a bigger team , that is how it works in a short explanation ;0
Soul,
Those late bloomers, the kids that only played a year or two after coming to the country, or who never played ball until high-school(age 13-19 roughly, depending…) or who come from a smaller school after having grade issues, They still get picked. year in and year out. there’s 250+ picks in the draft, and honestly, the situation you get picked to(team/scheme/etc) is more important than when you get picked. Yes, those first couple round draft picks are safer from being cut from the team, they generally are more well polished players as well though. Not to mention after the draft, every team signs a bunch of players that didn’t get drafted, and some of them stick past training camp.
Works like this. Until highschool it’s generally local pee-wee league stuff outside of schools. Some players are recruited by colleges as early as 8th grade though. Then school team in HS, they get recruited by colleges(or not) pick a school and either get a scholarship, or attempt to “walk on” to the football team in practices. Then they hope they play enough to get noticed by scouts from a pro-team to get drafted. Most don’t. They can either end up in myriad semi-pro leagues across the country, go to canada for the CFL, or keep plugging away and sending tape to pro-teams to try and get tryouts.
Sadly, 32 teams of less than 70 players(including the guys on the practice squad) doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for those guys.
Compare this to the sise of a division one(top tier) football program that only has a limit in the offseason and first couple weeks of the season of 105 players. Now, not every school carries that many, but look at the disparity in
Soulza, I’m a Leicester guy, living in Orlando. I can tell you the sports system is so different here. its more about who you know and how much backing you’ve got to succeed in a pro environment.
even the new MLS is so stitched up with player contracts that they are locked in.
Great result for Leicester today !
22 hours ago, heavyshot said:I dont think there “select” teams for football. Maybe 7 on 7 teams but not full teams least none I have ever seen
Yep, plenty here — I have friends who have their kids in them. MAybe then its not called Select? But that is what the parents call it …..
lol. If you pay enough then you get to call it select
<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="/index.php?app=core&module=members&controller=profile&id=2735&do=hovercard” data-mentionid=”2735″ href=”/index.php?app=core&module=members&controller=profile&id=2735″ rel=””>@soulza There are semi-pro teams (minor leagues) as well. These people get paid, but have regular jobs as well.
http://www.semiprofootball.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-professional
There are some that are walkon tryout players. Most of the some dont even get to play much (Bench Warmers) 3rd string. But there are EXCEPTIONS that become Exceptional.
QB – Kurt Warner
School: Northern Iowa
Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon also went undrafted out of the University of Washington. However, Warner — who figures to join Moon in Canton sometime soon — is the choice here. Warner’s rise from Hy-Vee stock boy to Super Bowl MVP is well-documented. Warner directed the Rams’ explosive “Greatest Show on Turf” offense to two Super Bowl appearances, including victory in Super Bowl XXXIV over the Tennessee Titans.
K – Adam Vinatieri
School: South Dakota State
Like Kurt Warner, Brian Waters and James Harrison on this list, Vinatieri’s professional football career didn’t take off until after a stint in NFL Europe. After playing for the Amsterdam Admirals, Vinatieri signed as a free agent with the New England Patriots. After making the winning field goal in the Patriots’ first Super Bowl win, he pulled that feat off again two years later in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Vinatieri has been a part of four Super Bowl-winning teams, three with the Patriots and one with the Indianapolis Colts.
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