re: Can someone explain to me why our youth system is bad?

That facility in Hattiesburg is an off-shoot of a larger local club with a high level of coaching acumen. The new facility has good coaches, and rotates practices between Hattiesburg, Birmingham and possibly Slidell. They choose to participate in tournaments in Atlanta, Nashville and other cities in order to play against higher level talent. Traveling to tournaments or developmental programs 4 - 6 hours away brings us back to the issue of pay to play... some families will choose to do it, many will drop out.

The kids might get touches on the ball when they meet for practices locally, but they need exposure to the highest level of competition to develop. Again, geography is a huge issue, and will continue to be an issue, outside of the metropolitan areas.

Trust me on this - I'm currently dealing with it with my kids, and I dread the thought of entering regional PDP in addition to local club team play and school team games. That means that I'm looking at travel for all three teams for one kid, with a second kid who is not old enough for PDP or school team play yet, but often guest plays for other teams in addition to her club team.

It is what it is, because it is the only model available at the time. And to be honest, it might be the only model, at the time, that can address the geographical issue that I'm referring to.