What role will professional soccer play in the SYL ODP system?
Doyle: There will be a significant impact on this for the United States. Until the last four years, no professional teams were in the thought process of having youth development programs. The SYL has been a catalyst for this process, which has enabled professional teams to establish amateur youth teams within their organization for player development reasons. Other youth organizations in the U.S. do not have the professional and high-level amateur connection that USL has within its system. This is a major part of the SYL. Anywhere else in the world, players are identified for national teams through youth programs of professional teams. The same concept is starting to take hold here in the U.S. Although we are a long way from becoming more dependent on this, the process has begun, and pro soccer for the first time has taken the lead in assisting our National Team Programs identify the best youth players. Coaching staff from professional teams will aid in the scouting process to identify
