What the dismissal of Manfred Schellscheidt as USYS ODP Region I head coach reveals about the state of American youth soccer.

WHEN THEY ENTER THE CAMP where USYS Region I ODP coaches hope to find players worthy of the U.S. national team pool, the boys are instructed not to wear anything that could reveal from which of the 13 states they hail.

By lottery, they're divided randomly into teams. This ''scramble'' camp format was implemented by Region I a few years ago. Why?

Did Region I staff coaches discriminate against states?

''He's shoots well with both feet and hits passes on a dime, but no way am I taking a kid from the Pine Tree State to the Thanksgiving Interregionals!''

Before USYS Region I director Bob Palmeiro introduced the scramble camp, Region I ODP coaches – their ranks throughout the years included Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley, Glenn Myernick and Dave Sarachan – assessed players while they competed with their state teams.

Manfred Schellscheidt, the Region I ODP head coach who was ordered to implement the scramble camp, was fired in October by Palmeiro.

The sacking came within a year of Region I's official Web site posting this about Schellscheidt:

''Manny being Manny means players having the means to grow and learn themselves, taking center stage while he stays in a supporting role. … Manny being Manny means young men growing in their appreciation for, understanding of and ability at the game of soccer. And Region I ODP is the beneficiary.''

The initial reason Palmeiro gave for Schellscheidt's dismissal was that he was stretched because of his commitments as Seton Hall University coach and head of U.S. Soccer's U-14 boys program. But it's apparent that Schellscheidt was being blamed by state presidents when the scramble format didn't bring the results they had hoped for.

''As much as we didn't like the format, it didn't hinder us from identifying the best players,'' Schellscheidt says.

But finding the best players for the national team pool รน the original mission of the Olympic Development Program – wasn't good enough for some state presidents. They heard enough complaints from parents about their children's camp experience that they feared a decrease in participation.

''If you don't have the numbers, you can't financially afford to do the program,'' says Soccer Rhode Island president Larry Fish. ''That camp has to be focused on developing players at which time we select and identify our top players. It shouldn't be where you just identify top players through a lot of scrimmages and games.

''In my opinion, if it's just an ID camp I can send one player from Rhode Island in U-14 instead of 15, so now, instead of $500 times 15, you've got $500 from Rhode Island. You cannot hold a camp.''

Fish says that only if ''lesser players'' enjoy themselves will the program succeed financially.

Besides the obvious challenge of keeping all kids (and parents) happy with a program that by its nature – because it's a tryout – creates disappointment, Schellscheidt and several members of his staff contend that the scramble format is not the best way to ensure a rewarding experience for all the players. And that it's possible to keep numbers up without the scramble system.

Several of the staff coaches pointed out that the scramble format resulted in older players leaving early once they realized they weren't going to be chosen to advance.

''In the past,'' Schellscheidt says, ''they came as a team and left as a team.'' Scramble advocates say the format prevents players from small states and players who aren't stars from the big states from getting overlooked.

But staff coaches say boys are more comfortable playing with their state teams and the state coaches preferred the format in which they could coach their teams throughout the tournament. And Schellscheidt says some states were sending fewer players under the scramble format.

''When the scramble format didn't solve their political problems, the people who implemented it thought that must mean the coaches are idiots,'' says Schellscheidt, who was Region I head coach for the past decade and an ODP coach for 25 years. ''The people who have complained about the program are the ones who are the farthest away from what's really going on, what's really happening.''

A number of Schellscheidt's staff coaches refute the charges that they short-shrifted players or that they weren't creating an enjoyable environment for the attendees.

''People who aren't soccer people made us tweak the format every year,'' said one staff coach who did not want to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his position. ''But no matter what the scenario was, the first thing Manny always said was, 'Treat them like they were your own kids. Give them feedback. Make sure you give them a good experience.'''

Even with the scramble in place, staff coaches were forced to select at least one player from each state to the regional pool roster. That meant that after they picked players whose residency they weren't supposed to know, they'd have to check to make sure they didn't leave out a state. If they had, they had to call in a player from that state, which could mean leaving out a player from another state who had been picked based on his performance.

Indeed, a program initially launched to scour the country for national team candidates has been turned into something else. Something that, unless it continues to attract legions of fee-paying players – whether or not they have national team potential – will collapse like a ''house of cards,'' says Fish.

One tactic used to convince parents to write the checks is to frame it as an investment, because college scholarships sparkle at the end of the ODP rainbow.

Palmeiro says, ''The investment the parents make into the programs, while it's significant and sounds like a lot of money … the return is enormous.''

But USYS ODP is no longer the only avenue available to players who believe they have national team potential or are eager to be spotted by college coaches. Players on elite clubs get seen at an array of showcase events organized by clubs and independent promoters, and the Super Y-League and U.S. Club Soccer have launched identification programs.

''I think ODP has done a great job,'' says Schellscheidt. ''It was at one time the only system that we had and it got us where we are today. Now we have competition. The private sector in some ways wants to duplicate the system and the idea and is doing it in a competitive way and making sure they have better facilities. To have competition is a healthy thing in the end because it keeps everybody on their toes.''

The attitude that competition is good isn't shared by Palmeiro.

''The so-called Super [Y-league] is a joke,'' Palmeiro says. ''The teams that play in there are secondary teams. Look at the national teams themselves and where the players come from. They come out of USYS's ODP program, not out of Super Y-League's ODP program, not out of U.S. Club Soccer's program.

''That is something the marketplace has created, but the parents themselves create that problem, because every parent thinks they've got the next Pele or next Mia Hamm, so if they don't make it in our ODP program they'll go over to Super Y-League's Program, and if they don't do it there, they'll go to U.S. Club Soccer's program, because someone missed them.''

So we have a turf war for America's young players and their parents' money, which helps explain why a man like Manny Schellscheidt gets fired.

(This article originally appeared in the January 2007 issue of Soccer America Magazine.)