Frisco schools open doors to FC Dallas players | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, November 10, 2010
By JESSICA MEYERS / The Dallas Morning News
jmeyers@dallasnews.com
Young soccer prodigies who trek to Frisco to train may now attend school there, thanks to unusual teamwork between a professional sports franchise and a local school district.
Frisco's school board revised a policy this week to allow out-of-district students into Frisco ISD if they participate in local community programs. The change currently applies only to FC Dallas, the Frisco-based professional soccer team that operates a burgeoning youth training facility.
Coaches brought the idea to administrators this summer, spurring one of few such arrangements in Texas.
"This could be a one-of-a-kind deal," said Dax Gonzalez of the Texas Association of School Boards. "These are not common occurrences. We've not heard of districts writing policies specifically for community groups."
FC Dallas has made youth soccer a central theme in its efforts to cultivate the sport's popularity. The group launched the first college-prep program for high school athletes in Major League Soccer and hired an administrator to oversee it.
Soccer officials contacted the district in August about its growing academy program, which targets area youth who show potential for collegiate and professional careers.
The program aims to develop "homegrown" kids, said Katie Edgar, senior director of business development for the youth and academy program. "We need to make sure we're giving them, not just the means to get a scholarship, but a path."
This requires balance, Edgar said. "This is a great opportunity, but at what expense? They need family and the ability to lead normal lives."
Players will practice in the morning, attend a regular afternoon of high school classes and commute home to their families in the evening. Most of the prospective participants come from at least an hour away, from South Dallas, Fort Worth or east of Rowlett. An academic adviser will monitor players' success.
Officials said they plan to enroll about 20 players in Frisco schools next semester. The team expects to involve up to 120 students in coming years, bused in from at least one meeting point in Dallas.
The Frisco school board expressed concerns in previous meetings about overpopulating the district, but passed the policy unanimously Monday night.
"It's all very new," said Mike Waldrip, Frisco's assistant superintendent of program evaluation and assessment, who negotiated the change. "There'll be considerations that we have to look at. But this doesn't look like so many that it would increase the district too drastically."
Waldrip said the district wrote the policy to extend beyond the soccer team. Frisco also lays claim to a junior hockey team and a minor league baseball team. But none shares quite the same relationship with the district as the soccer team.
That relationship began several years ago when the pair, along with the city, agreed to share costs on a stadium they both could use. Now they're looked to as a model for uncharacteristic public-private partnerships.
Spurred by Frisco's partnership, the San Antonio Spurs' parent company spoke with San Antonio ISD this year about developing a stadium for a potential soccer team.
"It's just another acknowledgment of the professionalization of youth soccer and youth sport in general," said Todd Roby, a spokesman for US Youth Soccer, a national organization based in Frisco.
"One of the great things to see is the opportunity to offer education because we want them to be professional athletes. But ultimately we want them to be professional in life."