[iends]

I wasn't a particularly great soccer player in middle school and highschool (some players on the club team ended up playing D3 soccer at small colleges), but the academies really didn't exist in America 20 years ago when I started playing as a kid.

Things are much different now many of the clubs in MLS, NASL, and USL have their own academies where the players are coached by professional coaches or pro players at starting very young ages. One local example is: http://www.capitalarearailhawks.com/

The model is much different, though. Generally the goal with most of these academies is to make a college team.