FRISCO -- The future of American soccer was on display here last week.

Few knew -- but many, many cared.

U.S. Soccer Development Academy conducted the group stage of its playoffs for the under-16s and under-18s at the FC Dallas facility. There also was a series of showcase games for younger players and younger teams. In all, 196 teams and more than 3,600 players competed on the 17 fields at the Frisco facility over the past seven days.

But there were no admission fees, no concessions, no rosters to identify the names and numbers of the players and very limited seating. But there were crowds for the games pumped up beyond the usual smattering of family and friends -- pumped up by those who evaluate and scout soccer talent for a living, particularly those at the college level.

I bumped into Jeremy Gunn, the head coach of NCAA champion Stanford, at the Friday night games. He's a big fan of these soccer academies. Every MLS franchise has one, and every MLS franchise sent teams. Other academies also participated, including IMG, the Texas Rush and Shattuck-St. Mary's.

"This is where the best young players in this country are playing," explained Gunn as to why he left the cooler climate of Northern California to spend a July week in the Texas heat. "There are an awful lot of great young soccer players playing for the different academy teams across the country. Academy soccer has been the highest level of youth soccer in this country in recent years. As a result, the talent pool is fantastic."

Gunn estimates that 80 percent of his Stanford team is annually comprised of academy products. He came to Texas to restock.

"This is our job," Gunn said. "This is what we do. We get to watch young soccer players. Some of them might be destined for the national team. Some might be destined to become professionals. But a massive majority of them are destined to go to college. That's why you see so many coaches here recruiting."

Indeed. There were 306 coaches, including 113 head coaches, representing 200 college teams walking the grounds of the FC Dallas complex over the last week. There are 201 NCAA Division I programs, and 134 were represented at these playoffs. Among the 239 Division I coaches in attendance were 67 head coaches.

Stanford was joined in the NCAA Final Four in December by Akron, Syracuse and Clemson. Akron and Syracuse also sent their head coaches to Frisco. Clemson sent its associate head coach. Boston College, Creighton, Maryland and Wake Forest all reached the Final Eight of the 2015 NCAA soccer championships. Creighton and Maryland also sent their head coaches to Frisco. Boston College and Wake Forest sent assistants.

Colleges are limited to a maximum of three coaches for this event. There's a lot of ground to cover, given that there are 297 games over the seven-day event with as many as 16 games going on at any one time. Gunn brought his two assistants along with him.

And he wasn't alone.

Twenty-nine teams used up their full coaching allotment for this event. Yale out of the Ivy League sent three coaches, as did Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Notre Dame out of the Midwest and Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia out of the East. Denver, Duquesne, Hartford, High Point, Holy Cross, Lehigh and Marist were among the smaller programs that sent three coaches apiece.

There were 19 coaches from Division II schools, 35 more from Division III schools, another five from NAIA schools and seven from junior colleges.

"Everybody comes," said Brent Erwin, the former SMU coach now at Grand Canyon. "You can theoretically say that 80 percent of the top players in the United States in these age groups are here. Even if you're looking for that second-tier player, they're here too. This is the clearinghouse. It's the place to be."

But this was more than a college showcase. Steve Birnbaum played in this tournament. He's now with D.C. United. Darlington Nagbe and Gyasi Zardes also played in this event. Nagbe is with the Portland Timbers and Zardes the LA Galaxy. FC Dallas has five homegrown players from its academy on the current roster, including Kellyn Acosta and Victor Ulloa, who played in this tournament.

That's why Brad Friedel was in attendance. He's the coach of the U.S. U-19 team. He's on the lookout for the best of the best -- and he knew he could find them in Frisco. There also were pro scouts from Mexico and a handful of South American countries.

"There are more and more kids playing in the MLS and more and more kids playing for the U.S. national team that have come through these events," said Chris Hayden, the vice president of FC Dallas Youth. "This type of event is more and more relevant as a continuing education stage for young players.

"You may not know who they are now, but in five years if you looked back, yeah, there are going to be some key players [from this tournament] on the U.S. national team."

Listen to Rick Gosselin at 10:50 a.m. Tuesdays on Sportsradio 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket with Norm Hitzges and Donovan Lewis.

Twitter: @RickGosselinDMN