Bottom line - all clubs are more similar than not. Good luck in finding what works for your your child. |
Arlington red is stronger than MYS green. Unless you don’t see any chance of making Arlington Red then the move makes sense but the grass might not be greener. |
DD's friends on red are stronger players than on green so I agree with PP. It's not that hard to make green - kid that made it on green didn't made red. |
Arlington is also much harder to join at any level, particularly the top three teams. Each may at 2 or so kids, if at all. [maybe more in roster expansion years.] |
The other thing to consider is whether you want to do ECNL. McLean no longer has ECNL teams, while Arlington has ECNL teams.
ECNL forced McLean to stop offering its own ECNL teams and to instead create a combined team with Brave (Fairfax Virginia Union) because the McLean ECNL teams were consistently poor performers. Arlington's ECNL teams, by contrast, have performed well. This only really matters for ECNL, but its something to consider if you are interested in ECNL or think your DC will be good enough for ECNL down the road. |
As others have posted this is not good advise. Arlington is not looking to promote from within to ECNL they are looking for external players. If your goal is ECNL for Arlington play at another club and when you feel your child is ready try out at Arlington. All other things being equal an outside player is always going to get the ECNL spot over someone already at Arlington. |
advice |
This has not been our experience with an existing DC who came up through Arlington and currently plays ECNL with other members of our former Arlington teams. Different years may be different, but our kids stayed together. |
I second this. Even Arlington's 2011 girls third team (white?) is an extremely tough team. |
Not true at all. Kids do get moved up/ down and yes even to the ECNL teams on boys & girls. Believe it or not, the amazing 2011G ECNL team has a few kids that got moved up throughout the years. It's that + kids from outside of the clubs. |
My kid is on an Arlington White team, and has been passed over for Red by outside the club players that are not better than my kid. We are landlocked to Arlington since it is just too tough to get to McLean or Alexandria for practices. But we like the other players and familes (White team parents are very normal - not crazy Red or Academy parents), and we have no expectation that our kid will continue playing in college. We just like the team experience for our kid, the time management with homework and other activities, and having another adult critique their behaviour. |
There are some Arlington teams playing up a year in NCSL and doing OK in one of the top 2 divisions. |
"landlocked to Arlington" WTF!? |
Yes, believe it not most parents don't have time to drive their kids 30-45 minutes one way to practice three times a week. Shocker for you. |
oooh struck a nerve. You clearly don't believe in your DCs soccer potential |