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Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss
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Anonymous
From a high school coach. Maybe these players weren't under "Joga" label but were coached by Kepf? I'm not sure.
Yep. Take a club like VYS -- at U9, they'll have 44 (or, one year, 55) travel players. Over time, some will go elsewhere, some will quit, and others will take their places. But let's just look at those numbers. Figure a third will go to Madison, maybe a third to Marshall, maybe a third to Oakton and elsewhere. So you're already talking about maybe 15 players per grade, and you haven't taken into account any stray players from PAC or elsewhere, plus the handful of House players who don't/can't play travel but are actually better than the ODSLers. If you want to play a high school sport, try field hockey or the best participatory sport in Fairfax County Schools (and I mean that as a compliment), cross-country. Until the school board cuts high school sports, anyway. |
Anonymous
Don't forget the travel players that left their home clubs but will play for their HS---so you also have even more travel players trying out for HS. At an Arlington HS--you will have Arlington, McLean, Alexandria, Falls Church, etc. travel players vying for spots. |
Anonymous
| Yeah but isn't it also true that the really good kids won't play for their HS or aren't allowed to even play for their HS? That's what I always heard, that HS soccer is second tier compared to travel. It is like that for a lot of sports (although not for basketball or football). For the kids who are really competitive and serious about their sports, their HS games/teams are not the priority. |
Anonymous
You'd be surprised at the number of kids who are good enough to be talking about being recruited for college soccer, and also playing high school. From what I know, the Development Academies don't allow it, but most other clubs seem to. Some of the newer elite leagues in VA, even limit their Spring season so as not to conflict with HS. |
Anonymous
One of the kids who helped Madison make the state final actually gave up his last season with the Development Academy so he could play his senior season in high school. The Development Academies only pull out a handful of kids -- in a dense area like this, it's pretty rare any single high school (a public one that doesn't recruit, anyway) would have more than 1-2 players involved. Then you may have a couple of other kids who focus on club soccer and skip HS, but not that many. Anecdotally, it seems to be more of a phenomenon on the girls side than the boys side. Braddock Road girls are busy globe-trotting and don't have time for HS soccer. Not sure if their boys do the same. |
Anonymous
Sometimes it's the club, sometimes it's the player. For example, I understand that at Madison, one girl (a national team level player) didn't play for the HS team but another player ( and a high-level D1 player this fall) on the same club team did play for for the HS team. |
Anonymous
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On the girls side at my DD's club it does vary by player and even by season. VA Girls playing in CCL who go to private/Catholic school have it tougher as CCL accommodates spring public HS soccer season -- league games are all done by end of February-- but it does not accommodate fall private/Catholic school season.
My own DD is going to skip HS soccer this coming fall season (freshman year) but is intent on playing HS her last 3 years. Other girls on her team are playing HS and others are skipping HS soccer altogether. |
Anonymous
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It seems to be official -- moving to calendar year age groups (mandatory in 2017), and other changes ...
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel |
Anonymous
Thank you -- very interesting! I see that it is "recommended" August 2016 and mandated August 2017. Does anyone have a feel as to whether most clubs will implement August 2016 or August 2017? |
Anonymous
It would effect tryouts since new 2nd graders this Fall born in 2008 would now not be trying out for U9 in the spring. 2008 would now be U8 fall 2017 I have a 4th grade 2005 where 1/2 his team would be U10 (again) and the other U11 in Fall 2017. It is going to require lots of shifts for already established teams. |
Anonymous
| From what I read it looks like US Soccer will implement in 2016 for US soccer competitions such as Nationals. If that's the case then I would see any club that has national caliber teams will make the change next year (ie Loundon, Arlington, etc) |
Anonymous
meaning they would implement for 2016-2017 rather than waiting for 2017 |
Anonymous
And really be ridiculous for the vast majority of kids playing soccer in the U.S. since younger kids in particular want to do sports with their friends/classmates. So now 1st graders born in Sept. through December will have to play on 2nd graders teams. That's not intimidating at all. I get why they want to do this for scouts and recruiting at the elite level, but it's not the way to draw more athletic kids to soccer from other sports (that play by class year) if your end goal is to have better national teams. |
Anonymous
A lot of the initial negative reaction to the age group change seems to echo these comments from the PP, but I'm not persuaded that the classmate issue will be a big deal for most. In the current rec structure, it seems like a lot of kids, maybe the majority, end up on teams with a good number of kids from other schools or towns. It takes them a week or two to get to know those kids, and then they've made a new set of friends to go along with those they know from school. My kids have always had August-born kids on their teams, and those kids have the option of playing up with their grade-mates (offers benefits in terms of developing your game and skills) or staying with their age group if they prefer to be among the bigger and stronger players. Now the category will grow from August only to Sept.-December, so it will be less intimidating to play up since you won't be alone. In terms of building a better national team, I don't think USSF or people who have studied the issue are particularly worried about attracting athletes from other sports to soccer. The focus is on establishing a system where kids can learn the techniques, skills, tactics necessary to play at a high level and ultimately compete internationally, and then identifying the kids who can thrive in that system. |
Anonymous
It seems they intend for kids to be able to play up, so those new second graders would be free to try out for U9 in the spring. Likewise, I think teams can stick together if the younger ones choose to play up. My son is in the same place as you -- one of 3 2005s out of 10 on his U10 team; the rest are 2006s with one 2007. I guess we'll see what happens. |