Tournament/showcase teams?

[Anonymous]

What do people think of these? Is it fine if you find a good team or mostly a cash grab?

My kid plays for a small team that has minimal showcase exposure, but wants to play in college and a tournament team seemed like a possible way to be seen.

Any advice welcome!

[Anonymous]

What is this?

[Anonymous]

I’ve only recently heard about these and I have the same question. My u16 plays for a small club that won’t be participating in showcases. He’s hoping to play in college (D3).

[Anonymous]

OP again - we found a team that meets up just at tournaments about once a month.

I know of a team in FL like this - they’re mixed age spanning 3-4 age groups. They train once a month and then play at tournaments and they’re all on other club teams as well. They seemed great and very happy with the set up, but that’s way too far to travel.

I happened upon a similar option that makes more sense geographically, but i didn’t play soccer growing up and this is my older kid, so I’m a little clueless about this world.

[Anonymous]

Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

Yes. They can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

They can. For years DS was convinced he would never play college because he didn’t play MLS Next and ECNL. Now in HS, he knows of a few varsity players who went off to play D3 even though they didn’t play on MLS Next or ECNL. This gives him hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

They can. For years DS was convinced he would never play college because he didn’t play MLS Next and ECNL. Now in HS, he knows of a few varsity players who went off to play D3 even though they didn’t play on MLS Next or ECNL. This gives him hope.

You def don’t need MLSNext or ECNL to play college. D1 sure but not really for D2 and below.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

They can. For years DS was convinced he would never play college because he didn’t play MLS Next and ECNL. Now in HS, he knows of a few varsity players who went off to play D3 even though they didn’t play on MLS Next or ECNL. This gives him hope.

You def don’t need MLSNext or ECNL to play college. D1 sure but not really for D2 and below.

Not even D1. American soccer is so stupid with the 'soccer resume' BS. Some clubs won't even let a kid come out to be seen if they aren't coming from some other mlsnext/ecnl team. We laugh about that a lot. My sibling played professional and we talk about how so many great players fall through the cracks because of the BS and shenanigans in this country. They all miss late developers. There are truly some kids that don't really come into their own until closer to the end of HS and beyond. I know-- I have a late developer who was plagued with growth related injuries from a late growth spurt Soph/Jr year. He has had a lot of college interest this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not find MLS/EA/ECNL/ECRL/GA/DPL etc teams? They're 1 age group and train multiple times a week. If your kid can't play on the top 2 teams at a club, I don't know if he/she can play at the college level?

That could be another question for a new topic. If my kid doesn't play in a national letter league with showcases, can he/she get on a college level team?

They can. For years DS was convinced he would never play college because he didn’t play MLS Next and ECNL. Now in HS, he knows of a few varsity players who went off to play D3 even though they didn’t play on MLS Next or ECNL. This gives him hope.

You def don’t need MLSNext or ECNL to play college. D1 sure but not really for D2 and below.

Not even D1. American soccer is so stupid with the 'soccer resume' BS. Some clubs won't even let a kid come out to be seen if they aren't coming from some other mlsnext/ecnl team. We laugh about that a lot. My sibling played professional and we talk about how so many great players fall through the cracks because of the BS and shenanigans in this country. They all miss late developers. There are truly some kids that don't really come into their own until closer to the end of HS and beyond. I know-- I have a late developer who was plagued with growth related injuries from a late growth spurt Soph/Jr year. He has had a lot of college interest this summer.

I have also seen so many young players deemed as America's next superstar. These kids are put on a pedestal and gain a cocky attitude and their reputation proceeds them. I have seen some become totally ineffective by the time they reach high school. Development is not linear. Pretty much every great player was not the best at time points in their career. The Messis and Ronaldos of the world are truly 1 in a billion. The majority have adversity and setback stories and cuts and injuries and perseverance being the theme.

[Anonymous]

My kid played against a “tournament team” in regional futsal final a few years ago; found out after the game that the kids on this team hailed from multiple states and regions, with kids from CA, TX and even Michigan. Apparently it was cobbled together from a few different coaches that knew each other and recruited the best kids from their respective clubs to meet up for tournaments.

The best my kid’s team convincingly. It seemed a little cheap to me to have a multi-club astro-turfed “team” playing in tournaments against organic club teams, but eh what are you gonna do? It is what it is. To me it illustrates an obsession with “winning” over everything else.

Like, whoop-dee-do, if a bunch of other astro-turfed teams did the same thing and played together, you could call it a fair match. But having your flying-distance regional “tournament team” matched up against legit club teams seems unbalanced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid played against a “tournament team” in regional futsal final a few years ago; found out after the game that the kids on this team hailed from multiple states and regions, with kids from CA, TX and even Michigan. Apparently it was cobbled together from a few different coaches that knew each other and recruited the best kids from their respective clubs to meet up for tournaments.

The best my kid’s team convincingly. It seemed a little cheap to me to have a multi-club astro-turfed “team” playing in tournaments against organic club teams, but eh what are you gonna do? It is what it is. To me it illustrates an obsession with “winning” over everything else.

Like, whoop-dee-do, if a bunch of other astro-turfed teams did the same thing and played together, you could call it a fair match. But having your flying-distance regional “tournament team” matched up against legit club teams seems unbalanced.

I don't know. I kinda of like it. I'm so sick of all the BS-politics and Club hierarchy. Anytime somebody wants to go rogue and do something independent of the monopoly, I am all for it!

My friend's daughter played on a few boys team and some small independent clubs and would jump on tournament teams or as a guest tournament player (never played for a big club--traveled excessively, etc.) and she got recruited to play for an Ivy.