Many 04 and 05 Barca parents voiced their unhappiness when meeting with the technical director. The technical staff attributes struggles in 2004-2005 age groups to being overrun by more athletic kids from other teams, which hit maturity earlier. I think they will recruit hard players from other clubs this spring and move underperforming 04 and 05 players to the lower level teams next year. The results will improve. |
I love how parents complain their kid's way to the B team. LOL |
So they are also looking for 'size'? I thought their concept of development was 'size' doesn't matter? If they just bring in bigger/taller kids how is that different than anywhere else in the area where the First teams are comprised of Jan-June birthdays and larger kids vs kids that just turned 13 Oct/Nov/Dec? |
I wouldn't think that is confined to just those 2 age groups. There are more athletic kids on other teams in the DMV due to player pool size and location of Club in many of the younger age groups as well. |
Sounds very American to me. |
Yeah, this would be disappointing IF it happens and negate most of what I said about paying attention to development over results. |
does the fall to spring transition have anything to do with MS/HS soccer? |
It is also conjecture. Just because parents complained doesn't mean Barca is going to start looking for size. It will appear that way since, well the kids will naturally be bigger by just growing. |
This group was 6th/7th last year (elementary/ms) and 7th/8th (MS this year which most Club kids don't play and it's played in the Fall). The comment in general was also for younger teams as well which also saw progression. So, in short, 'no'. |
I can speak to some Barca teams because I have 2 kids there and friends on other teams and I’m at Evergreen a lot watching. There has not been a lot of new recruits added since fall season, and certainly not tall fast kids. One 05 team has zero new players because the roster is already full. A younger team added 2 or 3 new (average sized) players mainly to fill out the roster, so they don’t need to borrow as much from other teams. At the older teams 2002/3, I don’t see many new faces but they did combine age groups to make fewer teams with larger rosters, because some will be playing HS in the spring. As always rosters are somewhat fluid from game to game and practice to practice. As a Barca parent I personally don’t get too caught up in tracking if my players are on the A or B teams, or if we are winning games (although I do want at least competitive), or recruiting faster players, because the level of coaching and development my player gets is the exact same no matter which team or coach or tournaments they play in. Some Barca parents still spend all their sideline time on these things and I stay away |
There is normally not much movement in the winter time unless a player is trying to escape a bad situation at the old club or the move to a new club represents a significant upgrade. Nobody wants to pay extra training fees to the new club having already paid the original club for the entire year. However, when the spring tryouts start, you can expect a lot more movement between clubs. |
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Interesting discussion.
I'm not a Barca parent, but I have watched the 05 Barca boys play. They are not as bad as some of the results indicate. You can see what they are working toward, even if the execution is not always there. I'm not sure why people feel the need to be so insulting. They played in a tough division. Earlier in this discussion it was mentioned Barca didn't cut any kids last year at the end of the Spring season. Everyone who wanted to continue was able to continue. I am fairly certain that very few, if any, of those other EDP Div. 1 clubs kept their entire player pool from the previous seasons. I am familiar with the age group, and I know that most did not. As is common practice everywhere, each year the clubs recruit strong players from other clubs and cut or demote existing players who are deemed to not be helping them win now. Before they get cut, those same kids sit on the bench, with limited, if any playing time. Often these are the smaller, weaker, slower players, or those with late birthdays. If Barca kept their entire pool, that put them at a competitive disadvantage in that division from the outset. Again, I have no personal stake here, and none of this is to disparage the skill of the more developed players on the very good teams in that 05 division. However, I find the idea of a club trying to develop the players it has rather than creating a super team by attracting strong players from elsewhere to be refreshing. Ditto for having smaller rosters and actually letting kids play in the games, even at risk of losing. Providing the same training to both A and B team player is also great, and will keep the late bloomers developing (and keep them from getting discouraged) until they grow. Pretty much no other club does that, but I wish more would follow suit. |
I didn't get the sense anyone was trying to be insulting, just pointing out that the results indicate that they are placed incorrectly. Where does your DC play? |
| Barca doesn't cut, but that doesn't mean they aren't getting new players in for some of those age groups. I think they got 2 former DA players in at the 06 age group...I'm not familiar with the 05s, but would think they added at least a few that are helping them. |
| It might actually be bad for the current players, as bigger rosters will give them less opportunities to play while exhausted, which is key to their development. |