Potomac soccer: Anyone happy?

[Anonymous]

Been with the club for many years and from talking with parents this is about as bad as a vibe as I’ve seen. I have kids in the 2011-2016 boys age group. Player placement, coaching, communication, transparency has all been very poor since the fall. Many kids want to leave and it almost feels like the club is trying to push people out by making them break up with the club. Anyone else seeing this or is it isolated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Been with the club for many years and from talking with parents this is about as bad as a vibe as I’ve seen. I have kids in the 2011-2016 boys age group. Player placement, coaching, communication, transparency has all been very poor since the fall. Many kids want to leave and it almost feels like the club is trying to push people out by making them break up with the club. Anyone else seeing this or is it isolated?

Seems isolated. What levels in the club?

We are not with the club but the folks we know there are very happy. They are all 1st team in the boys side in different age groups from 2012-2015.

[Anonymous]

Like most clubs, the top tier players and parents are probably much more attended to than the rest of the age group. You are basically funding other kids development.

[Anonymous]

In the club in the same general group as OP. We are happy now. Any issues we have experienced are much more manageable than the problems at other competitor clubs, in our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Been with the club for many years and from talking with parents this is about as bad as a vibe as I’ve seen. I have kids in the 2011-2016 boys age group. Player placement, coaching, communication, transparency has all been very poor since the fall. Many kids want to leave and it almost feels like the club is trying to push people out by making them break up with the club. Anyone else seeing this or is it isolated?

OP, I have kids there and know of many families with first and second team kids within the boys' age ranges you mentioned (as well as younger birth years) who are extremely unhappy. You are not alone. Coaching is dreadful across the board. Most of the boys I know are looking to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like most clubs, the top tier players and parents are probably much more attended to than the rest of the age group. You are basically funding other kids development.

Baloney!

[Anonymous]

Name an age group and team
Some will like
Some will not

Plenty of clubs to choose from locally
Its not that deep
Sometimes grass is greener
Sometimes grass is really just muddy
Don’t burn any bridges and go find somewhere your family likes

[Anonymous]

u8 to u10?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:u8 to u10?

Whoever practices closest to you unless the coach is toxic.

Keep the pressure low with a coach who will rotate your kid at multiple positions and allow you to focus on touches and game decisions. The key is to play as much as possible, have the freedom to make mistakes and play small-sided.

I would attend a training with FC Roma futsal, Next Star and Passion Soccer Academy. Then, compare the practices and training of the clubs to what you saw in those environments. Find the closest club who trains like them without a high pressure coach or parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:u8 to u10?

Whoever practices closest to you unless the coach is toxic.

Keep the pressure low with a coach who will rotate your kid at multiple positions and allow you to focus on touches and game decisions. The key is to play as much as possible, have the freedom to make mistakes and play small-sided.

I would attend a training with FC Roma futsal, Next Star and Passion Soccer Academy. Then, compare the practices and training of the clubs to what you saw in those environments. Find the closest club who trains like them without a high pressure coach or parents.

This is good advice for that age. Ideally play a lot on their own accord (practices and games with a club with 30 mins or less travel time ) plus almost daily free play in their backyard with family and friends. I don’t think u even need the small group training at this age. We didn’t do small group or private training until U11-U12 when DS clamored for it (I guess his backyard sibs and friends weren’t cutting it anymore).

[Anonymous]

So do most top Potomac ECNL players make the jump to MLSNext teams or other ECNL teams? Most top clubs had at least a player (boys and girls) or some invited to a USYNT talent ID event and I don’t recall seeing Potomac ECNL on the list much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So do most top Potomac ECNL players make the jump to MLSNext teams or other ECNL teams? Most top clubs had at least a player (boys and girls) or some invited to a USYNT talent ID event and I don’t recall seeing Potomac ECNL on the list much.

That’s a good question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So do most top Potomac ECNL players make the jump to MLSNext teams or other ECNL teams? Most top clubs had at least a player (boys and girls) or some invited to a USYNT talent ID event and I don’t recall seeing Potomac ECNL on the list much.

I would imagine so. In full transparency, we are with Bethesda because it is the closest to us. Potomac beat us last year and they have some really top players that my kid trains with in neutral environments. Those parents are with Potomac because it is close to them just like we are with Bethesda because it is convenient for us. I am not some crazy that believes my club is better than your club. These kids are where they are based mostly on what they do outside of training. The more comfortable you get with setting up home training and pickup close to home, the less inherent pressure and expectations you will have from your kid, and the more they will enjoy the game and actually want to train on their own. Once they have passion and internal drive on their own, the sky is the limit.

As the kids age up, people will tend to gravitate towards Bethesda because they have the track record. In our age group, if Potomac kept their team together, they would be formidable if they continue to develop. It is really deeper than the club and badge. At Bethesda, we had an awesome coach for two years and then a dud this year. If we had another dud, we will start looking. The leagues do not matter pre-puberty from talking to parents of older kids.

To combine two previous posts, if you are a novice parent, check out neutral training environments to see what quality training looks like. Then pick the club closest to you that has those principles and train with them. More importantly, play at home with your kid in the backyard and with other kids in the area at school. Most parents default to club because there aren’t a lot of options between rec and club. Even if you want to be fancy, find a top coach who is $50-$200 an hour and split it with 9 kids and run 3v3 pickup with guidance. For $6-$23 a session, your kid will have a blast with some guidance on their free play. That is how they develop. Actually playing and making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. We all love our kids and these clubs take advantage it but many of them aren’t providing a quality product for the hype.

Whatever you do, don’t believe that any club or badge means anything on the boys side. I can’t speak on the girls side but because those Bethesda girls take so much abuse and parents accept it because of the “access” the coaches provide. I would not do it but I am grateful the boys side is not like that and I am not forced to make that decision. On the boys side, most of the boys develop in environments that allow them to play. We, Bethesda, have several USYNT players that developed on smaller, no name, clubs before they came to us. If your kids stand out, a coach will walk across the sidelines to find you. You go to tryouts and they will ask your kid “who are your parents?” It is really that simple on the boys side. Once that starts happening, you can begin worry to think about the league and access. ECNL still has ID2 and I know a few kids who have been identified through that process for USYNT’s and MLS academies also.

To summarize, there is no one path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do most top Potomac ECNL players make the jump to MLSNext teams or other ECNL teams? Most top clubs had at least a player (boys and girls) or some invited to a USYNT talent ID event and I don’t recall seeing Potomac ECNL on the list much.

I would imagine so. In full transparency, we are with Bethesda because it is the closest to us. Potomac beat us last year and they have some really top players that my kid trains with in neutral environments. Those parents are with Potomac because it is close to them just like we are with Bethesda because it is convenient for us. I am not some crazy that believes my club is better than your club. These kids are where they are based mostly on what they do outside of training. The more comfortable you get with setting up home training and pickup close to home, the less inherent pressure and expectations you will have from your kid, and the more they will enjoy the game and actually want to train on their own. Once they have passion and internal drive on their own, the sky is the limit.

As the kids age up, people will tend to gravitate towards Bethesda because they have the track record. In our age group, if Potomac kept their team together, they would be formidable if they continue to develop. It is really deeper than the club and badge. At Bethesda, we had an awesome coach for two years and then a dud this year. If we had another dud, we will start looking. The leagues do not matter pre-puberty from talking to parents of older kids.

To combine two previous posts, if you are a novice parent, check out neutral training environments to see what quality training looks like. Then pick the club closest to you that has those principles and train with them. More importantly, play at home with your kid in the backyard and with other kids in the area at school. Most parents default to club because there aren’t a lot of options between rec and club. Even if you want to be fancy, find a top coach who is $50-$200 an hour and split it with 9 kids and run 3v3 pickup with guidance. For $6-$23 a session, your kid will have a blast with some guidance on their free play. That is how they develop. Actually playing and making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. We all love our kids and these clubs take advantage it but many of them aren’t providing a quality product for the hype.

Whatever you do, don’t believe that any club or badge means anything on the boys side. I can’t speak on the girls side but because those Bethesda girls take so much abuse and parents accept it because of the “access” the coaches provide. I would not do it but I am grateful the boys side is not like that and I am not forced to make that decision. On the boys side, most of the boys develop in environments that allow them to play. We, Bethesda, have several USYNT players that developed on smaller, no name, clubs before they came to us. If your kids stand out, a coach will walk across the sidelines to find you. You go to tryouts and they will ask your kid “who are your parents?” It is really that simple on the boys side. Once that starts happening, you can begin worry to think about the league and access. ECNL still has ID2 and I know a few kids who have been identified through that process for USYNT’s and MLS academies also.

To summarize, there is no one path.

Potomac ECNL defeated Bethesda MLS Next?

[Anonymous]

Potomac is like any club. They’re happy people and unhappy people. I would venture to say the unhappy people at Potomac will be unhappy anywhere. It is a well run club with good coaches and decent communication. However they did let a coach that was brought from the outside create too much turmoil and upheaval and that disrupted what should have been a natural flow of kids moving upward and their progression. However, those kids are developing and will do fine. Most everyone we know from u12 and above is happy and u9 and below seems happy.
The top teams at Potomac can beat anyone and their “issues” seem to be the same that any club has.