what do tryouts for soccer look like at your FCPS high school?

[Anonymous]

for girls, very unlikely that an ecnl player won't make the team.

So I'm going to use an example of a stronger school here... let's take Madison or Oakton for example because almost every girl in Vienna has played (or was signed up for) soccer at some point in her lifetime.

100 girls will try out... the coaches will very quickly figure out who is either innately talented or a trained soccer player, and playing at a level that can help their team, and who isn't. All you have to do is put players in a passing drill or Rondo (keep away game) and you can see which players have no ball control or touch, or have never even done a rondo in their lower level club team's practice.

If you're playing ECNL, GA, ECNL-R, EDP, or NCSL D1, you are almost a definite shoe-in for JV. No question about it.

Moving up to varsity can be harder though. Players who are ready to move up to varsity are ready for a much faster game of a higher skill level.

Soccer always comes back to the 4 pillars of the game:

Mental
Physical
Technical
Tactical

4/10: barely make JV
5/10: make JV
6/10: strong JV player and looked at for varsity
7/10: you're on varsity, maybe not playing a lot but on the team
8/10: playing a role on varsity and getting regular minutes
9/10: playing an important role on varsity, probably starting
10/10: hey now you're an all-star and everyone knows who you are, you're the player the other teams know and have to look out for. maybe you play club instead because HS soccer isn't going to do much for you at this point.


What do you need to make varsity at a competitive soccer school? (girls)

-Enough athleticism to keep your head above water in a fast, physical playing environment and fitness to keep up a high work rate for at least 20 minutes. Meet the athleticism demands of a specific position.

-Meet the technique/technical demands of the position you are going to play in, whatever that is

-Understand how to play your position tactically... speed of play, making decisions under pressure

-Be able to stay focused, concentrate, not have lapses or dumb giveaways or panic attacks after making a mistake, not wining or being a headache to the coach. showing good individual initiative and leadership and being a team player.

[Anonymous]

*whining

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to the soccer interest meeting earlier this week and she was stunned at the cafeteria being filled with girls interested in trying out. She has played ECNL and if you look at the HS soccer record- they are not good. She has enjoyed other high school sports so wants to be on the team but just wondering what other high schools numbers look like or any BTDT feedback?

The coach also seemed to really talk down about the club soccer and made it clear that his practices are priority.

That's the normal high school expectation. If your child makes the high school team, she is expected to prioritize the team practices over other activities. If she isn't going to do that, she shouldn't try out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to the soccer interest meeting earlier this week and she was stunned at the cafeteria being filled with girls interested in trying out. She has played ECNL and if you look at the HS soccer record- they are not good. She has enjoyed other high school sports so wants to be on the team but just wondering what other high schools numbers look like or any BTDT feedback?

The coach also seemed to really talk down about the club soccer and made it clear that his practices are priority.

That's the normal high school expectation. If your child makes the high school team, she is expected to prioritize the team practices over other activities. If she isn't going to do that, she shouldn't try out.

Yep, our large public FCPS soccer coach kicked a player off who skipped practice ONCE to go to his club practice.

[Anonymous]

I only know about boys, but I was told 150 tried out last year (public FCPS)

[Anonymous]

Tryouts should be complete (or mostly complete). How did it go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to the soccer interest meeting earlier this week and she was stunned at the cafeteria being filled with girls interested in trying out. She has played ECNL and if you look at the HS soccer record- they are not good. She has enjoyed other high school sports so wants to be on the team but just wondering what other high schools numbers look like or any BTDT feedback?

The coach also seemed to really talk down about the club soccer and made it clear that his practices are priority.

It is common for the best players to play both high school and travel. However, they take travel more seriously because it's high competition and more college scouts are present. This is why high school coaches don't like their players doing travel during the season. Also, schedules do 100% conflict and most players will take travel games/practice over high school team games/practice.

I have a boy and it’s not at our HS. We are at a private WAC HS. MLSNext players don’t play HS. If they do- they might get a waiver a play fresh and/or sophomore year before it gets too much. All of the recruiting is out if the club. HS is irrelevant for that. HS play is so much lower than MLSnext/ECNL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At most of the FCPS high schools I know of, school practice is after school and club practice is later at night so they don’t conflict.

I guess that depends on your view of over usage injuries. Unless the club practice takes a real step back in intensity, multiple two a days every week (really two an afternoons) for months on end is too much

Exactly. Travel teams practice three times a week. Add in high school and that's eight practices Monday through Friday. Also, games often conflict and with homework, etc it's normal for kids to skip high school practice for travel team practice.

Mlsnext practice 4 times per week.

[Anonymous]

Curious about how many boys tried out at your dc's large (2500+) public school?

[Anonymous]

Our HS coach is a douche. That's why a lot of kids choose not to play HS soccer at our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to the soccer interest meeting earlier this week and she was stunned at the cafeteria being filled with girls interested in trying out. She has played ECNL and if you look at the HS soccer record- they are not good. She has enjoyed other high school sports so wants to be on the team but just wondering what other high schools numbers look like or any BTDT feedback?

The coach also seemed to really talk down about the club soccer and made it clear that his practices are priority.

That's the normal high school expectation. If your child makes the high school team, she is expected to prioritize the team practices over other activities. If she isn't going to do that, she shouldn't try out.

Yep, our large public FCPS soccer coach kicked a player off who skipped practice ONCE to go to his club practice.

Glad to hear that. Even if it makes the team a little weaker, with that many kids trying out, kids who won’t prioritize the school team shouldn’t be on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about how many boys tried out at your dc's large (2500+) public school?

150 total for 45 spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to the soccer interest meeting earlier this week and she was stunned at the cafeteria being filled with girls interested in trying out. She has played ECNL and if you look at the HS soccer record- they are not good. She has enjoyed other high school sports so wants to be on the team but just wondering what other high schools numbers look like or any BTDT feedback?

The coach also seemed to really talk down about the club soccer and made it clear that his practices are priority.

That's the normal high school expectation. If your child makes the high school team, she is expected to prioritize the team practices over other activities. If she isn't going to do that, she shouldn't try out.

Yep, our large public FCPS soccer coach kicked a player off who skipped practice ONCE to go to his club practice.

Glad to hear that. Even if it makes the team a little weaker, with that many kids trying out, kids who won’t prioritize the school team shouldn’t be on it.

Agree. 100 boys would have loved his spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HS coach is a douche. That's why a lot of kids choose not to play HS soccer at our school.

Are you at Lake Braddock Secondary? lol.

That guy has no idea about soccer there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be ECNL-level players who don't make it and there will be non-ECNL players who do make it. It is a crapshoot with so many kids--it's unreasonable to expect the coaching staff to really be able to evaluate 100+ kids at a few days of tryouts, and keep in mind a lot of the tryouts are just watching small-sided scrimmages that have nothing to do with the ability to be impactful 11v11 on a full field whether it is stamina, positioning, long-range vision and technical ability etc. Good luck to your DD.

5 days of try-outs?

Good coach would pick up good plays the first sight.
5 times is only to accommodate the good players doing other sports.