Neighborhood and Community Clubs
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Anonymous
You don't hear about them often. They're very small tight knit but they have talented players. I've seen them a lot at the indoor facilities and I feel like they're geared towards kids younger than U13 like the PP mentioned. Go check out the youth leagues over at Dulles Sportsplex, they have a few teams that play there. Beyond that, there are Hispanic leagues in the area that field mainly adults and sometimes there's some kids participating if they're strong enough. |
Anonymous
It's not defeatist. I'm speaking reality. You can live in a fantasy world if you want. But who is going to pay for these things? Even if you took the human element of coaches, referees and other organizers out of the question, even the counties charge for fields and lights are another matter. Clubs compete for field access as is. If you have a solution great. We may be the "richest country" but not when it comes to soccer. We also have affordable soccer, it's called rec., most of our players play it. |
Anonymous
Please list the aspects of pay-to-play that are positive assets to youth soccer development |
Anonymous
You said soccer being affordable to all/most is a fantasy. Knowing that soccer is affordable and accessible to millions in countries all over the globe. There are parks, fields, school fields all over paid for and maintained by municipalities through taxes. Why would neighborhood teams struggle to have a field? |
Anonymous
The neighborhood free/low cost club would have priority and the private money-grab cash-cows should scramble. |
Anonymous
I'm not that poster, but I'll bite. First, I will say that I doubt anyone would argue that the pay-to-play model doesn't restrict our player pool, which is probably its biggest issue. There is a laundry list of things that are not good with the model. That being said, people already complain about the level of coaching in this country. Now imagine how many of those coaches disappear if they are not being paid. There are many young promising coaches that either do so exclusively or as a side gig to get by, that would be forced to do something else. This also applies to referees. There is a major shortage of refs - just ask any assigner. Most of the "better" referees will attempt to only do "travel" games because frankly they pay more. While many of them do have a love of the game (believe it or not), pay is a big factor that keeps them going through the BS. The costs for refs have gone up dramatically over the years, take away the pay-to-play model and I imagine you'll lose a portion of your refs as well. Ask your local assigner how that is going to play out across the spectrum. Pay to play has also enabled SOME clubs to invest in their own fields/infrastructure, where there was clearly not enough support or willingness on local government to invest in soccer fields. As is field access is at a premium (just check some of the threads on this board...), now imagine if all the ones that were at least partially privately funded went away. So, it may not be the model is great, but it has been the only one thus far that has enabled us to get to even where we are now. There is a reason why this has basically been adopted everywhere across the country, and it's primarily out of necessity. If it can be done better for less, there is a huge market for that, so far, with very, very few exceptions it has not been done and certainly not replicated. |
Anonymous
You're right there are plenty of fields for all the soccer teams in the area.... |
Anonymous
We have affordable soccer; it's called rec. Try it sometime. |
Anonymous
If the neighborhood and community teams became the pipeline and player pathway to the academies and semi-pro, professional teams, then resources would shift and many of these issues are gone. Let the private cash-cows then do their own thing as the outsiders. The real qualified coaches would want to coach the teams with the best players based on talent and skills going against their quality peers from rival areas. Not the richie-rich team with 3, 4 strong players maybe, and entitled parents. How many Referees out here are full time refs trying to pay the mortgage off what they earn from ref gigs? |
Anonymous
Oh for sure, it’s accurate. They are somewhat inaccessible to non-Latino folks bc it’s often word of mouth, cash based, communication is awful and last minute especially if u don’t speak Spanish. A few of them run in house leagues which often run late or clubs fielding teams with no regard for age groups. They’re also territorial with their players and there is history and drama between clubs too. If you can deal with that, it’s a great environment for aspiring ballers. Kids are passionate and just want to play with most of their parents somewhat oblivious to aiming for college scholarships. I think a lot of the really good ones hope to be scouted by leagues from their country of origin. |
Anonymous
Yes. Recreation soccer is going to make us a soccer powerhouse in youth development |
Anonymous
DP. Other than as a money making scheme, which aspects of the current system and pipeline the pros are doing well? Men aren't competing with Europe on any level,in fact the MLS is where Europe's stars go to retire and milk the last bit of money out of their career. Our women couldn't even get into the last world cup final. They probably won't see a world cup final for many cycles in the future until our pipeline of players is based on merit, not connections. |
Anonymous
At the U little age. Then they move to professional team’s youth academy. |
Anonymous
You're apparently not grasping the concept of there being THE Silver Spring Community club that gets field priority vs the 85 other money-grab clubs in Silver Spring fighting for fields. |
Anonymous
Men aren’t competing in Europe? Plenty of usmnt players playing in Europe. |