Lost soccer parent - need advice

[Anonymous]

Also look at City Sporting Club. They typically practice at Edgewood Rec which might be close to you. Not as familiar with the younger teams but practice is usually 2x/week and away games usually no more than 45 min away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s 2017 so 8?
You are already on the crazy train OP whether you know it not.

OP back and I am sure you are right. We were committed to our DC Soccer school-based rec team for the sake of community and fun, but half the kids are leaving to do travel. So now we're looking to see what our options are.

I do want him to have the opportunity to do travel at some point. I loved my travel team when I was growing up! But I didn't even start playing until I was 8, and didn't get on a high-level travel team until I was 14.

I realize things are different now and I'm trying to figure out if I truly need to push him now if he has any hope of making travel later on, or if we can just keep chilling out for a bit.

Where are his former teammates going? We’re in a similar boat and have talked to parents from PPA and DCSC, and the early years don’t seem super onerous especially if not on the top team. Also DCSC has the new “select” level that might be good. Nutty that a 9 year old has to move to this world, but our rec team is falling apart too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC Eleven, DCYFC will be the best options based on what you described.

Everything is sane within these clubs, the travel is local and people have multiple kids doing multiple sports so carpooling and collaborating are easy within these communities.

You will have your choice of Arlington, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. if your child wants to get more competitive later.

My best tip is since you have a rec team built around an elementary school, you best bet is to have them start playing pick-up after school together and just participate in small tournaments like https://3v3live.com or https://5v5soccer.com. McLean has one coming up. Small format is best for development and club soccer screws that up.

Get some Bownets and pennies and have them play organically every day after school. You can get create group and parents take turns and hire someone to watch them and possibly hire a coach once a week to do some ball mastery with the group. Carter Barron fields are wide open all of the time as an example. Do the False8 ball mastery volume 1 at home a few nights a week and you will skip ALL OF THE DRAMA but have a kid who would step onto ANY 1st team in the area by U11/U12 because he understand how to master the ball and he would have had pure fun with his friends for 3 years and WANT to push to the next level on his own.

This is the way...

In City we trust. Not for everyone but if you are willing to put the work in at home with your journal you will enjoy the freedom of playing attractice football in a player first envirionment. https://sites.google.com/citysportingclub.org/home/home?authuser=0

[Anonymous]

Put him on a travel team. It really is not that bad. Don't expect much development in a rec team as the teams frequently change and the level of commitment from the players (and talent) is not quite there. In our club even the lower level travel teams look like watching soccer in slow motion. If you can find friends who will join the same team that would really help. Our kid as four others from the same school on their travel team and that really helps with logistics. The weekend games have been very manageable too, as our home field is 10 min drive from our house and we only need to travel 30-45 minutes to other fields every other week. We are in U10 now and have been doing this since U8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some inbetween options at NOVA clubs - maybe there is something similar in DC?

- Arlington ADP
- McLean MDP

They're development programs that practice more than rec but don't actually travel. My DD did ADP for U9 and U10 and made a 2nd team once she switched to travel.

If in NW DC, another feasible option similar to above is MSI Classic — it now starts at U9 I believe. All games likely to be at Julius West MS bc MSI has dedicated 7v7 fields there. MSI runs the league, but the teams are independent, so you have to try out for them individually — but you can choose based on the type of coach you want (some are run by clubs vs parent volunteers), practice location, etc. At that age, you’ll have to attend a Classic eval run by MSI, but that’s just really to assess if he has basic soccer skills (eg, if he’s ready for something more than rec).

[Anonymous]

This is all very helpful, thank you.

For the PP asking where his friends are going, two of them aren't his birth year so he can't go with them. The one his birth year is trying out for DCSC travel, but there are a lot of teams they could land on so it's not guaranteed they'd be together.

Thinking DCSC select could be the way to go here.