Sport travel teams -- what is the reasoning behind them, and at what age?
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Anonymous
So what is the best league to be in now? Our oldest is just starting travel soccer (and a PP is correct that there's not all that much travel involved in the lower age groups), but I agree with several PP that the best reason to do travel is to find teammates who love the sport as much as you do. We had a good rec team but few of the kids even bothered to show up for practice--or perhaps more accurately, few of the families bothered to get their kids to practice. Most of the handful of boys who were routinely there for practices and games made travel teams this year. |
Anonymous
| A small number of clubs have teams in the CCL. Those clubs put their top team or teams (I think it might be more than one at the U9-U10 level) in the CCL and other teams in the NCSL and ODSL. For other clubs, I think the top teams are in NCSL. |
Anonymous
5th grade DC has been playing in the same rec club since K (he actually started going to practice in pre-K). All better players left in 3rd grade Fall or Spring season. Half of kids who stay are less skillful but still love the sport; the other half are kids whose parents want team-sport exposure for their sons. And at this age you only need one toxic kid to ruin the whole practice for everyone. On more than one occasion in the last two years I asked myself why wasting my time with this? But DC loves soccer and wants to play with his buddy, so we keep coming back. There is really very little fun watching the games anymore, and only a handful of parents who stay and chat. Moral of my story? Get out of rec and go travel/club as soon as you can. |
Anonymous
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U.S. Youth Soccer recommends having no tryouts and no distinction between "house" and "travel' players until age 12.
Obviously, no one actually does that. NoVa goes travel at U9, with a lot of quasi-travel experiences at U8. Some states have State Cups at U9, which is utterly insane. Good clubs are finding ways to offer professional coaching experiences to players who don't yet make the travel cut at age 8 or don't want to make the extra financial (5-10X what you pay for House) or time (2-4X what you make for House) commitments. So you don't need to feel compelled to go to travel at age 9. Meanwhile, in baseball, everyone plays Little League with their neighbors. A handful *also* join "travel teams" that don't demand much of extra commitment. And then Madison HS has an awesome baseball team that sends a bunch of players to college baseball teams. Go figure. House soccer can indeed be limited by a few players whose parents are essentially signing them up for an hour of babysitting and exercise. But when you have enough caring parents to volunteer (rather than just sitting in the stands at travel games and grousing about only being in NCSL Division 3 or whatever), you'll still have a good experience. And who knows? You may have a late bloomer like Landon Donovan or Christen Press. I'm seeing kids show up for soccer for the first time at age 10, go to a couple of clinics and catch up quite rapidly to all the little darlings ordained for travel success at age 7. |
Anonymous
CCL and EDP are the top leagues. Many of the top level teams in NCSL leave that league for CCL or EDP. Or place their highly ranked teams in those leagues. |
Anonymous
Yes, sorry, I should have clarified I was talking about for the younger age groups. |
Anonymous
Donovan and Press both started playing organized soccer at age 6. But I'm curious whether there really are any professional or top college players who really didn't take up the game until age 10. |
Anonymous
I think the jury is still out on whether CCL is a top league, or an improvement over NCSL and WAGS. Clubs have to agree to put their top teams into CCL in order to become a CCL member (which explains why they leave NCSL and WAGS) but many of the best area clubs don't belong to (or have withdrawn from) CCL and a lot of CCL clubs only have a few strong teams. This means that there are really good and really bad teams in most age groups without the relegation and promotion features that help to make sure teams are playing at approximately the right level for development. Plus it is primarily just a Virginia league. EDP is a good league for boys, but I'm not sure it's better than the Colonial League or Region 1, and it doesn't seem to be nearly as strong for girls in this area. I think most people would agree that ECNL is the top league for older girls and the Development Academy is top for older boys, but beyond that it's pretty confusing. It will probably stay that way for a few years while US Club soccer and US Youth Soccer (the two organizations that sponsor most soccer leagues in the country) continue to battle for market share. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
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coaching, level of play, quality fields, expectations of kids to work hard carried over to school work as wlel
11 & 13 soccer |
Anonymous
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Thanks everyone, this has been helpful -- I'm the OP.
I see there may be a difference, as my kids are focused on baseball, not soccer. I've talked to some parents with kids on travel and house, and there are pros and cons. The coaching is not necessarily at a higher level. I suppose from what they've said, the competition is, however. The pressure has not been from the travel coaches, but from family and friends. And I haven't seen a real reason to spend the extra money and to figure out the logistics. We have a very busy schedule already and I work FT. We also have other commitments besides sports. So I'm trying to figure out the correct balance, without foreclosing on some opportunities later on related to sports. I was looking for some different views, so this gives me more to think about. |
Anonymous
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If the pressure isn't coming from the kids, then don't worry about it.
I've heard (no personal experience, but I have heard) that one can lead a happy life with happy children without travel sports. I have heard that some people get to do cultural stuff, or go away on the weekend. We have no regrets on going the Travel route, although we have chosen a small club with one team in each age-group. No prestige, but a good experience overall. |
Anonymous
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My DS does travel hockey and maybe other sports are different, but I wanted to mention three things I haven't seen discussed.
First, I love sitting in my car with my DS for long periods of time traveling to Richmond, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philly, Upstate NY, etc. Without these trips, there is no way I would have such long chunks of one-on-one time with my kid. I think we have conversations we wouldn't normally have if we just did our thing at home. Second, I like how my kid is developing time management and organizational skills dealing with all his activities. Third, I personally enjoy the friendships with other parents and watching the kids develop throughout the season. Yes, it is busy. We have two working parents. Fortunately, only one kid does travel, so we may not have it as bad as other families. |
Anonymous
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You can keep your travel and academy kids, they are all blonde hair blue eyed rich kids. Give me athletes.
-Coach http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2196236-4-star-wr-drake-davis-giving-up-football-to-focus-on-soccer?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national |
Anonymous
Have you looked at the rosters for the 2 academy teams? Definitely not dominated by blond rich kids. |