What is the best area/club for youth soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stoddert soccer if you are in DC.

Actually, I'd recommend Capital FC if you are in DC.

What age do Capital's programs start? Stoddert is more of a full-service club (and quite good). Capital is good, too -- just smaller.

But to reiterate what others have said -- there is NO reason to choose your DMV residence based on which soccer club is closer. At your kids' ages, they're going to be playing House league anyway. By U8, MAYBE it's worth checking into different "pre-travel" programs. Several clubs -- Fairfax Police Youth Club (FPYC), Vienna (VYS), Lee Mount Vernon, Alexandria and others -- offer a "crossover" program on top of the House league. (A couple of those clubs actually take kids out of House league and have them play crossover-only, which is pretty silly if you ask me.) McLean has a unique program of taking ambitious U8s (geez, what an awful term) to do a lot of training and few games. Some swear by it, some leave after a season.

Chances are pretty good that the closest club or the next-closest club to you -- likely with practices within a 15-minute drive (10 when it's not rush hour) -- will have a perfectly good program up to U12.

And by then, who knows where your kids' interests will lie!

[Anonymous]

Are you really deciding where to move based on soccer. Is your 7 year old big for his age, aggressive, and fast? Because that is really what matters for soccer in the US. Your kids could love soccer, have really good footskills, and be hard workers and they still won't go very far in soccer in this country.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you everyone! Very helpful.

To the last poster, as I said earlier, soccer could be one (of many) factors of where we move. Yes, my sons have shown interest enough that I think it will be a big part of their lives. For my sanity, I would like to live close to where they may practice. I know people who have driven over an hour each way to take their kids to soccer practice and I would like to avoid that.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Don't know where you're coming from, but as others have noted, there are soccer programs everywhere around here that will meet the needs of your children for the next several years. You won't need to drive an hour no matter where you live in this area.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know much about these academy programs? I got an email from Braddock Road in Northern Virginia about an academy program for kids ages 5-8. My child is 5. It seemed to me to be a bit much to practice 2 days a week and have a game on Saturday at age 5. The program runs from April through July. My son loves soccer, but even that seemed like a lot. Any thoughts on these programs?

[Anonymous]

That isn't an academy program. If you look under the USA soccer site, they list the current actual academies. There are about 80 of the nationwide. Around here, DC United and Bethesda-Olney. Not sure if the Baltimore Bays still are. They are very good programs, but, they practice pretty much 4 or 5 nights a week. Your kid will get a lot better, and, he will play with and against a lot of very good kids. The negative: uber competitive, and, almost an every night kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That isn't an academy program. If you look under the USA soccer site, they list the current actual academies. There are about 80 of the nationwide. Around here, DC United and Bethesda-Olney. Not sure if the Baltimore Bays still are. They are very good programs, but, they practice pretty much 4 or 5 nights a week. Your kid will get a lot better, and, he will play with and against a lot of very good kids. The negative: uber competitive, and, almost an every night kind of thing.

you're confusing what the term academy means. Here, as with many other local clubs that aren't DC United, academy means the teams in one age group train together instead of as individual teams that never interact. Players will guest play among teams, coaches will train all the players in the academy and cover games for each other, etc. The big A Academies are obviously a different creature and are not what is being referred to in an email addressed to parents of 5 year olds.

To the OP, many house leagues at that age are 1 practice a week and 1 game. For a child who loves soccer, 1 more practice a week doesn't seem excessive to me.

[Anonymous]

Actually PP, I am not confusing what an academy is. Since I have a kid playing D1, I am pretty familiar with how coaches view what an academy is. Since no one refers to the big A Academies as big A Academies, what you refer to is simply all levels of kids of the same age group practice together. And yup, I know the OP is talking about very young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually PP, I am not confusing what an academy is. Since I have a kid playing D1, I am pretty familiar with how coaches view what an academy is. Since no one refers to the big A Academies as big A Academies, what you refer to is simply all levels of kids of the same age group practice together. And yup, I know the OP is talking about very young kids.

The original post mentioned academy in the context of young kids. The term academy is used throughout youth soccer by clubs to refer to the grouping of teams within an age group and every coach or trainer in the region knows what an academy refers to when you're talking about this age range. What kind of ass would bring Development Academies into a conversation about 5 to 8 year olds and then say that that only DC United and Bethesda offer a real academy, when the term academy was used correctly in the BRYC email and in the post? But since your kid made the team at at Longwood or some other bottom tier D1 school, I guess we should just bask in the wisdom you so kindly graced us with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually PP, I am not confusing what an academy is. Since I have a kid playing D1, I am pretty familiar with how coaches view what an academy is. Since no one refers to the big A Academies as big A Academies, what you refer to is simply all levels of kids of the same age group practice together. And yup, I know the OP is talking about very young kids.

"Academy" means tons of different things, particularly in the U.S. (I also have soccer credentials beyond my own kids, but I won't get into resume-waving here.)

On the Braddock Road thing -- bear in mind that a lot of youth clubs will offer a second day of skill training each week on top of the House program. Sometimes even a third. If you don't mind spending time and money on it, you can practice a lot of soccer in the course of a week, even at U6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually PP, I am not confusing what an academy is. Since I have a kid playing D1, I am pretty familiar with how coaches view what an academy is. Since no one refers to the big A Academies as big A Academies, what you refer to is simply all levels of kids of the same age group practice together. And yup, I know the OP is talking about very young kids.

"Academy" means tons of different things, particularly in the U.S. (I also have soccer credentials beyond my own kids, but I won't get into resume-waving here.)

On the Braddock Road thing -- bear in mind that a lot of youth clubs will offer a second day of skill training each week on top of the House program. Sometimes even a third. If you don't mind spending time and money on it, you can practice a lot of soccer in the course of a week, even at U6.

You must be the one whose brother played pro soccer a million years ago, hated college because of soccer, and thinks that all travel soccer is a scam. You are indeed a pain in the ass and don't always need to be a know-it-all.

[Anonymous]

"Best" varies by age.

Regional rankings are here - http://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=Regional&Gender=Boys&Age=11&Region=1&State=. Top regional league is CCL - http://www.clubchampionsleague.com/. Next is NCSL - http://www.ncsl-soccer.com/schedules/index_E.html. After that, ODSL - http://www.odsl.org/schedule/index_E.html. Click around to see the names in the corresponding divisions and you'll get a feel for which clubs tend to field the top teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone! Very helpful.

To the last poster, as I said earlier, soccer could be one (of many) factors of where we move. Yes, my sons have shown interest enough that I think it will be a big part of their lives. For my sanity, I would like to live close to where they may practice. I know people who have driven over an hour each way to take their kids to soccer practice and I would like to avoid that.

Thanks again!

Nobody in the Washinton DC Metro area needs to drive over an hour to soccer practice.

There are great clubs in every county, city, neighborhood.

If a kid is very promising by 12-13--he may get recruited to a club not as close. That is all speculative. Coaches change, teams change.

It's absolutely ridiculous to plan a move around this...and I grew up with 3 travel soccer siblings who all ended up playing for different clubs since the top teams for each age/gender were in different places. All 3 of us by 13 were at different clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually PP, I am not confusing what an academy is. Since I have a kid playing D1, I am pretty familiar with how coaches view what an academy is. Since no one refers to the big A Academies as big A Academies, what you refer to is simply all levels of kids of the same age group practice together. And yup, I know the OP is talking about very young kids.

"Academy" means tons of different things, particularly in the U.S. (I also have soccer credentials beyond my own kids, but I won't get into resume-waving here.)

On the Braddock Road thing -- bear in mind that a lot of youth clubs will offer a second day of skill training each week on top of the House program. Sometimes even a third. If you don't mind spending time and money on it, you can practice a lot of soccer in the course of a week, even at U6.

You must be the one whose brother played pro soccer a million years ago, hated college because of soccer, and thinks that all travel soccer is a scam. You are indeed a pain in the ass and don't always need to be a know-it-all.

Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone! Very helpful.

To the last poster, as I said earlier, soccer could be one (of many) factors of where we move. Yes, my sons have shown interest enough that I think it will be a big part of their lives. For my sanity, I would like to live close to where they may practice. I know people who have driven over an hour each way to take their kids to soccer practice and I would like to avoid that.

Thanks again!

Nobody in the Washinton DC Metro area needs to drive over an hour to soccer practice.

There are great clubs in every county, city, neighborhood.

If a kid is very promising by 12-13--he may get recruited to a club not as close. That is all speculative. Coaches change, teams change.

It's absolutely ridiculous to plan a move around this...and I grew up with 3 travel soccer siblings who all ended up playing for different clubs since the top teams for each age/gender were in different places. All 3 of us by 13 were at different clubs.

+1

Who knows if OP's kids will even stick with soccer in later years.

Weird priority.