Stoddert boys travel coaches

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems that there is some uncertainty about who the coaches will be for Stoddert's U11 and U12 teams next year, yet they're asking parents to confirm spots by tomorrow. For those of you who've been doing this for a while, would you accept a spot without knowing who the coach will be? TIA.

Yes - they are always good coaches there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I’m new to travel soccer and to Stoddert, and naturally have lots of questions. I did notice that the coaches for U11 and U12 aren’t listed, and yet we’re expected to contact the age-group director and cc: the specific coach by 5pm tomorrow. My son was just offered a place on Stoddert's U11 white team (I assume that this is their "C" team). Do you know whether players are able to move from a white to a red team, say, during a season? Do coaches regularly contemplate and act on this possibility? And my other question is whether there is a qualitative difference for a player, in terms of skills development, training, attention from coaches, etc., between the blue, red, or white team? My son says he is serious about soccer and loves the game. He has the option of playing travel with two other clubs and we're trying to decide which one to go with. There are other factors (like commuting time), but for right now I'm just trying to get a handle on the differences between playing on the first, second, or third team at Stoddert. Any remarks you can offer would be welcome. Thanks!

CCL allows this movement within the club and it all depends on your kid's performance and available spot. The lead coach for the age group will make that decision. I've found moving kids up is more likely than moving them down (politics).

Thank you all for the informed comments. So being able to move to a new team within an age cohort depends on the league rules. I wonder, though, if such transfers, based on availability and performance, is something that Stoddert considers normal for the U11/12 age group, or if once you have accepted a spot on a team after tryouts, that's basically it--that's your team for the season.

In our experience with the Stoddert boys' teams in the first few age groupings, there is little or no movement between teams during the year, although occasionally a player is asked to be a guest player (for a match) on other teams.

This is very helpful. I have the picture now, I think.

[Anonymous]

Seems short-sided not to allow movement in between teams during the season. Our club allows this (League is NCSL, not CCL) since the coach is the same for both our A and B teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems short-sided not to allow movement in between teams during the season. Our club allows this (League is NCSL, not CCL) since the coach is the same for both our A and B teams.

Well if you move a kid up, you have to move a kid down. Maybe there isn't a clear kid who needs to be moved down. And moving a kid down isn't easy on the kid. Would you want the kid who is likely arbitrarily chosen (since it's rare to have a stand-out "worst" player to move down mid season (away from teammates and friends) because some other kid is arbitrarily better and wants to play on a different team for the remaining 5 games?
I think you can see how this type of thing isn't commonly done in ANY league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems short-sided not to allow movement in between teams during the season. Our club allows this (League is NCSL, not CCL) since the coach is the same for both our A and B teams.

Well if you move a kid up, you have to move a kid down. Maybe there isn't a clear kid who needs to be moved down. And moving a kid down isn't easy on the kid. Would you want the kid who is likely arbitrarily chosen (since it's rare to have a stand-out "worst" player to move down mid season (away from teammates and friends) because some other kid is arbitrarily better and wants to play on a different team for the remaining 5 games?
I think you can see how this type of thing isn't commonly done in ANY league.

From what I have seen, the 1st team never gets close to a full roster for that exact reason. For example, you can roster up to 12 but the coaches will normally only have 10. There are 2 primary reasons, the first being that you want your top players......playing. So less on the bench and more on the pitch. The 2nd reason is that if they see a potential 1st player from one of the lower teams, they can guest up or even move up permanently. Guesting = interviewing. I'm not a soccer guru, but I have 3 kids in travel soccer and have observe this every year. My oldest started on the 3rd team because we moved here from the west coast. By the winter season he was guesting with the 2nd and 1st team. In the spring of that year he was moved up to 2nd team and for the last 3 years is on the 1st team.

Scouting talent is hard when you are looking at a ton of kids for a few hours. Have your child work hard and treat every practice/game like a tryout.

[Anonymous]

Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Prelim rosters. Lots of kids try out for more than one team and then choose the one that their friends also make or the one that's closest, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Prelim rosters. Lots of kids try out for more than one team and then choose the one that their friends also make or the one that's closest, etc.

The challenge with trying out for more than one team is if your kid is good, they will get a top team offer after the first tryout, and you have 48 hours to decide. Once you decline, you can't really go back to any more tryouts where you got the offer to see if you really liked that program/coaches/competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Prelim rosters. Lots of kids try out for more than one team and then choose the one that their friends also make or the one that's closest, etc.

The challenge with trying out for more than one team is if your kid is good, they will get a top team offer after the first tryout, and you have 48 hours to decide. Once you decline, you can't really go back to any more tryouts where you got the offer to see if you really liked that program/coaches/competition.

I would think that clubs know that kids are trying out with more than one club. And that the clubs have different deadlines for accepting / declining. So there will be kids who say yes by the deadline but then, after the deadline, learn they've been offered a place whrere the team is a better fit. This must happen all the tiime: a kid first accepts, then within a few days receives a different offer that's better for him. Can the first club really expect that every Yes will remain a Yes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems short-sided not to allow movement in between teams during the season. Our club allows this (League is NCSL, not CCL) since the coach is the same for both our A and B teams.

Well if you move a kid up, you have to move a kid down. Maybe there isn't a clear kid who needs to be moved down. And moving a kid down isn't easy on the kid. Would you want the kid who is likely arbitrarily chosen (since it's rare to have a stand-out "worst" player to move down mid season (away from teammates and friends) because some other kid is arbitrarily better and wants to play on a different team for the remaining 5 games?
I think you can see how this type of thing isn't commonly done in ANY league.

Our rosters are not filled for that reason. However, we have seen A team players moved to B team for various reasons. In over their head, in need of some confidence building, sometimes just scheduling! All these kids developing...Why would you not build into your program the flexibility to meet each player's developmental needs? They still all practice with their 'friends' and see each other for hours upon hours of training!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Prelim rosters. Lots of kids try out for more than one team and then choose the one that their friends also make or the one that's closest, etc.

The challenge with trying out for more than one team is if your kid is good, they will get a top team offer after the first tryout, and you have 48 hours to decide. Once you decline, you can't really go back to any more tryouts where you got the offer to see if you really liked that program/coaches/competition.

I would think that clubs know that kids are trying out with more than one club. And that the clubs have different deadlines for accepting / declining. So there will be kids who say yes by the deadline but then, after the deadline, learn they've been offered a place whrere the team is a better fit. This must happen all the tiime: a kid first accepts, then within a few days receives a different offer that's better for him. Can the first club really expect that every Yes will remain a Yes?

Doesn't work like that. If you say Yes, and later reneg, you are done at that club. Done a lot of tryouts and this is why you never go to the 1st tryout. They will give you an offer and then the clock is ticking. I have been at no club that said, sure, go shop around and see if you can get a better offer. So you basically always go as a walk up to the last day and hope for the best. Or, pick the club you want and just focus on the tryouts there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Prelim rosters. Lots of kids try out for more than one team and then choose the one that their friends also make or the one that's closest, etc.

The challenge with trying out for more than one team is if your kid is good, they will get a top team offer after the first tryout, and you have 48 hours to decide. Once you decline, you can't really go back to any more tryouts where you got the offer to see if you really liked that program/coaches/competition.

I would think that clubs know that kids are trying out with more than one club. And that the clubs have different deadlines for accepting / declining. So there will be kids who say yes by the deadline but then, after the deadline, learn they've been offered a place whrere the team is a better fit. This must happen all the tiime: a kid first accepts, then within a few days receives a different offer that's better for him. Can the first club really expect that every Yes will remain a Yes?

Doesn't work like that. If you say Yes, and later reneg, you are done at that club. Done a lot of tryouts and this is why you never go to the 1st tryout. They will give you an offer and then the clock is ticking. I have been at no club that said, sure, go shop around and see if you can get a better offer. So you basically always go as a walk up to the last day and hope for the best. Or, pick the club you want and just focus on the tryouts there.

That sounds like great advice for a U9 tryout where there are 3 practices - hitting the 2nd and/or 3rd practice would have been great - wish I had known that. But may be tougher in older age tryouts when there are only 2 tryouts and you are an unknown.

[Anonymous]

Really good coaches at Stoddert - big challenge is space for teams to train.locations are in DC, but playing area is not ideal for multiple teams to practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting--Stoddert's U11 teams have 15 kids on each team this year. Is that normal? Does it mean a lot of kids are just going to be sitting on the bench?

Good question. I had the impression that U12 rosters were limited to 12, for teams in the NCSL. But that U11 rosters could be larger. The other thing is that maybe Stoddert offers 15 places per U11 team with the expectation that some kids will decline. Like overbooking on airlines.

Isn't this the year that U11 and U12 move to 9v9 instead of 8v8? (U9/10 is 7v7)

If so, moving from 14 (full roster for 8v8) to 15 makes some sense. (It's still overly large because it doesn't allow enough playing time if the full roster is dressed, but that's not a new issue).