Boys 2008 VA state rankings- lots of changes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Right - but I guess the question then becomes: "Is, as I contend, the quality of the coaching at the academy level good enough to draw talented players to come and try out for Arlington and thus raise the talent level on this team? Or will they, without the draw of DA, fail to attract talent away from neighboring clubs and therefore fall back to mediocre alongside the other ECNL clubc in this area?"

Time will tell.

None of the ones I know have any intention of going back even if Pep was announced as a Coach next season. So much BS there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Right - but I guess the question then becomes: "Is, as I contend, the quality of the coaching at the academy level good enough to draw talented players to come and try out for Arlington and thus raise the talent level on this team? Or will they, without the draw of DA, fail to attract talent away from neighboring clubs and therefore fall back to mediocre alongside the other ECNL clubc in this area?"

Time will tell.

None of the ones I know have any intention of going back even if Pep was announced as a Coach next season. So much BS there.

I can't speak for younger ages. But the academy teams are exceptionally well run and there is very little BS in my experience. And plenty of kids have moved to Arlington for the coaching from other DA teams and in at least one case even from DCU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs,
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs,
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

Might depend on how top heavy or bottom heavy the team was with birth dates that year. Just throwing it out there. I would think it might affect some teams more than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Nah. Their 08s were bad last year too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

I've seen most of the teams play - but not the 2009 team as they play in a different league with different opponents so we are rarely in the same place let alone at the same time. Apologies if I mistakenly reported results for the red team as the Academy team. Looks like the academy team results are not public. How are they doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Nah. Their 08s were bad last year too.

I don't think I said they weren't. What's your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

I've seen most of the teams play - but not the 2009 team as they play in a different league with different opponents so we are rarely in the same place let alone at the same time. Apologies if I mistakenly reported results for the red team as the Academy team. Looks like the academy team results are not public. How are they doing?

Let’s start with problem 1: assuming that their results tell you how U12s are developing. It is pretty evident you are at the right club. Let’s continue with problem 2: assuming that any club, much less Arlington, is attracting talent from all over NOVA at age U9. Are you totally high? Arlington doesn’t and certainly did not in those age groups. Splitting the ages had zero to do with it and had no impact on that group. Players were largely the same from U9 to 10. Younger players completely unaffected by the age group have departed elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

I've seen most of the teams play - but not the 2009 team as they play in a different league with different opponents so we are rarely in the same place let alone at the same time. Apologies if I mistakenly reported results for the red team as the Academy team. Looks like the academy team results are not public. How are they doing?

Let’s start with problem 1: assuming that their results tell you how U12s are developing. It is pretty evident you are at the right club. Let’s continue with problem 2: assuming that any club, much less Arlington, is attracting talent from all over NOVA at age U9. Are you totally high? Arlington doesn’t and certainly did not in those age groups. Splitting the ages had zero to do with it and had no impact on that group. Players were largely the same from U9 to 10. Younger players completely unaffected by the age group have departed elsewhere.

1. I don't think their results necessarily tell you how they are developing. I do believe there is some correlation between results and development. But I agree that it is necessary to watch a team to form a full judgment. I have watched most of the teams practise and play fairly regularly. I have not seen either of the two youngest teams play and hence was referencing the results as the best info I had.

2. I don't think Arlington or any other club is attracting talent from all over NOVA at U9. Not sure why you think I thought that.

3. I don't think splitting age groups had anything to do with anything. I did profer an explanation as to how it could possibly have done so - just as an academic point which I thought was mildly interesting. do not believe it did - nor does it make any difference to whether or not Arlington's coaching is better than other local clubs.

What I believe is that
- Arlington, at the academy age groups, has better coaching than other local ECNL clubs.
- as long as that continues, Arlington will continue at older age groups to draw talent from outside their own home turf.

That's it. That's all I believe.

Being more specific wrt the coaches I don't believe that every single coach is better than every single coach elsewhere - but that the average level of coaching is superior. Right now I believe they have one absolutely excellent coach who coaches 2 teams, one good coach who coaches two teams, one average coach who coaches one team, and one coach about whom I have no opinion as yet who also coaches one team.

So I'm not sure if we actually have a disagreement or not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

No 2007

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

I've seen most of the teams play - but not the 2009 team as they play in a different league with different opponents so we are rarely in the same place let alone at the same time. Apologies if I mistakenly reported results for the red team as the Academy team. Looks like the academy team results are not public. How are they doing?

Let’s start with problem 1: assuming that their results tell you how U12s are developing. It is pretty evident you are at the right club. Let’s continue with problem 2: assuming that any club, much less Arlington, is attracting talent from all over NOVA at age U9. Are you totally high? Arlington doesn’t and certainly did not in those age groups. Splitting the ages had zero to do with it and had no impact on that group. Players were largely the same from U9 to 10. Younger players completely unaffected by the age group have departed elsewhere.

1. I don't think their results necessarily tell you how they are developing. I do believe there is some correlation between results and development. But I agree that it is necessary to watch a team to form a full judgment. I have watched most of the teams practise and play fairly regularly. I have not seen either of the two youngest teams play and hence was referencing the results as the best info I had.

2. I don't think Arlington or any other club is attracting talent from all over NOVA at U9. Not sure why you think I thought that.

3. I don't think splitting age groups had anything to do with anything. I did profer an explanation as to how it could possibly have done so - just as an academic point which I thought was mildly interesting. do not believe it did - nor does it make any difference to whether or not Arlington's coaching is better than other local clubs.

What I believe is that
- Arlington, at the academy age groups, has better coaching than other local ECNL clubs.
- as long as that continues, Arlington will continue at older age groups to draw talent from outside their own home turf.

That's it. That's all I believe.

Being more specific wrt the coaches I don't believe that every single coach is better than every single coach elsewhere - but that the average level of coaching is superior. Right now I believe they have one absolutely excellent coach who coaches 2 teams, one good coach who coaches two teams, one average coach who coaches one team, and one coach about whom I have no opinion as yet who also coaches one team.

So I'm not sure if we actually have a disagreement or not...

I found the coaching at Arlington to be underwhelming. If you actually leave Arlington and get a real comparison--you would likely conclude the same. The only coaches we valued are all coaching elsewhere now. My kid actually plays for one of the former ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw this and was surprised to see no Arlington teams in the top 10. The highest rank is #15 for their Academy team.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=State&Gender=Boys&Age=13&State=VA&pos=10&hl=1257611

You're probably trolling. But if not:

The 2008 team seems to be weaker than most of the Arlington teams so probably doesn't deserve to be all that high in any case. Equally gotsoccer is a bit silly. For example you get points for EDP league games, but not ECNL or MLS Next games.

So take the Arlington 2005 team for example. Got soccer ranks them behind Alexandria - but then look at the details. Alexandria got 4200 of its 6200 ranking points from playing in EDP. Arlington only played in one ranked competition - state cup, which it won, but has less points in total because got soccer doesn't count ECNL league games.

In general https://youthsoccerrankings.us/rankings/VA/13/Boys/ is better because it does at least count all games played, although still struggles to get the relative ranking between different leagues correct. YSR shows Arlington 08 boys as 6th in the state which is probably a better reflection of their ability - although not of Arlington's general quality across all age groups.

I think we will continue to see declines for Arlington at these ages as the impact of migration from da to encl becomes evident. It doesn’t mean the Arlington talent moves to the mlsnext teams (though some might). It just means that there is no particular reason to travel further to play at Arlington vs any of the other ECNLs. Longer term you will see upside for McLean and BRYC out of all this.

As long as there continues to be a clear difference in coaching I think Arlington will be fine - but Arlington will have to maintain that edge in order to maintain the gap. Whereas before DA would have allowed them to slack off and still draw kids.

There is not a clear difference. We will see what they do with these 08s. This is their second year with them and last year was just as ugly.

They lost quite a few really good players early on due to the typical bs shenanigans.

Early on this year? Early on last year? What shenanigans?

Early on when the age group started. A lot of talent went to play for other Clubs.

Wasn't 08 the youngest age group affected when they changed to birth year teams? As in some of the kids who would normally start travel at U9 had to jump to U10? I remember there being a lot of upheaval at that time with the 08s.

We are looking for factors that did not affect everybody at all clubs. I am lost on why this would have any greater impact on Arlington vs other clubs.
Or on this team vs other 2008 teams. Their other younger teams appear to have those issues.

As a purely academic point - if one particular club usually manages to get most of the talented kids from an area and some external event that occurs which causes a percentage of kids on every team to switch teams - then that club would suffer a drop in talent while others would experience a rise.

That said - I have no idea whether this was the case.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting re the other younger teams. 2009 is the youngest academy team and is 6-0-1 in CCL and leading it's league on a PPG basis. The 2007, 2006 and 2005 teams have all performed exceptionally well and are playing really attractive soccer - significantly different in style and quality to other nearby ECNL clubs. 2008 and 2004 are the teams which are arguably underperforming by Arlington standards. I haven't seen any of the 2008 games so can't comment directly - but the coach of that team is new to the program - so maybe he isn't as good as the others. It will be interesting to see if he stays with the club and whether his results improve if he does. The 2004 team, which performed very well last year, was arguably unlucky in a number of its earlier games. However the results have continued to be poor - although I haven't seen them play for a while so don't know if the coaching is at fault.

Top team at 2009 is not red. Stop guessing and go watch if you want to be credible, and then talk about it all you want.

I've seen most of the teams play - but not the 2009 team as they play in a different league with different opponents so we are rarely in the same place let alone at the same time. Apologies if I mistakenly reported results for the red team as the Academy team. Looks like the academy team results are not public. How are they doing?

Let’s start with problem 1: assuming that their results tell you how U12s are developing. It is pretty evident you are at the right club. Let’s continue with problem 2: assuming that any club, much less Arlington, is attracting talent from all over NOVA at age U9. Are you totally high? Arlington doesn’t and certainly did not in those age groups. Splitting the ages had zero to do with it and had no impact on that group. Players were largely the same from U9 to 10. Younger players completely unaffected by the age group have departed elsewhere.

1. I don't think their results necessarily tell you how they are developing. I do believe there is some correlation between results and development. But I agree that it is necessary to watch a team to form a full judgment. I have watched most of the teams practise and play fairly regularly. I have not seen either of the two youngest teams play and hence was referencing the results as the best info I had.

2. I don't think Arlington or any other club is attracting talent from all over NOVA at U9. Not sure why you think I thought that.

3. I don't think splitting age groups had anything to do with anything. I did profer an explanation as to how it could possibly have done so - just as an academic point which I thought was mildly interesting. do not believe it did - nor does it make any difference to whether or not Arlington's coaching is better than other local clubs.

What I believe is that
- Arlington, at the academy age groups, has better coaching than other local ECNL clubs.
- as long as that continues, Arlington will continue at older age groups to draw talent from outside their own home turf.

That's it. That's all I believe.

Being more specific wrt the coaches I don't believe that every single coach is better than every single coach elsewhere - but that the average level of coaching is superior. Right now I believe they have one absolutely excellent coach who coaches 2 teams, one good coach who coaches two teams, one average coach who coaches one team, and one coach about whom I have no opinion as yet who also coaches one team.

So I'm not sure if we actually have a disagreement or not...

I found the coaching at Arlington to be underwhelming. If you actually leave Arlington and get a real comparison--you would likely conclude the same. The only coaches we valued are all coaching elsewhere now. My kid actually plays for one of the former ones.

Are you talking about the academy coaches, or the travel coaches? There's a big difference.