Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss Part II

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington or Alexandria best for developing young boys U9.....live close to both practice facilities.

Alexandria. Even when their boys lose, it looks like they should be winning. Fluid, possession-based play. Arlington is great as well. You cannot really go wrong either place. You should go watch their U9s practice or play to get a feel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington or Alexandria best for developing young boys U9.....live close to both practice facilities.

Alexandria. Even when their boys lose, it looks like they should be winning. Fluid, possession-based play. Arlington is great as well. You cannot really go wrong either place. You should go watch their U9s practice or play to get a feel.

Alexandria has a much more laid back feel, without sacrificing on training.

Arlington is 'tense'.

Kids will get decent training either place.

I would check out both places so you can get a feel for what environment would work best for you and your child.

Both Clubs do very well at that age.

[Anonymous]

If you truly want your player to truly play a proactive style, independent of results, go with Alexandria. Arlington is good but they have a tendency to rely on the long ball a fair amount and MY GOD do those kids act like spoiled brats towards referees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TIFWIW, but I have not received the official offer yet from Spirit and I feel pretty confident my daughter will get one. Also, I assume someone, perhaps even me, will post that offers have come out once the emails are delivered, and nothing has been posted yet. There's another ID session still left for the VA DA and I'm assuming they'll wait until after that.

My daughter went to recent Spirit ID session and was asked for her name multiple tones by coaching staff but we haven’t heard a word. She will go on 22nd also, and hopefully after that they will start to make offers? Or will they be like Arlington and then have invite only sessions?

I miss the days of tryouts being during a set time period so you had a time frame of expecting to hear decisions!!

Not to fan any fire, but quite frankly, the 22nd is an interesting date to hold the DA ID session as younger local ECNL players are going to be out of town.

Doesn't VDA have ecnl id sessions that day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TIFWIW, but I have not received the official offer yet from Spirit and I feel pretty confident my daughter will get one. Also, I assume someone, perhaps even me, will post that offers have come out once the emails are delivered, and nothing has been posted yet. There's another ID session still left for the VA DA and I'm assuming they'll wait until after that.

My daughter went to recent Spirit ID session and was asked for her name multiple tones by coaching staff but we haven’t heard a word. She will go on 22nd also, and hopefully after that they will start to make offers? Or will they be like Arlington and then have invite only sessions?

I miss the days of tryouts being during a set time period so you had a time frame of expecting to hear decisions!!

Not to fan any fire, but quite frankly, the 22nd is an interesting date to hold the DA ID session as younger local ECNL players are going to be out of town.

Doesn't VDA have ecnl id sessions that day?

Does it really matter when VDA will hold ID sessions? Was any player really holding off on joining VDA because they couldnt play HS soccer?

[Anonymous]

Do High Schools charge kids to play soccer? Like are there any fees at all? Thanks

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do High Schools charge kids to play soccer? Like are there any fees at all? Thanks

Fairfax County has a $50 extracurricular fee that you pay no matter what extracurricular activity you do. It's not cumulative -- if you do band, crew, basketball and theatre, you pay the same $50 as someone who just plays soccer.

On a related note -- how many rec players make high school teams? I'm doing a survey, and I'm finding that a lot of parents are grossly misinformed. I researched the Madison varsity and JV (boys and girls) and found travel teams for all but five of the players (out of 84).

Thank you! So $50. That's it? They don't have to buy their kit or anything? I'm wondering because there is a lot of talk about how the pay to play system keeps a lot of minorities who have soccer in their blood out of organized soccer. I read about how there are so many quality players being left behind because of the pay-to-play system. It got me thinking...why aren't they all playing middle school and HS soccer and tearing it up? If it's $50 + $150 for a kit or something....is that still a deal breaker for these kids?

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do High Schools charge kids to play soccer? Like are there any fees at all? Thanks

Fairfax County has a $50 extracurricular fee that you pay no matter what extracurricular activity you do. It's not cumulative -- if you do band, crew, basketball and theatre, you pay the same $50 as someone who just plays soccer.

On a related note -- how many rec players make high school teams? I'm doing a survey, and I'm finding that a lot of parents are grossly misinformed. I researched the Madison varsity and JV (boys and girls) and found travel teams for all but five of the players (out of 84).

We have 8 boys on my U16 SFL (rec) team playing HS JV this past year. These boys are playing for FFX County public, WCAC, MAC and IAC high school teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do High Schools charge kids to play soccer? Like are there any fees at all? Thanks

Fairfax County has a $50 extracurricular fee that you pay no matter what extracurricular activity you do. It's not cumulative -- if you do band, crew, basketball and theatre, you pay the same $50 as someone who just plays soccer.

On a related note -- how many rec players make high school teams? I'm doing a survey, and I'm finding that a lot of parents are grossly misinformed. I researched the Madison varsity and JV (boys and girls) and found travel teams for all but five of the players (out of 84).

We have 8 boys on my U16 SFL (rec) team playing HS JV this past year. These boys are playing for FFX County public, WCAC, MAC and IAC high school teams.

Also, I heard last years top U16 boys SFL team had to drop out of SFL this spring season because a large number of the boys on that team made their Prince William County public high school team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do High Schools charge kids to play soccer? Like are there any fees at all? Thanks

Fairfax County has a $50 extracurricular fee that you pay no matter what extracurricular activity you do. It's not cumulative -- if you do band, crew, basketball and theatre, you pay the same $50 as someone who just plays soccer.

On a related note -- how many rec players make high school teams? I'm doing a survey, and I'm finding that a lot of parents are grossly misinformed. I researched the Madison varsity and JV (boys and girls) and found travel teams for all but five of the players (out of 84).

Thank you! So $50. That's it? They don't have to buy their kit or anything? I'm wondering because there is a lot of talk about how the pay to play system keeps a lot of minorities who have soccer in their blood out of organized soccer. I read about how there are so many quality players being left behind because of the pay-to-play system. It got me thinking...why aren't they all playing middle school and HS soccer and tearing it up? If it's $50 + $150 for a kit or something....is that still a deal breaker for these kids?

If you are a FARM student I don't think you pay any fees for high school soccer or any club.

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering because there is a lot of talk about how the pay to play system keeps a lot of minorities who have soccer in their blood out of organized soccer. I read about how there are so many quality players being left behind because of the pay-to-play system. It got me thinking...why aren't they all playing middle school and HS soccer and tearing it up?

Because the soccer pathway starts way before HS even begins. Clubs start charging big time $ before U9 travel soccer even starts, over 1k at the minimum. Once a player is on a U9 travel team, cost can double to over 2K, at a minimum. We are talking about kids in 2nd grade. That's why they can't tear it up, as you put it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering because there is a lot of talk about how the pay to play system keeps a lot of minorities who have soccer in their blood out of organized soccer. I read about how there are so many quality players being left behind because of the pay-to-play system. It got me thinking...why aren't they all playing middle school and HS soccer and tearing it up?

Because the soccer pathway starts way before HS even begins. Clubs start charging big time $ before U9 travel soccer even starts, over 1k at the minimum. Once a player is on a U9 travel team, cost can double to over 2K, at a minimum. We are talking about kids in 2nd grade. That's why they can't tear it up, as you put it.

OK fair enough. I get that that travel starts at 8 years old and High School soccer starts at 15 I suppose, so there are many years in between, but I hear all these stories of the 12-13 year old latino kids "down at the park" who are twice as good as the travel players but can't afford to play. What about those kids?

[Anonymous]

I hear all these stories of the 12-13 year old latino kids "down at the park" who are twice as good as the travel players but can't afford to play. What about those kids?

Again, a 12 or 13 year old still needs to pay 2k plus to be able to play travel. Moreover, top players at this age group start playing at the DA level, which is more $ and more demanding (up to 4 training sessions per week, in addition to weekend games) Developmental training years between the ages of 9-14 is what sets you apart. Starting the road at the HS level is not realistic, and arguably, too late for most.

[Anonymous]

A lot of high schools are part of the pay-to-play system too. They have partnerships with local clubs in which the clubs send “professional player evaluators” to pick the players who will make cuts. More often than not, can you take a guess as to which players are chosen?

[Anonymous]

The latino kids are usually playing SFL, other house league or on some organized team already. They don't just play in the park only.