Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Interesting story from Canada:
http://www.theprovince.com/sports/academy/soccer/longer+keeping+score+soccer+players+under/9882836/story.html

But if you don't have trophies and published standings, how will I know my club is superior to the others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the record, VYS has been wonderful for our family. It's just house and all-stars, but we've appreciated just about everything, including the volunteer coaches. Vienna wouldn't be the same for kids without it.

Yes, I agree about the house/all-stars: great kids, great coaches who have put in a lot of time and effort and my DS has loved all that. However, I am now looking at travel and this thread has been very interesting as I want to make sure I get value for money
Overall though, my DS has great skills for his age but is not going to be a future pro so I just want him to have fun with it!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the record, VYS has been wonderful for our family. It's just house and all-stars, but we've appreciated just about everything, including the volunteer coaches. Vienna wouldn't be the same for kids without it.

Yes, I agree about the house/all-stars: great kids, great coaches who have put in a lot of time and effort and my DS has loved all that. However, I am now looking at travel and this thread has been very interesting as I want to make sure I get value for money
Overall though, my DS has great skills for his age but is not going to be a future pro so I just want him to have fun with it!!

I wish more soccer parents were as reasonable as you, PP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How realistic is it though that her child will make the high school soccer team? He needs something more than rec but apparently isn't a standout player. Many travel players play for years and never make their high school teams. Why does the only option have to be travel or rec at age 8?

There is no way to predict whether a child will make a high school soccer team based on their proficiency level at age 8. That will depend not only on the child's athletic and skill development, practice, and priorities through the years (as well as the level of family support he gets), but also on the soccer culture and coach of the high school where he ends up.

I'm not clear on why so many people see the idea of joining a travel team at 8 as a bad thing assuming (and it's a large assumption, I know) they have the time and money for it, and I found the travel baseball piece someone posted above the be pretty silly and one-sided, with very little application to soccer. In any case, the choice is not as stark as enter travel at 8 or never play high school. The important thing for a family with a soccer focused kid is to make sure he learns the skills he'll need to be competitive if he still wants to pursue soccer in middle school and beyond. There are a variety of ways to get there, and joining a good travel program is the easiest for kids who do not come from families that know and value soccer.

VYS has four travel soccer teams for just about each age level and those kids feed into one or two high schools. Too many travel teams for one town in my opinion and all those kids won't make high school soccer. Travel soccer is a great program but it's not always a means to some end. Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel. Arlington seems a little more reasonably spread out at four travel teams that feed into five high schools.

The baseball piece was about travel baseball vs local baseball and the benefits of having a strong local team. It had nothing to do with soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How realistic is it though that her child will make the high school soccer team? He needs something more than rec but apparently isn't a standout player. Many travel players play for years and never make their high school teams. Why does the only option have to be travel or rec at age 8?

There is no way to predict whether a child will make a high school soccer team based on their proficiency level at age 8. That will depend not only on the child's athletic and skill development, practice, and priorities through the years (as well as the level of family support he gets), but also on the soccer culture and coach of the high school where he ends up.

I'm not clear on why so many people see the idea of joining a travel team at 8 as a bad thing assuming (and it's a large assumption, I know) they have the time and money for it, and I found the travel baseball piece someone posted above the be pretty silly and one-sided, with very little application to soccer. In any case, the choice is not as stark as enter travel at 8 or never play high school. The important thing for a family with a soccer focused kid is to make sure he learns the skills he'll need to be competitive if he still wants to pursue soccer in middle school and beyond. There are a variety of ways to get there, and joining a good travel program is the easiest for kids who do not come from families that know and value soccer.

VYS has four travel soccer teams for just about each age level and those kids feed into one or two high schools. Too many travel teams for one town in my opinion and all those kids won't make high school soccer. Travel soccer is a great program but it's not always a means to some end. Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel. Arlington seems a little more reasonably spread out at four travel teams that feed into five high schools.

The baseball piece was about travel baseball vs local baseball and the benefits of having a strong local team. It had nothing to do with soccer.

Almost every kid doing Arlington travel is a W-L or Yorktown kid--so they really feed into 2 HS. HB Woodlawn kids play at their home schools--gen. Yorktown or W-L.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the record, VYS has been wonderful for our family. It's just house and all-stars, but we've appreciated just about everything, including the volunteer coaches. Vienna wouldn't be the same for kids without it.

Yes, I agree about the house/all-stars: great kids, great coaches who have put in a lot of time and effort and my DS has loved all that. However, I am now looking at travel and this thread has been very interesting as I want to make sure I get value for money
Overall though, my DS has great skills for his age but is not going to be a future pro so I just want him to have fun with it!!

Agree!

I will say (and yes I don't know all that much except what was said).... But we attended the ASA u9 parents meeting in Arlington this week and they STRONGLY emphasize that this is supposed to be FUN and the kids are supposed to learn new skills and develop a life long love of the game. They really stress player development and (at least their words) played down winning and a cut throat mentality. Maybe things will change once we start, but they do seem to realize these are kids who just love to play the game and want to play and learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VYS has four travel soccer teams for just about each age level and those kids feed into one or two high schools. Too many travel teams for one town in my opinion and all those kids won't make high school soccer. Travel soccer is a great program but it's not always a means to some end. Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel. Arlington seems a little more reasonably spread out at four travel teams that feed into five high schools.

VYS feeds into more high schools than that -- there's Madison, Marshall, Oakton and a bunch of private schools.

Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel, but then again, not everyone who does travel has to play in high school.

The baseball piece was about travel baseball vs local baseball and the benefits of having a strong local team. It had nothing to do with soccer.

Oh, but it did. It was about baseball resisting the movement to have travel take over from "rec." How many Vienna 9-year-olds do you know who play baseball outside Vienna Little League? Not many. And yet Madison typically has a strong baseball team (20-2 this year).

I sometimes think travel soccer was the best thing to happen to Little League baseball. So much less drama to deal with in baseball. And I say that as someone who doesn't like baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agree!

I will say (and yes I don't know all that much except what was said).... But we attended the ASA u9 parents meeting in Arlington this week and they STRONGLY emphasize that this is supposed to be FUN and the kids are supposed to learn new skills and develop a life long love of the game. They really stress player development and (at least their words) played down winning and a cut throat mentality. Maybe things will change once we start, but they do seem to realize these are kids who just love to play the game and want to play and learn.

I agree PP at this age it's suppose to be "fun". However, when you are paying out money and you don't see improvement in your kids skills, because it's "developmental" and they are suppose to be having "fun". And there are parent volunteer coaches for a travel team, most have never played soccer themselves in high school or college... what exactly is the child getting out of the game?? Other than to play on a team and socialize? While my child has developed on his own while playing with teammates. Some of these travel programs are nothing but leeches sucking money out of parents for something that is just above house level play. Yeah, I'm probably bitter because I envisioned travel to be one thing and it turned into something completely differetn ... I should just step away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VYS has four travel soccer teams for just about each age level and those kids feed into one or two high schools. Too many travel teams for one town in my opinion and all those kids won't make high school soccer. Travel soccer is a great program but it's not always a means to some end. Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel. Arlington seems a little more reasonably spread out at four travel teams that feed into five high schools.

VYS feeds into more high schools than that -- there's Madison, Marshall, Oakton and a bunch of private schools.

Not everyone who loves soccer has to do travel, but then again, not everyone who does travel has to play in high school.

The baseball piece was about travel baseball vs local baseball and the benefits of having a strong local team. It had nothing to do with soccer.

Oh, but it did. It was about baseball resisting the movement to have travel take over from "rec." How many Vienna 9-year-olds do you know who play baseball outside Vienna Little League? Not many. And yet Madison typically has a strong baseball team (20-2 this year).

I sometimes think travel soccer was the best thing to happen to Little League baseball. So much less drama to deal with in baseball. And I say that as someone who doesn't like baseball.

Little league is completely different because you can only sign up for your local little. Enrollment is based on your address. Travel soccer is open enrollment. I can have my kid try out for any league I want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At FPYC U9 yesterday, there were between 35-40 kids for 20 spots.

Seriously???? In Arlington there were about 130 kids for 40 spots. U-9

That's one of the reasons we don't live in Arlington. Everything is more crowded and cut-throat.

Bet thats N Arlington and not S Arlignton. I could go through the apartments off Glebe road and round up a team of South American kids that cant afford travel and could probably beat most at the u10 level

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At FPYC U9 yesterday, there were between 35-40 kids for 20 spots.

Seriously???? In Arlington there were about 130 kids for 40 spots. U-9

That's one of the reasons we don't live in Arlington. Everything is more crowded and cut-throat.

Bet thats N Arlington and not S Arlignton. I could go through the apartments off Glebe road and round up a team of South American kids that cant afford travel and could probably beat most at the u10 level

Are there any Latino soccer leagues in the area for kids?

[Anonymous]

Sure, its called house leauge. Look at SYSA, they take the fall all star team from house and put them in Dulles Sportsplex for the winter session and win. Beating all the travel teams mentioned here, Vienna, Loudoun, Mclean, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At FPYC U9 yesterday, there were between 35-40 kids for 20 spots.

Seriously???? In Arlington there were about 130 kids for 40 spots. U-9

That's one of the reasons we don't live in Arlington. Everything is more crowded and cut-throat.

Bet thats N Arlington and not S Arlignton. I could go through the apartments off Glebe road and round up a team of South American kids that cant afford travel and could probably beat most at the u10 level

Are there any Latino soccer leagues in the area for kids?

Latino leagues: Can't say about league, but Latinos are well represented at Annandale Boys and Girls.

S Arlington underrepresented: Yup.

[Anonymous]

Ha, reminds me of my kids "trave"l Basket ball team. One of the top teams in Loudoun. We traveled up to NY City for a tournament.. OUCH! I swear there was a 7th grader dunking on us. It was ugly and humbling. Different level of talent when you play for the love of the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At FPYC U9 yesterday, there were between 35-40 kids for 20 spots.

Seriously???? In Arlington there were about 130 kids for 40 spots. U-9

That's one of the reasons we don't live in Arlington. Everything is more crowded and cut-throat.

Bet thats N Arlington and not S Arlignton. I could go through the apartments off Glebe road and round up a team of South American kids that cant afford travel and could probably beat most at the u10 level

Arlington has the best financial aid for travel soccer of any club in the area, covering the majority of the registration fee for something like 100 kids who qualify (free/reduced lunch). Lots of kids in Arlington can't afford travel soccer, but the travel soccer club is generous with its financial aid.