Offers - is there ever any wiggle room?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is much "wiggle room" in the sense that your questioning the club's placement decision, and saying that you think your child belongs on the A team etc., is going to cause them to change their minds. One assumes that they know every parent is interested in their child being properly placed, and that many parents might *think* that their child belongs on the A team when the fact is that, relatively speaking, there are other players ahead of their child in development and ability.

If by "wiggle room" you mean whether things could change down the road -- absolutely, in my experience. Kids move up/down on teams, even in the weeks leading up to the start of the fall season, based on how they are performing in the initial practices/scrimmages. Also, as others mentioned, sometimes kids leave--switch clubs at the last minute, move away from the area (quite common, in DC-metro)--and new openings appear. Your child might move up to the A team based.

In any case, if you have, or think you can get, an offered spot on the A team of another club that you *would be happy* playing with, that would certainly be an option I'd consider. I doubt that telling your current club that the folks on "the other club" think your child is an A-team player would change their minds, however.

This is OP - I wasn't actually questioning the placement aside from just considering the feedback we got from the coaches, which made it seem like DC almost made it. I wasn't going to question the club as to whether they made the wrong call; just wondering whether there was any chance we'd get a notification that a spot had actually opened up because someone else turned it down.

It is possible, but most coaches prefer to keep one or two spots open on the top team in case a really strong player comes from the outside rather than fill them with players that are on the bubble. If a really strong player shows interest (e.g., moves from another state or wants to change clubs), it could be more beneficial to keep a spot or two open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just know that kids on that bubble can also be moved down no matter the offer. My son was given an A team offer at a young age and happily took it. Practiced in August with the team and did well but new kids showed up and the coach said he was going to be moving some kids to B for some games to help out. My son and at least one other ended up playing mostly on B that year.

This is OP - we have an offer in hand for the B team and that's where DC was this year. They've done well with the team, like the coach and the other kids, but were also told they'd have a good shot to make A next year, and now that they haven't, they've been told it was really close. There's always next year, but DC is kind of holding out hope since all the clubs are putting offers out now and I don't know whether that's realistic.

and they will tell you the same thing again next year. We had a close friend bring out their kid to my dc's tryout and they complained that they were told that they were close last year and throughout the year their kid didn't get any opportunities with the top team so they were frustrated. Guess what, they were told the same thing again this year and they still decided to go back to that same B team. This in a year where roster size increased so how close were they really? At our club they actually received a top team offer. They were meh on their coach and ours is actually really good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just tell them you have an offer from a rival and you will be moved up right away

How horrible can you be?

May be horrible but true. In some cases fees outweighs playing ability in their team decision making.