Arlington DA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ID Sessions for next season (2019-20) are posted on the Arlington website.

Boys 2003-2008 ID sessions will be on Jan. 13 and Feb. 10 at Yorktown HS.

Girls 2003-2008 ID sessions will be on Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 at Yorktown HS.

So that means Arlington is getting U16-U17 DA next year, both boys and girls?

Is that confirmed?

My understanding is that U16 and U17 will be separate on both the boys and girls DA sides (4 NEW TEAMS for Arlington).

Well, that's good news then.

Yes. Excellent. More DA teams is exactly what we need.

Do you mean "we" as in, non-DA ASA players, or DMV area soccer in general?

The DMV area in general. I understand that this might be good news for ASA families, but it just waters down further the level of competitiveness of elite programs in the DMV area.

I understand your point, but Ithink it's a completely different landscape depending on which gender you're talking about. There are many times more potential elite boys players than there are potential elite girls players, and yet because of the ECNL-GDA competition there are about twice as many options for girls to play at the highest level as there are for boys.

Here's what I mean about the difference in player pools. To be an elite player, between team trainings and games, supplemental training (clinics, futsal, small groups, priv training), and training on your own, you need to be playing or training at least 6 days a week, pretty much year round.

If I had to guess, I'd say the ratio of boys to girls players putting in that amount of work is about 6:1.

That's not to say all BDA players are like that, but it describes the majority, and there are many outside the DA as well - some by choice and some not. In other words, there are a lot of boys out there working 6+ days a week, 11+ months a year, for years on end, who are not currently good enough to play at the top level. I don't think you could say the same thing about the girls.

Tinkering with the size of the elite player pyramid is a tricky thing. Make it too big and you risk watering it down, which decreases its value for the top players. Make it too small and you risk players getting missed - falling through the cracks. The latter is of particular concern given our coaches spotty track record of talent ID, and the obsession of many with immediate results and early developers.

Expanding Arlington's boy's DA probably makes sense, especially with DC moving to Leesburg next year. Expanding the girls DA probably makes less sense, given the landscape, unless there is going to be an offsetting contraction somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

From time to time on this thread and others, posters imply that DA teams at clubs like Arlington are essentially the first teams of those clubs, with the implication that the U11 first team players become the U12 DA team. Is that really true? Don't tryouts attract a considerably broader group of players given the small number of DAs and spots? And aren't the DA coaches motivated to select the best players regardless of where those players live? At Arlington, for example, a cursory look at the rosters for Boys DA shows more than half the players on many of the teams from outside Arlington (though they obviously may have played for an Arlington club previously). I suspect this will become a more pressing issue when DCU moves to Loudoun. Any insights would be appreciated, particularly from those who have actually been through this process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ID Sessions for next season (2019-20) are posted on the Arlington website.

Boys 2003-2008 ID sessions will be on Jan. 13 and Feb. 10 at Yorktown HS.

Girls 2003-2008 ID sessions will be on Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 at Yorktown HS.

So that means Arlington is getting U16-U17 DA next year, both boys and girls?

Is that confirmed?

My understanding is that U16 and U17 will be separate on both the boys and girls DA sides (4 NEW TEAMS for Arlington).

Well, that's good news then.

Yes. Excellent. More DA teams is exactly what we need.

Do you mean "we" as in, non-DA ASA players, or DMV area soccer in general?

The DMV area in general. I understand that this might be good news for ASA families, but it just waters down further the level of competitiveness of elite programs in the DMV area.

I understand your point, but Ithink it's a completely different landscape depending on which gender you're talking about. There are many times more potential elite boys players than there are potential elite girls players, and yet because of the ECNL-GDA competition there are about twice as many options for girls to play at the highest level as there are for boys.

Here's what I mean about the difference in player pools. To be an elite player, between team trainings and games, supplemental training (clinics, futsal, small groups, priv training), and training on your own, you need to be playing or training at least 6 days a week, pretty much year round.

If I had to guess, I'd say the ratio of boys to girls players putting in that amount of work is about 6:1.

That's not to say all BDA players are like that, but it describes the majority, and there are many outside the DA as well - some by choice and some not. In other words, there are a lot of boys out there working 6+ days a week, 11+ months a year, for years on end, who are not currently good enough to play at the top level. I don't think you could say the same thing about the girls.

Tinkering with the size of the elite player pyramid is a tricky thing. Make it too big and you risk watering it down, which decreases its value for the top players. Make it too small and you risk players getting missed - falling through the cracks. The latter is of particular concern given our coaches spotty track record of talent ID, and the obsession of many with immediate results and early developers.

Expanding Arlington's boy's DA probably makes sense, especially with DC moving to Leesburg next year. Expanding the girls DA probably makes less sense, given the landscape, unless there is going to be an offsetting contraction somewhere else.

I was mainly referring to the girls side, the elite part of which is crowded and ripe for a correction imo. But your stats on the relative numbers of boys to girls is interesting. A quick wikipedia search reports that there are 2.5 million boys and 1.7 million girls. Not certain of the vintage of those values but the ratio is quite different from your 6:1. My experience is only with girls and it would be curious that there would be so many more elite options for girls when the boys are more numerous.
Your points on the pyramid size are good. From the USSF perspective, I think you want to have a large pyramid to grow the sport. Elite players however want to play against reliably good competition so there is a balance to be struck there. Seems like locally the boys options are too few, and the girls too many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From time to time on this thread and others, posters imply that DA teams at clubs like Arlington are essentially the first teams of those clubs, with the implication that the U11 first team players become the U12 DA team. Is that really true? Don't tryouts attract a considerably broader group of players given the small number of DAs and spots? And aren't the DA coaches motivated to select the best players regardless of where those players live? At Arlington, for example, a cursory look at the rosters for Boys DA shows more than half the players on many of the teams from outside Arlington (though they obviously may have played for an Arlington club previously). I suspect this will become a more pressing issue when DCU moves to Loudoun. Any insights would be appreciated, particularly from those who have actually been through this process.

I can only say for the boys, you are correct. Many, possibly the majority, of the players on the boys DA teams would not be at Arlington if not for the DA. Even though some joined the year before their age group became eligible for the DA, that was the only reason they went there.

From what I've heard, when it comes to player selection there is a bit of tension between the DA coaches who just want the best players, and some of the old school coaches like Frank Demarco, who wants to keep a core group of Arlington- based players so they'll have something to build around after players age out of the DA. I can see both sides but that'll be less of an issue as they continue to move towards getting full DA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From time to time on this thread and others, posters imply that DA teams at clubs like Arlington are essentially the first teams of those clubs, with the implication that the U11 first team players become the U12 DA team. Is that really true? Don't tryouts attract a considerably broader group of players given the small number of DAs and spots? And aren't the DA coaches motivated to select the best players regardless of where those players live? At Arlington, for example, a cursory look at the rosters for Boys DA shows more than half the players on many of the teams from outside Arlington (though they obviously may have played for an Arlington club previously). I suspect this will become a more pressing issue when DCU moves to Loudoun. Any insights would be appreciated, particularly from those who have actually been through this process.

I can only say for the boys, you are correct. Many, possibly the majority, of the players on the boys DA teams would not be at Arlington if not for the DA. Even though some joined the year before their age group became eligible for the DA, that was the only reason they went there.

From what I've heard, when it comes to player selection there is a bit of tension between the DA coaches who just want the best players, and some of the old school coaches like Frank Demarco, who wants to keep a core group of Arlington- based players so they'll have something to build around after players age out of the DA. I can see both sides but that'll be less of an issue as they continue to move towards getting full DA.

For it to be a 'true DA', they should just take the best players. Period. It shouldn't matter where they come from or played prior. That's the point of DA. The DA should be a separate entity from the Club in some ways. Save the politics for the regular travel teams. I think that is why MLS DA is different.

[Anonymous]

let's just call everyone Elite and leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

MLS Academy teams looking to separate from DA - https://www.socceramerica.com/

[Anonymous]

Arlington Girls DA expanding to include all age groups up to U19 starting next year. Announcement on Boys DA expansion to come in the next few weeks.

http://www.ussoccerda.com/20190220-NEWS-DA-Six-New-Clubs-to-Join-Girls-Development-Academy-for-19-20-Season