Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

My son 9, years old is on a travel soccer team. He's good, but not great. This is something he has worked for and we were happy to allow him to participate. Well, VYS travel has not been for him what we thought it would be. As for developmental skills the kid is as far along as he was last fall. The coaches are parent volunteer coaches, we have trainers, they work with the kids maybe an hour a week. The duration of the 3 hours of practice are conducted by the parent volunteer coaches. While I respect the parent volunteer coaches and my gosh, they have given up a lot of their time to coach my son and the rest of his team mates. These coaches just do not have what it takes to build a team. I asked my son just last week why the coach played him in a certain position his response "I asked the coach to play that position so that my friend and I could play the same position but at opposite ends. REALLY??? You are telling the coaches what positions you want to play!? My son really likes soccer, no I don't think he's going to get a scholarship (it would be nice) but I know reality and it's just not going to happen. Soccer is physical and he's a high energy kid and needs it.

So my question is, why travel soccer team does your child play on and are you happy with it. Also, if you are inclined please let me know how much you are paying.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

a travel team is nto coached by a volunteer parent. It sounds like he is in a step up from rec.

3 hours of practice at a time is way too long the best coaches do not have training beyond 1 1/2 hours.

Get him soem real provate coaching and ask that trainer where he should be playing.

[Anonymous]

I don't have anything to offer but am curious about the answers because I think we're headed for travel soccer next year with our 8yo.

OP, what do you pay at VYS? Do they rank the teams, or is everyone treated the same?

[Anonymous]

Potomac $2100/year - does not include summers, add another $450 for summer.

[Anonymous]

I think you're expecting too much for the 9 year old group. While I do agree about the parent coaches, I think once your son gets a bit older and they start to do more position specific training you will see more in the way of development. Adjust your expectations a bit

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. I think your instinct to look for better training is the right one. If your family is going to be spending this much time on travel soccer, it would definitely be good to make sure he's getting the proper training along the way.

We are at Bethesda and think the training on the boys' side at the younger ages is fantastic. There are a few families that have made the trek from Vienna to Bethesda, but it is a hike for sure. I'm not sure how convenient the various practice fields would be, but I know that Loudoun, McLean, and Arlington all have very good, serious programs for developing young players, and the PWSI boys' teams we have seen are very good and skillful as well. McLean seems to have had a fair amount of turmoil since losing their academy status on the boys' side, but my sense is that things are starting to stabilize there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have anything to offer but am curious about the answers because I think we're headed for travel soccer next year with our 8yo.

OP, what do you pay at VYS? Do they rank the teams, or is everyone treated the same?

As for pay, I'm not 100% sure, but I think the base is around $1,350, plus other expenses, uniform, warm up suit. All in all I think we are currently at $1,500 for the year.


At VYS, this is what they did in the Fall (I understand there maybe some changes for 2014/2015 season)

One big try out with several trainers watching the kids. After initial try out some decisions were made and position offered, my son being one of them. There was then a second try out & third to get some other players. Players are then divided into NCSL teams and ODSL teams. For my son's age group there are two teams in each for NCSL and ODSL.

In my opinion everyone is not treated the same. There are certainly kids that I've seen playing under the ODSL that should be in NCSL and vice versa. The kids that get preferential treatment (ie those in NCSL, were the kids that did the VYS cross over training) kids that didn't go to cross over training for an additional fee of course were placed in ODSL teams for the most part. There were some kids that did cross over that were placed on ODSL.

VYS organization is lacking leadership, trainers and a couple of other items. The Director seems unapproachable and promises were made that have not been acted on.

PP, good luck to your son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I think your instinct to look for better training is the right one. If your family is going to be spending this much time on travel soccer, it would definitely be good to make sure he's getting the proper training along the way.

We are at Bethesda and think the training on the boys' side at the younger ages is fantastic. There are a few families that have made the trek from Vienna to Bethesda, but it is a hike for sure. I'm not sure how convenient the various practice fields would be, but I know that Loudoun, McLean, and Arlington all have very good, serious programs for developing young players, and the PWSI boys' teams we have seen are very good and skillful as well. McLean seems to have had a fair amount of turmoil since losing their academy status on the boys' side, but my sense is that things are starting to stabilize there.

Thank you, PP. I've heard great things about Bethesda, yes it's a hike from NOVA especially when I have another child who also needs to play extra circular activities and I need to drive him around as well.

[Anonymous]

We were at McLean for 3 years and had a good experience, although it was just before the loss of the academy. I think that mostly impacted the high school level (which we were). Definitely professional coaches, and very good ones in our experience. They also did an extra club wide training practice each week for the "premier" teams. It was about $1100/season, plus team fees of maybe $200/season. While we paid for 2 seasons per year, it was a year round program - there were weekly winter practices and a winter league and weekly summer practices plus an end of summer training camp that were all included.

[Anonymous]

We've had a good experience on McLean YS too. Pretty well run. I've heard it depends on the actual age group as to how competitive it is though.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria. Seems fine for us, I think we pay around $800. Picked it because we live here, and I'm not interested in schlepping for practices as well as games.

[Anonymous]

I have heard good things about a program called PAC. In Arlington/Falls Church area.

[Anonymous]

Quick reality check here:

U.S. Soccer doesn't want professional coaches "building teams" at age 9. (They actually don't want players trying out for travel teams at this age, either, but I think the barn door has been open for a while on that one.) They want coaches to build individual skills. Most coaching gurus at USSF and USYSA favor mixing up teams where practical.

They also don't want players specializing in particular positions at an early age. They want well-rounded players. So if your coach let two buddies pick a position for a given game, fine -- they made the coach's rotation that much easier for that game. Hopefully, at the next game, they moved elsewhere.

Perhaps this sounds counterintuitive. But it's actually based on best practices from clubs like Barcelona and Ajax. If you educate yourself through a source like the NSCAA, you will see just how much research and thought goes into this.

Not a winning team? Fine -- you're supposed to be focusing on development rather than winning, anyway.

VYS lives by these principles. A lot of other clubs do not.

So the question is this:

1. Do you want your son to have a good time representing his town and playing with his buddies, all the while learning skills that will help in whatever soccer he ends up playing down the road?

2. Or do you want to drag your son to Bethesda or Loudoun so he can be part of a machine that produces some college players?

If, by age 12, you think your son has the makings of an elite player, then you've got plenty of time to take him to one of the big clubs in the area. Though, frankly, that varies from year to year within each club. Peek through the NCSL divisions and see which clubs have top teams. It varies wildly by age group. VYS had one boys team go beyond NCSL to Region I competition a couple of years ago; now a couple of girls teams are similarly powerful.

But yes -- a few clubs in the area produce a lot of elite teams. But if you're not on one of those elite teams, what's the point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quick reality check here:

U.S. Soccer doesn't want professional coaches "building teams" at age 9. (They actually don't want players trying out for travel teams at this age, either, but I think the barn door has been open for a while on that one.) They want coaches to build individual skills. Most coaching gurus at USSF and USYSA favor mixing up teams where practical.

Yes, I get that. But as you mention the barn door is open! What I'm saying is the coaches on my son's team haven't built one skill, they are parent volunteer and quite honestly, the two coaches have no chemistry with each other and are terrible coaches.


They also don't want players specializing in particular positions at an early age. They want well-rounded players. So if your coach let two buddies pick a position for a given game, fine -- they made the coach's rotation that much easier for that game. Hopefully, at the next game, they moved elsewhere.

No, this has happened every game, kids ask to play a certain position and the coach(s) allow them. As I mentioned above, they are not the best trained coaches.

Perhaps this sounds counterintuitive. But it's actually based on best practices from clubs like Barcelona and Ajax. If you educate yourself through a source like the NSCAA, you will see just how much research and thought goes into this.

Not a winning team? Fine -- you're supposed to be focusing on development rather than winning, anyway. = I get this too, but if this type of league is suppose to be more developmental, which is what VYS says, I understand. However, if the team is losing every damn game because of poor coaching and lack of training, there is a PROBLEM!! Also, understanding the developmental, but you tell me how to develop the confidence of an 8 or 9 to get out on the field week after week and get their asses handed to them??? How is that developing???

VYS lives by these principles. A lot of other clubs do not.

I'm very familiar with what the VYS principals are and have taken note, but again, I'm questioning the coaching and training as well as the organization.

So the question is this:

1. Do you want your son to have a good time representing his town and playing with his buddies, all the while learning skills that will help in whatever soccer he ends up playing down the road?

Of course, but when I say he's not developed at all since he stopped playing on a house league, Spring of 2013 at VYS; and he's suppose to be developing on this travel league it's a concern. FTR it's not just my son, it's a shared concerned throughout the entire parent body.

2. Or do you want to drag your son to Bethesda or Loudoun so he can be part of a machine that produces some college players?

Oh heck no, he's certainly not at that level yet!

If, by age 12, you think your son has the makings of an elite player, then you've got plenty of time to take him to one of the big clubs in the area. Though, frankly, that varies from year to year within each club. Peek through the NCSL divisions and see which clubs have top teams. It varies wildly by age group. VYS had one boys team go beyond NCSL to Region I competition a couple of years ago; now a couple of girls teams are similarly powerful.

But yes -- a few clubs in the area produce a lot of elite teams. But if you're not on one of those elite teams, what's the point?

Thank you for your knowledge and
great feedback.

[Anonymous]

OP, is your son A team or B team? I've heard some complaints about both of those teams.