Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's look at two outstanding area girls teams- Bethesda 2019 and Arlington 2019. Both are nationally ranked and about 50% home grown, meaning the girls devleoped through the club system versus moving from other clubs (which is what I see in the top area boys teams.) We are a soccer obsessed family with kids at two different clubs since the new USA rule impacted my fall birthday DD. Anyway, the coach of one of these teams expects most of the roster to play in college. Is this realistic?

Sure. Just depends on where. A D3 school that maybe you've never heard of? Sure. In my limited experience (I have both a son and daughter who played travel and are now in college), it's not as hard for girls to play in college. It really just depends on if that's what you want to do. If so, you start pursuing it. Get exposure at showcases, go to ID camps, get some additional training, etc. The thing to remember, though, is that a lot of families from Bethesda and Arlington would rather their daughter go to, lets say, Duke, for academic reasons than Lynchburg, so that they can play college soccer. A lot of girls on those teams you mentioned have the potential to play in college, though, for sure. It just comes down to a lot of other factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's look at two outstanding area girls teams- Bethesda 2019 and Arlington 2019. Both are nationally ranked and about 50% home grown, meaning the girls devleoped through the club system versus moving from other clubs (which is what I see in the top area boys teams.) We are a soccer obsessed family with kids at two different clubs since the new USA rule impacted my fall birthday DD. Anyway, the coach of one of these teams expects most of the roster to play in college. Is this realistic?

Sure. Just depends on where. A D3 school that maybe you've never heard of? Sure. In my limited experience (I have both a son and daughter who played travel and are now in college), it's not as hard for girls to play in college.

Yes indeed. More teams, more scholarships, especially in Division 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's look at two outstanding area girls teams- Bethesda 2019 and Arlington 2019. Both are nationally ranked and about 50% home grown, meaning the girls devleoped through the club system versus moving from other clubs (which is what I see in the top area boys teams.) We are a soccer obsessed family with kids at two different clubs since the new USA rule impacted my fall birthday DD. Anyway, the coach of one of these teams expects most of the roster to play in college. Is this realistic?

Sure. Just depends on where. A D3 school that maybe you've never heard of? Sure. In my limited experience (I have both a son and daughter who played travel and are now in college), it's not as hard for girls to play in college. It really just depends on if that's what you want to do. If so, you start pursuing it. Get exposure at showcases, go to ID camps, get some additional training, etc. The thing to remember, though, is that a lot of families from Bethesda and Arlington would rather their daughter go to, lets say, Duke, for academic reasons than Lynchburg, so that they can play college soccer. A lot of girls on those teams you mentioned have the potential to play in college, though, for sure. It just comes down to a lot of other factors.

I was the one up thread who said I thought significantly more than 5-10% of the kids who are still playing travel soccer in HS around here will play in college. I should clarify that my estimate is mostly based on my experience with my daughters' teams, and does include a significant number of girls going to DIII schools. They are recruited by those schools, but don't of course, receive any athletic money. There are far fewer opportunities for boys who are not playing at the top levels.

I don't think the national numbers that have been cited are particularly applicable to our area. We have a lot more successful soccer clubs and overall soccer participation that most regions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's look at two outstanding area girls teams- Bethesda 2019 and Arlington 2019. Both are nationally ranked and about 50% home grown, meaning the girls devleoped through the club system versus moving from other clubs (which is what I see in the top area boys teams.) We are a soccer obsessed family with kids at two different clubs since the new USA rule impacted my fall birthday DD. Anyway, the coach of one of these teams expects most of the roster to play in college. Is this realistic?

Sure. Just depends on where. A D3 school that maybe you've never heard of? Sure. In my limited experience (I have both a son and daughter who played travel and are now in college), it's not as hard for girls to play in college. It really just depends on if that's what you want to do. If so, you start pursuing it. Get exposure at showcases, go to ID camps, get some additional training, etc. The thing to remember, though, is that a lot of families from Bethesda and Arlington would rather their daughter go to, lets say, Duke, for academic reasons than Lynchburg, so that they can play college soccer. A lot of girls on those teams you mentioned have the potential to play in college, though, for sure. It just comes down to a lot of other factors.

I was the one up thread who said I thought significantly more than 5-10% of the kids who are still playing travel soccer in HS around here will play in college. I should clarify that my estimate is mostly based on my experience with my daughters' teams, and does include a significant number of girls going to DIII schools. They are recruited by those schools, but don't of course, receive any athletic money. There are far fewer opportunities for boys who are not playing at the top levels.

I don't think the national numbers that have been cited are particularly applicable to our area. We have a lot more successful soccer clubs and overall soccer participation that most regions.

Your daughter's team is probably one of the few that sends players to college. Most teams don't.

Sure, we have a lot of successful clubs and a lot of participation. But that also means we have a lot of participants who are simply not going to play at the next level. We also have a lot of disposable income around here, so players who might be rec players in less wealthy areas are travel players here.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'd say way more than 5-10% of kids who are still playing travel soccer in HS around here will end up playing in college. I'm not clear on why discussion should be restricted to topics that pertain only to younger players who may not ever get to that level. College recruiting necessarily involves the parent (who will be paying for college), and ideally includes the coach or TD, who hopefully will be advising the player on programs that will be a good fit.

Oh stop, that discussion regarding the recruitment process exists in more soccer dedicated forums and would be best approached as a process that , again, is not unique. Many of the same issues exists for families across the nation and the only club relevant discussion is based solely on the league the team/club plays in or the showcase events that the team/club qualifies for. It isn't that hard to look up DA or ECNL clubs and then pick the ones in your area.

If neither of those are in the cards and college is an ambition you have your work cut out for you find other avenues for exposure, ODP, Super Y, College ID camps etc. Which, in that case, the coach or club will likely be of little assistance to you and again the process and shared experience of that will be more helpful than picking a club based on meticulous reading of Board meeting minutes.

So yes, all of that information can be had without bragging or ragging on any club especially considering how much can simply be accomplished by the player themselves. Record the games yourself, work on the highlight video and work with your kid on well crafted letters to coaches. All of that is what you do that makes the difference, not the club.

How about this: Those of us who think it's useful to talk about and read about specific clubs (or leagues or recruiting assistance available at specific clubs) can continue to do so, and those of you who prefer to stick to reading and posting about more general soccer related topics can follow that approach.

How about this, list the clubs that will emphatically get your kid into college then and see how it goes. 3.2.1 Go!

FC Dallas ?

Well played.

(Though a lot of their players skip college and go straight to the pros.)

I thought "FC Dallas" was a reference to Ramiro Funes Mori who played high school soccer in the Dallas area and was signed by FC Dallas before going on to start at center back for Everton and the Argentine national team by age 20.

FC Dallas has signed 15 players from its Academy in less than 10 years, most of them recently: http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/fc-dallas-signs-academy-product-paxton-pomykal-as-homegrown-player/

And a few have been taken away by other clubs:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/09/23/how-fc-dallas-became-home-best-academy-united-states

Most of the others go to college.

That was very relevant club discussion. I was wrong, we should talk about Texas based clubs in a D.C. based forum more often.

[Anonymous]

Funny stuff here:
https://twitter.com/BabbittCGroup/status/790365236939358209

[Anonymous]

Amazing how this thread dies once the haters have no posts to rag on. They've scared everyone off.

Don't name any clubs, just makes everyone defensive, and find a new league if you don't like the regional travel in CCL.

Learned a lot here. Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

Back to the DI/DIII discussion...someone was telling me last week that her son has been playing at a DIII school but was also recruited by a DI school, but offered only a partial athletic scholarship there. The DIII school happened to be of interest to him for non-soccer reasons (academics/social/location, etc), and she said the soccer coach was able to help him get academic scholarship money (more than what the DI school was offering in athletic scholarship) as a result of him wanting the kid to play on his team. He chose the DIII school, but after 3 years, her son decided he was done with soccer and decided not to play this year (in his senior year) - since his grades have been good, he still gets the academic scholarship. I thought this was interesting. Obviously, the circumstances were right in this situation...he is a good student, he was interested in that DIII school for non-soccer reasons, etc., but I had never heard of a coach helping a recruit get significant academic money - she seemed to suggest he wouldn't have gotten that money without the coach's intervention. Anyhow, seemed like an interesting angle to consider if the school is otherwise a good match.

And...I agree with a PP. Kids need to choose a college that works for them for academic reasons, and if soccer works out, great. Or, if soccer can help them get into their college of choice, that's great. I hear of more and more kids who start out playing college soccer, then transfer when they don't have a good experience, decide to stop playing, and realize they're at the wrong school b/c they were chasing a soccer dream.

For those who have been through the college recruiting process, when did your daughter start reaching out to coaches? Our freshman went to two ID camps this past summer and will play in a number of showcases this year with her club team, but hasn't fully matured physically yet. I'm guessing she won't get much of a look until she does. Better to wait until sophomore year? Some of her teammates are getting attention already, but she really hasn't.

[Anonymous]

My son had the exact same story..sure there is no "athletic scholarships" but many small D3 schools have tons of "academic scholarships" with pretty low thresholds, and my son was no scholar in high school! After playing on a pretty successful CCL team (not one of the big 3 mentioned in earlier posts but they beat all 3 his senior year) as well as being on a high school powerhouse, he wanted to continue to play in college, but also wanted to enjoy his college experience so he focused on D3 schools after he heard all of the horror stories about playing in D1. It has been the best thing for him, small school atmosphere, he is enjoying his college experience, is doing well academically and he has started every game this year, while many of his friends who did go D1 have either quit soccer all together or are riding the pine and are miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amazing how this thread dies once the haters have no posts to rag on. They've scared everyone off.

Don't name any clubs, just makes everyone defensive, and find a new league if you don't like the regional travel in CCL.

Learned a lot here. Thanks all!

I can only speak for myself, but I took a break from posting because I was finding it so tedious interacting with the person who wants to prevent people from mentioning clubs by name. The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when there was a guy trying to keep everyone from criticizing CCL. The censorship efforts are just so bizarre to me.

Are you the would-be censor?

[Anonymous]

I think Loudoun is the best Club in the area, and probably Virginia. They own CCL and have more nationaly ranked teams than other clubs. I don't really know why anyone would want to play for a BRYC or little SYA. I really just don't get it but Loudoun simply rocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the DI/DIII discussion...someone was telling me last week that her son has been playing at a DIII school but was also recruited by a DI school, but offered only a partial athletic scholarship there. The DIII school happened to be of interest to him for non-soccer reasons (academics/social/location, etc), and she said the soccer coach was able to help him get academic scholarship money (more than what the DI school was offering in athletic scholarship) as a result of him wanting the kid to play on his team. He chose the DIII school, but after 3 years, her son decided he was done with soccer and decided not to play this year (in his senior year) - since his grades have been good, he still gets the academic scholarship. I thought this was interesting. Obviously, the circumstances were right in this situation...he is a good student, he was interested in that DIII school for non-soccer reasons, etc., but I had never heard of a coach helping a recruit get significant academic money - she seemed to suggest he wouldn't have gotten that money without the coach's intervention. Anyhow, seemed like an interesting angle to consider if the school is otherwise a good match.

And...I agree with a PP. Kids need to choose a college that works for them for academic reasons, and if soccer works out, great. Or, if soccer can help them get into their college of choice, that's great. I hear of more and more kids who start out playing college soccer, then transfer when they don't have a good experience, decide to stop playing, and realize they're at the wrong school b/c they were chasing a soccer dream.

For those who have been through the college recruiting process, when did your daughter start reaching out to coaches? Our freshman went to two ID camps this past summer and will play in a number of showcases this year with her club team, but hasn't fully matured physically yet. I'm guessing she won't get much of a look until she does. Better to wait until sophomore year? Some of her teammates are getting attention already, but she really hasn't.

We are just starting the recruiting process with our son, so don't have a lot of first hand experience to offer yet, but I think late freshman or early sophomore year is a perfect time to start for kids who are not playing at the very highest levels (top ECNL and national team type girls seem to start as early as 8th grade, which is crazy). A lot of girls don't make their decisions until junior or senior year. Have you asked your coach if he or she has any thoughts on programs that might be a good fit?

Re DIII and academic money, I do think coaches in some programs can be very helpful in working with admissions committees to figure out what sort of academic merit awards may be available. Good, but not top tier, small schools are the place to start looking for this, like Denison, Muhlenberg, etc.

Note that there is a recent thread on the sports forum that is focused on recruitment that may be of interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing how this thread dies once the haters have no posts to rag on. They've scared everyone off.

Don't name any clubs, just makes everyone defensive, and find a new league if you don't like the regional travel in CCL.

Learned a lot here. Thanks all!

I can only speak for myself, but I took a break from posting because I was finding it so tedious interacting with the person who wants to prevent people from mentioning clubs by name. The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when there was a guy trying to keep everyone from criticizing CCL. The censorship efforts are just so bizarre to me.

Are you the would-be censor?

No, I'm with you. You just make my point straightforward. Those two censors (maybe the same knucklehead) just seek to kill open discussion through their tirades and pet peeves. People should talk about any club teams they want and name their experiences there. We have been at PAC which was pretty good compared to having tried being on a lower team at the two big nearby CCL clubs where you just subsidize the top coach and top curriculum for the A team.

People should feel free to lament that their child is so good that their club TD doesn't want them to play down on an ODSL team but wants them to stick through CCL all the way . . even with its unreasonable distance problem for 9-11 year olds. This is the fate of our other kid (the one being subsidized by the bottom teams) until CCL fixes the league problem for which their has bean no VIABLE solution. (Fix is supposed to come in 2017.) Some parents don't want other families carpooling their kid to Richmond and VA Beach . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Loudoun is the best Club in the area, and probably Virginia. They own CCL and have more nationaly ranked teams than other clubs. I don't really know why anyone would want to play for a BRYC or little SYA. I really just don't get it but Loudoun simply rocks.

So, is your plan to start a flame-war so you can come back and tell everyone how stupid they are for contributing to the posts that mention clubs by name? Don't you have anything better to do with your time than police this one thread on DCUM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Loudoun is the best Club in the area, and probably Virginia. They own CCL and have more nationaly ranked teams than other clubs. I don't really know why anyone would want to play for a BRYC or little SYA. I really just don't get it but Loudoun simply rocks.

I won't argue there What about Arlington and McLean? loudon too far to drive for u9 soccer for us. been told Arlingron rising and mclean falling, but no specifics