Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

I think it's a Catch-22 for the talking-soccer site. No one has posted there so no one starts to post there. But that seems an great place to replace PSW since PSW has chosen to stifle open discussions.

I like this site and the discussions here but it would be nice to have a separate thread about each topic instead one giant combined thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a Catch-22 for the talking-soccer site. No one has posted there so no one starts to post there. But that seems an great place to replace PSW since PSW has chosen to stifle open discussions.

I like this site and the discussions here but it would be nice to have a separate thread about each topic instead one giant combined thread.

Perhaps we (and anyone else who is reading this and interested) could post both places with specific topic headlines and see if we can gain some momentum. I'm guessing there would be more high quality responses here, but more ones from soccer-obsessives there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's a Catch-22 for the talking-soccer site. No one has posted there so no one starts to post there. But that seems an great place to replace PSW since PSW has chosen to stifle open discussions.

I like this site and the discussions here but it would be nice to have a separate thread about each topic instead one giant combined thread.

Having run message boards before, I think it helps to have news stories seeding the discussion. By way of comparison, consider this thread -- it dies out for weeks at a time, and people rarely talk about any club but Vienna. That leads me to believe we only have a couple of people who happen to be from Vienna. (Or have axes to grind because they used to be with Vienna.)

Also, having run messages before, I think this "stifling open discussion" conspiracy theory is utter nonsense.

I'd love to see more open discussion. Parents are so often sold on ridiculous promises. It'd be nice to have a forum to analyze some of the nonsense and get a few unvarnished takes on what various leagues and clubs really offer.

That said, there's a danger that it could just be more nonsense. I once visited a Georgia youth soccer board. Most of the discussion was of the "Club A kicked Club B's butt ... oh yeah? Well our U15s just kicked YOUR U15s butt, and they did it without bribing the refs" variety. Yuck.

But add up the pros and cons, and I think it's a good idea to encourage people to post at talking-soccer. Beats having people just whispering lies on the sidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speaking of PSW, it's interesting that they will let the mom of Eddie's girlfriend post in their discussions but will moderate comments from people who know details of what lead to his contract not being renewed because PSW doesn't want the truth to come about about Eddie such as how he hired unqualified trainers from his own company just so he could get a cut of their salaries. Wonder how many other posters on there are Eddie's buddies and not really VYS parents?

I'd bet PSW has no idea what you're talking about. They're using Disqus. How would they even know one of those commenters is the mom of Eddie's girlfriend? And whose comments are being moderated?

For the record, we (PSW) have disallowed ONLY ONE post on the Eddie Lima piece because it was an ugly, personal attack which violated our terms of use. ONE OTHER comment yesterday was edited only to remove one sentence that essentially accused Lima of a crime without proof. We communicated with the person who commented (because even if you don't use Disqus, we still require a verified email address to post) offering to have them explain further or if they'd like us to just remove that one sentence. They explained further, but asked that not publish the explanation for fear it would be obvious who they were. Finally, through the course of this discussion on Lima's departure from VYS, we have banned one user completely from the site for repeated offenses of breaking our terms of service rules. This person used to post under a fake email address on our old commenting platform, but since we implemented Disqus, we were able to single them out as a repeat offender. Any insinuation that we shape the comments to favor an opinion is not only ridiculous, it would actually make us liable in any sort of defamation or liable suit. We can not and will not edit out comments that are posted within our terms of use.

As to the comments about PSW's decision to remove those OLD discussion forums because we are in it for the page views is silly. We removed those forums 6 years ago and have only recently recovered our page views back to those old levels. Anyone who is in this website publishing thing for the money would absolutely have forums like this one here, and would have every headline "10 hottest..." or "7 things you need to know before...." and all that other TMZ style crap.

[Anonymous]

I have a U11 son that would like to play travel next year at U12 - but that's when the format of the game changes (different field size, more players on the field at once, different ball size - anything else?). Anyhow, CYA has 4 boys teams at that level and none have big rosters. I keep wondering if they will combine and consolidate down to 3 teams. My son loves to play, but he's on the least competitive team and although he's devoted, he is not very competitive - he plays more for fun. Should we be worried he could be cut? Anyone have any insight as to what usually happens when moving from U11-U12? Maybe nothing earth-shattering at all - just thought I'd ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a U11 son that would like to play travel next year at U12 - but that's when the format of the game changes (different field size, more players on the field at once, different ball size - anything else?). Anyhow, CYA has 4 boys teams at that level and none have big rosters. I keep wondering if they will combine and consolidate down to 3 teams. My son loves to play, but he's on the least competitive team and although he's devoted, he is not very competitive - he plays more for fun. Should we be worried he could be cut? Anyone have any insight as to what usually happens when moving from U11-U12? Maybe nothing earth-shattering at all - just thought I'd ask.

I'm not sure exactly how CYA does it but it wouldn't surprise me that even if they consolidate the teams, they still take the same total number of players. At U11, rosters are typically 12 players while at U12 they go up to 16 players, and four teams of 12 is equal to 3 teams of 16. So it seems that there might not be a numbers issue especially if the current rosters are already small.

[Anonymous]

I like the PSW board because the accusations are more lurid and the sock puppets are more ludicrously transparent than what one finds here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As to the comments about PSW's decision to remove those OLD discussion forums because we are in it for the page views is silly. We removed those forums 6 years ago and have only recently recovered our page views back to those old levels. Anyone who is in this website publishing thing for the money would absolutely have forums like this one here, and would have every headline "10 hottest..." or "7 things you need to know before...." and all that other TMZ style crap.

Hi PSW rep. Thanks for coming here to clarify things. I'd posted earlier lamenting the loss of your site's open forums, and wanted to follow-up on your comments above.

Can you tell us why you decided to remove the open forums? You seem to indicate above that they help make money, and as you can see, DCUM is extremely successful without having to resort to tactics like posting "10 hottest..." etc. I think you guys have done a great job retooling the main page of your site, and I visit it frequently for news and for the news stories and articles. But I definitely don't like the idea of being limited to posting comments only on the content you decide to post. Especially since most of the articles, while quite good, are prettty earnest--I just dont' think there is that much to say about most of them, educational though they may be. If you think that feature is important, why not allow both the article commenting and have open forums for other discussions folks may want to pursue?

With respect to the forums, it hasn't been anywhere near 6 years since they were removed. Probably more like 2 or 3, and as you can see here, many of us are still mourning them. There were certainly some lunatics posting there (which most of us found entertaining), but there was also lots of really thoughtful discussion. I'm going to paste below one of my favorite posts from the PSW forums to give people a sense of the sort of comments people made back in the day. This was posted in 2012 (I think), and I sent it to my husband because it pretty much nailed the experience we were having with club soccer at the time.

In response to a question about tryout etiquette for U9 soccer, one cynical but funny PSW forum poster had this to say:

"Having gone through this in the not too distant past, and having experience with a couple clubs, here's some info that Soccer44 might want to have:

In youth soccer at U9, you have two types of clubs.

Large, Academy Clubs: Usually run a U8 Academy of some sort, so the U9 players are already largely selected. Those tryouts were last year, and they now have 75-100 kids in the U8 Academy that they will select from for U9. Unless your kid is exceptional, you will find you have already missed the opportunity for a large club. The U9-U11 teams will remain pretty stable. The A team will excel, the B team will be ok, and C and D probably should never have been created as a travel team in the first place but that's 24 more players paying coach fees. At U11/U12, players start moving around after Divisional placement, so that's your next opportunity to get into one of the large academy clubs. The C/D teams will implode at this point, going largely winless from U9-U11. If you have an A or B team player in U9-U11, you will be pressed to go 'help out' the C/D team in U9-U10 by guest playing when you don't have a game or in tournaments, in what will be a futile attempt to get those teams some wins so they don't all quit after the first year. You will likely have a new coach every year. If you are happily at home in the A or B team at U11, you could find yourself cut as a result of a mass transfer from an imploding team - see below.

Small, Non-Academy Clubs: Will take anyone that shows up. The A team will be ok, maybe even good. The B team will bad - usually really bad - and will have kids with emotional/behavioral problems that will disrupt training and the team. You can join this club at almost anytime since they are constantly short players. If offered a B team slot, strongly consider continuing in Rec or SFL. The B team, with few exceptions, will implode at U11. The A team will disintegrate at U12/U13 if placed in anything less than D4, as no talented, motivated player will want to stay on D5 or below. Your best players will leave for D1 or D2 teams, probably after U11 but definitely by U13. It's possible that will happen mid-year, leaving the other players without enough numbers to field a team. You will usually have the same coach the entire time, but half the parents will hate him/her. Some parents may band together to engineer a mass transfer to a better team, typically an Academy club."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As to the comments about PSW's decision to remove those OLD discussion forums because we are in it for the page views is silly. We removed those forums 6 years ago and have only recently recovered our page views back to those old levels. Anyone who is in this website publishing thing for the money would absolutely have forums like this one here, and would have every headline "10 hottest..." or "7 things you need to know before...." and all that other TMZ style crap.

Hi PSW rep. Thanks for coming here to clarify things. I'd posted earlier lamenting the loss of your site's open forums, and wanted to follow-up on your comments above.

Can you tell us why you decided to remove the open forums? You seem to indicate above that they help make money, and as you can see, DCUM is extremely successful without having to resort to tactics like posting "10 hottest..." etc. I think you guys have done a great job retooling the main page of your site, and I visit it frequently for news and for the news stories and articles. But I definitely don't like the idea of being limited to posting comments only on the content you decide to post. Especially since most of the articles, while quite good, are prettty earnest--I just dont' think there is that much to say about most of them, educational though they may be. If you think that feature is important, why not allow both the article commenting and have open forums for other discussions folks may want to pursue?

With respect to the forums, it hasn't been anywhere near 6 years since they were removed. Probably more like 2 or 3, and as you can see here, many of us are still mourning them. There were certainly some lunatics posting there (which most of us found entertaining), but there was also lots of really thoughtful discussion. I'm going to paste below one of my favorite posts from the PSW forums to give people a sense of the sort of comments people made back in the day. This was posted in 2012 (I think), and I sent it to my husband because it pretty much nailed the experience we were having with club soccer at the time.

In response to a question about tryout etiquette for U9 soccer, one cynical but funny PSW forum poster had this to say:

"Having gone through this in the not too distant past, and having experience with a couple clubs, here's some info that Soccer44 might want to have:

In youth soccer at U9, you have two types of clubs.

Large, Academy Clubs: Usually run a U8 Academy of some sort, so the U9 players are already largely selected. Those tryouts were last year, and they now have 75-100 kids in the U8 Academy that they will select from for U9. Unless your kid is exceptional, you will find you have already missed the opportunity for a large club. The U9-U11 teams will remain pretty stable. The A team will excel, the B team will be ok, and C and D probably should never have been created as a travel team in the first place but that's 24 more players paying coach fees. At U11/U12, players start moving around after Divisional placement, so that's your next opportunity to get into one of the large academy clubs. The C/D teams will implode at this point, going largely winless from U9-U11. If you have an A or B team player in U9-U11, you will be pressed to go 'help out' the C/D team in U9-U10 by guest playing when you don't have a game or in tournaments, in what will be a futile attempt to get those teams some wins so they don't all quit after the first year. You will likely have a new coach every year. If you are happily at home in the A or B team at U11, you could find yourself cut as a result of a mass transfer from an imploding team - see below.

Small, Non-Academy Clubs: Will take anyone that shows up. The A team will be ok, maybe even good. The B team will bad - usually really bad - and will have kids with emotional/behavioral problems that will disrupt training and the team. You can join this club at almost anytime since they are constantly short players. If offered a B team slot, strongly consider continuing in Rec or SFL. The B team, with few exceptions, will implode at U11. The A team will disintegrate at U12/U13 if placed in anything less than D4, as no talented, motivated player will want to stay on D5 or below. Your best players will leave for D1 or D2 teams, probably after U11 but definitely by U13. It's possible that will happen mid-year, leaving the other players without enough numbers to field a team. You will usually have the same coach the entire time, but half the parents will hate him/her. Some parents may band together to engineer a mass transfer to a better team, typically an Academy club."

This is what we face in our large club and it is ridiculous. I totally disagree with your assessment (and I have been in travel soccer a long, long time as a top player and a coach). The lower teams will only implode because the good players will move to other clubs. The Academy did a horrible job of pre-selecting our U-9 teams (it appears juggling and running around like a spaz were highly valued). Some of the best players in the club are on the bottom team. These kids continually excel and beat the kids on the upper level teams in scrimmages. It seems they have something against moving anyone down to a lower team which would be the correct thing to do. Our son was a standout and was continually recognized by the coaches from other Clubs---a kid that never scored less than a hatrick in any game (and these were goals he created, not cherry-picked) and also led the team in assists. When the club is run like Bureaucracy and nepotism and sucking up determines placement---the team performs like big government. People wonder why US soccer is mediocre at best. Here in lies the reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As to the comments about PSW's decision to remove those OLD discussion forums because we are in it for the page views is silly. We removed those forums 6 years ago and have only recently recovered our page views back to those old levels. Anyone who is in this website publishing thing for the money would absolutely have forums like this one here, and would have every headline "10 hottest..." or "7 things you need to know before...." and all that other TMZ style crap.

Hi PSW rep. Thanks for coming here to clarify things. I'd posted earlier lamenting the loss of your site's open forums, and wanted to follow-up on your comments above.

Can you tell us why you decided to remove the open forums? You seem to indicate above that they help make money, and as you can see, DCUM is extremely successful without having to resort to tactics like posting "10 hottest..." etc. I think you guys have done a great job retooling the main page of your site, and I visit it frequently for news and for the news stories and articles. But I definitely don't like the idea of being limited to posting comments only on the content you decide to post. Especially since most of the articles, while quite good, are prettty earnest--I just dont' think there is that much to say about most of them, educational though they may be. If you think that feature is important, why not allow both the article commenting and have open forums for other discussions folks may want to pursue?

With respect to the forums, it hasn't been anywhere near 6 years since they were removed. Probably more like 2 or 3, and as you can see here, many of us are still mourning them. There were certainly some lunatics posting there (which most of us found entertaining), but there was also lots of really thoughtful discussion. I'm going to paste below one of my favorite posts from the PSW forums to give people a sense of the sort of comments people made back in the day. This was posted in 2012 (I think), and I sent it to my husband because it pretty much nailed the experience we were having with club soccer at the time.

In response to a question about tryout etiquette for U9 soccer, one cynical but funny PSW forum poster had this to say:

"Having gone through this in the not too distant past, and having experience with a couple clubs, here's some info that Soccer44 might want to have:

In youth soccer at U9, you have two types of clubs.

Large, Academy Clubs: Usually run a U8 Academy of some sort, so the U9 players are already largely selected. Those tryouts were last year, and they now have 75-100 kids in the U8 Academy that they will select from for U9. Unless your kid is exceptional, you will find you have already missed the opportunity for a large club. The U9-U11 teams will remain pretty stable. The A team will excel, the B team will be ok, and C and D probably should never have been created as a travel team in the first place but that's 24 more players paying coach fees. At U11/U12, players start moving around after Divisional placement, so that's your next opportunity to get into one of the large academy clubs. The C/D teams will implode at this point, going largely winless from U9-U11. If you have an A or B team player in U9-U11, you will be pressed to go 'help out' the C/D team in U9-U10 by guest playing when you don't have a game or in tournaments, in what will be a futile attempt to get those teams some wins so they don't all quit after the first year. You will likely have a new coach every year. If you are happily at home in the A or B team at U11, you could find yourself cut as a result of a mass transfer from an imploding team - see below.

Small, Non-Academy Clubs: Will take anyone that shows up. The A team will be ok, maybe even good. The B team will bad - usually really bad - and will have kids with emotional/behavioral problems that will disrupt training and the team. You can join this club at almost anytime since they are constantly short players. If offered a B team slot, strongly consider continuing in Rec or SFL. The B team, with few exceptions, will implode at U11. The A team will disintegrate at U12/U13 if placed in anything less than D4, as no talented, motivated player will want to stay on D5 or below. Your best players will leave for D1 or D2 teams, probably after U11 but definitely by U13. It's possible that will happen mid-year, leaving the other players without enough numbers to field a team. You will usually have the same coach the entire time, but half the parents will hate him/her. Some parents may band together to engineer a mass transfer to a better team, typically an Academy club."

This is what we face in our large club and it is ridiculous. I totally disagree with your assessment (and I have been in travel soccer a long, long time as a top player and a coach). The lower teams will only implode because the good players will move to other clubs. The Academy did a horrible job of pre-selecting our U-9 teams (it appears juggling and running around like a spaz were highly valued). Some of the best players in the club are on the bottom team. These kids continually excel and beat the kids on the upper level teams in scrimmages. It seems they have something against moving anyone down to a lower team which would be the correct thing to do. Our son was a standout and was continually recognized by the coaches from other Clubs---a kid that never scored less than a hatrick in any game (and these were goals he created, not cherry-picked) and also led the team in assists. When the club is run like Bureaucracy and nepotism and sucking up determines placement---the team performs like big government. People wonder why US soccer is mediocre at best. Here in lies the reason.

This reponse spot-on and I'm giggling because our C/D teams never lose. Kids from these teams are often are called on to go guest play in the A/B games (not the reverse like the top poster suggest)---and more often than not the goals come from these kids. why they aren't officially moved up is a strange thing. I'm guessing there have to be some big club donors on the upper teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is what we face in our large club and it is ridiculous. I totally disagree with your assessment (and I have been in travel soccer a long, long time as a top player and a coach). The lower teams will only implode because the good players will move to other clubs. The Academy did a horrible job of pre-selecting our U-9 teams (it appears juggling and running around like a spaz were highly valued). Some of the best players in the club are on the bottom team. These kids continually excel and beat the kids on the upper level teams in scrimmages. It seems they have something against moving anyone down to a lower team which would be the correct thing to do. Our son was a standout and was continually recognized by the coaches from other Clubs---a kid that never scored less than a hatrick in any game (and these were goals he created, not cherry-picked) and also led the team in assists. When the club is run like Bureaucracy and nepotism and sucking up determines placement---the team performs like big government. People wonder why US soccer is mediocre at best. Here in lies the reason.

This reponse spot-on and I'm giggling because our C/D teams never lose. Kids from these teams are often are called on to go guest play in the A/B games (not the reverse like the top poster suggest)---and more often than not the goals come from these kids. why they aren't officially moved up is a strange thing. I'm guessing there have to be some big club donors on the upper teams.

Just to clarify, I'm the poster who posted the quote about U9 soccer. It wasn't my quote, just one that I'd copied a couple years back from the no-longer-existing Potomacsoccerwire.com forums. I posted it as an example of the interesting thoughts that people used to offer up on those forums (which I want back!!).

While I think the quote certainly cannot be applied to every single soccer club and team, it fit our experience as parents of young soccer players pretty well at the time, and I think it's a very amusing effort to capture some of the absurdities of the local soccer scene.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
In response to a question about tryout etiquette for U9 soccer, one cynical but funny PSW forum poster had this to say:

"Having gone through this in the not too distant past, and having experience with a couple clubs, here's some info that Soccer44 might want to have:

In youth soccer at U9, you have two types of clubs.

Large, Academy Clubs: Usually run a U8 Academy of some sort, so the U9 players are already largely selected. Those tryouts were last year, and they now have 75-100 kids in the U8 Academy that they will select from for U9. Unless your kid is exceptional, you will find you have already missed the opportunity for a large club. The U9-U11 teams will remain pretty stable. The A team will excel, the B team will be ok, and C and D probably should never have been created as a travel team in the first place but that's 24 more players paying coach fees. At U11/U12, players start moving around after Divisional placement, so that's your next opportunity to get into one of the large academy clubs. The C/D teams will implode at this point, going largely winless from U9-U11. If you have an A or B team player in U9-U11, you will be pressed to go 'help out' the C/D team in U9-U10 by guest playing when you don't have a game or in tournaments, in what will be a futile attempt to get those teams some wins so they don't all quit after the first year. You will likely have a new coach every year. If you are happily at home in the A or B team at U11, you could find yourself cut as a result of a mass transfer from an imploding team - see below.

Small, Non-Academy Clubs: Will take anyone that shows up. The A team will be ok, maybe even good. The B team will bad - usually really bad - and will have kids with emotional/behavioral problems that will disrupt training and the team. You can join this club at almost anytime since they are constantly short players. If offered a B team slot, strongly consider continuing in Rec or SFL. The B team, with few exceptions, will implode at U11. The A team will disintegrate at U12/U13 if placed in anything less than D4, as no talented, motivated player will want to stay on D5 or below. Your best players will leave for D1 or D2 teams, probably after U11 but definitely by U13. It's possible that will happen mid-year, leaving the other players without enough numbers to field a team. You will usually have the same coach the entire time, but half the parents will hate him/her. Some parents may band together to engineer a mass transfer to a better team, typically an Academy club."

This is what we face in our large club and it is ridiculous. I totally disagree with your assessment (and I have been in travel soccer a long, long time as a top player and a coach). The lower teams will only implode because the good players will move to other clubs. The Academy did a horrible job of pre-selecting our U-9 teams (it appears juggling and running around like a spaz were highly valued). Some of the best players in the club are on the bottom team. These kids continually excel and beat the kids on the upper level teams in scrimmages. It seems they have something against moving anyone down to a lower team which would be the correct thing to do. Our son was a standout and was continually recognized by the coaches from other Clubs---a kid that never scored less than a hatrick in any game (and these were goals he created, not cherry-picked) and also led the team in assists. When the club is run like Bureaucracy and nepotism and sucking up determines placement---the team performs like big government. People wonder why US soccer is mediocre at best. Here in lies the reason.
Is this a club whose top teams at the older ages are highly competitive? If so, it seems very odd that they would fail to promote a stand-out kid or kids to the top teams, since most clubs, even the ones that care about development, do very much want to have winning teams. They may not care at U9 though, if they have a philosophy that recognizes that a focus on winning at that age can be counter-productive. Sometimes at those clubs, there is a recognition that the A-D teams (or Blue through Black, etc.) will be very fluid as the kids grow and develop. If the "bottom" teams are as good as, or better than, the A and B ones, and the coaching is decent, presumably your son is still in a place where he can continue to improve.

If you have the sense thought that kids are never promoted from the C/D level once they get assigned there, I'd definitely be looking around for another club. It's nice that our area has a lot of options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have the sense thought that kids are never promoted from the C/D level once they get assigned there, I'd definitely be looking around for another club. It's nice that our area has a lot of options.

Or, you know, maybe the kid is a C/D-level player and should just enjoy playing with friends and townmates rather than schlepping across Northern Virginia trying to scrape onto a B team at all costs.

Sometimes, there's a nice opportunity with a neighboring club. But I just get the sense that a lot of parents are pushing their kids around to get them on an A or B team, not even thinking about whether it's better for the kid.

Remember -- tons of kids who want to play travel don't even make the cut at all. No B, C, D, E or Z team. Others can't afford the time or money commitment. So would it hurt to be grateful for what you have?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the sense thought that kids are never promoted from the C/D level once they get assigned there, I'd definitely be looking around for another club. It's nice that our area has a lot of options.

Or, you know, maybe the kid is a C/D-level player and should just enjoy playing with friends and townmates rather than schlepping across Northern Virginia trying to scrape onto a B team at all costs.

Sometimes, there's a nice opportunity with a neighboring club. But I just get the sense that a lot of parents are pushing their kids around to get them on an A or B team, not even thinking about whether it's better for the kid.

Remember -- tons of kids who want to play travel don't even make the cut at all. No B, C, D, E or Z team. Others can't afford the time or money commitment. So would it hurt to be grateful for what you have?

When a kid scores 4-6 goals every game of the season. The kid is not properly challenged. I'm not sure how playing with friends solves that problem.

My advice--get what you can out of your local club from U9-U-12. You'll have 4 years of practices near home. Big he/she is still a star and not being properly recognized/promoted then move. We found the opposing coaches made that very easy for us. They would recruit us right off the field. When every other coach- but your own recognizes talent--it's time to move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have the sense thought that kids are never promoted from the C/D level once they get assigned there, I'd definitely be looking around for another club. It's nice that our area has a lot of options.

Or, you know, maybe the kid is a C/D-level player and should just enjoy playing with friends and townmates rather than schlepping across Northern Virginia trying to scrape onto a B team at all costs.

Sometimes, there's a nice opportunity with a neighboring club. But I just get the sense that a lot of parents are pushing their kids around to get them on an A or B team, not even thinking about whether it's better for the kid.

Remember -- tons of kids who want to play travel don't even make the cut at all. No B, C, D, E or Z team. Others can't afford the time or money commitment. So would it hurt to be grateful for what you have?

When a kid scores 4-6 goals every game of the season. The kid is not properly challenged. I'm not sure how playing with friends solves that problem.

My advice--get what you can out of your local club from U9-U-12. You'll have 4 years of practices near home. Big he/she is still a star and not being properly recognized/promoted then move. We found the opposing coaches made that very easy for us. They would recruit us right off the field. When every other coach- but your own recognizes talent--it's time to move.

I'm not sure "scoring 4-6 goals every game" is a typical problem. (Of course, at this age, I'd be more impressed with 4-6 assists.)

Recruiting right off the field? Wow. No wonder people hate soccer coaches.