How good are travel teams in the low tier?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

[Anonymous]

It depends in part of the size of the clubs, but the difference between A and B that I typically see is uniformity of skill across the players. Generally, players on a A team are all at least at a certain level. On B, some are at or reasonably close to that level and others a good ways off. It makes for inconsistent play (and sometimes frustration among the players).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

Doesn't Alexandria have that many teams for some age groups?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

Loudoun has had 6 teams in an age group. Usually at younger ages below u13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

Doesn't Alexandria have that many teams for some age groups?

The more teams, the more 10% of the fees that go to Tommy. Gotta keep the hustle going…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

Arlington

Academy/ECNL
Red
White
Blue
Black
Silver
Gold

[Anonymous]

What age group is that for. 11v11? Big difference 6 11v11 teams v. 6 or 6 7v7 teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What age group is that for. 11v11? Big difference 6 11v11 teams v. 6 or 6 7v7 teams.

Arlington has 5 teams at the U13 level this year.

http://www.arlingtonsoccer.com/programs/travel/coaching-staff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw a lowest level travel team for an area club. It felt like they would lose to a rec team.
I am surprised this is one of the top teams in the league.
Defenders were chasing across the goal leaving players wide open. Some weren't running back when the ball was past them.
This was late in the season, so I would have expected the coach would have corrected this by now.
The other team was undefeated but had a player that probably should have been playing a few levels up.
This team had trouble on goal kicks, while the first team was doing this well, and offense overall was fine.
I was also surprised late in the match with a one goal lead, the coach put in a player who wasn't running back on defense.

Some of the top rec teams are pretty good because some of the kids on those teams choose not to play travel for whatever reasons. So yeah, I think there would be quite a few rec teams that could beat lower tier travel teams no problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What age group is that for. 11v11? Big difference 6 11v11 teams v. 6 or 6 7v7 teams.

Arlington typically has six teams through U12, five teams for U13-U15, and four at U16 and above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the kids having fun? Are they playing with kids of similar skill? If so, then why do you care?

Families choose travel over rec for many reasons, including a paid/non-parent coach, other kids who want to play soccer, enough players to field teams within the age group, access to better fields.

For many of the lower level travel leagues, nobody is traveling very far. So the games are 10 minutes further than you'd otherwise play at in Rec. It's not like they are traveling 5 hours away.

I have a player on a "B" team at a big club and she is really enjoying her season. Why is that not enough? If she were playing Rec, she'd be in a U10-12 combined division where half the kids don't even want to be there. I'll pay extra for her to have an enjoyable experience.

THank you - this is us. My son plays on the "B" team as a keeper. He is okay but doesn't really practice much or have significant motivation. Honestly, he doesn't deserve to be on the A team. However, his natural talent is such that he would be frustrated on a rec team. We haven't traveled more than 90 minutes.
I think you will find the whole cross section of families on low tier travel teams from those that share our belief to those that think that their kid is the next Messi and deserves to be on the A team.

Exactly. My kids plays on a mid/low level travel team (U12). The games are well arranged so they have all been competitive- teams are evenly matched, no blow outs. Kids are having fun and they look like they’re playing well to me (I know nothing about soccer but it’s definitely a higher level than rec). We generally don’t drive farther than the SoccerPlex for games. I have no illusions that my kid will play in college or anything. As a result- the parents are pretty chill. No one going crazy on the sidelines. In fact the parents are more nuts at my 2nd grader’s rec games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some B teams around here are pretty good and some are not. Coaches can and do take all players and mold them into better players but sometimes the team dynamics are off or there are just better B teams out there that season. If you can afford it and it makes your child happy who cares if your child is on the A, B, C or even D team.

What I saw was the F team. Literally the 6th team.

Which club has 6 or more teams at any age level aside from perhaps Valor 07s?

SAC 2011 boys have 6 teams: Pre-Academy, Premier Blue, Premier White, United Blue, United White, United Gold
If you include Baltimore Armour, SAC has 7 boys teams for 2009 and 2007: Baltimore Armour, Pre-Academy, Premier Blue, Premier White, United Blue, United White, United Gold