Insiders view of tryouts

[Anonymous]

On that call, the coach said that the dirty secret (probably not so secret) is that the tryouts were mostly used to ID new players outside the program.

As opposed to existing players? Are there clubs that make existing players try out again each year?

[Anonymous]

Each club is different. Some clubs will force their players to attend ID sessions.

Arlington used to only invite their top players to the ID sessions so they can compare to outside players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

On that call, the coach said that the dirty secret (probably not so secret) is that the tryouts were mostly used to ID new players outside the program.

As opposed to existing players? Are there clubs that make existing players try out again each year?

Are there clubs that DON'T? I get a kid may have an early offer, but they still have to show up everywhere I have ever heard of, to compare others to, right?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Our kids with offers are still "required" to show up for later ID sessions. I don't know why a club would do that. You need to evaluate the players against decent players, not the scrubs that are still awaiting return offers.

[Anonymous]

*wouldn't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

On that call, the coach said that the dirty secret (probably not so secret) is that the tryouts were mostly used to ID new players outside the program.

As opposed to existing players? Are there clubs that make existing players try out again each year?

Are there clubs that DON'T? I get a kid may have an early offer, but they still have to show up everywhere I have ever heard of, to compare others to, right?

Bethesda doesn't seem to have current players show up. Their cattle call tryouts - which you have to pay $25 to participate - are non-players only according to the Bethesda parents I know. Their players were told by the club not to participate in the tryouts.

Potomac's ID sessions for their ECNL/RL teams had no current players. It was only non-Potomac players trying out. I don't know if their standard tryouts are that way as well or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each club is different. Some clubs will force their players to attend ID sessions.

Arlington used to only invite their top players to the ID sessions so they can compare to outside players.

Interesting. We’re with an Arlington top team and had never had our kids “try out” again once they had made travel. At an ASA tryout, we were told the top two teams were there and they were doing these tryouts in lieu of their regular practice.

[Anonymous]

For our situation we knew almost immediately who was on the team since it was clear from the two returning keepers that they had already received offers. Maybe it’s easier when your kid is a keeper to ID the competition, but in some ways I think keeper skills are harder to identify and I can’t tell you how many times my kid has been in the goal and hardly sees the ball before the swap keepers at tryouts. There are so many skills and so few opportunities at tryouts. Knowing how the coach likes to play is also a guessing game.


Does the OP have any specific insights around how keepers are evaluated by coaches at tryouts? I’ve been to some tryouts with and without dedicated keeper coaches present. Not sure either option stood out as better/ worse.

[Anonymous]

For our situation we knew almost immediately who was on the team since it was clear from the two returning keepers that they had already received offers. Maybe it’s easier when your kid is a keeper to ID the competition, but in some ways I think keeper skills are harder to identify and I can’t tell you how many times my kid has been in the goal and hardly sees the ball before the swap keepers at tryouts. There are so many skills and so few opportunities at tryouts. Knowing how the coach likes to play is also a guessing game.

No keepers here but at one of our tryouts it was very easy to ID the current players because they were the ones that didn’t have numbers pinned on them. But yes agree that if it’s hard for field players it’s probably even harder for keepers. Our player’s current keeper came up from the club’s developmental program, not an open tryout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While entire teams are not pre-made, the majority of them are. Perhaps 70-80% of the roster. This spring I knew two of the three coaches in my kid's age group. Both coaches told me exactly which kids were getting offers to which teams and exactly which kids were not getting offers.

So, while there is perhaps 1-4 potential open spots it's not uncommon for teams to be "pre-made". Now, the issue comes when clubs don't always place the best players with the top teams because they want all their teams to perform well so they spread out the bubble players. This is unfair to those players because proper development requires players to be around players of even skill (usually). Otherwise, it's a wasted season.

We found the one whose kid is passed on year to year ^^^

Lol. You have such an “in” that they tell you all the other kids’ business

Late response, but no. The reason I know these things is because I'm a team manager and I speak with the coaches within my kid's age regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ This makes sense too. Frankly I would not want my kid's evaluation to be based on two or three nights when he had been there all year. I imagine that is what clubs do, check the new kids against the old ones and then make determinations as to who fits where.

The other issue is clubs prevent players from lower teams from moving up since they want kids from outside. Unfair to players who train and develop, but don't get a chance on a stronger team within their own club. Seen this for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While entire teams are not pre-made, the majority of them are. Perhaps 70-80% of the roster. This spring I knew two of the three coaches in my kid's age group. Both coaches told me exactly which kids were getting offers to which teams and exactly which kids were not getting offers.

So, while there is perhaps 1-4 potential open spots it's not uncommon for teams to be "pre-made". Now, the issue comes when clubs don't always place the best players with the top teams because they want all their teams to perform well so they spread out the bubble players. This is unfair to those players because proper development requires players to be around players of even skill (usually). Otherwise, it's a wasted season.

We found the one whose kid is passed on year to year ^^^

Lol. You have such an “in” that they tell you all the other kids’ business

Late response, but no. The reason I know these things is because I'm a team manager and I speak with the coaches within my kid's age regularly.

Geez I guess I should be a team manager too. Although I didn’t think any of the team managers we’ve had so far had that level of inside info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While entire teams are not pre-made, the majority of them are. Perhaps 70-80% of the roster. This spring I knew two of the three coaches in my kid's age group. Both coaches told me exactly which kids were getting offers to which teams and exactly which kids were not getting offers.

So, while there is perhaps 1-4 potential open spots it's not uncommon for teams to be "pre-made". Now, the issue comes when clubs don't always place the best players with the top teams because they want all their teams to perform well so they spread out the bubble players. This is unfair to those players because proper development requires players to be around players of even skill (usually). Otherwise, it's a wasted season.

We found the one whose kid is passed on year to year ^^^

Lol. You have such an “in” that they tell you all the other kids’ business

Late response, but no. The reason I know these things is because I'm a team manager and I speak with the coaches within my kid's age regularly.

Geez I guess I should be a team manager too. Although I didn’t think any of the team managers we’ve had so far had that level of inside info.

I don't think that's particularly uncommon. Our team manager knew my kid was being promoted between seasons before I did. He definitely has inside intel on what's going on with the age group teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ This makes sense too. Frankly I would not want my kid's evaluation to be based on two or three nights when he had been there all year. I imagine that is what clubs do, check the new kids against the old ones and then make determinations as to who fits where.

The other issue is clubs prevent players from lower teams from moving up since they want kids from outside. Unfair to players who train and develop, but don't get a chance on a stronger team within their own club. Seen this for years.

This is like the trifecta of awful team development. 1-those good players on the lower teams that you have guest up all the time? Yeah just keep them on the lower teams, 2-the same 2-3 crappy players that have cost you multiple games over the years? Yeah let’s keep them on, 3-when spots do open up, fill in from outside. Love the strategy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been reading this forum for a while now, and thought you might be interested in the actual "inside the club" view of how tryouts work. From what I am reading and after almost 25 years of coaching in the area, there are some crazy opinions being stated as facts on different threads, so this is what my general experience has been. Obviously its broad and meant to be fairly generic across the area.
Say the night's tryouts end at about 8:00, and then the coaches get home and get on calls to go over the players. They may need to get on more than one if they were doing multiple age groups, and these can go for a bit as coaches advocate for one player or another or debate a certain one. They may be delayed a little while the lead coach reviews all the evaluations to do a preliminary ranking before the call. These may be zoom or conference calls or even text chats. In any case, they are the coaches getting together to compare notes after tryouts end.
Finally offers are set, and people stay up late to send them as the coaches tell them the names and team assignments. Clubs know you are anxious, and are anxious for you as well. If they are not there immediately after a tryout before you go to bed we know that you all wake up the next day and hope there is a message. That's why they stay up until midnight or later to get them to you.
Coaches are stressed over this process too. You may see them in huddles out there looking organized and relaxed but they are not, I promise you. They do not like to cut kids, and they don't like to disappoint players who have hoped for a team they won't make. This is the worst part of coaching by far. Watching disappointed kids is hard. We can see it when they are on a field they don't want to be on. We see the body language when you are laving with them. We get texts from players, or phone calls fro kids fighting back tears because they don't think they did well. It sucks to know your players are unhappy. We coach because we LIKE kids. We generally like their parents too.Coaches dread making those calls saying the player is moving down a team, even when it is the best place for them to grow and develop and get a lot of playing time. You'd be surprised how hard it is for coaches who know and like your child to pass along that news. They are happy to see new faces but they realize that a new face and a good player mean that a kid they know may lose out on a slot because of it. Their job is to build the best team they can, but it is not done without empathy for the players. Sometimes a player is in between teams, say the A and B teams. Parents start hearing about offers for both teams coming out, and stress because they don't have one yet. Sometimes not hearing yet is a good thing.
Hopefully wherever your players are trying out you are seeing a lot of coaches on the fields watching them. Some of them are tasked with a certain objective by the coaches in the age groups, something like look at these four players. I can only take two, tell me who performs best. This is ideally a coach who does not know them well and can give an unbiased opinion. Sometimes it is please look at all the new kids and disperse them by ability level to the fields with the players we already basically know and have initially started to get sorted out. If you're lucky, there is a goal keeper coach at one of your tryouts who is watching them. In any tryout, there will be players moving between fields. You may see each existing team start together, but you'll see players moving around.
I have been at multiple clubs and I can tell you that none of them have already determined entire teams before tryouts and closed and locked the door. Often the top players are sent early invitations. This lets those coaches know where the players stand as far as returning and gives them a sense of how many spots they want to fill. Second and third teams and so forth also know exactly who their top kids are, but making those offers early is more difficult because the first team has to get out together before the second team can, and so on. As I said some of the top players on a team below the top one may be more in limbo because the first team is waiting for acceptances and then they know who will get the next offer. This trickles down. Third teams may hear several days after the tryouts end for that group, and if there are fourth that could still be longer. It does not mean the clubs are not excited to work with your kids or don't want them or believe they can play. Don't read anything into it beyond the fact that the teams fill from the top down. There are players who ask for extra time to consider offers too, or families who are waiting to hear about another child before the accept because they are hoping to have them all in one place. That can slow things down too.
Last point. Sometimes at large sessions at larger clubs, a kid does not get a full evaluation done, or only one person has done it. There are lots of reasons, maybe they moved the coach to a different field before he finished, maybe they moved the player, maybe it was time for a water break, maybe the kid only made one tryout, maybe its a new coach and the old one is saying they need to see the player again because they were not "on" at the first session. This is why it helps to go to several tryouts if it is a club you like. Getting asked back, or finding out another tryout has been added both indicate there are kids the club really likes and are trying to place correctly, not that it is disorganized. High school teams go a week with tryouts, the NFL literally months. Soccer clubs have about three hours to look at an age group. There are usually quite a few kids between teams and getting placement right is the whole point here. Sometimes it may mean the age group needs players, but usually it means they are looking at your kids and want to get an extra look before making an offer to be sure it is to the correct team.
We all know it is stressful and most of us remember going through tryouts ourselves, so we get it. I hope this helps.

goated post that should be stickied….