Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ ignore system coaches clubs leagues
ccl is certainly not a well-structured TRAVEL league if it puts my 6th grader in a car driving that far

skip everyone of those games and go spend time playing soccer with a friend over a tennis net or against a wall

Again, you put your kid in the car not CCL. You placed league status above what is best for your kid and family.

...you are clueless about travel soccer...

Funny, because my kids have played in just about every single league mentioned on this forum, from ODSL-WAGS-CCL-VPL-NPL-EDP-Super Y-ECNL

[Anonymous]

And ODP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ ignore system coaches clubs leagues
ccl is certainly not a well-structured TRAVEL league if it puts my 6th grader in a car driving that far

skip everyone of those games and go spend time playing soccer with a friend over a tennis net or against a wall

Again, you put your kid in the car not CCL. You placed league status above what is best for your kid and family.

Most clubs have multiple leagues for a single age group-ours has 3. Many places won't even tell you until after you accept the offer which team/league you'll be on/in.

Ditto. Same experience. We had a choice between two convenient nearby clubs. Both A teams. One in NCSL and one in CCL.

We chose the CCL team because the coach was an amazing coach, female for my DD, and the training plan more advanced. There was a big sacrifice of course as we knew we would have to play in CCL, which is poorly organized and has unnecessary travel distances.

At U9 and 10, it has a bad structure, where you play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable.

At U11 and U12, it got even worse, with travel to Richmond, VA Beach, Williamsburg, Roanoke, etc. to play some real weak teams at times. We all hated those drives, as did almost every parent on the team, but chose not to switch clubs because of the amazing coach we had, as we all know how important the coaching choice is, and we all know the advice that leagues should not matter.

But unfortunately they do to some extent . . . when we scrimmaged Great Falls, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. locally and realized all the good teams in this area, we realized the scam that CCL is.

My advice is to find the best coach you can on a team that does not play in CCL. Apparently, CCL knows it has an UNreasonable travel problem and is addressing it.

It is true there is a crazed poster on here that beats a dead horse and tries to sell CCL as a well designed, well organized, league for U9 to U-12. He or she must work for CCL and this is their job to build it up on DCUM! LOL.

Trust us. It is not. Trust the many posts that have explained how the long travel for 5th and 6th graders is just insane. I forgot to mention that at U11, many of these weaker southern CCL clubs can't even field teams, so you end up with a season where you maybe play 6 games total in Fall, and about the same in Spring. NCSL seems to have a structure that works and avoids this, but our coach said she had know choice under club rules but to play in CCL. She didn't like it either, so that tells you a lot!

So I get your situation, but the poster who labels himself as the CCL Guy thinks we pick CCL to impress friends and should move to a different coach and team if we don't like the travel in CCL travel soccer. He is full of contradictions to his own advice, and has an agenda to defend CCL.

Or, he may just be a pure troll after all. Got a good laugh out of that . . .

"CCL guy" here. I have literally said every you posted above. I have never championed CCL, I have always said that you have choice and feel free to exercise that choice and do what is right for your kid and your family. CCL is not a "scam" because it doesn't work for you. There are great coaches and teams not in CCL, go and find them.

I am against a single model for this very reason. Choice is good in the long run. It doesn't mean that things are not muddled and hard to sort through but if you find a coach, good team, good parents and a schedule that works then what does the league matter? Nothing

Your problem is that you contradict yourself with obtuse statements.

Your other problem is you don't acknowledge all the problems with CCL for younger players (yes, you are an unwitting champion of sorts based on the misstatements you make about its quality and structure) like most do when they knowingly decide to accept its negatives as a compromise for a great coach.

You live in a world of 20-20 Braille with blinders on over the effective role that parents, players, and clubs have had in getting CCL to change its egregious travel format that would be fixed by ideas like NextGen.

You really don't understand what any posters have been telling you. It is about improving a bad product for your DC so that a great coach doesn't have to lose great players and chemistry due to some families making a different compromise and leaving for NCSL teams due to the bad aspects of CCL.

The good news is that the normal parental majority (of mostly complainers at our club) have made a dent in CCL and things will inevitably change. The fringe posters that want everyone to accept CCL as-is, with a pretty clear cheerleader agenda, have lost.

You are a slave to your agenda in this forum. Keep embarrassing yourself and trolling every new forum member who realizes the same problem with CCL. Very sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ ignore system coaches clubs leagues
ccl is certainly not a well-structured TRAVEL league if it puts my 6th grader in a car driving that far

skip everyone of those games and go spend time playing soccer with a friend over a tennis net or against a wall

Again, you put your kid in the car not CCL. You placed league status above what is best for your kid and family.

Most clubs have multiple leagues for a single age group-ours has 3. Many places won't even tell you until after you accept the offer which team/league you'll be on/in.

Ditto. Same experience. We had a choice between two convenient nearby clubs. Both A teams. One in NCSL and one in CCL.

We chose the CCL team because the coach was an amazing coach, female for my DD, and the training plan more advanced. There was a big sacrifice of course as we knew we would have to play in CCL, which is poorly organized and has unnecessary travel distances.

At U9 and 10, it has a bad structure, where you play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable.

At U11 and U12, it got even worse, with travel to Richmond, VA Beach, Williamsburg, Roanoke, etc. to play some real weak teams at times. We all hated those drives, as did almost every parent on the team, but chose not to switch clubs because of the amazing coach we had, as we all know how important the coaching choice is, and we all know the advice that leagues should not matter.

But unfortunately they do to some extent . . . when we scrimmaged Great Falls, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. locally and realized all the good teams in this area, we realized the scam that CCL is.

My advice is to find the best coach you can on a team that does not play in CCL. Apparently, CCL knows it has an UNreasonable travel problem and is addressing it.

It is true there is a crazed poster on here that beats a dead horse and tries to sell CCL as a well designed, well organized, league for U9 to U-12. He or she must work for CCL and this is their job to build it up on DCUM! LOL.

Trust us. It is not. Trust the many posts that have explained how the long travel for 5th and 6th graders is just insane. I forgot to mention that at U11, many of these weaker southern CCL clubs can't even field teams, so you end up with a season where you maybe play 6 games total in Fall, and about the same in Spring. NCSL seems to have a structure that works and avoids this, but our coach said she had know choice under club rules but to play in CCL. She didn't like it either, so that tells you a lot!

So I get your situation, but the poster who labels himself as the CCL Guy thinks we pick CCL to impress friends and should move to a different coach and team if we don't like the travel in CCL travel soccer. He is full of contradictions to his own advice, and has an agenda to defend CCL.

Or, he may just be a pure troll after all. Got a good laugh out of that . . .

"CCL guy" here. I have literally said every you posted above. I have never championed CCL, I have always said that you have choice and feel free to exercise that choice and do what is right for your kid and your family. CCL is not a "scam" because it doesn't work for you. There are great coaches and teams not in CCL, go and find them.

I am against a single model for this very reason. Choice is good in the long run. It doesn't mean that things are not muddled and hard to sort through but if you find a coach, good team, good parents and a schedule that works then what does the league matter? Nothing

Your problem is that you contradict yourself with obtuse statements.

Your other problem is you don't acknowledge all the problems with CCL for younger players (yes, you are an unwitting champion of sorts based on the misstatements you make about its quality and structure) like most do when they knowingly decide to accept its negatives as a compromise for a great coach.

You live in a world of 20-20 Braille with blinders on over the effective role that parents, players, and clubs have had in getting CCL to change its egregious travel format that would be fixed by ideas like NextGen.

You really don't understand what any posters have been telling you. It is about improving a bad product for your DC so that a great coach doesn't have to lose great players and chemistry due to some families making a different compromise and leaving for NCSL teams due to the bad aspects of CCL.

The good news is that the normal parental majority (of mostly complainers at our club) have made a dent in CCL and things will inevitably change. The fringe posters that want everyone to accept CCL as-is, with a pretty clear cheerleader agenda, have lost.

You are a slave to your agenda in this forum. Keep embarrassing yourself and trolling every new forum member who realizes the same problem with CCL. Very sad.

*1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ ignore system coaches clubs leagues
ccl is certainly not a well-structured TRAVEL league if it puts my 6th grader in a car driving that far

skip everyone of those games and go spend time playing soccer with a friend over a tennis net or against a wall

Again, you put your kid in the car not CCL. You placed league status above what is best for your kid and family.

Most clubs have multiple leagues for a single age group-ours has 3. Many places won't even tell you until after you accept the offer which team/league you'll be on/in.

Ditto. Same experience. We had a choice between two convenient nearby clubs. Both A teams. One in NCSL and one in CCL.

We chose the CCL team because the coach was an amazing coach, female for my DD, and the training plan more advanced. There was a big sacrifice of course as we knew we would have to play in CCL, which is poorly organized and has unnecessary travel distances.

At U9 and 10, it has a bad structure, where you play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable.

At U11 and U12, it got even worse, with travel to Richmond, VA Beach, Williamsburg, Roanoke, etc. to play some real weak teams at times. We all hated those drives, as did almost every parent on the team, but chose not to switch clubs because of the amazing coach we had, as we all know how important the coaching choice is, and we all know the advice that leagues should not matter.

But unfortunately they do to some extent . . . when we scrimmaged Great Falls, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. locally and realized all the good teams in this area, we realized the scam that CCL is.

My advice is to find the best coach you can on a team that does not play in CCL. Apparently, CCL knows it has an UNreasonable travel problem and is addressing it.

It is true there is a crazed poster on here that beats a dead horse and tries to sell CCL as a well designed, well organized, league for U9 to U-12. He or she must work for CCL and this is their job to build it up on DCUM! LOL.

Trust us. It is not. Trust the many posts that have explained how the long travel for 5th and 6th graders is just insane. I forgot to mention that at U11, many of these weaker southern CCL clubs can't even field teams, so you end up with a season where you maybe play 6 games total in Fall, and about the same in Spring. NCSL seems to have a structure that works and avoids this, but our coach said she had know choice under club rules but to play in CCL. She didn't like it either, so that tells you a lot!

So I get your situation, but the poster who labels himself as the CCL Guy thinks we pick CCL to impress friends and should move to a different coach and team if we don't like the travel in CCL travel soccer. He is full of contradictions to his own advice, and has an agenda to defend CCL.

Or, he may just be a pure troll after all. Got a good laugh out of that . . .

"CCL guy" here. I have literally said every you posted above. I have never championed CCL, I have always said that you have choice and feel free to exercise that choice and do what is right for your kid and your family. CCL is not a "scam" because it doesn't work for you. There are great coaches and teams not in CCL, go and find them.

I am against a single model for this very reason. Choice is good in the long run. It doesn't mean that things are not muddled and hard to sort through but if you find a coach, good team, good parents and a schedule that works then what does the league matter? Nothing

Your problem is that you contradict yourself with obtuse statements.

Your other problem is you don't acknowledge all the problems with CCL for younger players (yes, you are an unwitting champion of sorts based on the misstatements you make about its quality and structure) like most do when they knowingly decide to accept its negatives as a compromise for a great coach.

You live in a world of 20-20 Braille with blinders on over the effective role that parents, players, and clubs have had in getting CCL to change its egregious travel format that would be fixed by ideas like NextGen.

You really don't understand what any posters have been telling you. It is about improving a bad product for your DC so that a great coach doesn't have to lose great players and chemistry due to some families making a different compromise and leaving for NCSL teams due to the bad aspects of CCL.

The good news is that the normal parental majority (of mostly complainers at our club) have made a dent in CCL and things will inevitably change. The fringe posters that want everyone to accept CCL as-is, with a pretty clear cheerleader agenda, have lost.

You are a slave to your agenda in this forum. Keep embarrassing yourself and trolling every new forum member who realizes the same problem with CCL. Very sad.

Right, the market spoke and dictated what CCL needs to do to retain players, coaches and clubs. All I have been pushing is to do what is right for your kid and your family. If parents simply focus on that, and that alone clubs will respond.

Where the things I have said have been complicated with those who think a single mega league model is the answer. To this I disagree for the simple reason that if the model sucks, as you feel CCL does, you have no choice, no option.

But, since there are choices you simply need to worry about what is best for your kid and your kid alone. Ranting against a league does not have the impact as voting with your feet and letting the Club and league know on your way out why you are leaving. But some people are accepting of the way their situation is and accept the compromise for their own personal reason. That is their choice.

I have maintained this position throughout and it is pretty simple position to follow. I have been respectful for the most part and have only stated my opinion and nothing more. You are free to disagree with me but that I see it differently than you does not make me either obtuse or a troll. My kids have played in all of the leagues so I have a feel for the general landscape as well as the strengths and weakness of them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^^ ignore system coaches clubs leagues
ccl is certainly not a well-structured TRAVEL league if it puts my 6th grader in a car driving that far

skip everyone of those games and go spend time playing soccer with a friend over a tennis net or against a wall

Again, you put your kid in the car not CCL. You placed league status above what is best for your kid and family.

Most clubs have multiple leagues for a single age group-ours has 3. Many places won't even tell you until after you accept the offer which team/league you'll be on/in.

Ditto. Same experience. We had a choice between two convenient nearby clubs. Both A teams. One in NCSL and one in CCL.

We chose the CCL team because the coach was an amazing coach, female for my DD, and the training plan more advanced. There was a big sacrifice of course as we knew we would have to play in CCL, which is poorly organized and has unnecessary travel distances.

At U9 and 10, it has a bad structure, where you play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable.

At U11 and U12, it got even worse, with travel to Richmond, VA Beach, Williamsburg, Roanoke, etc. to play some real weak teams at times. We all hated those drives, as did almost every parent on the team, but chose not to switch clubs because of the amazing coach we had, as we all know how important the coaching choice is, and we all know the advice that leagues should not matter.

But unfortunately they do to some extent . . . when we scrimmaged Great Falls, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. locally and realized all the good teams in this area, we realized the scam that CCL is.

My advice is to find the best coach you can on a team that does not play in CCL. Apparently, CCL knows it has an UNreasonable travel problem and is addressing it.

It is true there is a crazed poster on here that beats a dead horse and tries to sell CCL as a well designed, well organized, league for U9 to U-12. He or she must work for CCL and this is their job to build it up on DCUM! LOL.

Trust us. It is not. Trust the many posts that have explained how the long travel for 5th and 6th graders is just insane. I forgot to mention that at U11, many of these weaker southern CCL clubs can't even field teams, so you end up with a season where you maybe play 6 games total in Fall, and about the same in Spring. NCSL seems to have a structure that works and avoids this, but our coach said she had know choice under club rules but to play in CCL. She didn't like it either, so that tells you a lot!

So I get your situation, but the poster who labels himself as the CCL Guy thinks we pick CCL to impress friends and should move to a different coach and team if we don't like the travel in CCL travel soccer. He is full of contradictions to his own advice, and has an agenda to defend CCL.

Or, he may just be a pure troll after all. Got a good laugh out of that . . .

"CCL guy" here. I have literally said every you posted above. I have never championed CCL, I have always said that you have choice and feel free to exercise that choice and do what is right for your kid and your family. CCL is not a "scam" because it doesn't work for you. There are great coaches and teams not in CCL, go and find them.

I am against a single model for this very reason. Choice is good in the long run. It doesn't mean that things are not muddled and hard to sort through but if you find a coach, good team, good parents and a schedule that works then what does the league matter? Nothing

Your problem is that you contradict yourself with obtuse statements.

Your other problem is you don't acknowledge all the problems with CCL for younger players (yes, you are an unwitting champion of sorts based on the misstatements you make about its quality and structure) like most do when they knowingly decide to accept its negatives as a compromise for a great coach.

You live in a world of 20-20 Braille with blinders on over the effective role that parents, players, and clubs have had in getting CCL to change its egregious travel format that would be fixed by ideas like NextGen.

You really don't understand what any posters have been telling you. It is about improving a bad product for your DC so that a great coach doesn't have to lose great players and chemistry due to some families making a different compromise and leaving for NCSL teams due to the bad aspects of CCL.

The good news is that the normal parental majority (of mostly complainers at our club) have made a dent in CCL and things will inevitably change. The fringe posters that want everyone to accept CCL as-is, with a pretty clear cheerleader agenda, have lost.

You are a slave to your agenda in this forum. Keep embarrassing yourself and trolling every new forum member who realizes the same problem with CCL. Very sad.

*1

+ 2

[Anonymous]

^^I agree with your point that the CCL guy seems incapable/unwilling to grasp many of the negatives that CCL has inflicted on soccer around here, but I really wish you and everyone else would stop the accusations of trolling. Trolling is writing something merely to start a flame war--it is not accurate to apply it to someone who sincerely believes what he is saying, however wrong or shortsighted we may think that belief is.

It's beyond tedious to read all these trolling accusations. I'd encourage anyone who finds a given discussion annoying or repetitive to either ignore it or post a new topic they think is more interesting.

[Anonymous]

...ok, can we just ignore ccl guy now who's kids as played every league in creation?!! ... he is not obtuse, doesn't make obtuse statements....and doesn't troll newbies to CCL, their grandma's, or anyone else with sarcastic/ mocking teasing ... he doesn't do that, ok. . . .

...we all got it!!!

[Anonymous]

^^^

In fact I have never even said that any of your complaints about CCL are even wrong or that your positions are wrong. I am only stating my opinion which is what I would do if I was in your shoes. I'd just find a better option. I'm not wasting life and development time fighting a League structure when I can simply go down the street and find something else that works just as well without the headache.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^I agree with your point that the CCL guy seems incapable/unwilling to grasp many of the negatives that CCL has inflicted on soccer around here, but I really wish you and everyone else would stop the accusations of trolling. Trolling is writing something merely to start a flame war--it is not accurate to apply it to someone who sincerely believes what he is saying, however wrong or shortsighted we may think that belief is.

It's beyond tedious to read all these trolling accusations. I'd encourage anyone who finds a given discussion annoying or repetitive to either ignore it or post a new topic they think is more interesting.

[Applause.]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ditto. Same experience. We had a choice between two convenient nearby clubs. Both A teams. One in NCSL and one in CCL.

We chose the CCL team because the coach was an amazing coach, female for my DD, and the training plan more advanced. There was a big sacrifice of course as we knew we would have to play in CCL, which is poorly organized and has unnecessary travel distances.

At U9 and 10, it has a bad structure, where you play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable.

At U11 and U12, it got even worse, with travel to Richmond, VA Beach, Williamsburg, Roanoke, etc. to play some real weak teams at times. We all hated those drives, as did almost every parent on the team, but chose not to switch clubs because of the amazing coach we had, as we all know how important the coaching choice is, and we all know the advice that leagues should not matter.

But unfortunately they do to some extent . . . when we scrimmaged Great Falls, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. locally and realized all the good teams in this area, we realized the scam that CCL is.

My advice is to find the best coach you can on a team that does not play in CCL. Apparently, CCL knows it has an UNreasonable travel problem and is addressing it.

It is true there is a crazed poster on here that beats a dead horse and tries to sell CCL as a well designed, well organized, league for U9 to U-12. He or she must work for CCL and this is their job to build it up on DCUM! LOL.

Trust us. It is not. Trust the many posts that have explained how the long travel for 5th and 6th graders is just insane. I forgot to mention that at U11, many of these weaker southern CCL clubs can't even field teams, so you end up with a season where you maybe play 6 games total in Fall, and about the same in Spring. NCSL seems to have a structure that works and avoids this, but our coach said she had know choice under club rules but to play in CCL. She didn't like it either, so that tells you a lot!

So I get your situation, but the poster who labels himself as the CCL Guy thinks we pick CCL to impress friends and should move to a different coach and team if we don't like the travel in CCL travel soccer. He is full of contradictions to his own advice, and has an agenda to defend CCL.

Or, he may just be a pure troll after all. Got a good laugh out of that . . .

How can Beach FC be linked to a weak Southern CCL team? The club has one the Overall Girls side for the past two years with top A teams from BRYC, Loudoun and Arlington. I acknowledge that Maryland United and McLean don't field their A teams in the U13 and above age brackets but have met those ECNL teams in previous tournaments and the games have been very competitive. SOCA, and VA Legacy might not field teams that are very competitive but have several age groups that are near the tops of their division. Beach FC has never failed to field a team in an age bracket so that would be a false statement.

Things I've said all along

I have boys, but that posters sentiments mirror mine exactly. The parents and players at the U9-U11 age at our Club in CCL had such an over-inflated sense of their true talent. The teams in the brackets were not good and like he/she said: "play the same 7 clubs over and over, many of which have shaky teams. Playing the same bad teams over and over was not enjoyable."

We'd finally go out to a tournament and start playing teams from outside the State or in other leagues and be demoralized. The kids would literally fall apart because it was the first time they ever got challenged/lost. In the later years, the team wouldn't even make an upper division tournament bracket or be invited to play.

I disagree that parents will always do the best by their kids. In some areas, there are no other viable options. I live in a very large County and there is only 1 travel club. They monopolize every field. Zero choice. Of course, you could leave and sit in hours of traffic. The conundrum if you don't like the training is---keep paying and supplement the Club or lose all of your carpool opportunities. In this area with working parents and heavy traffic--clubs can bank on always having a paying customer no matter how poorly they are doing their job or how unhappy and grumbling the sidelines are (which is often like a thunder dome of disgust and complaints). I used to call these people "suckers", but now I sympathize with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...ok, can we just ignore ccl guy now who's kids as played every league in creation?!! ... he is not obtuse, doesn't make obtuse statements....and doesn't troll newbies to CCL, their grandma's, or anyone else with sarcastic/ mocking teasing ... he doesn't do that, ok. . . .

...we all got it!!!

If you think that Grammy and Gramps care what league your 9 year old is in and pointing that out offends you I really don't know what to say. If you believe that pointing out that a College coach also does not care what league your kid played in when 9 years old, I also don't know what to say. I suppose sorry, but they were statements of perspective not ridicule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K5EjybrDKksNa4jjGRrSXd7kCynJRUvPK_e6heXdyNk/mobilepresent?slide=id.p4

Washington spirit girls Da presentation link above

Jim Gabarra is TD for VA
No head coaches named yet
Practice locations not named yet
But...
The flow chart clearly shows the VA team will be a Va-Md combo....I'm assuming Nova and Southern Md......and then they will have WS Baltimore.

WS VA games played in Boyd's Md simultaneous with WS Md team.

big change from fairfax that is in map + directory for WS-VA;

at least being honest on reston "hail mary" . . . compared to WS MD slide deck, doesn't mention reston anywhere, not even in franchise name

...merger in boyds is ahppening sooner then pp said..

VDA rotates the practice schedule location wise between the three member clubs so perhaps Spirit will do the same here?

Maybe....but a Woodbridge-Gainesville combo is dfferent than a Reston- Bethesda combo....especually in traffic...too much for people to stomach

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K5EjybrDKksNa4jjGRrSXd7kCynJRUvPK_e6heXdyNk/mobilepresent?slide=id.p4

Washington spirit girls Da presentation link above

Jim Gabarra is TD for VA
No head coaches named yet
Practice locations not named yet
But...
The flow chart clearly shows the VA team will be a Va-Md combo....I'm assuming Nova and Southern Md......and then they will have WS Baltimore.

WS VA games played in Boyd's Md simultaneous with WS Md team.

big change from fairfax that is in map + directory for WS-VA;

at least being honest on reston "hail mary" . . . compared to WS MD slide deck, doesn't mention reston anywhere, not even in franchise name

...merger in boyds is ahppening sooner then pp said..

VDA rotates the practice schedule location wise between the three member clubs so perhaps Spirit will do the same here?

Maybe....but a Woodbridge-Gainesville combo is dfferent than a Reston- Bethesda combo....especually in traffic...too much for people to stomach

Oh, I didn't say that it would not be painful. It seems a crazy geographic mix to me, but that is why Spirit wanted Loudoun and Arlington as well. At least stay on this side of the bridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To go back and answer the ODSL question -- yes, it's still "travel light" in a sense, but I worry that it's dying. The more clubs put their top teams in "elite" leagues (CCL, EDP, VPL, etc.) the more of a domino effect you'll see in which clubs' B, C and D teams all move into NCSL and leave precious little for ODSL.

So ODSL has become a few clubs' absolute lowest teams, plus a handful of clubs (Cougars, Dynamite) that aren't in NCSL and simply annihilate the competition.

It's a real shame, because THIS is the level of travel most of our little darlings should be in. If you want the travel experience but don't have delusions that your kid is getting a D1 scholarship -- or if your kid is young and may still develop into an "elite" player -- this is the level for you.

I guess NCSL's lower divisions will fill that void now. NCSL D1 still has a few "elite" players, but I wonder how much longer that'll last.

Personally, I'd like to see some sort of ODSL/SFL merger. SFL is already "travel light" -- teams travel, generally practice twice a week, etc. They just usually have parent coaches and rec-league fees.

Combine ODSL and SFL, and you'd have scores of teams per age group. No need to drive to Clarke County because you only have six teams in your age group.

But that would make too much sense.

The problem is with so many leagues above ODSL there really are not many clubs that have teams left over to put into ODSL after NPL, VPL, CCL, CCL II, NCSL have all taken their piece of the pie. Your club either needs to have a 5th team or is a really small mom and pop shop that has a very small talent pool and just a team or two across the age groups.

Agree with both here but think that merger with NCSL would be best versus SFL. The overall play in ODSL is currently at the level of middle to bottom divisions in NCSL which is why I say that makes more sense and they already travel to places like W VA and MD versus SFL which does not travel as far. There is some talent in ODSL that would do very well in higher divisions of NCSL but there aren't that many. Some good coaches as well that are doing a good job of developing some good players and building decent teams.

I agree that ODSL is going to have to merge and NCSL seems to be the natural partner. The SFL merger is an interesting one as it is a great "in between" league and is very well run. But SFL starts at U11, so where does that leave clubs with multiple teams that normally push them to ODSL? Also, I could see some intense parents being upset that their kids are now playing with rec players, regardless of the rec skill level or the overall competition on the field. It seems there is a need for the developmental aspect that ODSL provides clubs and players and I hope that does not get lost in the shuffle.