Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"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."

Obtuse statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"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."

Obtuse statement.

How is that obtuse? I am perfectly happy with where my kids are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

WS should pull out of VA...but it's too late now....now they are holding a VA DA slot....and most kids will be from MD on team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"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."

Obtuse statement.

How is that obtuse? I am perfectly happy with where my kids are.

Obtuse answer.

I think the poster is referring to my post (you know the one he commented on) which addresses the very real problem for most parents:

"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]

these two guys are both hell-bent on getting the last word .... maybe start your own thread to argue back and forth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

WS should pull out of VA...but it's too late now....now they are holding a VA DA slot....and most kids will be from MD on team

Have they had a lot of MD players at the VA ID clinics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.]

+100
go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"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."

Obtuse statement.

How is that obtuse? I am perfectly happy with where my kids are.

Obtuse answer.

I think the poster is referring to my post (you know the one he commented on) which addresses the very real problem for most parents:

"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."


I live in a large county with 50 clubs to chose from and it's still the same. As long as one paying customer can be replaced with another paying customer they don't care....money money money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

An ODSL/NCSL merger could work, but NCSL already spans such a broad range of competition. By the second season of U11, teams are finally sorted into divisions, so you no longer have as many mismatches as you have at U9-U11, so that helps a bit.

Maybe NCSL should simply offer 2-3 levels of competition at U9/U11, and the lowest level could serve as the "developmental" tier.

But I still like the idea of ODSL being that "Rec-Plus" league and combining its functions with SFL. ODSL already allows rec players to play as guest players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:these two guys are both hell-bent on getting the last word .... maybe start your own thread to argue back and forth?

+1 don't even understand the debate
just stick with ncsl, travel distances ok +prom./rel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:these two guys are both hell-bent on getting the last word .... maybe start your own thread to argue back and forth?

I did start a CCL thread for him/her to bitch about the league. I also encouraged for the creation of the VYS thread as well which has worked out just fine. He is the only one actively bitching about CCL. I apologize to all for taking the bait and stating my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

WS should pull out of VA...but it's too late now....now they are holding a VA DA slot....and most kids will be from MD on team

Have they had a lot of MD players at the VA ID clinics?

The washington suburbs in Md do not have a DA. There are a ton of kids there. They are going to get rostered on the Spirit VA team because they won't get enough talent out of Nova to fill a substantial part of their rosters....because most VA kids will stay put

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:these two guys are both hell-bent on getting the last word .... maybe start your own thread to argue back and forth?

+1 don't even understand the debate
just stick with ncsl, travel distances ok +prom./rel.

He/she does not like the travel element in CCL, particularly at the younger ages.

I suggested find another club in another league.

That is it the "debate" in a nutshell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

WS should pull out of VA...but it's too late now....now they are holding a VA DA slot....and most kids will be from MD on team

Have they had a lot of MD players at the VA ID clinics?

The washington suburbs in Md do not have a DA. There are a ton of kids there. They are going to get rostered on the Spirit VA team because they won't get enough talent out of Nova to fill a substantial part of their rosters....because most VA kids will stay put

I'd stated above that I thought it was odd that Bethesda didn't put in for a DA. My prediction would be that if/when ECNL starts to decline, Bethesda will end up partnering with the Washington Spirit MD DA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:these two guys are both hell-bent on getting the last word .... maybe start your own thread to argue back and forth?

I did start a CCL thread for him/her to bitch about the league. I also encouraged for the creation of the VYS thread as well which has worked out just fine. He is the only one actively bitching about CCL. I apologize to all for taking the bait and stating my opinion.

apology accepted, now quit making it worse and go into that thread you created. thx!!!!!