Can kids try out for more than 1 travel team (soccer)?

[Anonymous]

This is my son's first year trying out for travel soccer. I am new to soccer (never played as a kid so don't know too much about the whole travel thing)

Are boys able to try out for multiple teams/clubs (there are 3-4 in our area) or do you have to commit to trying out for just one? It looks like all our options have tryouts on different dates so not sure how to navigate?

I understand leagues are very competitive so just not sure whether to put all of our eggs in one basket for a single tryout date and then be out of luck all together.

Thanks for any advice!

[Anonymous]

Yes you can try out for multiple clubs.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is not uncommon for kids to try out at several clubs to increase their odds of making a team, especially if the clubs only have one or two teams. If your home club has several teams, it's less of an issue, as your child has a better chance of making one of the teams, but obviously at some point, your kid's ability comes into play.

Try out at several and pick which one seems to have the most competent coaching while also being a comfortable fit for your child.

[Anonymous]

As others have said -- yes.

Be careful about tryout times. Plan a bit to make sure you can get to the tryouts that you are interested in.

Expect pressure on the first day to "accept" a position if offered. You do not have to do that. Look at the clubs you are interested in.

What should you be looking for?

1. A situation that works for your family in terms of cost and time commitment. Take into account time to and from practices and what will you be doing while the practice is going on. Can you carpool? Ask about actual cost. Club fees are usually easy to find out, but what additional costs are there if they are not part of the fees? How many tournaments and where? At the younger ages tournaments are usually local, but make sure you know what the plans are. I am sure there are clubs out there that are planning on younger teams do 3 or 4 over night tournaments. A word of experience -- tournaments are usually fun for the kid playing, but can quickly get old for parents and siblings.

2. A coach that seems good for your kid. Winning = not important. Making every player better = important. Talk to parents of current players if you can - not just the team manager parent. Does everyone play in every game? If NO -- Big red light.

3. As small a roster as you can find. Taking a big roster means less playing time for everyone. I would much prefer a situation where a club has say 3 teams with 9 kids on the roster than 2 teams with 14. Do not worry too much about being on a "B" team at a young age. Rosters can be fluid and kids progress at very different rates. What matters way more than anything else for a positive experience is having a coach who is focused on improving the kids as players.

[MikeL]

Anonymous wrote:As others have said -- yes.

Be careful about tryout times. Plan a bit to make sure you can get to the tryouts that you are interested in.

Expect pressure on the first day to "accept" a position if offered. You do not have to do that. Look at the clubs you are interested in.

What should you be looking for?

1. A situation that works for your family in terms of cost and time commitment. Take into account time to and from practices and what will you be doing while the practice is going on. Can you carpool? Ask about actual cost. Club fees are usually easy to find out, but what additional costs are there if they are not part of the fees? How many tournaments and where? At the younger ages tournaments are usually local, but make sure you know what the plans are. I am sure there are clubs out there that are planning on younger teams do 3 or 4 over night tournaments. A word of experience -- tournaments are usually fun for the kid playing, but can quickly get old for parents and siblings.

2. A coach that seems good for your kid. Winning = not important. Making every player better = important. Talk to parents of current players if you can - not just the team manager parent. Does everyone play in every game? If NO -- Big red light.

3. As small a roster as you can find. Taking a big roster means less playing time for everyone. I would much prefer a situation where a club has say 3 teams with 9 kids on the roster than 2 teams with 14. Do not worry too much about being on a "B" team at a young age. Rosters can be fluid and kids progress at very different rates. What matters way more than anything else for a positive experience is having a coach who is focused on improving the kids as players.

Great advice!

[Anonymous]

Yes, mine tried out for 3 teams. The biggest factor was the coach. He really didn't like the coach on one of the best teams in his age group, was offered a training spot that could turn into a team spot but just didn't think it would be a good experience despite the fact that it was a very competitive team. Ended up joining a team with a great coach that happened to be higher ranked.

[Anonymous]

OP here- thanks for all the great advice! A few follow up questions:

How do you even know who the coach is going to be for a specific age team? At the tryouts do they tell all the kids to go meet a specific coach and do they get to see that coach in action working with the kids?

In our case, he is more familiar with one club (at least knows a few of the coaches from clinics etc). The other two clubs he would be going in cold not knowing any coaches other than who he meets at tryouts. I picked those other clubs simply because they are reasonably close from a commute perspective.

Also, the tryout times for all these clubs are wildly different (almost a month apart--with his preferred club happening last). I would assume that if he has the good fortune to makes a team that has an earlier tryout, they are not going to allow him to 'sit' on it while he waits for the other tryouts, right? I would assume they might get annoyed that he is considering other clubs at this point? Or is it well understood that kids try out for multiple? Would you say most kids try out for multiple or is it more rare?

PS- How do I (as a parent) know if a certain team is ranked (as PP noted below)? Or which coach is better than another? Are there specific coaches who are just 'known' to be good and if so how do I as a parent research that?
Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- thanks for all the great advice! A few follow up questions:

How do you even know who the coach is going to be for a specific age team? At the tryouts do they tell all the kids to go meet a specific coach and do they get to see that coach in action working with the kids?

In our case, he is more familiar with one club (at least knows a few of the coaches from clinics etc). The other two clubs he would be going in cold not knowing any coaches other than who he meets at tryouts. I picked those other clubs simply because they are reasonably close from a commute perspective.

Also, the tryout times for all these clubs are wildly different (almost a month apart--with his preferred club happening last). I would assume that if he has the good fortune to makes a team that has an earlier tryout, they are not going to allow him to 'sit' on it while he waits for the other tryouts, right? I would assume they might get annoyed that he is considering other clubs at this point? Or is it well understood that kids try out for multiple? Would you say most kids try out for multiple or is it more rare?

PS- How do I (as a parent) know if a certain team is ranked (as PP noted below)? Or which coach is better than another? Are there specific coaches who are just 'known' to be good and if so how do I as a parent research that?
Thanks so much!

If you are trying out for clubs rather than specific teams it's harder to know much about the coach.

Depending on age you can look at league rankings from prior seasons (look at NCSL rankings if it's an NCSL team for example), or for older teams look at GotSoccer rankings. GotSoccer is heavily influenced by tournaments and some teams prioritize tournaments so take it with a grain of salt.