Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

I understand the landscape just fine. My point is that the Spirit Dan has no base as of right now. Who is seriously leaving on the belief that it's the pathwayear to the pros? Who is coaching these teams? The other DAs have the advantage of established talent bases and established coaches in the community. I just don't see anyone would see as an advantage to the Spirit? And as of right now, McLean and BRYC are better with ECNL. I don't have a horse in the race, club or ECNL/DA wise. I just think that the Spirit Academy is poorly conceived and will struggle without a player base. It's not like their super Y teams were setting the world on fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Really?

VDA has Pwsi and VSA. They are barely competitive in the VPL. How in the world will they be able to compete in the DA on a national level? They can't until the talent pool gets opened to the whole region..not just the club kids.

How many kids at FCV are from Reston, Loudoun, Chantilly, Centreville, Vienna, Gainesville, Haymarket, manassas?

Get the drift? It's not your internal player pool. It's the area you can attract from.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

I understand the landscape just fine. My point is that the Spirit Dan has no base as of right now. Who is seriously leaving on the belief that it's the pathwayear to the pros? Who is coaching these teams? The other DAs have the advantage of established talent bases and established coaches in the community. I just don't see anyone would see as an advantage to the Spirit? And as of right now, McLean and BRYC are better with ECNL. I don't have a horse in the race, club or ECNL/DA wise. I just think that the Spirit Academy is poorly conceived and will struggle without a player base. It's not like their super Y teams were setting the world on fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

I understand the landscape just fine. My point is that the Spirit Dan has no base as of right now. Who is seriously leaving on the belief that it's the pathwayear to the pros? Who is coaching these teams? The other DAs have the advantage of established talent bases and established coaches in the community. I just don't see anyone would see as an advantage to the Spirit? And as of right now, McLean and BRYC are better with ECNL. I don't have a horse in the race, club or ECNL/DA wise. I just think that the Spirit Academy is poorly conceived and will struggle without a player base. It's not like their super Y teams were setting the world on fire.

Really?

VDA has Pwsi and VSA. They are barely competitive in the VPL. How in the world will they be able to compete in the DA on a national level? They can't until the talent pool gets opened to the whole region..not just the club kids.

How many kids at FCV are from Reston, Loudoun, Chantilly, Centreville, Vienna, Gainesville, Haymarket, manassas Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean?

Get the drift? It's not your internal player pool. It's the area you can attract from.

NEXT year the spirit DA will not be a strong as the other age groups...but they will gradually get stronger as the ecnl fades and BRYC and Mclean kids move their way...and they will

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

I understand the landscape just fine. My point is that the Spirit Dan has no base as of right now. Who is seriously leaving on the belief that it's the pathwayear to the pros? Who is coaching these teams? The other DAs have the advantage of established talent bases and established coaches in the community. I just don't see anyone would see as an advantage to the Spirit? And as of right now, McLean and BRYC are better with ECNL. I don't have a horse in the race, club or ECNL/DA wise. I just think that the Spirit Academy is poorly conceived and will struggle without a player base. It's not like their super Y teams were setting the world on fire.

Really?

VDA has Pwsi and VSA. They are barely competitive in the VPL. How in the world will they be able to compete in the DA on a national level? They can't until the talent pool gets opened to the whole region..not just the club kids.

How many kids at FCV are from Reston, Loudoun, Chantilly, Centreville, Vienna, Gainesville, Haymarket, manassas Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean?

Get the drift? It's not your internal player pool. It's the area you can attract from.

NEXT year the spirit DA will not be a strong as the other age groups...but they will gradually get stronger as the ecnl fades and BRYC and Mclean kids move their way...and they will

+100. The elite systems (previously ECNL, for the next two years ECNL+Girls DA, and after that, Girls DA alone) draw the players. Reston's affiliation with Spirit is facilities-based, not intended to provide a player pool. And US Soccer is subsidizing both the Spirit NWSL team and the DA, so they have a vested $$ interest in success (and likely a related interest in ECNL waning in favor of Girls' DA).

[Anonymous]

Public service announcement - NCSL divisions for spring have been posted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know own why anyone would think that the Spirit DA will have more success than VDA or FCV. Both of them have player pools to recruit from already and established coaches in the area. The Spirit are partnering with Reston, a 4th tier club at best in this area, and are going to try to recruit players from teams and coaches they've been with for years. And the price is double on top of all of that? The whole line of them having an actual path to the pros is ridiculous. They've never done this, just like everyone else in the area. What are they going to do, take only players from their academy every year and not go out and get the best players in the draft and such? People are ridiculous. Stop buying bs, let your kid grow where they feel happy, and don't worry about what's going to happen to them 10 years down the line. No coach or organization can guarantee success.

Huh. You seem really emotionally invested in Spirit DA failure.

You don't understand elite level soccer. Players come to those who have the top ticket. The player pool in the geographical area surrounding the club. (Not Reston SC). If you look at any ECNL roster you will see that kids travel from far and wide to be on the teams. Look at Mclean alone. Half of their roster is probably from Loudoun

I understand the landscape just fine. My point is that the Spirit Dan has no base as of right now. Who is seriously leaving on the belief that it's the pathwayear to the pros? Who is coaching these teams? The other DAs have the advantage of established talent bases and established coaches in the community. I just don't see anyone would see as an advantage to the Spirit? And as of right now, McLean and BRYC are better with ECNL. I don't have a horse in the race, club or ECNL/DA wise. I just think that the Spirit Academy is poorly conceived and will struggle without a player base. It's not like their super Y teams were setting the world on fire.

Really?

VDA has Pwsi and VSA. They are barely competitive in the VPL. How in the world will they be able to compete in the DA on a national level? They can't until the talent pool gets opened to the whole region..not just the club kids.

How many kids at FCV are from Reston, Loudoun, Chantilly, Centreville, Vienna, Gainesville, Haymarket, manassas Ashburn, Leesburg, Mclean?

Get the drift? It's not your internal player pool. It's the area you can attract from.

NEXT year the spirit DA will not be a strong as the other age groups...but they will gradually get stronger as the ecnl fades and BRYC and Mclean kids move their way...and they will

+100. The elite systems (previously ECNL, for the next two years ECNL+Girls DA, and after that, Girls DA alone) draw the players. Reston's affiliation with Spirit is facilities-based, not intended to provide a player pool. And US Soccer is subsidizing both the Spirit NWSL team and the DA, so they have a vested $$ interest in success (and likely a related interest in ECNL waning in favor of Girls' DA).

I think it's optimistic to say that ECNL will be gone in 2 years as a top level league. It's not like they're not fighting to stay on top.

A player pool is important because it's ridiculous to believe that the 20 girls you pick at u9 will be the same at u19. For both early identification and for a pathway out of the academy I see an advantage to having an established club structure.

I get that Reston is in the deal for facilities, but outside of Lake Fairfax, South lakes, and part time use of Arrow brook, the fields are bad grass fields. And they won't get turfed because Reston citizens refuse to make it happen.

Also, maybe CYA isn't the flashy partner in the VDA, but if it's facilities we're after, everything there is turfed. FCV/ loudoun have access to loudoun park and evergreen, along with whatever else they want if they open up their checkbooks.

But my biggest thing is that all these conversations take coaching out of the equation. Just because it's academy, everyone just knows it's going to be amazing?

Again, I just see hurdles for the Spirit. They're one of 3 in VA, plus 2 ECNL clubs. It's a great area for talent, but it's much more likely they will consolidate their 2 academies than grow so strong in VA.

And I don't think any of the academies will fail. US soccer has interest in all of them working. I just think it's ridiculous to believe that somehow one club, league, or system will root out all the others in the area or somehow surpass them permanently. That's not the landscape of Northern VA soccer. It's why fairfax county has a million clubs and nobody ever truly goes away.

[Anonymous]

If the USSF and girls DAs want to put ECNL to rest, why don't they add the U12s like the boys? They could get all the rising U12 talent in their system before ECNL even starts with its age groups.

Maybe 2018-19? (Doubt it though.)

[Anonymous]

As a prospective BRYC parent it looks like this. BRYC is starting to move towards one team per age group in the ECNL slots. Moving away from the lets bring in cash approach and investing in a small quantity of players. It looks like a club that is looking to separate from the way things have been done in youth soccer for a while. Focusing on the higher level players and putting all time and resources into their development will accelerate the product graduating from the club. Excited to be a part of it soon

[Anonymous]

I agree that for the next few years at least the Spirit Virginia DA will be at a disadvantage. There are inherent advantages to being an offshoot of an established club(s). In addition to the costs advantages from spreading out shared costs (disputed by some people who don’t understand how math works), FCV and VDA don’t have the same issue of getting players “into the door.” For example, FCV is just reallocating their existing player pool while working on a few Loudoun girls and a few others showing up. On the other hand, while some top players (or their overzealous parents) will always attracted to the “next big thing,” Spirit still not only has to convince enough good players to show up for a tryout but even then, to get them to leave a team that was previously good enough. And if overcoming that inertia was not enough, Spirit is at a disadvantage in identifying the best talent because they won’t be as familiar with the players and will have less time to evaluate them. Spirt is apparently going to start giving out offers soon and at most, Spirit has seen the players 3 times, and for most probably once or twice. Again using FCV as a comparison, most of the players will be well-known to them and if they face a decision as to who to offer, then can probably watch both players at a practice to get a better feel. There may be no problem identifying the top ten or so players at tryouts, but that’s only half the team, and getting the bottom half of your roster right will make a difference in how successful the team is, which will make a difference in how many more top players Spirit will be able to attract for the next year.

For those who have been to a Spirit tryout, how many players really stood out? Did all of the players trying out really lived up to your expectation of “DA” quality? If you’ve been to more than one Spirit tryout, how many other “repeat” players did you see?

I truly don't have a preference for which DA wins out in the end, but the more I think about, the more my opinion has changed from thinking that Spirit will be the clear frontrunner to thinking the Spirit has the toughest road to climb.

[Anonymous]

The spirit tryouts were weaker than VDA

The VDA tryouts were not really a high level so if that helps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that for the next few years at least the Spirit Virginia DA will be at a disadvantage. There are inherent advantages to being an offshoot of an established club(s). In addition to the costs advantages from spreading out shared costs (disputed by some people who don’t understand how math works), FCV and VDA don’t have the same issue of getting players “into the door.” For example, FCV is just reallocating their existing player pool while working on a few Loudoun girls and a few others showing up. On the other hand, while some top players (or their overzealous parents) will always attracted to the “next big thing,” Spirit still not only has to convince enough good players to show up for a tryout but even then, to get them to leave a team that was previously good enough. And if overcoming that inertia was not enough, Spirit is at a disadvantage in identifying the best talent because they won’t be as familiar with the players and will have less time to evaluate them. Spirt is apparently going to start giving out offers soon and at most, Spirit has seen the players 3 times, and for most probably once or twice. Again using FCV as a comparison, most of the players will be well-known to them and if they face a decision as to who to offer, then can probably watch both players at a practice to get a better feel. There may be no problem identifying the top ten or so players at tryouts, but that’s only half the team, and getting the bottom half of your roster right will make a difference in how successful the team is, which will make a difference in how many more top players Spirit will be able to attract for the next year.

For those who have been to a Spirit tryout, how many players really stood out? Did all of the players trying out really lived up to your expectation of “DA” quality? If you’ve been to more than one Spirit tryout, how many other “repeat” players did you see?

I truly don't have a preference for which DA wins out in the end, but the more I think about, the more my opinion has changed from thinking that Spirit will be the clear frontrunner to thinking the Spirit has the toughest road to climb.

I think there's an assumption underpinning the discussions about the Spirit DA's disadvantages given the preexisting player pools at FCV and VDA (and Mclean and BRYC), which is that the best players from around the region had already moved to those clubs. That might be true in the older age groups, but not necessarily for 03s and 04s. Some girls and families may only be beginning to get serious about soccer and move clubs to a more serious club now that the girl is in the 6th or 7th grade, and just beginning to consider options for more intense play now. That is, not all the superstars are already playing for the big clubs as 12-year-old 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking for some opinions from more experienced parents. My son is currently in the BRYC travel program at U9. The program has been ok. Some positives and some negatives. They changed the training format this spring and it has been working out much better. Anyway with the move of BRYC out of the CCL and into the ECNL at the younger ages they will no longer be participating in a league for the younger years. Scrimmages and 2-3 tournaments for the year. My son enjoys the competitiveness of travel and enjoys the weekend games. Not planning in riding a college scholarship but looking for him to get quality training and compete at a higher level than Rec leagues. Curious to know what parents would consider doing if they prefer the league format? Move to another club in a league (CCL/NCSL) or stick it out with BRYC? Other clubs in our area are LMVSC, PWSI (crappy traffic), SYC and SCAA. Perhaps ODSL?

Do not go ODSL if you are looking for competitive next level play. Go to LMVSC.

Thanks for the feedback. Probably an alternative area club or see how BRYC pans out at the younger years makes sense.

FPYC is probably close to you. They are NSCL.

[Anonymous]

All, I am sorry if this may derail this conversation but I will be moving to the Fort Belvoir area in June 2017 to live there for the next 4-5 years. My daughters was born April 2005 and currently plays in the Frankfurt D- Gruppenliga (04- 05) for one of the more successful clubs. She was also selected, as an American, to participate in the German Selects process to play for her local regional select team. I am trying to find a team for her to continue to grow. What clubs should I be looking at? Generally, when are tryouts? Any advice would be extremely helpful.