| Talk to older parents. They will give you the secrets so you can skip the drama. |
Not the OP, but every player at this level is pretty good, no true standouts at the U-little level. The more they play, however, the more they standout because they’re developing their game iq. I don’t have experience with AK personally, but have heard horror stories. |
I have experience with AK at the younger ages. All players play at least half the game. The strongest players play most of the game. This sounds like parents of kids who weren’t deemed to be the strongest. |
Parent of a current U10 (2016). My daughter is a starter and plays the entire game without substitution (along with a few others). While I appreciate that greatly, it is sadly not true that “all players play at least half the game”. I’m happy for my daughter, since she is one of the ones AK is investing in greatly right now, but sympathize with the families whose daughters don’t play much. He has had 3-4 2015s guest with us almost every game this year, and they definitely play more than rostered 2016s. We get the sense he wants to win, but then again, who doesn’t? |
Gawd…this is one coach. His opinion will not matter in a few years. Parent of a 2012 he didn’t think was good enough to stay on red (at the time that was the top team), and my kid plays ECNL now. My advice, stay the course, believe in your kid, and do all the extras. AK’s opinion doesn’t matter by the time soccer gets real. |
Are those 2015s staying in the u11 age group next year? Are they trying to get a look at the top team for the 26/27 season? |
Maybe they weren't good enough at the time but hard work got them there? |
| Not an Arlington parent, but a parent of a 2016 girl from a smaller club who has competed against Arlington many times. From my perspective, Arlington has great talent but consistently underperforms for the talent pool they have. That is coaching. The only 2016 club/coach in our area that has truly developed their girls to the highest level of play, is Bethesda. |
Just to be clear, this is in reference to 9-year-olds?
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Out of curiosity, how many 2016 girls are even on the roster? It has seemed to me that they may not have enough girls to play 9v9 (with a few subs) without having guest players. But maybe that’s not right? |
But they pay the same as you to watch your daughter play. Seems fair, one advice to those parents, RUN |
Yeah see this is the problem with Arlington. If parents are enamored with the concept of "Arlington" and want their girls to go play for AK and their girls are decent, they'll probably hardly play at all, compared to the playing time they would get on other other decent to good teams in the area. It's always ideal to be one of the top 3-5 players on a team, to both get enough intra-squad competition but also to get the "favored playing time." Unless you're already one of AK's "favored" 2016s, like the prior poster's daughter, or one of the incoming 2015s referenced, I would say it would not be wise to join the team. |
I think this makes sense. It seems like some parents want their kids to be on superstar teams when their kid isn’t one and then wonder why they aren’t getting superstar minutes. Superstar teams are bad for young players unless you’re in the top 2-3 on the roster. It makes much more sense to develop on other teams where each of these players can be the strongest players and get the most development. Then they can come together later after years of main player development. |
Most clubs have a policy that u-littles play half the game minimum, and also that guests can't play more than rostered players. Does Arlington not have this policy? |
No, Arlington doesn’t have this policy. |