Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

And the original poster knows nothing about youth soccer or the elite scene considering his child is 9 years old.

You have no idea what Spirit is going to look like. The morons who believe that Spirit will be full of Reston kids should do us all a favor and go smack themselves.

Heard large handfuls of FCV and Loudoun kids heading that way. Also heard some BRYC and Mclean kids heading that way as well.


Heard lots of Loudoun kids will call Spirit home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

And you think your U9 would therefor be in the top 20 girls in NoVA?

No one knows that you numbskull.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

[Anonymous]

So Spirit has a DA tryout the weekend of Jeff Cup for the older kids, and their last tryout was the weekend of the Loudoun Showcase. It's like they have no idea of what's going on locally and when good teams are already committed.

Also, Spirit does not know how many players are committed yet. Deadline for accepting the first invitations is the end of March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So Spirit has a DA tryout the weekend of Jeff Cup for the older kids, and their last tryout was the weekend of the Loudoun Showcase. It's like they have no idea of what's going on locally and when good teams are already committed.

Also, Spirit does not know how many players are committed yet. Deadline for accepting the first invitations is the end of March.

I had a 48 hour deadline to accept for Spirit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

McLean is one and done. You go back to CCL at U13 if you are unable to make Arlington, Loudoun, or DCU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So Spirit has a DA tryout the weekend of Jeff Cup for the older kids, and their last tryout was the weekend of the Loudoun Showcase. It's like they have no idea of what's going on locally and when good teams are already committed.

Also, Spirit does not know how many players are committed yet. Deadline for accepting the first invitations is the end of March.

And the second date conflicts with the ERL Showcase in DE. That was also my first thought, that they are completely unaware of what their target players have on their schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Spirit has a DA tryout the weekend of Jeff Cup for the older kids, and their last tryout was the weekend of the Loudoun Showcase. It's like they have no idea of what's going on locally and when good teams are already committed.

Also, Spirit does not know how many players are committed yet. Deadline for accepting the first invitations is the end of March.

And the second date conflicts with the ERL Showcase in DE. That was also my first thought, that they are completely unaware of what their target players have on their schedule.

I agree...to an extent. Be mindful that Spirit tryouts have been going on for some time. This is not their 1st tryout...so if a kid can't make this tryout it's not Spirits fault. On top of that, I seriously doubt this will be their last tryout. Only a small number of kids are getting offers per tryout. They are not rushing to just form teams. They are trying to put together a program that can compete. Remember, they don't have the benifit of an existing club and player pool. People should pause and reflect on what they are saying prior to calling spirit a worthless option because their rosters have not been completely set. Kudos to them for not just taking people's money and fielding a crappy team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too am interested in where BRYC players are going. I have a rising U9 boy that is interested in travel soccer. I am not interested in traveling very far for games so BRYC actually seemed like a good club to look at.

I know a few from BRYC that went to Arlington and LMVSC last year. U9 boys do not travel far in CCL for games. I'd be more worried about how far practices are from where you live. A lot of U9 practices occur around 5 PM. Not a whole lot of time to get ready right after school but I think anywhere within 20 minutes is reasonable in this area.

What about Annandale FC? Anyone familiar with this club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Spirit has a DA tryout the weekend of Jeff Cup for the older kids, and their last tryout was the weekend of the Loudoun Showcase. It's like they have no idea of what's going on locally and when good teams are already committed.

Also, Spirit does not know how many players are committed yet. Deadline for accepting the first invitations is the end of March.

And the second date conflicts with the ERL Showcase in DE. That was also my first thought, that they are completely unaware of what their target players have on their schedule.

I agree...to an extent. Be mindful that Spirit tryouts have been going on for some time. This is not their 1st tryout...so if a kid can't make this tryout it's not Spirits fault. On top of that, I seriously doubt this will be their last tryout. Only a small number of kids are getting offers per tryout. They are not rushing to just form teams. They are trying to put together a program that can compete. Remember, they don't have the benifit of an existing club and player pool. People should pause and reflect on what they are saying prior to calling spirit a worthless option because their rosters have not been completely set. Kudos to them for not just taking people's money and fielding a crappy team.

The kids that I know of that are going to Spirit were offered DA spots at other clubs so based on club consensus Spirit is signing DA caliber talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too am interested in where BRYC players are going. I have a rising U9 boy that is interested in travel soccer. I am not interested in traveling very far for games so BRYC actually seemed like a good club to look at.

I know a few from BRYC that went to Arlington and LMVSC last year. U9 boys do not travel far in CCL for games. I'd be more worried about how far practices are from where you live. A lot of U9 practices occur around 5 PM. Not a whole lot of time to get ready right after school but I think anywhere within 20 minutes is reasonable in this area.

What about Annandale FC? Anyone familiar with this club?

From what I heard from a friend in the program, stay away. At the younger ages practice seems to be 50 kids with very few coaches. Different coaches at each game. They have a couple of good teams at the older ages especially at the oldest girls age group but that is based on talent coming from outside due to the coaches in that group. Besides that, the program has been suffering due to a mess in organization. Constant turnover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?