Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Exactly. Spirit will be just fine. Geographically it is in a great location to draw from McLean and BRYC as well as Loudoun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But when it comes to ridiculing the Spirit pro players, I'd invite you to kindly shut up. Right now. No, they're not getting rich, but their dedication and professionalism are outstanding.

And to my knowledge, there's no "head janitor" at the SoccerPlex. There's a head groundskeeper who does an awesome job and has an adorable dog who runs off birds.

The barista at my local Starbucks also exudes professionalism but that's not the career path I want for my daughter. And that groundskeeper has the better paying job than the players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But when it comes to ridiculing the Spirit pro players, I'd invite you to kindly shut up. Right now. No, they're not getting rich, but their dedication and professionalism are outstanding.

And to my knowledge, there's no "head janitor" at the SoccerPlex. There's a head groundskeeper who does an awesome job and has an adorable dog who runs off birds.

The barista at my local Starbucks also exudes professionalism but that's not the career path I want for my daughter. And that groundskeeper has the better paying job than the players.

Shocker, women don't make as much money as men. But exactly what does that have to do with the fact that they are all good soccer players and pretty much all of them had scholarships and many have had National Team duties? If you can point to accessible players at any other DA locally that can speak to that experience to young players then I'm all ears.

[Anonymous]

What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

You are right, a pro team has no connection to college programs at all. A pro team that has National team players on their roster wouldn't know the first thing about college soccer or highly touted D1 programs.

And DA players being able to talk with pro players that HAVE gone through the experience of playing college soccer have nothing to offer 14-18 year old girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

And, it is the kid that does 90% of the heavy lifting in the recruiting process anyway. The club simply provides the platform to be seen along with the training, but the kid is the one who makes the contacts unless your kid is the next great thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

Agreed. The only argument I can think of for Spirit DA vs FCV or VDA (or any other independent club) is that "if" Spirit decides to subsidize to any extent, it will be cheaper. Girls don't care about that so much, but parents do.

On the boys side, is DA within a pro club like DC United any cheaper than a non-pro affiliated DA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is all a money grab...our sons played for multiple clubs in the Northern VA market and as they grew up, it only got worse. Tryouts with very little feedback from coaches, coaches who think they are god because they have every parent at their beckon call, and clubs that know every parent will pay $2-3K per year in travel soccer fees. Not to mention, clubs make "slight" changes to jerseys so they can charge full price for the next season again.

Realizing that even the most "Elite" players from Bethesda or DC United Academy are now playing college soccer for Radford or Marshall, the juice isn't worth the squeeze! Unless you have political connections, forget climbing the "soccer ladder." At most, there are 9 scholarships handed out per team and these are divided up among 20-25 players.

My advice is don't sweat soccer- just enjoy watching your kids play and get good grades.

That's quite some cherry-picking you're doing on the college commitments for DC United and Bethesda, and you are not talking about the "most elite". I've posted the recent recruiting classes for both below for anyone who wants to get an accurate picture of where boys go after playing DA. DC United's class is not as impressive as usual from a school snob perspective this year, though I personally think it's extremely impressive to be good enough at soccer to get a scholarship to University of Maryland, UNC or University of Pittsburgh, or good enough at both soccer and academics to end up with a scholarship to William and Mary. In the past DC has had more kids recruited to UVA, Maryland, Wake Forest and other great soccer/academic schools, but their graduating class is a little thin this year because they lost several kids to the pros, the residential academy in Bradenton, or to other DAs.

You also have to factor in the strength of a school's soccer program and player's ultimate goals. A lot of Bethesda kids head to places like Maryland, UVA, Georgetown, UCLA, or Duke because they can get a great education while leaving open the possibility of going pro. Those programs all have outstanding coaches and a history of producing pro players (Louisville, Akron, and Wake Forest, among others, also have great reputations for their soccer programs). Other kids are happy to head to Ivies or DIII schools with top academic reputations, and they get a huge admissions boost based on their DA time.

Those players going to Marshall or Radford are most likely kids who focused more on soccer than academics, and I'm not sure why you'd mock them for that. I imagine those kids and families are pretty thrilled to be getting scholarships to college, and they should be proud that their hard work and talents made that possible.

DC United:

2017:
https://www.dcunited.com/post/2017/01/31/12-united-academy-players-sign-nli-national-signing-day

2016:
http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/d-c-united-academy-announces-14-ncaa-division-i-commitments/

2015:
http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/16-d-c-united-academy-players-announce-college-commitments/n-4923326

Bethesda:

http://www.bethesdasoccer.org/Default.aspx?tabid=200237&mid=228230&ctl=newsdetail&newsid=47738&alt_id=19e6a&newskeyid=HN1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

Wait no longer mI amigo.

No one is really saying they are better positioned to out do FCV or VDA. People (me included) are saying they are not going to be garbage as some people on here would have you believe. There are people on her with an agenda...

#1. No one is joining Spirit to go pro. You can go pro from any club...you just have to be good enough.

#2. Spirit may be able to offer things other DAs cannot. You'll just have to wait and see.

#3. Young players being exposed to older pro players is a great thing...regardless the money they make. Never under estimate the power of older female role models. (Such as a Spirit mentor program)

#4. College is the #1 priority. DA is just the platform to get you there. A YNT camp on your resume can help with that.

#5. The more DAs the better. Expand the pool of talent...dont make it smaller. Kids are constantly changing. Bad today...good tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

Agreed. The only argument I can think of for Spirit DA vs FCV or VDA (or any other independent club) is that "if" Spirit decides to subsidize to any extent, it will be cheaper. Girls don't care about that so much, but parents do.

On the boys side, is DA within a pro club like DC United any cheaper than a non-pro affiliated DA?

I've posted on this before, but DC United is not much, if any cheaper than non-pro affiliated clubs, except maybe at the U18 level. This is not the case for most MLS academies, which are generally free to players.

I'm not sure how Washington Spirit is going to be in a position to heavily subsidize players unless USSF gives it a big cash infusion to do so or it has a generous donor. I think most of the women's professional teams are struggling financially. It would be easier for a huge club with lots of teams to subsidize the costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

Thank you. Not that I have a dog in this fight, but I do want to hear why other parents/coaches/administrators believe the GDA was necessary. Another posted clearly pointed out that the best players end up playing for a college that is shit academically. Since when has the soccer prowess of a college been the reason for students apply to go to it. I can understand basketball and football players being careful about where they go because their goal is to go pro, make plenty of money while staying in the US and being part of draft day.

For soccer there is no guarantee any MLS clubs will even look at you, much less any European, Mexican, South American clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

You are right, a pro team has no connection to college programs at all. A pro team that has National team players on their roster wouldn't know the first thing about college soccer or highly touted D1 programs.

And DA players being able to talk with pro players that HAVE gone through the experience of playing college soccer have nothing to offer 14-18 year old girls.

So because you're a 14-17 yo academy player, you think you will have exclusive all-access to pro players that other players in a travel team wouldn't have be able to also have with a tweet, IG share/DM, facebook post, email, phone call... need I go on. You have to remember, while these are PRO players, they are also women interested in helping out other women and they don't have their ego's massaged every day since their season is so short. They are totally accessible. If you're having your daughter believe she's going to be training and conversing next to WS pro players because she's in their academy, you're lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is all a money grab...our sons played for multiple clubs in the Northern VA market and as they grew up, it only got worse. Tryouts with very little feedback from coaches, coaches who think they are god because they have every parent at their beckon call, and clubs that know every parent will pay $2-3K per year in travel soccer fees. Not to mention, clubs make "slight" changes to jerseys so they can charge full price for the next season again.

Realizing that even the most "Elite" players from Bethesda or DC United Academy are now playing college soccer for Radford or Marshall, the juice isn't worth the squeeze! Unless you have political connections, forget climbing the "soccer ladder." At most, there are 9 scholarships handed out per team and these are divided up among 20-25 players.

My advice is don't sweat soccer- just enjoy watching your kids play and get good grades.

That's quite some cherry-picking you're doing on the college commitments for DC United and Bethesda, and you are not talking about the "most elite". I've posted the recent recruiting classes for both below for anyone who wants to get an accurate picture of where boys go after playing DA. DC United's class is not as impressive as usual from a school snob perspective this year, though I personally think it's extremely impressive to be good enough at soccer to get a scholarship to University of Maryland, UNC or University of Pittsburgh, or good enough at both soccer and academics to end up with a scholarship to William and Mary. In the past DC has had more kids recruited to UVA, Maryland, Wake Forest and other great soccer/academic schools, but their graduating class is a little thin this year because they lost several kids to the pros, the residential academy in Bradenton, or to other DAs.

You also have to factor in the strength of a school's soccer program and player's ultimate goals. A lot of Bethesda kids head to places like Maryland, UVA, Georgetown, UCLA, or Duke because they can get a great education while leaving open the possibility of going pro. Those programs all have outstanding coaches and a history of producing pro players (Louisville, Akron, and Wake Forest, among others, also have great reputations for their soccer programs). Other kids are happy to head to Ivies or DIII schools with top academic reputations, and they get a huge admissions boost based on their DA time.

Those players going to Marshall or Radford are most likely kids who focused more on soccer than academics, and I'm not sure why you'd mock them for that. I imagine those kids and families are pretty thrilled to be getting scholarships to college, and they should be proud that their hard work and talents made that possible.

DC United:

2017:
https://www.dcunited.com/post/2017/01/31/12-united-academy-players-sign-nli-national-signing-day

2016:
http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/d-c-united-academy-announces-14-ncaa-division-i-commitments/

2015:
http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/16-d-c-united-academy-players-announce-college-commitments/n-4923326

Bethesda:

http://www.bethesdasoccer.org/Default.aspx?tabid=200237&mid=228230&ctl=newsdetail&newsid=47738&alt_id=19e6a&newskeyid=HN1

Bradenton quietly closed last week. It was seen as a failure by many. US soccer is now agreeing it's better for kids to train locally in their youth vs some horrible facility cut-off from everything in pre-teen/teen years. They are moving to Academy-MLS clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What it has do with the conversation is whether there is any value to the GDA being affiliated with a pro team, as several posters have claimed. Since there is no financial reason to aspire to be a pro player, unless you're 1 of the 30 players in play for a USMNT spor, the value of that affiliation is nil.

It's all abour, and only about, college spots, and I'm still waiting for someone to explain how Spirit is better positioned than FCV or VDA.

You are right, a pro team has no connection to college programs at all. A pro team that has National team players on their roster wouldn't know the first thing about college soccer or highly touted D1 programs.

And DA players being able to talk with pro players that HAVE gone through the experience of playing college soccer have nothing to offer 14-18 year old girls.

So because you're a 14-17 yo academy player, you think you will have exclusive all-access to pro players that other players in a travel team wouldn't have be able to also have with a tweet, IG share/DM, facebook post, email, phone call... need I go on. You have to remember, while these are PRO players, they are also women interested in helping out other women and they don't have their ego's massaged every day since their season is so short. They are totally accessible. If you're having your daughter believe she's going to be training and conversing next to WS pro players because she's in their academy, you're lost.

And yet you have not stated why Spirit is incapable of doing anything that any other DA IS doing. There are not even rosters announced yet for any DA and you have Spirit dead and buried based on what exactly? Please explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is all a money grab...our sons played for multiple clubs in the Northern VA market and as they grew up, it only got worse. Tryouts with very little feedback from coaches, coaches who think they are god because they have every parent at their beckon call, and clubs that know every parent will pay $2-3K per year in travel soccer fees. Not to mention, clubs make "slight" changes to jerseys so they can charge full price for the next season again.

Realizing that even the most "Elite" players from Bethesda or DC United Academy are now playing college soccer for Radford or Marshall, the juice isn't worth the squeeze! Unless you have political connections, forget climbing the "soccer ladder." At most, there are 9 scholarships handed out per team and these are divided up among 20-25 players.

My advice is don't sweat soccer- just enjoy watching your kids play and get good grades.

That's quite some cherry-picking you're doing on the college commitments for DC United and Bethesda, and you are not talking about the "most elite". I've posted the recent recruiting classes for both below for anyone who wants to get an accurate picture of where boys go after playing DA. DC United's class is not as impressive as usual from a school snob perspective this year, though I personally think it's extremely impressive to be good enough at soccer to get a scholarship to University of Maryland, UNC or University of Pittsburgh, or good enough at both soccer and academics to end up with a scholarship to William and Mary. In the past DC has had more kids recruited to UVA, Maryland, Wake Forest and other great soccer/academic schools, but their graduating class is a little thin this year because they lost several kids to the pros, the residential academy in Bradenton, or to other DAs.

You also have to factor in the strength of a school's soccer program and player's ultimate goals. A lot of Bethesda kids head to places like Maryland, UVA, Georgetown, UCLA, or Duke because they can get a great education while leaving open the possibility of going pro. Those programs all have outstanding coaches and a history of producing pro players (Louisville, Akron, and Wake Forest, among others, also have great reputations for their soccer programs). Other kids are happy to head to Ivies or DIII schools with top academic reputations, and they get a huge admissions boost based on their DA time.

Those players going to Marshall or Radford are most likely kids who focused more on soccer than academics, and I'm not sure why you'd mock them for that. I imagine those kids and families are pretty thrilled to be getting scholarships to college, and they should be proud that their hard work and talents made that possible.

DC United:

2017:
https://www.dcunited.com/post/2017/01/31/12-united-academy-players-sign-nli-national-signing-day

2016:
http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/d-c-united-academy-announces-14-ncaa-division-i-commitments/

2015:
http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/16-d-c-united-academy-players-announce-college-commitments/n-4923326

Bethesda:

http://www.bethesdasoccer.org/Default.aspx?tabid=200237&mid=228230&ctl=newsdetail&newsid=47738&alt_id=19e6a&newskeyid=HN1

Bradenton quietly closed last week. It was seen as a failure by many. US soccer is now agreeing it's better for kids to train locally in their youth vs some horrible facility cut-off from everything in pre-teen/teen years. They are moving to Academy-MLS clubs.

Bradenton hasn't closed yet; they announced that the current semester will be the final one. There were 3 DC United players in their final class. I'm all for it closing for a variety of soccer and quality of life reasons, and agree that the nation-wide DA set up is far superior to a single residential academy.

But that's all beside my main point from above, which is that kids at DAs (and in the current ECNL program) tend to have very good college options, despite the misleading comments from the poster who talked about Radford, etc.