Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Since everyone is circulating throughout the NoVa travel system like blood or a hyperactive party hostess, I'd like to propose that Kephern Fuller jump over to Great Falls, Jane Dawber take over Joga SC, Richard Gunney and Brian Welsh switch places to vary the UK flavor, and Gus Donolo seize control of Shenandoah County ODSL. Seriously, though, it looks like the travel world around here is big enough to allow coaches to land on their feet as necessary. I don't know what that says about the quality of training or competitiveness of programs, if anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since everyone is circulating throughout the NoVa travel system like blood or a hyperactive party hostess, I'd like to propose that Kephern Fuller jump over to Great Falls, Jane Dawber take over Joga SC, Richard Gunney and Brian Welsh switch places to vary the UK flavor, and Gus Donolo seize control of Shenandoah County ODSL. Seriously, though, it looks like the travel world around here is big enough to allow coaches to land on their feet as necessary. I don't know what that says about the quality of training or competitiveness of programs, if anything.

Jane's going to Chantilly. Great Falls just hired someone.
http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/great-falls-soccer-club-announces-radovan-pletka-as-technical-director/

Kephern will continue to exist in an alternate plane of existence. I don't really mean that as an insult. I think it's by his choice. Is he leaving Joga?

[Anonymous]

I think the reference to Fuller was meant as a joke. The stereotype about Great Fall is that it's a homogenous suburb. It's actually diverse in some ways -- as diverse as the tech industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since everyone is circulating throughout the NoVa travel system like blood or a hyperactive party hostess, I'd like to propose that Kephern Fuller jump over to Great Falls, Jane Dawber take over Joga SC, Richard Gunney and Brian Welsh switch places to vary the UK flavor, and Gus Donolo seize control of Shenandoah County ODSL. Seriously, though, it looks like the travel world around here is big enough to allow coaches to land on their feet as necessary. I don't know what that says about the quality of training or competitiveness of programs, if anything.

Jane's going to Chantilly. Great Falls just hired someone.
http://www.soccerwire.com/notes/great-falls-soccer-club-announces-radovan-pletka-as-technical-director/

Kephern will continue to exist in an alternate plane of existence. I don't really mean that as an insult. I think it's by his choice. Is he leaving Joga?

An apt way to put it

[Anonymous]

Well, I just had my son attend the first two tryouts for rising U9, VYS.
What a joke. They scrimmaged 5v5 on fields that were smaller than house game fields with pug goals? Not sure how you can evaluate talent when each player is surrounded immediately after getting the ball?!?
I also heard a rumor they hired a tryout coach the night before the 1st session.
Not feeling very confident in this process or is this just the way it is?

[Anonymous]

Are there any decent academies in the area that you need to try out for?

[Anonymous]

Uh, I assume you know that U9 travel plays 6v6 plus goalkeepers on a 45x60 yard field. So the 5x5 you saw at tryouts is almost a full field scrimmage without goalkeepers. And one of the best ways to evaluate talent is how a player handles immediate pressure and handles the ball in traffic. Get used to it.

[Anonymous]

Did anybody go to one of VYS' info sessions? How are they changing things under the new regime? Are they evaluating the returning travel players the same as everyone else so that the Friends of Eddie and the AGC/coaches' kids are treated the same as everyone else?

[Anonymous]

For better or for worse, the new VYS staff is basing pretty much everything off tryouts that are 90% scrimmages, at least for rising U9s.

Personally, I think that may help you find the dominant players (and the weakest) but doesn't help you evaluate the rest. You have to know something about a kid's attitude and coachability.

I've seen a lot of travel players who make it because they had the athleticism to look good in scrimmage-based tryouts, and then two years later, the staff wonders why they haven't developed.

I hear (second-hand) that PAC does it differently. They have tons of open dates and only require attendance at two (three is encouraged), so they don't have huge crowds at a couple of required events. Then they actually coach players in the tryout. Even if you don't make a team or decide to go elsewhere, you get a free lesson. (Well, almost free -- they ask you to bring a plain white shirt, and they scrawl a number on it. So you're out the cost of a plain white shirt.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For better or for worse, the new VYS staff is basing pretty much everything off tryouts that are 90% scrimmages, at least for rising U9s.

Personally, I think that may help you find the dominant players (and the weakest) but doesn't help you evaluate the rest. You have to know something about a kid's attitude and coachability.

I've seen a lot of travel players who make it because they had the athleticism to look good in scrimmage-based tryouts, and then two years later, the staff wonders why they haven't developed.

I hear (second-hand) that PAC does it differently. They have tons of open dates and only require attendance at two (three is encouraged), so they don't have huge crowds at a couple of required events. Then they actually coach players in the tryout. Even if you don't make a team or decide to go elsewhere, you get a free lesson. (Well, almost free -- they ask you to bring a plain white shirt, and they scrawl a number on it. So you're out the cost of a plain white shirt.)

I think it's fine to base it mostly off of scrimmages; How else do you really judge a kid's ability? Though they should be doing maybe more 1 v 1 or 2 v 2. But I also agree there should be some activities in there to assess a kid's coachability and focus -- maybe try to teach them a complicated drill or something?

[Anonymous]

Look, there was tons of criticism that VYS tryouts were based on being friends with certain people or that parent coaches/AGC kids had an advantage or that being in the inner circle helped your kid. So VYS got rid of parent coaches (or so I am told), made it so that tryouts were truly blind and everyone has a fair chance to just play their way on but people are still complaining. Seems like a bit of a no win situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, there was tons of criticism that VYS tryouts were based on being friends with certain people or that parent coaches/AGC kids had an advantage or that being in the inner circle helped your kid. So VYS got rid of parent coaches (or so I am told), made it so that tryouts were truly blind and everyone has a fair chance to just play their way on but people are still complaining. Seems like a bit of a no win situation.

It is.

More specifically -- it's a fine line between (A) the staff knowing a child is a good travel candidate through interactions over a period of time and (B) the staff playing favorites. In other words, getting to know the kids beyond a number in a scrimmage-based tryout has its advantages, but it opens the potential for favoritism.

And either way, whoever isn't picked is going to complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For better or for worse, the new VYS staff is basing pretty much everything off tryouts that are 90% scrimmages, at least for rising U9s.

Personally, I think that may help you find the dominant players (and the weakest) but doesn't help you evaluate the rest. You have to know something about a kid's attitude and coachability.

I've seen a lot of travel players who make it because they had the athleticism to look good in scrimmage-based tryouts, and then two years later, the staff wonders why they haven't developed.

I hear (second-hand) that PAC does it differently. They have tons of open dates and only require attendance at two (three is encouraged), so they don't have huge crowds at a couple of required events. Then they actually coach players in the tryout. Even if you don't make a team or decide to go elsewhere, you get a free lesson. (Well, almost free -- they ask you to bring a plain white shirt, and they scrawl a number on it. So you're out the cost of a plain white shirt.)

I'm confused about these complaints about using all scrimmaging at tryouts to select players .... what else would you propose that would be better at identifying the better kids? In the scrimmaging the coaches can see a players athleticism, quickness, anticipation, aggressiveness, reaction speed, toughness, creativity, footskills, field vision, etc. What else would you have them do at tryouts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For better or for worse, the new VYS staff is basing pretty much everything off tryouts that are 90% scrimmages, at least for rising U9s.

Personally, I think that may help you find the dominant players (and the weakest) but doesn't help you evaluate the rest. You have to know something about a kid's attitude and coachability.

I've seen a lot of travel players who make it because they had the athleticism to look good in scrimmage-based tryouts, and then two years later, the staff wonders why they haven't developed.

I hear (second-hand) that PAC does it differently. They have tons of open dates and only require attendance at two (three is encouraged), so they don't have huge crowds at a couple of required events. Then they actually coach players in the tryout. Even if you don't make a team or decide to go elsewhere, you get a free lesson. (Well, almost free -- they ask you to bring a plain white shirt, and they scrawl a number on it. So you're out the cost of a plain white shirt.)

I'm confused about these complaints about using all scrimmaging at tryouts to select players .... what else would you propose that would be better at identifying the better kids? In the scrimmaging the coaches can see a players athleticism, quickness, anticipation, aggressiveness, reaction speed, toughness, creativity, footskills, field vision, etc. What else would you have them do at tryouts?

We're talking rising U9 here. Some kids are 8 years/9 months old. Some are 7 years/9 months old. That's an eternity when you're talking about "athleticism, quickness, anticipation, aggressiveness, reaction speed, toughness, etc."

You shouldn't be looking at these kids as if they're anywhere close to a finished product. It's not about how good they are now. It's about how good they CAN be.

So get to know the kids. Run them through some drills. See if they're coachable. See their upside.

[Anonymous]

A pure scrimmage tryout could be a red flag. It suggests the club may be short-staffed or has already picked the players. A more comprehensive and probably more fair tryout would orchestrate scrimmaging, small-sided games, drills, and measured tests to provide a fully rounded view of each player. And yes, that takes time, planning, and coaches that some clubs don't have.

I like the idea of using tryouts to identify upside. A few players in each academy, imho, should be "projects" who may lack soccer IQ but have freakish athleticism or who are character kids who don't exhibit graceful movement patterns but demonstrate hustle and sacrifice to the nth degree. Needless to say, I'm not in charge of anything, not even my own household.