Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people feel about this?:

http://washingtonspirit.com/spirit-summer-youth-training-program/

On one hand, I think it's good to provide training opportunities in the summer and I guess that it's a way to make sure Spirit has enough bodies to have a meaningful practices for their Super Y and DA teams during the summer when lots of kids are away on vacation or at camps. But, $250 for 6 sessions seems pricey for a team-like training, and just feels like a means to supplement the costs for the DA players. But you do get tickets to see the Spirit.

#1 - money grab
#2 - still trying to find DA players

So this should be free? Where does this entitlement come from that charging for a service is always a money grab? The question is, is 6 or more training sessions worth $250. Frankly, that is pretty much the going rate for most soccer training session of similar duration.

It is Spirit trying to bring additional revenue in, which I agree with OP that it feels like a means to supplement the DA or the Super Y

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people feel about this?:

http://washingtonspirit.com/spirit-summer-youth-training-program/

On one hand, I think it's good to provide training opportunities in the summer and I guess that it's a way to make sure Spirit has enough bodies to have a meaningful practices for their Super Y and DA teams during the summer when lots of kids are away on vacation or at camps. But, $250 for 6 sessions seems pricey for a team-like training, and just feels like a means to supplement the costs for the DA players. But you do get tickets to see the Spirit.

This is not about providing bodies to DA practices during the summer as times and locations are not where DA teams practice.

Then it's false advertising because it clearly says "integrated or alongside" DA teams

[Anonymous]

I posted the question originally. To address some comments, $250 is a little high for 9 hours of training potentially involving 20 or more players. For comparison, HP Elite is $225 for the same # and length of training but with a more lower coach/player ratio. And since you're not actually part of a Spirit team, chances are you'll get less attention. To put it a different way, how many of you would right a $250 check every 2 weeks (assuming 3 practices a week) to your club with no games to play?

Regarding location being different from the DA practices, Spirit explicitly says that you'll get to practice with the DA girls if you're good enough; if not, then you'll be with the Super Y team.

From what I've heard from the parents of players on the Spirit DA teams, they are not looking for players any more. If anything, several of the teams wish they didn't accept some of the girls they did; there was a period when Spirit VA was offering almost anyone and several players accepted then but would not have been given an offer over players who came out later but the team no longer had room.

My take is that there's a little bit of a money grab and a little bit of smart business, as Spirit sees they have extra capacity at its practices because of girls being away for whatever reason so why not see who's willing to pay some money to fill those empty spaces. For Super Y, it doesn't "hurt" those teams because they're not that great anyway and the results don't really matter, and for DA, only the top players will be invited to those sessions, so the practices won't have to be slowed down for less skilled guests.

Will my kid sign up? No, because at those prices, if you miss even one session, it's not worth it, and even if it was priced competitively, her club has summer training already. But if your club doesn't have summer training and you can take advantage of the Spirit tickets, then it's not that bad of a deal, and if your kid is good enough, then she'll be on the Spirit's radar for tryouts next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted the question originally. To address some comments, $250 is a little high for 9 hours of training potentially involving 20 or more players. For comparison, HP Elite is $225 for the same # and length of training but with a more lower coach/player ratio. And since you're not actually part of a Spirit team, chances are you'll get less attention. To put it a different way, how many of you would right a $250 check every 2 weeks (assuming 3 practices a week) to your club with no games to play?

Regarding location being different from the DA practices, Spirit explicitly says that you'll get to practice with the DA girls if you're good enough; if not, then you'll be with the Super Y team.

From what I've heard from the parents of players on the Spirit DA teams, they are not looking for players any more. If anything, several of the teams wish they didn't accept some of the girls they did; there was a period when Spirit VA was offering almost anyone and several players accepted then but would not have been given an offer over players who came out later but the team no longer had room.

My take is that there's a little bit of a money grab and a little bit of smart business, as Spirit sees they have extra capacity at its practices because of girls being away for whatever reason so why not see who's willing to pay some money to fill those empty spaces. For Super Y, it doesn't "hurt" those teams because they're not that great anyway and the results don't really matter, and for DA, only the top players will be invited to those sessions, so the practices won't have to be slowed down for less skilled guests.

Will my kid sign up? No, because at those prices, if you miss even one session, it's not worth it, and even if it was priced competitively, her club has summer training already. But if your club doesn't have summer training and you can take advantage of the Spirit tickets, then it's not that bad of a deal, and if your kid is good enough, then she'll be on the Spirit's radar for tryouts next year.

write, not right, dammit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do people feel about this?:

http://washingtonspirit.com/spirit-summer-youth-training-program/

On one hand, I think it's good to provide training opportunities in the summer and I guess that it's a way to make sure Spirit has enough bodies to have a meaningful practices for their Super Y and DA teams during the summer when lots of kids are away on vacation or at camps. But, $250 for 6 sessions seems pricey for a team-like training, and just feels like a means to supplement the costs for the DA players. But you do get tickets to see the Spirit.

This is not about providing bodies to DA practices during the summer as times and locations are not where DA teams practice.

Then it's false advertising because it clearly says "integrated or alongside" DA teams

You also skipped over the part that said "Training integrated or along side Spirit Super Y or Development Academy teams, depending on the entrant’s skill level"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted the question originally. To address some comments, $250 is a little high for 9 hours of training potentially involving 20 or more players. For comparison, HP Elite is $225 for the same # and length of training but with a more lower coach/player ratio. And since you're not actually part of a Spirit team, chances are you'll get less attention. To put it a different way, how many of you would right a $250 check every 2 weeks (assuming 3 practices a week) to your club with no games to play?


If you consider the training top and the 4 tickets for $25 more than HP this is a good value. I will not compare the quality, to each his own, but the value is there.



Regarding location being different from the DA practices, Spirit explicitly says that you'll get to practice with the DA girls if you're good enough; if not, then you'll be with the Super Y team.

From what I've heard from the parents of players on the Spirit DA teams, they are not looking for players any more. If anything, several of the teams wish they didn't accept some of the girls they did; there was a period when Spirit VA was offering almost anyone and several players accepted then but would not have been given an offer over players who came out later but the team no longer had room.


Teams have room to add players if they are obvious impact players. But any opportunity to either get a look or see if you even like the coaches has value.


My take is that there's a little bit of a money grab and a little bit of smart business, as Spirit sees they have extra capacity at its practices because of girls being away for whatever reason so why not see who's willing to pay some money to fill those empty spaces. For Super Y, it doesn't "hurt" those teams because they're not that great anyway and the results don't really matter, and for DA, only the top players will be invited to those sessions, so the practices won't have to be slowed down for less skilled guests.


Almost ALL clubs offer camps, so what.



Will my kid sign up? No, because at those prices, if you miss even one session, it's not worth it, and even if it was priced competitively, her club has summer training already. But if your club doesn't have summer training and you can take advantage of the Spirit tickets, then it's not that bad of a deal, and if your kid is good enough, then she'll be on the Spirit's radar for tryouts next year.

The same argument could be made for signing up for HP sessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do people feel about this?:

http://washingtonspirit.com/spirit-summer-youth-training-program/

On one hand, I think it's good to provide training opportunities in the summer and I guess that it's a way to make sure Spirit has enough bodies to have a meaningful practices for their Super Y and DA teams during the summer when lots of kids are away on vacation or at camps. But, $250 for 6 sessions seems pricey for a team-like training, and just feels like a means to supplement the costs for the DA players. But you do get tickets to see the Spirit.

Seems like a decent thing to me... for Spirit, they can entertain more scrimmages during the summer which helps them scout their own players, keeps the door open for late comers (there is ALWAYS an open roster spot for the right player) and maybe brings in a couple bucks. For players, its a chance to measure yourself against Spirit DA players (maybe), and/or just have some fun playing the game.

$250 ? not cheap, but if you have the time and inclination, have at it. Keep an eye out for the DA scouts from other teams.

[Anonymous]

Sandbagging definitely goes on at the travel level all over the DMV. My U16s were in D5 of NCSL last year, and were finalists at all 4 of our tournaments. Unfortunately, 2 of the tournaments were cancelled due to weather, and we lost the other 2 finals in penalty kicks. For one of them, an NPL team was put into our bracket for some reason, and of course they romped to the final. We had a lead on them, but 3 of our starters were injured during the game and they eventually tied. For the other final that we lost on PKs, the other team was a D6 team, but they brought a bunch of guests from their elite team, and over half their starters were D1 players. Again we had a lead, but it proved to be too much and they took a lead in the last minute off a bogus penalty decision, only for us to tie it up once more with the last kick of the game, only to miss what would have been the 5th and final penalty, and then lose in sudden death. Truly some rollercoaster stuff. But my point is, those teams shouldn't have been in our bracket in the first place. A lot of the scheduling is biased to favor the bigger clubs staying on top, and the guest player rules allow for lower division teams to just bring the elite players from their top team whenever they have a tough game. Thankfully we're moving up a couple divisions at least this fall. Since all these bigger clubs like to bring their elite players to lower division games, we might as well skip the formalities and play the elite teams. Any team can rise up through the ranks if you have hard-working players who buy into what the coach is selling and play as a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sandbagging definitely goes on at the travel level all over the DMV. My U16s were in D5 of NCSL last year, and were finalists at all 4 of our tournaments. Unfortunately, 2 of the tournaments were cancelled due to weather, and we lost the other 2 finals in penalty kicks. For one of them, an NPL team was put into our bracket for some reason, and of course they romped to the final. We had a lead on them, but 3 of our starters were injured during the game and they eventually tied. For the other final that we lost on PKs, the other team was a D6 team, but they brought a bunch of guests from their elite team, and over half their starters were D1 players. Again we had a lead, but it proved to be too much and they took a lead in the last minute off a bogus penalty decision, only for us to tie it up once more with the last kick of the game, only to miss what would have been the 5th and final penalty, and then lose in sudden death. Truly some rollercoaster stuff. But my point is, those teams shouldn't have been in our bracket in the first place. A lot of the scheduling is biased to favor the bigger clubs staying on top, and the guest player rules allow for lower division teams to just bring the elite players from their top team whenever they have a tough game. Thankfully we're moving up a couple divisions at least this fall. Since all these bigger clubs like to bring their elite players to lower division games, we might as well skip the formalities and play the elite teams. Any team can rise up through the ranks if you have hard-working players who buy into what the coach is selling and play as a team.

Your first mistake is thinking that there are elite teams in NCSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandbagging definitely goes on at the travel level all over the DMV. My U16s were in D5 of NCSL last year, and were finalists at all 4 of our tournaments. Unfortunately, 2 of the tournaments were cancelled due to weather, and we lost the other 2 finals in penalty kicks. For one of them, an NPL team was put into our bracket for some reason, and of course they romped to the final. We had a lead on them, but 3 of our starters were injured during the game and they eventually tied. For the other final that we lost on PKs, the other team was a D6 team, but they brought a bunch of guests from their elite team, and over half their starters were D1 players. Again we had a lead, but it proved to be too much and they took a lead in the last minute off a bogus penalty decision, only for us to tie it up once more with the last kick of the game, only to miss what would have been the 5th and final penalty, and then lose in sudden death. Truly some rollercoaster stuff. But my point is, those teams shouldn't have been in our bracket in the first place. A lot of the scheduling is biased to favor the bigger clubs staying on top, and the guest player rules allow for lower division teams to just bring the elite players from their top team whenever they have a tough game. Thankfully we're moving up a couple divisions at least this fall. Since all these bigger clubs like to bring their elite players to lower division games, we might as well skip the formalities and play the elite teams. Any team can rise up through the ranks if you have hard-working players who buy into what the coach is selling and play as a team.

Your first mistake is thinking that there are elite teams in NCSL.

There are elite teams in NCSL, they may not stick around for around for more than a couple years if they're playing in the 1st division and routing everyone. Bethesda South moved a few teams to EDP. Some parents don't care for traveling for league games and wouldn't want to move to a more competitive league. NCSL is perfect for what it's intended to do, a lot of good players are taken up by the DA's in the area, so I would say there aren't a lot of elite teams playing in CCL, NPL, NCSL past U12 anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandbagging definitely goes on at the travel level all over the DMV. My U16s were in D5 of NCSL last year, and were finalists at all 4 of our tournaments. Unfortunately, 2 of the tournaments were cancelled due to weather, and we lost the other 2 finals in penalty kicks. For one of them, an NPL team was put into our bracket for some reason, and of course they romped to the final. We had a lead on them, but 3 of our starters were injured during the game and they eventually tied. For the other final that we lost on PKs, the other team was a D6 team, but they brought a bunch of guests from their elite team, and over half their starters were D1 players. Again we had a lead, but it proved to be too much and they took a lead in the last minute off a bogus penalty decision, only for us to tie it up once more with the last kick of the game, only to miss what would have been the 5th and final penalty, and then lose in sudden death. Truly some rollercoaster stuff. But my point is, those teams shouldn't have been in our bracket in the first place. A lot of the scheduling is biased to favor the bigger clubs staying on top, and the guest player rules allow for lower division teams to just bring the elite players from their top team whenever they have a tough game. Thankfully we're moving up a couple divisions at least this fall. Since all these bigger clubs like to bring their elite players to lower division games, we might as well skip the formalities and play the elite teams. Any team can rise up through the ranks if you have hard-working players who buy into what the coach is selling and play as a team.

Your first mistake is thinking that there are elite teams in NCSL.

There are elite teams in NCSL, they may not stick around for around for more than a couple years if they're playing in the 1st division and routing everyone. Bethesda South moved a few teams to EDP. Some parents don't care for traveling for league games and wouldn't want to move to a more competitive league. NCSL is perfect for what it's intended to do, a lot of good players are taken up by the DA's in the area, so I would say there aren't a lot of elite teams playing in CCL, NPL, NCSL past U12 anyway.

If you are not actively trying to play the best competition that you can then one cannot claim to be "elite". You can certainly say that there are some good teams in NCSL but ELITE? No, you cannot say that.

[Anonymous]

The term "elite" when applied to youth sports is just a marketing concept designed to draw in credulous parents. It's so debased at this point, you can say it any way you like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The term "elite" when applied to youth sports is just a marketing concept designed to draw in credulous parents. It's so debased at this point, you can say it any way you like.

This is mostly true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sandbagging definitely goes on at the travel level all over the DMV. My U16s were in D5 of NCSL last year, and were finalists at all 4 of our tournaments. Unfortunately, 2 of the tournaments were cancelled due to weather, and we lost the other 2 finals in penalty kicks. For one of them, an NPL team was put into our bracket for some reason, and of course they romped to the final. We had a lead on them, but 3 of our starters were injured during the game and they eventually tied. For the other final that we lost on PKs, the other team was a D6 team, but they brought a bunch of guests from their elite team, and over half their starters were D1 players. Again we had a lead, but it proved to be too much and they took a lead in the last minute off a bogus penalty decision, only for us to tie it up once more with the last kick of the game, only to miss what would have been the 5th and final penalty, and then lose in sudden death. Truly some rollercoaster stuff. But my point is, those teams shouldn't have been in our bracket in the first place. A lot of the scheduling is biased to favor the bigger clubs staying on top, and the guest player rules allow for lower division teams to just bring the elite players from their top team whenever they have a tough game. Thankfully we're moving up a couple divisions at least this fall. Since all these bigger clubs like to bring their elite players to lower division games, we might as well skip the formalities and play the elite teams. Any team can rise up through the ranks if you have hard-working players who buy into what the coach is selling and play as a team.

Your first mistake is thinking that there are elite teams in NCSL.

There are elite teams in NCSL, they may not stick around for around for more than a couple years if they're playing in the 1st division and routing everyone. Bethesda South moved a few teams to EDP. Some parents don't care for traveling for league games and wouldn't want to move to a more competitive league. NCSL is perfect for what it's intended to do, a lot of good players are taken up by the DA's in the area, so I would say there aren't a lot of elite teams playing in CCL, NPL, NCSL past U12 anyway.

If you are not actively trying to play the best competition that you can then one cannot claim to be "elite". You can certainly say that there are some good teams in NCSL but ELITE? No, you cannot say that.

But, you cannot claim to be "elite" simply because you are willing to write the check. There are plenty of players in this area whose parents don't feel the need to travel all over the east coast to just to play youth soccer, but whose children are very skilled. Likewise, there are plenty of parents who think their child is a great soccer player because they play on an ECNL or DA team, but are really only on that team because the parents chose to invest their resources in soccer fees and travel costs.

[Anonymous]

Of course ECNL or DA do not have every great player out there but if you think that there are NCSL teams just full of kids who are DA caliber you are fooling yourself.