Recruitment clubs/teams

[Anonymous]

I’m fascinated by the recent state that some teams bring in either a team wholesale or a significant number of new players versus developing successful homegrown”. I didnt realize how pervasive moving teams over was. I’d be intereted to hear which clubs/teams are consistently practicing this concept.

Is it more pervasive at the boys side vs the girls?

Is the question easier to answer if its limited to club/teams that DON’T bring significant amounts of new blood in at the u13 and older age. Is there a different philosophy based on the league vs the club or the coach?

[Anonymous]

I think BRYC has tried this recently. On the boys side the development has gone down hill dramatically for home grown talent. As a result many parents are starting to look at other clubs to develop their players. BRYC doesn't recognize their own downfalls in development and have tried to put a bandaid on the problem with an attempt to recruit from other clubs who are developing younger kids.

[Anonymous]

FCV is notorious for it. In fact, it was founded by cherry picking from SYA.

[Anonymous]

I personally feel it's the desire to win now versus develop. I've seen it time and time again, you can have amazing footskills and good soccer IQ, but if you can out sprint the defender you are not on the first team. So they recruit early developed athletes.

My son was on the younger side of the age group change and had to skip a year. Slower and smaller than others so he was moved to the 2nd team even though he had some of the best technical skills on the team. We changed clubs and he worked his way back up to the 1st team and has now caught up physically. Old club has been trying to bring him back, but no thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m fascinated by the recent state that some teams bring in either a team wholesale or a significant number of new players versus developing successful homegrown”. I didnt realize how pervasive moving teams over was. I’d be intereted to hear which clubs/teams are consistently practicing this concept.

Is it more pervasive at the boys side vs the girls?

Is the question easier to answer if its limited to club/teams that DON’T bring significant amounts of new blood in at the u13 and older age. Is there a different philosophy based on the league vs the club or the coach?

There's nothing recent about it. This has been a part of the DMV soccer scene for as long as I can remember. It isn't usually initiated by the new club. Mostly it happens when a coach and core group of parents are unhappy with the state of affairs at their current club and go looking for greener pastures.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Look no further than our newly crowned national champs “Arlington 02”, which is really just the old Bethesda South Roadrunners that switched clubs.

[Anonymous]

BSC does this a lot in the younger age groups, especially among the boys. Coaches recruit the best players from other teams rather than bringing kids up from the lower teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BSC does this a lot in the younger age groups, especially among the boys. Coaches recruit the best players from other teams rather than bringing kids up from the lower teams.

Bethesda South was founded on that principle. Well, until they all left the next year and the process was recycled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BSC does this a lot in the younger age groups, especially among the boys. Coaches recruit the best players from other teams rather than bringing kids up from the lower teams.

All big clubs will happily take a good player from outside the club if they think it will improve their top teams, though that doesn't seem to be the situation the OP is talking about (importing a team wholesale). If you traced the playing history of kids on Bethesda's older DA rosters, you'd actually find that a significant portion of the boys have been at the club since they were small. They are better about developing and featuring their own home-grown players than most other clubs, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Well here is a question...why wouldn't a club want to work with the best players? So parents are complaining that they aren't developing players...well is your kid busting his ass outside of training? Soccer starts at home. So if your kid isn't developing, first look at his/her work ethic outside of practice. Start there. There is no loyalty to any of this and why should there be? if you are looking to be the best you can be, you need to work with good coaches, good players, in a supportive club. Sometimes that just doesn't happen and clubs must recruit not only players but coaches.

[Anonymous]

As for teams moving....sometimes good teams at smaller clubs just don't get the support it needs from the club to excel, so they need to find a club that plays in more prominent leagues, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well here is a question...why wouldn't a club want to work with the best players? So parents are complaining that they aren't developing players...well is your kid busting his ass outside of training? Soccer starts at home. So if your kid isn't developing, first look at his/her work ethic outside of practice. Start there. There is no loyalty to any of this and why should there be? if you are looking to be the best you can be, you need to work with good coaches, good players, in a supportive club. Sometimes that just doesn't happen and clubs must recruit not only players but coaches.

This is how I look at it too, after years of youth soccer experience. One of my kids is a very talented player, and was recruited (along with a couple of other kids) by a big club that had a very good coach for the top team. Some of the parents of kids moved to the B team were extremely disgruntled, but the recruitment ended up being good for everyone--the kids who moved over got to play at a higher level, the top team got better, and the kids moved down thrived with more playing time and leadership opportunities. The serious ones on the B team moved back up a few years later. It doesn't always work out so well, but competitive soccer is supposed to be a pyramid, with the better kids moving up. And contrary to popular wisdom around here, the kids moved up are not always the big early developers. There are lots of coaches who are good evaluators of talent if you spend time looking and paying attention.

My other kid has a few very good soccer attributes, and a few weaknesses that are obvious to us, and we think the B team is the perfect place for him now. Every other kid on the B team also has some very obvious (to experienced soccer people) reasons for being on the B team instead of the highly competitive A team, and it's sort of surprising how few of the parents understand why their kid is at they level they are for now, or why some of the kids were moved up or down at the end of the season.

[Anonymous]

I think the key thing to understand or minimally remind ourselves is that Travel is "competitive". Rec level, keeping players developing and having fun is kid. But travel is really focused on the top players available to a club regardless of origin (in/out of club). I always use Jordan as the example of work hard and earn your spot, nothing is guaranteed. When they get old like us, the workplace is exactly the same. Hire the best, if it's an internal candidate great. If not, that's ok too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I personally feel it's the desire to win now versus develop. I've seen it time and time again, you can have amazing footskills and good soccer IQ, but if you can out sprint the defender you are not on the first team. So they recruit early developed athletes.

My son was on the younger side of the age group change and had to skip a year. Slower and smaller than others so he was moved to the 2nd team even though he had some of the best technical skills on the team. We changed clubs and he worked his way back up to the 1st team and has now caught up physically. Old club has been trying to bring him back, but no thanks.

+1

Same story for my kids too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I personally feel it's the desire to win now versus develop. I've seen it time and time again, you can have amazing footskills and good soccer IQ, but if you can out sprint the defender you are not on the first team. So they recruit early developed athletes.

My son was on the younger side of the age group change and had to skip a year. Slower and smaller than others so he was moved to the 2nd team even though he had some of the best technical skills on the team. We changed clubs and he worked his way back up to the 1st team and has now caught up physically. Old club has been trying to bring him back, but no thanks.

+1

Same story for my kids too.

While I agree in general with 11:44 and 12:02, PP above illustrates where I think that view breaks down. I don't think clubs that say they are focused on development should bump down talented, hard workers - particularly at the younger ages - for the sole reason that a shiny new toy came along. What does it say about a club's development process when it bumps down a talented kid who has been on the club for a couple of years in favor of a "new" kid who may or may not have the same talent but just happens to be at a different stage in terms of physical development. The physical part will even out soon enough, if it doesn't then perhaps that is when things should be shifted. The win now mentality misses the forest for the trees.