Arlington Red team vs Arlington DA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong and wrong. Soccer is a great game. Good to hear from its champions.

He should just yell get off my lawn for all that the rants are worth.

Poster makes some valid points. Youth soccer as status sumbol is a significant driver of this stupidity.

And yet not one single parent needs to sign up for any of it.

You arlington guys sure are an angry bunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong and wrong. Soccer is a great game. Good to hear from its champions.

He should just yell get off my lawn for all that the rants are worth.

Poster makes some valid points. Youth soccer as status sumbol is a significant driver of this stupidity.

And yet not one single parent needs to sign up for any of it.

You arlington guys sure are an angry bunch.

they sure are. Imagine getting so worked up over something that is a extracurricular activity and bitching and moaning about who is making money, where I have to drive, what color or league is my team on.

I mean this guy acts like none of it should matter and yet he/she is the most bitter FOMO crybaby out there.

You don't need to do any of it, just sayin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Organize and resist! Low level agitation on our team (not tea at Arlington) has allowed us to resist some far flung soccer but it is difficult. A lot depends on the parent group and the team manger.

I want a very competitive localized league with lots of good local talent and teams. Seems virtually impossible to find without a drop in the level of play. Possible to find it for a while by playing up but that peters out too by a certain age. We all end up taken our strong player to the uber travel leagues if we can afford ti because they love to compete. Frustrating. I see how useless the travel time and energy expenditure is but dont see a good solution once the teen years hit.

The issue is that if you resist, there are 2X players in line to take a spot and pay the freight and do the travel. CCL, ODSL, WAG etc. etc. need to merge and created tiers by region (like the ODP areas for VA state - South, Central etc.) and have relegation. For now - those not in DA or ECNL, top teams are forced to play in Jeff Cup, CASL, DELCO and Disney to get noticed. If you dont want to get noticed, then drop to a lower level team and reduce the travel. The whole thing is a mess.....

I still blame the parents. The parents that have thought their snowflakes are so elite that they just have to do all of this travel. They will bend over backwards for their Clubs. They will take anything the Club TD throws at them because to do otherwise casts them as the 'bad apple' and then they will just take one of the many waiting in the wings that will bite their lip and bend over and take anything.

They also pit parents against one another---just like you see on this Board. Oh--that's a trouble maker family--blah, blah. Anything that might shed light on the scam they have running.

I don't know what's happening. Did any of these people play "elite" soccer in their youth? I'm guessing not. Those that did are the strongest advocates AGAINST this ridiculous travel and 'pay-to-play" that excludes a huge swath of really talented kids across the Nation.

If parents looked at the big picture and Clubs actually rewarded talent over lemmings with big checkbooks, it would be a completely different landscape.

There is ZERO accountability for these Clubs. None. They know it. This is why they keep dreaming up more ridiculous schemes and refuse to play some of the best talent in the local area by putting themselves in separate leagues.

Great post and describes some of these parents well. On our club it is lemmings who have never played the game thinking their DD will get great at soccer if they sign up as asked and kiss the ass of every coach and influential parent at the club.

+1

This applies to most Clubs, btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong and wrong. Soccer is a great game. Good to hear from its champions.

He should just yell get off my lawn for all that the rants are worth.

Poster makes some valid points. Youth soccer as status sumbol is a significant driver of this stupidity.

And yet not one single parent needs to sign up for any of it.

You arlington guys sure are an angry bunch.

I think because it takes the cake when it comes to ass-kissers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Organize and resist! Low level agitation on our team (not tea at Arlington) has allowed us to resist some far flung soccer but it is difficult. A lot depends on the parent group and the team manger.

I want a very competitive localized league with lots of good local talent and teams. Seems virtually impossible to find without a drop in the level of play. Possible to find it for a while by playing up but that peters out too by a certain age. We all end up taken our strong player to the uber travel leagues if we can afford ti because they love to compete. Frustrating. I see how useless the travel time and energy expenditure is but dont see a good solution once the teen years hit.

The issue is that if you resist, there are 2X players in line to take a spot and pay the freight and do the travel. CCL, ODSL, WAG etc. etc. need to merge and created tiers by region (like the ODP areas for VA state - South, Central etc.) and have relegation. For now - those not in DA or ECNL, top teams are forced to play in Jeff Cup, CASL, DELCO and Disney to get noticed. If you dont want to get noticed, then drop to a lower level team and reduce the travel. The whole thing is a mess.....

I still blame the parents. The parents that have thought their snowflakes are so elite that they just have to do all of this travel. They will bend over backwards for their Clubs. They will take anything the Club TD throws at them because to do otherwise casts them as the 'bad apple' and then they will just take one of the many waiting in the wings that will bite their lip and bend over and take anything.

They also pit parents against one another---just like you see on this Board. Oh--that's a trouble maker family--blah, blah. Anything that might shed light on the scam they have running.

I don't know what's happening. Did any of these people play "elite" soccer in their youth? I'm guessing not. Those that did are the strongest advocates AGAINST this ridiculous travel and 'pay-to-play" that excludes a huge swath of really talented kids across the Nation.

If parents looked at the big picture and Clubs actually rewarded talent over lemmings with big checkbooks, it would be a completely different landscape.

There is ZERO accountability for these Clubs. None. They know it. This is why they keep dreaming up more ridiculous schemes and refuse to play some of the best talent in the local area by putting themselves in separate leagues.

I sense some bitterness in your post. The accountability yardstick for elite clubs is player placement in college. If your local NCSL club could do that, nobody would want DA or ECNL.

The USSF branded uniforms attracts college coaches. College soccer is not technical and really doesnt matter to most universities or their alumni. The scouts basically go to the DA events find a few players that look outstanding and then add any players that reached out to them directly.

[Anonymous]

NWSL is a PT job.

Studying at Virginia would be a great outcome for a lot of teens. I would argue you first need the grades and test scores for Virginia before youbcan think about playing soccer. I would not say the same about basketball or football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NWSL is a PT job.

Studying at Virginia would be a great outcome for a lot of teens. I would argue you first need the grades and test scores for Virginia before youbcan think about playing soccer. I would not say the same about basketball or football.

You also need to be realistic about the number of spots for incoming Freshmen, the vast number of girls vying for them and forget about getting any $.

People are so clueless about scholarships for soccer.

[Anonymous]

When conflict between school work and soccer arises, choose soccer. Great advice.

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:
I think everyone who is going through or has gone through college admissions would disagree. There are plenty of people on the general Travel Soccer thread who know it's very difficult to get a scholarship and nearly impossible to get a FULL scholarship, but they see soccer (or lacrosse or field hockey or rowing or whatever) as a good way to get a leg up in college admissions.

If you want to play college soccer at Virginia, the higher bar to clear will be the soccer bar. You have to be a 99.9th-percentile player to be considered for that level. If you can clear that bar, it's unlikely you'd have trouble clearing the academic bar. You might not want to have a 1.5 GPA or an 800 combined SAT, but you can definitely get in with grades and scores that wouldn't get other people a second look in the admissions process.

Isn't that another example of delusional youth sports thinking? If a kid is not a strong enough player to merit a soccer scholarship, why would a college coach try to bend admissions policy for the kid?

And if your primary goal is enhanced college admission then how about, you know, trying to do better at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When conflict between school work and soccer arises, choose soccer. Great advice.

LOL. Exactly?.

They know odds are their DD is not good enough to play on USWNT or go pro (who wants to play for peanuts in the NWSL). They know DD is not good enough to get full ride. But they justify GDA by some idea it is going to give their DD an admissions boost? Dumb reason to sacrifice all other things and extracurriculars, miss school for showcases, etc., for this parental rationalization. How about focus on school and get an admissions boost the old fashioned way, by being the smartest kid on the block. Enjoy "normal" travel soccer and then go on to other things. Your DD will hate the bench as a freshman and drop the team anyway to have a social life.

Oh yah, that's part of the plan.

3 ..... 2 ...... 1 ........ Blah, blah, the dream, blah, blah, the Ivies, Blah blah ....

[Anonymous]

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:
I think everyone who is going through or has gone through college admissions would disagree. There are plenty of people on the general Travel Soccer thread who know it's very difficult to get a scholarship and nearly impossible to get a FULL scholarship, but they see soccer (or lacrosse or field hockey or rowing or whatever) as a good way to get a leg up in college admissions.

If you want to play college soccer at Virginia, the higher bar to clear will be the soccer bar. You have to be a 99.9th-percentile player to be considered for that level. If you can clear that bar, it's unlikely you'd have trouble clearing the academic bar. You might not want to have a 1.5 GPA or an 800 combined SAT, but you can definitely get in with grades and scores that wouldn't get other people a second look in the admissions process.

Isn't that another example of delusional youth sports thinking? If a kid is not a strong enough player to merit a soccer scholarship, why would a college coach try to bend admissions policy for the kid?

And if your primary goal is enhanced college admission then how about, you know, trying to do better at school.

To answer your question on scholarships -- soccer teams don't get that many. For men, it's 9.9 in Division I, 9 in Division II, 0 in Division III. For women: 14, 9.9 and 0. So in D1 and D2, a lot of kids are on partial scholarships.

Division III includes schools like Johns Hopkins. Top Drawer Soccer lists a couple of their commitments -- one 2018, one 2019: https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-details/women/johns-hopkins/clgid-1082/tab-commitments#tabs

Now -- is all of this an example of delusional youth sports thinking? I think so, sure. If it's me, I'd only start thinking about such things if my kid was awesome in soccer but was stuck in the 1200s on the SATs (on the 1600 scale) -- maybe solid enough to handle the coursework at a place like UVA but not good enough to get in from Northern Virginia.

And again -- I'm not saying this is fair. But just realize that most schools are going to have a lot of athletes in all sports who got in because they play sports. Not exactly new -- in one class in my high school 30 years ago (ouch), the valedictorian didn't get into the Ivy League, but our best basketball player (an OK student but not exactly someone who took a lot of academic honors) did, and he didn't even end up making the team.

THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT: those 9 are total for the 18 person roster at any given time. If there are 8 freshmen-juniors already possessing a scholarship on the team--that means only 1 is available for an incoming Freshmen. The $ is also unequal between them. One could get the majority of it and the rest mere pennies.

It's false to say there are 9 available scholarships to a rising Freshmen. It depends how many are already holding them or graduating--freeing up a scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When conflict between school work and soccer arises, choose soccer. Great advice.

LOL. Exactly?.

They know odds are their DD is not good enough to play on USWNT or go pro (who wants to play for peanuts in the NWSL). They know DD is not good enough to get full ride. But they justify GDA by some idea it is going to give their DD an admissions boost? Dumb reason to sacrifice all other things and extracurriculars, miss school for showcases, etc., for this parental rationalization. How about focus on school and get an admissions boost the old fashioned way, by being the smartest kid on the block. Enjoy "normal" travel soccer and then go on to other things. Your DD will hate the bench as a freshman and drop the team anyway to have a social life.

Oh yah, that's part of the plan.

3 ..... 2 ...... 1 ........ Blah, blah, the dream, blah, blah, the Ivies, Blah blah ....

SO--there were very few admittances to State Universities from our big HS. A huge number of 'valedictorians'. Many of those valedictorians were wait-listed or didn't get in at all to UVA (fill in with any other school). So if you have a very academic child (mine are and they still manage to play competitive sports) it would give a kid an admissions boost if the college puts him/her on a team with no scholarship. That's how it works

Our Lacrosse and Football team at Hopkins had many players (non-scholarship) that would not be offered admission without the sport in their back pocket.

Unless you've seen college admission stats from Fairfax, Arlington, etc. public HS---you would see many smartest kids on the block that can't get accepted to their first, second, third choice schools. Times have changed since I applied.

[Anonymous]

And there's the rationalization we were all waiting for .......

I am amazed that at our local high school the majority of top students can even find a place to go to college these days.

Somehow they always do though.


* * * * *

It's just a rationalization folks. If your kid is smart, they don't need an admissions boost from GDA.

If that is the impetus for GDA, then I feel really sorry for your child if they don't love soccer so much that they actually want to play on the USWNT and go pro, and seem to have the potential to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And there's the rationalization we were all waiting for .......

I am amazed that at our local high school the majority of top students can even find a place to go to college these days.

Somehow they always do though.


* * * * *

It's just a rationalization folks. If your kid is smart, they don't need an admissions boost from GDA.

If that is the impetus for GDA, then I feel really sorry for your child if they don't love soccer so much that they actually want to play on the USWNT and go pro, and seem to have the potential to do so.

I'm thinking you haven't been through the admissions process in the past couple of decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When conflict between school work and soccer arises, choose soccer. Great advice.

LOL. Exactly?.

They know odds are their DD is not good enough to play on USWNT or go pro (who wants to play for peanuts in the NWSL). They know DD is not good enough to get full ride. But they justify GDA by some idea it is going to give their DD an admissions boost? Dumb reason to sacrifice all other things and extracurriculars, miss school for showcases, etc., for this parental rationalization. How about focus on school and get an admissions boost the old fashioned way, by being the smartest kid on the block. Enjoy "normal" travel soccer and then go on to other things. Your DD will hate the bench as a freshman and drop the team anyway to have a social life.

Oh yah, that's part of the plan.

3 ..... 2 ...... 1 ........ Blah, blah, the dream, blah, blah, the Ivies, Blah blah ....

SO--there were very few admittances to State Universities from our big HS. A huge number of 'valedictorians'. Many of those valedictorians were wait-listed or didn't get in at all to UVA (fill in with any other school). So if you have a very academic child (mine are and they still manage to play competitive sports) it would give a kid an admissions boost if the college puts him/her on a team with no scholarship. That's how it works

Our Lacrosse and Football team at Hopkins had many players (non-scholarship) that would not be offered admission without the sport in their back pocket.

Unless you've seen college admission stats from Fairfax, Arlington, etc. public HS---you would see many smartest kids on the block that can't get accepted to their first, second, third choice schools. Times have changed since I applied.

I completely agree with you on the admissions scene for students with no hooks. We have in the last two years gone through this process with a high stats kid (2400 SATs 3.98 UW GPA, 10 APs, amazing subject test scores etc.) who had pretty good ECs and played on a pretty good soccer team, and one with much less spectacular test scores who is great at soccer and has been recruited. The high stats kid got into some pretty good schools, but not top choice ones--no Ivies (or other top 10 USNWR) or NESCACs. The recruited athlete has her choice of any Ivy and a bunch of other top schools.

I'm not sure about your statement that non-scholarship players get an admissions boost though. It is obviously true for the top recruits at a DIII school, since there are no athletic scholarships. But at any DI program (including Hopkins lacrosse) typically coaches can only get admissions preferences for the recruited athletes who are receiving scholarships. For DI football they have huge numbers of scholarships to give.