I think it’s less about bragging and more about clubs upselling travel. Most of the travel players would be best served by a good rec program, but clubs are more interested in making money off of the kids so they grow travel. |
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Duke
JMU Radford W&M Longwood VDA |
Literally nobody brags to other parents about their kids soccer. |
the clubs have succeeded. Good rec programs generally don't exist between the littles and high school where you get kids dropping down from travel |
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The travel Clubs have essentially abolished the Rec program. Now with Clubs having 4-7 teams per age group, any kid that wants to play travel can...and most do. What is left over in Rec after a certain age is just plain awful. Kids that hack, kick shins, step on one another and barely ever show up for practice. SO--a kid at minimum has to join a low level travel team to get any semblance of 'soccer'. Once upon a time, travel was selective and teams per Club were limited so the vast majority stayed in the Rec leagues which made it a viable option for kids that didn't want the commitment (due to other sports), travel and $$$. Once travel soccer became the big business it was...rec got really bad fast after U9. |
Depends on high school team. Plenty of Arlington players don't make Yorktown varsity. In club, you can pay your way in or finesse relationships for spots on teams. Harder to do at a competitive high school. |
Amateur hour here. List your clubs transfers that netted them over a million. ...exactly... |
Have you seen the Rec programs around the area??? Terrible. We hate paying the hefty Travel Fees, but what else do you do when you have competitive athletic kids beyond Rec? |
It’s really too bad that most DMV counties don’t have an organization like MSI that offers decent, affordable rec and rec+ options through HS. Clubs just have no real incentive to do better. |
Arlington academy or Arlington? Top travel teams are harder to make than high school teams, not travel teams |
We have county basketball in Fairfax, but no soccer equivalent. Suburban Friendship league could be that, but the clubs have no incentive to improve it |
Plenty? Are you sure you're not exaggerating? How many Arlington ECNL players tried out for Yorktown high school and didn't make the varsity squad, and how many of those were not freshmen? Many Arlington players don't try out for high school. Of those that do, most of them make the varsity squad in their freshman year. Very few indeed don't make varsity in their sophomore year - and in those cases there's a strong argument that the high school coach made a poor decision. In my view there is very little ability to pay or finesse your way onto an Arlington top team - it's much easier to do this in high school, where external relationships with coaches, parent boosters, family history, and preference for older kids who have been in the program in previous years all play a big role in both selection and playing time to the detriment of the overall performance of the team. |
Wow. You care way, way too much about things that should not matter to you not just a little, but not at all. This is madness. |