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Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss
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Anonymous
How do leagues dilute talent? Clubs assign kids to team and clubs join leagues. Clubs cant dictate who shows up for a tryout. Clubs cant dictate how far a player at 10 years old is willing to travel to concentrate talent. |
Anonymous
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^^ talent used to be concentrated. Everyone used to play the State Cips (now the best players aren't even on teams that enter State cup). It's b teams.
The real talent is spread across way too many leagues. Things are less competitive overall. There used to be 1 top league. It was pro/rel. Now the top teams/kids in the area don't even play each other and it's bunch of adults creating multiple useless leagues with more travel in a pissing match. You have neighboring equal talent Clubs not even playing in the same leagues. It's stupid. |
Anonymous
Right, the best kids are in DA now. |
Anonymous
Not the Club U12-14 DA which was just the same A team players. They are all from the same Club/town, not the best the area has to offer at all. |
Anonymous
Right, and how are you supposed to concentrate the talent anymore at 12 years old? |
Anonymous
The point is all of the kids on Arlington's U-12 pre-DA team are the same U-1- A team Arlington residents/players from the previous year. There is nothing special over kids from across the region. |
Anonymous
No, there is just no real reason at 12 years old to drive across the region for a DA team. That is why Arlington, DC United, McLean, Loudoun and VDA all have U12-U14. The purpose is to cast a wide net in order to feed into, ultimately DC United. But by U14, in general the talent is very concentrated when you actually have had time to develop the players and you have a better idea what you have because you trained a player pool across the region. There is nothing wrong with DA looking at as many players as they can at the younger ages whether you believe it is diluted or not. |
Anonymous
This. In fact, many U12 are still 11 years old. However, the point being made is these teams represent a VERY miniscule amount of kids in that age group across the DMV. Anyone care to guess how many travel teams exist in that age group (even if you are only looking at first teams and Clubs with one team)? You have kids being trained privately or Academy-style (outside of travel system). You have a large population that don't do travel/DA because of transportation issues and $. So taking 26 kids that all live within 1/2 mile of each other is really an "A team", not a DA-team. If the Club bills it as getting their players exposure to DA coaches early, that's fine. That can also work for or against them because 'first impressions' tend to follow a player around for the rest of their playing years in this area. It is a very 'closed system'. Some do use this to get on the radar since there isn't really a high degree of 'scouting' going on. Unless you go to them, they aren't going to find you which is why some of the best talent in this area never rises to the top. A player at 11 is very different from a player at 16. |
Anonymous
It doesn't matter because many, many parents simply don't care what DA is and when you tell them about it and their kids are 10 years old they laugh. So there is no realistic way to condense talent at U12, none. Our region, our country is to large for that. So the kids that show up to a DA club tryout at 11 years old have to first be interested in that club, then they have to give a damn about DA, and on top of it believe that their 10/11 year old son should somehow be on the "National Team Radar." It is not a "closed" system but for many people they simply know NOTHING about DA and nor do they care. They are simply taking their young player to a convenient club. If you think your kid should be in the DA system then perhaps don't tryout at Gunston and go to Arlington instead for example or instead of Great Falls tryout at McLean. But claiming that US Soccer is missing kids because of a closed system that is laughable. Our entire youth soccer system is not designed to create a National Team. US Soccer is not going to scout NCSL, CCL or NPL games. But in case you have not noticed, with the Girls DA you may have noticed all these "mergers" and "partnerships". VDA comprises of PWSI, VSA, CYA and VYS. FCV is partnered with Loudoun. Spirit VA has connections to Reston, Gunston as well as their Super Y partners which include MSI, VYS, Gunston and more. So in regards to the Girls DA if your girl plays for any one of up to 15 different clubs you are in fact being seen by a coach who can push your kids name up the chain. |
Anonymous
Is anything different between the U12 teams from last season and the U12 this year now called DA ? Does Arlington actually have a different curriculum or do something different at the U12 age group this year? Did they train two days per week last year and now they will train 5 ? Do they spend more time juggling now that they are DA ? Arlington has never been very good at development, so is it going to be different now that they have a DA patch on their uniforms ? |
Anonymous
Actually all of the rising U12 players are 10 or 11 years old. Most of the ID process for the U12 DA teams was done in Winter and Spring when almost all of the kids were 10 years old. It's hard to believe how early this process has been driven. Only a few years back, DA teams did not start till U15 and that was defined as a year older than it is now. |
Anonymous
US Soccer actually oversees the curriculum as well as mandates several aspects of it to the club. So yes a DA team, even at U12 are run by clubs that US Soccer has heavy oversight regarding the operations and curriculum. |
Anonymous
All that said, there are still plenty of other pathways to be seen -- ODP, id2 (U.S. Club Soccer), U.S. Soccer Training Centers, etc. These may be more important to people outside NoVa -- they're meant to find people who don't have a nearby DA or ECNL program (or can't afford those programs or the ones that feed into them). Beyond all the chest-beating about what is or is not a real DA, it's all rather simple. The DA casts a wider net at U12 than it does at U18. They're not just trying to predict which players will be world-beaters before puberty takes hold, and it means the younger players don't have to travel as much the older ones. It's one of the most sensible things U.S. Soccer has done, ever. They're not doing it so parents of D.C. United U12s can turn up their noses at parents of VDA U12s. |
Anonymous
I have wondered about what is acceptable in this regard -- Club calls it DA, many parents call it DA and I think coach calls it DA, but I have felt like I would be misrepresenting things or at least being misleading if I said my U16 son plays on a "DA team" rather than "Pre-Academy." On the other hand, it seems like only DA clubs place teams in the Pre-Academy league? Do you think US Soccer will implement single year DAs at U16 anytime soon? |
Anonymous
| DS is on U12 DA. The travel is much less significant than if we had a stayed with our local club "A" team. We saw it has an easier year from that perspective. |