Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the entire board of VYS post here? Way too many people getting defensive/protective over the program.

I don't know -- this seems like a discussion with diverse views on the tryouts, none particularly defensive.

I have no idea why VYS so dominates this discussion. No DCUM users in McLean? Loudoun? Arlington? Prince William?

All clubs have issues -- I'm hearing a big, big rumbling out of McLean. Not sure if the foot dropped yet.

What is going on at McLean? My son was going to try out there. Haven't heard anything amiss.

I have heard many teams in McLean are going to struggle to keep top players. Boys and girls.

Well--top players in other clubs--if you are unhappy---time to switch to McLean--lots of openings.

Where are the McLean kids going? Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the entire board of VYS post here? Way too many people getting defensive/protective over the program.

I don't know -- this seems like a discussion with diverse views on the tryouts, none particularly defensive.

I have no idea why VYS so dominates this discussion. No DCUM users in McLean? Loudoun? Arlington? Prince William?

All clubs have issues -- I'm hearing a big, big rumbling out of McLean. Not sure if the foot dropped yet.

What is going on at McLean? My son was going to try out there. Haven't heard anything amiss.

I have heard many teams in McLean are going to struggle to keep top players. Boys and girls.

Well--top players in other clubs--if you are unhappy---time to switch to McLean--lots of openings.

Where are the McLean kids going? Arlington?

Hope not. Don't need the a-hole parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the entire board of VYS post here? Way too many people getting defensive/protective over the program.

I don't know -- this seems like a discussion with diverse views on the tryouts, none particularly defensive.

I have no idea why VYS so dominates this discussion. No DCUM users in McLean? Loudoun? Arlington? Prince William?

All clubs have issues -- I'm hearing a big, big rumbling out of McLean. Not sure if the foot dropped yet.

What is going on at McLean? My son was going to try out there. Haven't heard anything amiss.

I have heard many teams in McLean are going to struggle to keep top players. Boys and girls.

Well--top players in other clubs--if you are unhappy---time to switch to McLean--lots of openings.

Where are the McLean kids going? Arlington?

Hope not. Don't need the a-hole parents.

Even our lower teams beat their higher ones. Keep Arlington players and don't take out of county kids in the younger age groups.

[Anonymous]

People on this thread are giving WAY too much thought to the whole travel soccer process. So thankful my kids went to local club for travel and stayed there. It was good enough to get them to be starters on HS varsity, which is the peak for the majority of kids anyway. Most kids I know whose parents switched them from club to club for a more elite experience never lived up to early promise. One, in fact, was on a McLean team that just up and disbanded leaving the player team-less.

Folks here need to get realistic about their kids and chill. There's a lot that can happen between U-9 and U-17

[Anonymous]

To the whole U9 issue- many clubs are getting away frOm A and B and going with a "pool" of kids who train together and are divideD up for games. Sometime those 'teams' are in fac A/B, other times they are totally random. Wherever your kid falls in the 'ranks' this is good because at U10 the kids are known entities and can be divided into Elite and Elite Blue, Red and White, Red and Black, or whatever. Kids change a lot at U9. If my kids were young, I would be looking at the way the coaches interact with families and players during tryouts. I would want to know what the team will do (league, tournaments, indoor during the winter) over the year. Mainly, I would want to know how training will be set up. u9 is for getting used to playing with goalies, playing true positions ( which should not be the same each week), for learning from well-qualified coaches, and for families to really learn how this works if it's the first kid. Find the best environment, and your kid will end up where he or she fits when it matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the whole U9 issue- many clubs are getting away frOm A and B and going with a "pool" of kids who train together and are divideD up for games. Sometime those 'teams' are in fac A/B, other times they are totally random. Wherever your kid falls in the 'ranks' this is good because at U10 the kids are known entities and can be divided into Elite and Elite Blue, Red and White, Red and Black, or whatever. Kids change a lot at U9. If my kids were young, I would be looking at the way the coaches interact with families and players during tryouts. I would want to know what the team will do (league, tournaments, indoor during the winter) over the year. Mainly, I would want to know how training will be set up. u9 is for getting used to playing with goalies, playing true positions ( which should not be the same each week), for learning from well-qualified coaches, and for families to really learn how this works if it's the first kid. Find the best environment, and your kid will end up where he or she fits when it matters.

As long as the "pool" intermixes. Some clubs tout this concept but then the kids never scrimmage one another. They keep the pool divided into A/B/C/D groupings the entire year for scrimmages which defeats the concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the whole U9 issue- many clubs are getting away frOm A and B and going with a "pool" of kids who train together and are divideD up for games. Sometime those 'teams' are in fac A/B, other times they are totally random. Wherever your kid falls in the 'ranks' this is good because at U10 the kids are known entities and can be divided into Elite and Elite Blue, Red and White, Red and Black, or whatever. Kids change a lot at U9. If my kids were young, I would be looking at the way the coaches interact with families and players during tryouts. I would want to know what the team will do (league, tournaments, indoor during the winter) over the year. Mainly, I would want to know how training will be set up. u9 is for getting used to playing with goalies, playing true positions ( which should not be the same each week), for learning from well-qualified coaches, and for families to really learn how this works if it's the first kid. Find the best environment, and your kid will end up where he or she fits when it matters.

As long as the "pool" intermixes. Some clubs tout this concept but then the kids never scrimmage one another. They keep the pool divided into A/B/C/D groupings the entire year for scrimmages which defeats the concept.

It didn't help that NCSL (and maybe WAGS, though I'm not speaking from experience there) has been inflexible when it comes to dealing with clubs that do NOT group A/B/C/etc at U9 and U10. If you have two "AB" teams, one team is going to play an "A" schedule and get crushed in most games, while the other is going to play a "B" schedule and cruise.

Funny thing at VYS -- they're ditching the "Academy" concept of always training teams together (I think they'll still train together once a week), and they'll have a pro coach for each team, BUT they say they'll shuffle players between the teams during the season as needed. (Which makes sense -- some kid may suddenly "get it" in October, so why wait until the next year to move him up?)

[Anonymous]

At our NCSL club, where our "A" team is dominant, we have found that other clubs get angry when we attempt to mix up the squads, thinking we're trying to plant ringers on the B team to rack up wins. Thus we do very little shuffling so as not to get a bad reputation. It's unfortunate for the kids on the B team who could compete for an A spot and would benefit from that exposure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the whole U9 issue- many clubs are getting away frOm A and B and going with a "pool" of kids who train together and are divideD up for games. Sometime those 'teams' are in fac A/B, other times they are totally random. Wherever your kid falls in the 'ranks' this is good because at U10 the kids are known entities and can be divided into Elite and Elite Blue, Red and White, Red and Black, or whatever. Kids change a lot at U9. If my kids were young, I would be looking at the way the coaches interact with families and players during tryouts. I would want to know what the team will do (league, tournaments, indoor during the winter) over the year. Mainly, I would want to know how training will be set up. u9 is for getting used to playing with goalies, playing true positions ( which should not be the same each week), for learning from well-qualified coaches, and for families to really learn how this works if it's the first kid. Find the best environment, and your kid will end up where he or she fits when it matters.

As long as the "pool" intermixes. Some clubs tout this concept but then the kids never scrimmage one another. They keep the pool divided into A/B/C/D groupings the entire year for scrimmages which defeats the concept.

It didn't help that NCSL (and maybe WAGS, though I'm not speaking from experience there) has been inflexible when it comes to dealing with clubs that do NOT group A/B/C/etc at U9 and U10. If you have two "AB" teams, one team is going to play an "A" schedule and get crushed in most games, while the other is going to play a "B" schedule and cruise.

Funny thing at VYS -- they're ditching the "Academy" concept of always training teams together (I think they'll still train together once a week), and they'll have a pro coach for each team, BUT they say they'll shuffle players between the teams during the season as needed. (Which makes sense -- some kid may suddenly "get it" in October, so why wait until the next year to move him up?)

The problem is only so many kids can go up without anyone coming down. You can't add players to the upper teams without dropping others down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the whole U9 issue- many clubs are getting away frOm A and B and going with a "pool" of kids who train together and are divideD up for games. Sometime those 'teams' are in fac A/B, other times they are totally random. Wherever your kid falls in the 'ranks' this is good because at U10 the kids are known entities and can be divided into Elite and Elite Blue, Red and White, Red and Black, or whatever. Kids change a lot at U9. If my kids were young, I would be looking at the way the coaches interact with families and players during tryouts. I would want to know what the team will do (league, tournaments, indoor during the winter) over the year. Mainly, I would want to know how training will be set up. u9 is for getting used to playing with goalies, playing true positions ( which should not be the same each week), for learning from well-qualified coaches, and for families to really learn how this works if it's the first kid. Find the best environment, and your kid will end up where he or she fits when it matters.

As long as the "pool" intermixes. Some clubs tout this concept but then the kids never scrimmage one another. They keep the pool divided into A/B/C/D groupings the entire year for scrimmages which defeats the concept.

It didn't help that NCSL (and maybe WAGS, though I'm not speaking from experience there) has been inflexible when it comes to dealing with clubs that do NOT group A/B/C/etc at U9 and U10. If you have two "AB" teams, one team is going to play an "A" schedule and get crushed in most games, while the other is going to play a "B" schedule and cruise.

Funny thing at VYS -- they're ditching the "Academy" concept of always training teams together (I think they'll still train together once a week), and they'll have a pro coach for each team, BUT they say they'll shuffle players between the teams during the season as needed. (Which makes sense -- some kid may suddenly "get it" in October, so why wait until the next year to move him up?)

The problem is only so many kids can go up without anyone coming down. You can't add players to the upper teams without dropping others down.

True. We often have kids guest play on upper teams--but nobody ever guest plays on a lower team .

[Anonymous]

Our upper teams don't like to let any of the less "elite" players from the lower teams guest with them and usually resist any such mixing of the teams.

[Anonymous]

My child is one of the best on her U-12 rec team but it was clear from the try-outs that she will not make it to travel this year. The coaches basically ignored her and put her with a group of girls playing on the side and didn't even watch them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is one of the best on her U-12 rec team but it was clear from the try-outs that she will not make it to travel this year. The coaches basically ignored her and put her with a group of girls playing on the side and didn't even watch them.

I saw the same thing at U9 (my first impressions of travel soccer) so I am thinking that at U-12, coaches already know who they are looking for - which defies the meaning and purpose of tryout. The last tryout was equitable, although the A,B kids were grouped together, every group was seen by all the coaches on large and small fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our upper teams don't like to let any of the less "elite" players from the lower teams guest with them and usually resist any such mixing of the teams.

Omg. Our club has kids guest play all the time for a game or even an entire tournament.

Is it the parents or coaches up in arms over it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our upper teams don't like to let any of the less "elite" players from the lower teams guest with them and usually resist any such mixing of the teams.

Yeah -- how dare they!

I remember hearing from McLean that they rostered a lot of players for ECNL but not many for the next team down, so they often had ECNL players bump down to play in WAGS. Those players pulled an attitude and didn't really care, and the WAGS team had a really horrible season.

Moving kids up and down within a club is a great idea, but we might need to sell the parents a bit more.