PPA Premier for U9

[Anonymous]

I have a son who is one of the best players on his (PPA) rec team, but I’m not under any illusion that he is objectively a great soccer player. How difficult is it to make the PPA premier team? He has been “invited” to try out, but no idea if that means anything. Just want to set expectations for my son. Also, I understand that Premier is “travel-light,” which is what we’re going to at this stage.
thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Premier is relatively new at PPA so things seem to change every year but last year at U9 they looked for kids who were athletic, coordinated and coachable rather than looking for specific skills. I think the key word is potential at U9.

It is much easier to get in at U9 than in other years as they are adding full teams at this age. In older ages they will usually only be adding if kids drop out although it's possible they may add expand the number of teams in some birth years.

[Anonymous]

Honestly it will depend on how many kids try out. My son was asked to try out for premier at U9 and made it. There was a lot of kids trying out and they need enough players to fill 4 teams. The travel “light” has been perfect for us and gives our son competition at a much higher level than their development teams.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. How is the organization? My experience with PPA Rec is that it’s pretty disorganized.

[Anonymous]

It's about the same. Great coaches who are nice people but scheduling wise not a lot of advance notice about the regular practices or changes although it's improving.

For league games it will depend on the league they select for a particular team. I think all the U9s this year are in Sam Select which is very professional. Game schedules are posted at the promised time, field changes are communicated promised, game results and standings are posted in a relatively timely manner. Most of the refs are very good too.

[Anonymous]

I think the commitment this year was just right for U9 but this year they are increasing the hours they expect and lengthening the participation requirement to 12 months.