Barca Academy Question (outside NOVA area)
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Anonymous
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Hi. I found this forum doing some poking around regarding Barca Academy. We live in Nashville and the leadership group from Barca NOVA is starting an academy here. I have read several comments regarding the program and curious opinions on level of play for younger players and general info on people's experiences.
For full disclosure, both our sons are signed up for Barca but do not begin academy until Fall, so curious what we are getting into from an experienced parent's perspective (or anyone who tried and left the club). They are U11 and U7 as of fall. It sounds like the start up here is following suit from what I have read happened in Virginia (maybe this is incorrect, just going off of what I have read). Out of the gate, Barca is getting a handful of "A" team players and a bunch of "B" and "C" team players for a given age. They did "cut" some, but seems light. I am particularly curious of growth competitively and developmentally from where your son/daughter was as they entered Barca to now being two years in the program. Thanks in advance for anyone willing to share their thoughts. |
Anonymous
There are over one hundred pages of awesomeness on the topic that fully cover this area's program, the good and the bad. Thread is best read with the beer or liquor of your choice and peanuts. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/731027.page |
Anonymous
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Hopefully Nashville soccer parents are more grounded than what you’ll see in that thread. I will give my perspective as a parent that has been with Barca Academy NOVA from the start 2 years ago, currently have U9 and U12 in the program.
First, one of the coaches from NOVA moving to Nashville was my son’s U12 coach this year and she is wonderful. We were sorry to hear she was leaving but understand why they chose her. We’ve enjoyed the program. Coaches are all well trained and professional, most are from Spain. The training program is consistent no matter which team A/B, players receive the same training. My kids have had good development in their games, especially with their soccer IQ and understanding the game. And they make it fun. As far as competition level, it varies widely by age and team. Mostly based on chance of which players were interested in the academy. In ages where there was a lot of interest and talent to choose from, teams are competitive and improving. For other teams, the talent level is lower and progress is slower. I’d recommend especially for younger players who have a longer time to develop and recruit players. For older ages groups, it will be a challenge to recruit a lot of talent away to a brand new club. |
Anonymous
| Op any other programs we should look at in Nashville? Just relocated here. Thank you. |
Anonymous
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Op here. Sorry, just looked back at this thread after original question. Thank you all for reply. As far as this area it depends where you are moving. North Nashville is mostly Tennessee United. East Nashville is eagle express. South Nashville is Tennessee soccer club or NUSA. Tennessee soccer club is by far the biggest and most competitive - covers Brentwood, franklin, Bellevue and Murfreesboro and a lot of people drive in from other areas.
Our experience is solely with Tennessee soccer club. We had two boys in the program. Our youngest just starting, u6, and on a team with combined ages and roughly 80 kids on Brentwood team. Not great for individual technical development in our opinion. Really like the coach. He was great bot logistical nightmare with that many kids. Our oldest, was u10 on top team...good team (probably best in area, not to sound like that guy but probably true), played up against competition. We left though for Barca along with a handful at this age, several from tsc top team. To each their own...it was too political for us, too many parent coaches. Fwiw, for us, we had a very good experience with a great program in Chicago that was smaller, no parent involvement and highly technical before moving to Nashville....hoping for the same with Barca. We will see, all new learnings for us. Barca is just starting out, maybe thin at higher ages in this area, probably not competitive with tsc at higher ages.. They pulled strong kids at our age and around our age. Should have pretty strong groups at younger ages for boys. No clue situation on girls side. Hope that helps. |
Anonymous
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Who knew DC urban moms was so big in Nashville
I can tell you that you won’t escape politics no matter where you go. The sporting global (aka Barca) CEO was seen chumming around and exchanging phone numbers with club darling parents in the opening year, on the fields, if that’s any indication to you. This was confirmed by multiple parents and is well known, especially amongst those who left. If you are looking to escape politics you may want to try hanging out with another species. It seems human beings are incapable of the act. You may want to meet with/start working the CEO early to ensure you DCs have a good experience there. |
Anonymous
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Yes, sorry to jump in with an out of town question. This forum pops up when you search Barca Academy. In any case, that is disappointing to hear re: politics. If you don’t mind sharing, where there other examples besides exchanging phone numbers?
Maybe we had it too good to be true at our first club. Had to relocate and there you go. That first club was run very well. |
Anonymous
I don't see any issues with politics. It's a business, so of course he's exchanging numbers and saying the things that would attract new players. Make no mistake, the training is legit, everything outside of that is suspect and trial/error. |
Anonymous
There were many issues that couldn’t be resolved via the central email the first year, e.g. uniforms majorly back-ordered, player card issues, payment problems, etc. He was the only one handling that stuff at set-up and Georgia (manager handling entire Club) was swamped. Makes sense people with issues went to him. I wouldn’t assume nefarious reasons. 2nd year (this year) the CEO from sporting global was at the Club only twice that I’m aware— college scout day and the closing ceremony. He has zero to do with day-to-day operations and player decisions/issues that is entirely the TD. The TD reports directly back to FCB. My tolerance for politics is non-existent and a good reason why we left a former Club. I have multiple kids and we are staying for our third year. I have not noticed anything and @ss-kissing doesn’t appear to get a player moved to a first team. If anything, a lot of the people that left (not all, some great ones with location issues) were upset because politics did NOT work. They couldn’t use their old schtick to get their way. On my kids’ teams I’ve seen almost no interaction with parent-staff. There is always that one dad on every team though. |
Anonymous
I see the PR campaigner is back. People who left did not leave because of their “schtick” or location issues. They saw that a few favored parents who were chummy with the CEO or the TD were being given opportunities that others were not. Again, best to find someone who joined and left the club to verify than to listen to the PR artists on this forum. |
Anonymous
Op here. Appreciate your thoughts. Tp last poster, did you join and leave the club? And to the third year parent, when you mean all else trial and error - do you mean games/tournaments? To third year parent curious to - did your child typically play with same team each week or do teams vary week to week? Again appreciate your answers and time. Thanks. |
Anonymous
DP. I'm surprised to hear this. I never saw favoritism. In fact, one thing I found refreshing was that parents aren't able to hang all over the staff. It's always possible some people misinterpreted. It's also possible Barca isn't everyone's taste. That's ok. My son loves it, but there are ceetainly options. |
Anonymous
DP--it seems different folks had different experience. We too saw favoritism among some parents/kids, and not necessarily for talent. Without getting too specific, there were kids who were given honors who were out of their depth as players. But, when you have parents with the gift of gab, that seems to help. I think the comment someone made earlier, about this being a business and the CEO treating it as such, is right on the money. |
Anonymous
Another DP here. I will not comment on the politics issues, but will try to answer your other questions. The first year Barca only played internal competitions and some their better teams played in tournaments. The teams were relatively stable, but there was some limited player movement between the teams both up and down. There were also some opportunities to guest play with other teams in tournaments, particularly when a team needed to be strengthened with higher level players. Also, players were sometimes moved amid the practice to train with another team for that particular practice, generally stronger players were moved an age group up, but also some players were moved down an age group for that particular practice. The second year, Barca started the league play. The teams had fixed rosters for the Fall season with opportunities to guest play to support other teams. For the Spring season, there was more movement between the teams. Some players were moved from one team to another team, especially in the old age groups where kids play high school soccer. Also, they added some players from other clubs and lost some players to other clubs. Your child is not guaranteed a spot on any particular team and could be moved to another team. Laura Aranda, who moved to Tennessee, is one of their best coaches so hopefully your kid ends up on her team. |
Anonymous
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Seems like Barça Nashville will go into competition sooner than in dc.
I am thinking this reflects a less competitive environment than dc, and the club has enough talent to compete sooner in Nashville. |