Girls DA 2018-19 Season

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the DA is struggling then. That is a virtue of the ECNL: McLean for one is established. They aren't fighting for scraps in field space. Is Loudoun jammed up, or do they have enough field space?

Loudoun has exclusive access to about 8 fill size fields with lights between their facility and Bolen next door. They also own their own facilities and even have meeting / video review rooms for teams. Honestly they have the best facilities in the area hands down. They are never tight on space and they are the biggest club in VA.

Do each of the teams practice on a full field?

They have enough space to scrimmage on full fields, for footskills or shooting the usually take less space. DS has been at Loudoun for 3 years and space has never ever been an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, the fact is that they are on average bigger and run faster. That doesn’t make them better at “soccer” but it does help them to beat teams that are smaller and not as fast. And there is no evidence that they develop players. Their youth ranks are a shambles. They recruit big fast players who want to be on a winning team. Big deal. Enjoy it and embrace it, because that’s the reality.

What I saw was raw technical skill with the ball at their feet. One of the girls who scored was actually petite.

Spirit players have this too. What they don’t have is the average size and speed of the FCV girls. That makes the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, the fact is that they are on average bigger and run faster. That doesn’t make them better at “soccer” but it does help them to beat teams that are smaller and not as fast. And there is no evidence that they develop players. Their youth ranks are a shambles. They recruit big fast players who want to be on a winning team. Big deal. Enjoy it and embrace it, because that’s the reality.

What I saw was raw technical skill with the ball at their feet. One of the girls who scored was actually petite.

Spirit players have this too. What they don’t have is the average size and speed of the FCV girls. That makes the difference.

That will change on Spirit next year with the GFR pipeline. Then FCV will start to be behind on athleticism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually, the fact is that they are on average bigger and run faster. That doesn’t make them better at “soccer” but it does help them to beat teams that are smaller and not as fast. And there is no evidence that they develop players. Their youth ranks are a shambles. They recruit big fast players who want to be on a winning team. Big deal. Enjoy it and embrace it, because that’s the reality.

What I saw was raw technical skill with the ball at their feet. One of the girls who scored was actually petite.

Spirit players have this too. What they don’t have is the average size and speed of the FCV girls. That makes the difference.

Spirit has its share of big girls. In fact, two of the play ups are big. Maybe one can argue they are slow, but some of the Spirit girls are incredibly fast. FCV just had better ball handlers, shot takers, dribblers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Actually posting it here does matter. Whether they admit it or not, all clubs are aware of DCUM. Social Media is important. Coaches pretend this is all 100% BS here, but they secretly read it too. You would never get any of this without the anonymity. And come on people, no one takes anything at pure face value, but it does inform your next steps as to what to get more direct evidence about. I have friends at Spirit that I ask about roster size and play-ups, and, yes, I then get their direct experiences and dissatisfactions. Some about totally different things. I watched the FCV parents too and some did seem like the parents I wouldn't hang with. That angry PP is not entirely made up stuff, but you listen to the anger, and then, hey, you then check this stuff out. I will watch more then one Spirit game, and ask who the play ups are. I don't like the play-ups and think they must have done that to recruit top-tier players so the program can appear more legit. It's prolly a deal with the parents kind of thing. All the beating up on this poster serves no purpose and pushes him to defend and give more specifics, the things you are now scolding him about. The posters giving him suggestions are helpful, but telling him to leave the board is stupid. I am not him, and my daughter is not at Spirit. She is too young, but a good player, so I follow this stuff LIKE ALL OF YOU. Will hopefully help tune me in. Our local club has small rosters, and I like that. I like Spirit pro team, and will make sure to nail down rosters with coaches before I give them my $10K. I will do this at other clubs too of course. Just saying here that stop attacking that guy, he can post here all he wants, and those can stop reading who don't like it. (I am not him, not his friend. Amazed he is so angry that he is really getting into it here, but that is actually helpful. At some point the conversation will turn to new things. It always does.)

Nobody told the poster to leave the board, the poster was advised that they should just consider leaving the club. The poster is simply not accomplishing anything positive for their DD or her team by posting here. They would do best to handle their issues within the confines of the the team coaches or parents. At some point this will undoubtedly work its way back to the parents and coaches and the consequences will likely be worse than if they had just tried to handle it internally. In all likelyhood if this forum worked itself back to the team it would not be hard to figure who the parent/s are and I’m sure they will be shown the door.

So, the poster should just find a place to play and leave on their own terms or continue posting and the run the risk of it getting back to the team and be asked to leave the club. My guess is if a parent finds out that their kid is being called out and trashed online by a parent from their own team it will not go over well. And I’m sure the coaches will let other coaches know how this parent treated and talked about kids on their own team.

I just could not imagine talking about a teammate in this fashion and in such a public way where the kid or parent cannot defend themselves.

[Anonymous]

It is sad that any club has such an environment that makes parents angry enough to do that. This sits squarely on the club's shoulders.

[Anonymous]

The criticism is not so much of the players, as of the club that makes decisions like this. No parent gets mad when a weak player on the team gets her fair share of time. It's something to compliment about the DA and its 25% start rule.

The anger and resentment comes from a large roster for one, that inexplicably sits players. It also comes from play ups whose level of play doesn't justify their playing up (and maybe it is just their size, but if you are playing up, you should be held to the same standard as the rest of the team, not get bonus points because you are a play up, so you start in spite of a lack of performance).

And if for some random reason a team has a roster that is even 1 player short, it must be re-maxed out with players. It comes from taking out of town trips with intentionally bringing more than 18 girls. I'd rather my DD not go at all one trip and take her on another.

The showcases will be equally ridiculous. If a team doesn't have at least 20, players will be added to make sure the roster does and that girls fly somewhere to sit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is sad that any club has such an environment that makes parents angry enough to do that. This sits squarely on the club's shoulders.

It’s sad that a grown adult is trashing a 13 year old girl online and claims that is the club’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad that any club has such an environment that makes parents angry enough to do that. This sits squarely on the club's shoulders.

It’s sad that a grown adult is trashing a 13 year old girl online and claims that is the club’s.

It's sad that adults don't know the difference between a complaint about a player and a complaint about a policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The criticism is not so much of the players, as of the club that makes decisions like this. No parent gets mad when a weak player on the team gets her fair share of time. It's something to compliment about the DA and its 25% start rule.

The anger and resentment comes from a large roster for one, that inexplicably sits players. It also comes from play ups whose level of play doesn't justify their playing up (and maybe it is just their size, but if you are playing up, you should be held to the same standard as the rest of the team, not get bonus points because you are a play up, so you start in spite of a lack of performance).

And if for some random reason a team has a roster that is even 1 player short, it must be re-maxed out with players. It comes from taking out of town trips with intentionally bringing more than 18 girls. I'd rather my DD not go at all one trip and take her on another.

The showcases will be equally ridiculous. If a team doesn't have at least 20, players will be added to make sure the roster does and that girls fly somewhere to sit.

This is coming from a parent of a starting player who gets lots of minutes. No, this is not about the roster size as the poster has admitted that their DD’s playing time is not affected. No, this is about nothing more than anger over results and scapegoating a 13 year old girl. The poster called her “the worst”. That is not commentary about the club, that is anger, frustration and blame pointed squarely at a 13 year old girl.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is coming from a parent whose DD starts and gets lots of minutes.

If not, I'd go straight to the club and complain directly. But then she'd go from crappy level of play with a lot of time, even if it's with inadequate play ups to finding hersle fo ff the starting line up or even the roster.

Black balling happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is coming from a parent whose DD starts and gets lots of minutes.

If not, I'd go straight to the club and complain directly. But then she'd go from crappy level of play with a lot of time, even if it's with inadequate play ups to finding hersle fo ff the starting line up or even the roster.

Black balling happens.

So to be clear then you can drop the roster size issue as it has no actual bearing on your DD.

[Anonymous]

It's not just one play up either. It's on multiple teams. Either Spirit did it to back fill rosters when they lost 6 or so from the U17 team and more than that from the U19s, or they did it as a matter of policy.

Every single team features play ups. So it's not one girl or player. It's club wide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is coming from a parent whose DD starts and gets lots of minutes.

If not, I'd go straight to the club and complain directly. But then she'd go from crappy level of play with a lot of time, even if it's with inadequate play ups to finding hersle fo ff the starting line up or even the roster.

Black balling happens.

So to be clear then you can drop the roster size issue as it has no actual bearing on your DD.

It harms the ability of a team to find synchrony. Some of the most beautiful soccer I saw came out of PDA. And part of it was because they had been together for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is coming from a parent whose DD starts and gets lots of minutes.

If not, I'd go straight to the club and complain directly. But then she'd go from crappy level of play with a lot of time, even if it's with inadequate play ups to finding hersle fo ff the starting line up or even the roster.

Black balling happens.

So now the whole team is a “crappy level of play.” I’m sure that will won friends on the sideline too.