soccer_dc wrote:Loudoun Soccer is able to have ECNL teams because their player pool is enormous. With that many players to choose from the teams will always be decent. They are generally known for having big athletic teams who play a more direct style of play. This style may or may not suit your player. Coaching styles can vary a lot depending on the coach.

Geez guys, the kid is only four years old. At this age, I would focus on what is most convenient for you, the parent. Get him/her started, see if he/she likes it and go from there. If it looks like a go, then think about optimizing his/her development.

In general, anything you can do to cause the coach to recognize you at a mass tryout will help. Here are some things that may help:

1. Have your player email the coach in the late fall/early spring. Tell him you're interested and ask to practice with team. If offered, guest play.
2. Make sure the coach knows you are coming to the tryout in advance.
3. Always attend the first tryout. Have your player at least say hi or thanks for the opportunity to the coach.

SoccerQs wrote:Well, the concern is coming from a Sports Medicine specialist, so I feel like I have to take it seriously.

The injury is to his wrist, he's a GK so his wrists are probably more at risk than for players who play other positions.

Geez, I dunno. I think it's really hard to get enough reps catching the ball for overuse to be a factor. If you're playing baseball and you're a catcher or pitcher maybe, but not as a GK.
Adolescent boys probably get more cycles from jerking off than from catching soccer balls.

Not PP, but typically early 11v11 teams roster 18 players, particularly for ECNL. At U18, 20+ rosters are the norm. Smaller rosters like you were quoted may be relative to younger age groups playing 7v7 or 9v9.

Meh. Both have their pros and cons. All things considered, I'd rather have it this way. IMO, if you can't tolerate the marginal risk of being identified, you message probably isn't worthwhile to share.

CompletelyClueless wrote:There are so many active and highly knowledgeable people in this forum, that I was hoping I could convince a few of you to chip in and help educate the clueless parents with soccer players were only decent, but not ECNL/MLS/GA level players. I pieced together some information by looking at old posts, but I am assuming that there are a lot of other parents that are as clueless as I am and could use a tutorial all in one forum?

Personally, I have a U15 who’s a good athlete and soccer player, but not great. I think any recruiting or effort to play in college would have to come from our end, coaches are not going to be seeking us out. My kid loves soccer and wants to play in college if possible, but isn’t looking for money and would be more than happy at a D3 college. Can someone please give us some tips or instructions?

Some of my questions are:
- when should I be starting this process?
- is there any place I should be registering?
- I assume anything that wants you to subscribe or pay money is kind of just a rip off? Is this true?
- I keep seeing all these posts that say you should make contact with coaches at the colleges you were interested in, but if my kid is not ECNL level, Is that just a waste of everyone’s time?
- Is there any information or video or something I should be starting together now? Or can I just chill out for at least a couple years
And worry later?

Below are some answers. Ideally this is driven by the player, and guided by the parent, but the process is so competitive and onerous that parents need to participate to be successful. You are right that the best players in the top leagues find it easy to get recruited, but the farther down the food chain you go, the more it is on you to market yourself. There are literally tons of resources on the internet about how the process works.

- when should I be starting this process?
Your player should start in her freshman year by identifying target schools and sending introductory emails. As she approaches tournaments, she should be providing her game schedule, and inviting the coaches to come.

- is there any place I should be registering?
- I assume anything that wants you to subscribe or pay money is kind of just a rip off? Is this true?
There are numerous recruiting services that can make the process a bit easier. If your player is less organized and persistent, these can help. They provide services that make it easier to find and write emails with read receipt tracking, a place to house player profiles and videos, track who is looking, and plenty of help articles. In general, they provide nothing that you can't do for yourself, they just streamline the process and give you purpose built tools for doing so. Some people think they are a ripoff, others appreciate the value. YMMV.

- I keep seeing all these posts that say you should make contact with coaches at the colleges you were interested in, but if my kid is not ECNL level, Is that just a waste of everyone’s time?
Definitely not a waste of time. Plenty of non-ECNL players play in college. There are 35,000-40,000 women's college players, and a quarter of these turn over every year. ECNL only graduates about 2300 or so per year. If you don't make your player known to coaches, they won't be found, particularly if they are not playing ECNL. Your player will have to market herself aggressively.

- Is there any information or video or something I should be starting together now? Or can I just chill out for at least a couple years
It's a long process, and the earlier your player starts, the better. Even in the early years, when coaches are prohibited from responding to players, you want to be communicating. Coaches are looking for two things, does this player want to play at my school, and is she talented enough to be competitive. The former is demonstrated by your interest, the latter is demonstrated by her play. You have to get them interested enough to come see her play. Highlight and/or game videos are a great way of giving a coach a preview of her level of play and are worth investing in. Prepare an online player profile (free at several sites) and include a link to her video(s). As a non-ECNL player, she will have less access to high level tournaments that draw coaches automatically so video is even more important.
Additionally, you may need to consider ID camps at the schools that make the most sense for her. These can be a good opportunity for her to gauge her level of play relative to other interested players, and to let coaches get an early evaluation. If she has some clear favorite schools, attending multiple ID camps there will definitely communicate her interest. Beware though, ALL of these ID camps are an additional source of income for these coaches first, and a way to see emerging talent second. It is easy to waste a ton of money this way fruitlessly, so you'll have to choose wisely. Typically group camps with dozens of coaches and hundreds of players are not good value.

Anonymous wrote:After all the time and effort the VDA coaches put in to make their U19 SUPER TEAM, that would be the game to watch.
FCV & VDA U19 to finish the season.

Wups, they're not even in the same bracket at Jeff Cup. VDA U19 is two flights lower.

soccer_dc wrote:

SoccerSkeptic wrote:

Blutarski wrote:Good service, a pathway to an elite league(s), and good facility are the prerequisites to growth in today's market. For now, it appears they're just trying to achieve critical mass to support the facility overhead and keep their heads above water. It's not clear how a merger/acquisition of a club in Winchester does that though. I suppose it's much harder to bring in residents east of Evergreen than west.

Longer term, they will have no choice but to go the old fashioned route of simply providing a better service than the competition provides. All they have to do is provide a better service than FCV and Loudoun. They will also eventually need the golden ticket admitting them to one of the elite level leagues to attract talent. Get your popcorn!

Agree. Barca had a name plus nice fields and couldn't become a top club. Leagues matter. You can't consistently attract top talent if you are playing in a subpar league.

Top talent and leagues is not necessarily required for a club to be successful. There are different types of successful clubs. How they define success may be different. Clubs like Herndon and Sterling are part of the community and have been around for decades, don't play in top leagues, but I would call them successful. Barca is a successful for profit business with 30+ teams full of paying customers. They don't need to play in top leagues because of the Barca brand and affiliation. Loudoun Soccer is trying to do it all - community, rec, top leagues - but with 10,000 players it's not easy to replicate or dislodge them. FCV is successful in a narrow niche of top league girls teams.

I'm trying to figure out what VRSC is trying to be successful at. Top leagues for them is a long way off. They seem to be about community and fun for all levels, but that's tough when they also need to bring in enough money to pay for their high end fields. Not to mention LS has been serving as the community club in that area for a very long time.

Providing a better service at what? Better community soccer than LS, Sterling, and Herndon? Better marketing and high end branding than Barca? Better talent than ECNL/GA teams? I hope they have a strategy or very deep pockets.

I hear ya, but strictly speaking, we are talking about growth (expansion), not success. As you state, success means different things to different clubs. In any event, it seems clear to me that VRSC is "upwardly mobile" evidenced their purchase of the megadollar facility, their social media presence, and the rumors of mergers floating around. It does not appear to me that they will be satisfied with the stations of Herndon and Sterling, or even FCV. BTW, I would argue that FCV is very unlikely to be viewed as successful in the eyes of TSJ. It is not even clear what role they play. They certainly aren't making a ton of money.

A better service to their customers is what I mean. They need to do a better job than the competition at keeping their customers happy.

Good service, a pathway to an elite league(s), and good facility are the prerequisites to growth in today's market. For now, it appears they're just trying to achieve critical mass to support the facility overhead and keep their heads above water. It's not clear how a merger/acquisition of a club in Winchester does that though. I suppose it's much harder to bring in residents east of Evergreen than west.

Longer term, they will have no choice but to go the old fashioned route of simply providing a better service than the competition provides. All they have to do is provide a better service than FCV and Loudoun. They will also eventually need the golden ticket admitting them to one of the elite level leagues to attract talent. Get your popcorn!

The vast majority of players play in ECNL/GA are there because their end goal is to play in college. Some best practices from our experience.

- Re-evaluate your club options every year. There are dangers in staying too long just as there are dangers in club hopping.
- There are many paths through this forest. You must find your own. This is your process, not anyone elses.
- Players at upper end of ECNL typically have an easier route to college play. The farther down the ladder you start, the harder you must work.
- The college recruiting process is too complex for most teens to navigate alone. Parents need to be involved.
- Develop realistic expectations of the level of play that you can target but don't be afraid to extend your net beyond it. Do not be limited by the opinion of just one coach or club.
- There are 3 phases of recruiting: identification(getting on their list), evaluation(getting to the top of their list), and closing. Be aware of the stage you are in with each school.
- Create your list of schools, keep it broad for as long as you can, but develop your short list in parallel.
- As you tour the country, visit as many schools as you can to get a flavor for big and small, rural and urban, old and new, etc
- Do not assume that private or out-of-state schools are too expensive. Many have amazing financial aid.
- Start early with communications, be persistent. It is easy to fall off the radar.
- Put together some form of video. A good video is an ice breaker to entice a coach to come and see you.
- ID camps for schools you really love can help. If you are talented and persistent, they will remember you.
- Large group style ID camps are only good for your familiarization. They are not great recruiting opportunities due to their size.
- Your grades really matter. Once a coach identifies you, the first thing they will do is evaluate if you can get into their school on your own merits. Whether that is a deal breaker or not, depends on your talent level.
- Develop your ability to talk to adults on the phone. Your ability to communicate in this process is very important.

Yep. I think this way is better honestly but it will take a while to build up a user base that can consistently post signal as opposed to noise. It seems to work for socal soccer, it can work here.

Sigh. I tried to foster some discussion on guidelines. Even less interest than for a registered users forum!

It's not just the abuse of minors and coaches issue. It's like the Hatfield's and McCoy's over there between these rival league supporters.

Not sure guidelines are going to change things much. There is so much abuse that you'd need to visit it every day to clean it up.

Anonymous wrote:My DD is an 04-2022 grad ECNL/GA player that got some positive interest from some good D1 programs in the fall season, but due to NCAA rules it was all second or third hand. With the college coach communication channel opening up in a month for 2022 girls I’m wondering what the conversations with colleges might look like this summer and whether any of the 03-2021 girls’ parents in the area have any advice or communication tips they can share with us 04 parents. What are things looking like in these strange times? Are college coaches still talking to players? What are they asking about or advice are they giving?

I'm not sure you can reliably draw too many parallels from 2021 experiences since COVID has really changed the landscape. All schools and players have lost alot of scouting opportunities, and as a result there is a backlog of 21's who are not yet committed. My understanding is there is alot of ongoing communication there. If you believe the recruiting experts, college coaches will be eager to start communicating to their 2022 prospects fairly promptly after June 15th and into the summer and fall in an attempt to narrow their lists and get back on schedule forming their incoming classes.

If you're following this thread, you may be interested to view the initial request and the exchange on the website feedback forum here https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/878906.page.

From that thread, it appears that Jeff wants to try instituting some guidelines for appropriate behavior, coupled with perhaps some stricter enforcement on his part, and also on the part of posters. You can go read his post for more details but he asks for some help :

We need to find an appropriate guideline for addressing identifiable individuals. This is tricky because I am not sure how you discuss a sport without talking about the players and coaches involved in the sport. As the same time, the players are just kids and much of the criticism of coaches has gone beyond what is acceptable (e.g. accusations of inappropriate sexual relations with children). Maybe you guys can come up with a guideline with which you are comfortable?

To that end, below are some basic rules to suggest. He is monitoring the discussion so y'all can post your own flavors and he will sample as needed.

1. Please preface your post with [girls], [boys], or [all] in the title of the thread or post you are writing to make it easier for readers to sort through.
2. Do not post anything that you would be uncomfortable saying in public. Some of you are braver in public than others but here are some guidelines:
- Absolutely no posting of youth players by name
- Avoid discussions of youth players in terms that may identify them explicitly
- Avoid the use of profane and/or abusive language or phrases

jsteele wrote:Could you please start a thread in the Soccer forum to get feedback from other posters on this idea? The soccer forum is enough of a headache for me that I would certainly consider this idea if there were support for it.

So the debate continues over there https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/878912.page. I was about to say "rages on" but that hardly seems appropriate. There are about as many people advocating as not, with the "nots" main complaint being about having to be accountable. Even those could be interpreted as a positive vote in a way I suppose.

You mention the soccer forum being a headache, and I am guessing that is because it generates an inordinate number of "reports" and complaints that require intervention on your part. Thinking about it from your perspective, establishing a parallel registered users soccer forum would probably not help in this regard, you would probably have to jump in with both feet and make the whole thing registered users only to fix that. That would definitely reduce the frivolous posts but it might lower traffic quite a bit. From that perspective, doing nothing might seem attractive. But still, plenty of other sites operate "registered only" with good results. Curious to hear your thoughts.