You are correct. Clear it if you are worried about what happens if you don't. But you'd better not mess it up! You can give the GK the hand-of-apology afterwards (they will probably know you saved their bacon, but no reason to rub their nose in it.)

akindc wrote:Is that now their U17 team? Interesting handful of games between DC and Bethesda this past weekend:
⚫ U17s DC 1, BSC 3
🔴 U15s DC 9, BSC 0
⚫ U14s DC 4, BSC 1

Yes, the U16 team that just won the MLS Next Cup is now the U17 team. However, several of the best players from that team are now with Loudoun United; and Matai just signed a first team contract and started against Real Salt Lake this weekend. So you always have to take these results against MLS academy teams with a grain of salt; in any given week, they often aren't fielding their best possible team for a regular season game--especially the U17s. Usually that only happens for the GA Cup or the playoffs.

Also, while last year's U16 team was good, keep in mind that very few MLS academies field a U16 team (indeed, DCU won't have a U16 team this year). So the MLS Next Cup bracket didn't have the same level of competition as the U15s and U17s, where every MLS academy is competing.

Finally, the 15s and 14s are stacked this year. So I'd expect lots of lopsided scores against the non-MLS teams.

akindc wrote:By "fully funded", do you mean that kids/parents pay nothing to be on the Academy team?

Yes. Club pays for everything, including travel and accommodations on road trips. DCU was one of the last two MLS academies to be fully funded, but this is now the third year they are.

akindc wrote:Has he convinced the owners to put more money/resources into the academy system, which has been gutted over the past few years? That I don't know.

This is an outdated impression. They have been un-gutting the academy over the last two 18 months, even prior to Rooney. My son has been with the DCU academy for three years, and it is so much better than it was in 2019. More and better coaches, better recruitment, better facilities, fully-funded, better travel accommodations, etc. Is it at the level of Union or RSL yet? No, it is not. But it is miles ahead of where it was and generally trending in the right direction.

I do agree that Rooney is more interested in bringing up the young, homegrown players than previous coaches -- either for a look with Loudoun or the first team, or actually signing them to homegrown contracts. But despite the issues with the academy, DCU was already signing more homegrown players through the years than most MLS clubs.

I think the bottom line is that you are going to have to find a team where the coach knows you may miss a number of games and is willing to work with it. You can play Sunday games, and you will try to play Saturdays when there isn't a conflict; but baseball is top priority. Honestly, if you are willing to pay full price, I don't see why a team/coach at the MSI Classic level (or similar) wouldn't go for this after an honest conversation, especially if your son is better than the alternative at GK, and is generally a positive presence on the team.

All things being equal, I'd go with Potomac 2nd team. If you knew one had a great coach, then that would help decide it. But at the 4th team, you aren't getting Bethesda's best. My nephew played on one of those teams at these ages the last two years, and it wasn't great. I don't know much about PPA. But 3x a week practice is better than 2x; and being on the 2nd team of 5 is better than 2nd of 3. You want to be in striking distance of the top team on a decent club. 2nd team at Potomac fits the bill. After 2-3 seasons, you can reevaluate for the next phase of their development.

2x experienced college recruiting dad here... First, this is pretty early. There's nothing wrong with having some U15 highlights, but they probably aren't going to make the reel(s) you use to actually get recruited. Colleges (at least D1 and D2) can't talk to him for two more years. So they aren't going to put much time into watching highlights unless your son is on the U15 Youth National Team (and if he is, he doesn't need to make a highlight video anyway). So think of this as more practice for the future.

If your son (or you!) wants to learn video editing, and this is a good excuse to get into it -- great! There are lots of tools, many free or cheap, and tons of YouTube videos about how to use them. And it's a really useful skill to have these days! But there should be no pressure to have a finished product right now. Having a video by the end of sophomore year *may* be helpful. But more than likely it's going to be what you do junior year that matters. And those older highlights won't look so good by then -- you and all your opponents look so small and slow! The key is just to collect the raw game video files from the second half of sophomore year and beyond. Sometimes they get harder to find as time goes on, so grab them to your local or cloud drive when you can -- just remember to name them with the game date and opponent, in case you want that when you put the clips together.

Hope this helps!

westsidesoccer wrote:I can. They are U13s. What is the point at that age other than another competition, and one that nobody who matters will watch. Their U14s are also pretty good, and a year closer to college. Did they go?

They did not. Looks like Bethesda sent U15, U16, U17 and U19s. I believe only the U19s made the playoffs; the rest were in the showcase. You can see schedule and results here:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsnext/mls-next-cup/2022/showcase/u14_schedule

akindc wrote:Just looking through the schedules and standings at the MLS Next Cup.
I didn't see the U13 Bethesda team in the showcase, and was wondering why.
Anyone?

At U13, this was just a showcase, not a tournament (so no "cup"). So it's a little less surprising that a team (that parents pay for) might choose not to go to a U13 showcase in Dallas, in the summer. Maybe even more so if a bunch of the better players have already decided to move to DCU, as others have said.

akindc wrote:Can't imagine having to drive Pipeline kids to practice in Loudon, assuming that's where the DC United academy kids will practice. Ick.

It's likely that training will remain at the RFK site, where it was most of this year. (They did train at Segra in the winter, but went back to RFK in March.) That RFK facility stinks (although the grass field that the first team used to train on is now available -- so that's better), but it is more centrally located.

DCU built a very nice new training facility in Leesburg (down the road from Segra Field) with four brand new fields (two grass, two turf). But it is very unlikely that the academy will train there, for two reasons. First, as part of their deal with Loudoun County to build the facility (and defray some of the cost), DCU agreed to make the turf fields available to the county after 5pm -- exactly when the academy would be training. And second, for the reason above -- that training more in the center of the DMV makes it possible for more players (especially from MD) to join.

RantingSoccerDad wrote:DCU *currently* fields a U16 team in MLS Next

This is true right now, but it is changing next season. DCU will add a U14 team and not have a U16 team in 2022-2023 -- so U14, U15 and U17. This puts DCU in line with most other MLS academies for the reasons mentioned above.

Ossalt wrote:Which clubs actually drill during practice? Most seem to only scrimmage...

This probably isn't true. I would guest "most" clubs have drills at practice. But you are probably right that *way too many* teams/coaches spend way too much practice time scrimmaging. The best teams and coaches spend very little time with unstructured scrimmages, especially at early ages. Now, some drills can evolve to look more scrimmage-like (i.e. there may be defenders and goals), but that's not the same thing. If your youth team spends most of their practices just scrimmaging, you should find a new team or coach -- all the more so if your child is younger or not on the top team. All coach training and education is about how to plan and execute training sessions around technical or tactical development, building up from individual basics to more game-like scenarios.

Cruzado wrote:Why does DCU have a U15 and U17 year but no U16 team? That just seems odd.

Almost all MLS academies are like this. Remember, this is not normal club soccer; DCU runs (and pays for) an academy to produce pro players. In any given age group, only a handful will make it to U17 with that possibility still alive. Some of them will play up on Loudoun United or (in the future) on the reserve team in MLS Next Pro. So that means the best U16s will play up with the 17s. Essentially, by U16 there isn't a full team worth of players with pro potential. They'd rather have a single U16+U17 team of better players than spread those better players out over two teams.

Obviously, European academies are larger, with a team per age until U19, generally. But our funnel of potential pros just isn't as big in the US yet; so our academy system is smaller.

SoccerQs wrote:
But the other is that the doctor is saying that he's spending too many hours on soccer and on sports in general, and should plan on taking the summer off this year and every year. Not just because of his wrist, because the next injury could be another body part. I'm not clear whether a summer "off" from soccer would include working with on his feet like you suggest or not.

Well, that is pretty odd, unless there is some diagnosed condition that makes him more susceptible to injury than most kids. If not, and this is just some general warning that this doctor would give to any soccer player, then I'd say it's quite unusual, or you are misunderstanding what they are saying. Sure, kids need some time off from training over the year -- even professionals do. But the idea that you are risking injury by not taking an entire summer off from soccer is hard to justify. And as you say, it's mostly running and jumping -- are they not going to do those anyway?

So, I'd ask for a clarification: is this general advice they would give to any soccer player of similar age, or is it specific to your child? If the latter, why? If the former, you can kinda ignore it as over-protective or find another doctor.

This is not true. DCU academy will have U14, U15 and U17 teams next year. Because there will be no U16 team, some current U15s are looking for a new club; and many current U17s will need a new club if they don't catch on with Loudoun United. If anything, DCU has invested much more in the academy this past year than ever before. And MLS academies are getting more and more important for the clubs with the introduction of the new MLS Next Pro (reserve team) league. They will need a larger (not smaller) stream of top players coming through.