The top teams almost all have a spot open for a new arrival, but to get that spot, your kid has to basically be a starter-level player (i.e. the top 11). They won't put you in roster #18 when there are kids on the second team who probably deserve a shot.

I do agree with your strategy of making friends and finding a mutual club. I would add to that commuting time as teams can practice ALL OVER the area, even teams that are technically in a specific place ('Bethesda', Arlington, etc). Drive times can be horrible at rush hour so you'll need to factor that into you decision process.

Just a general observation:

After about the top 3 or 4 levels, there isn't much of a difference quality-wise between teams. It's really tough for a coach of younger kids to accurately place kids after the top 50 or so kids, and as kids learn and get older (bigger) the team skill levels varies greatly with those teams outside of the top levels.

Tried to post a reply and got this. Not sure if my reply posted (does not display in my browser--just this message)

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1129409.page

Not sure if it is local to my browser. I see that the post was made and that it was from me, but I can't read the content--just that massive message.

Tried to post a reply and got this. Not sure if my reply posted (does not display in my browser--just this message)

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1129409.page


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On our team, a dad did the math of what high-level soccer required (academy). It came out to about 550-600 hours per season, which included not only the practices, games but also the driving time to the fields, the warmups, the post-practice / calm down, etc.

Kids in Maryland public high schools, for example, must be in school for 1,170 hours per school year. A good travel team (3+ practice + 1 game) will be a significant commitment of your kids time, rivaling their time in academics. Some teams might give you a sabbatical for the spring or fall for example, but you need to be upfront about it with the club before you join. You'll likely have to still pay for a full season of sports.

I think the final question would be 'why'? What's the end goal here. Play and have fun? Sure, great, worthwhile and needed (more of this actually) but to get that do you need travel soccer? Would rec with schoolmates suffice just as well (certainly less time commitment)? Conversely, if they just like running, maybe they can have their own running club with friends rather than a structured organized thing at school. Is it a college admissions bump? By the time you are in high school, I think most college coaches would have expected you to pick one way or the other. So I guess your answer may depend a bit on what the end goal is for playing both sports.

Sunbelt and Home Depot and other construction rentals will rent lights (like you see on highway construction projects). These can be delivered by truck and elevated a bit. I think it's pricely though--like $150 a day or something.

That said, my kid played for a club that used these construction lights and absolutely HATED IT. The lights only cover part of the field, and the other areas are dark, there are lots of shadows (if you don't raise the lights high enough) and it basically feels like you are training in an alley by the light of a streetlight. After practice, they turned them off and kids had to use their iPhone flashlights to gather their gear and make the way off the field without bumping into one another.

My other kid trained at a high school field lit with big floodlights and it felt like he was playing in daytime. It really made a difference in how they felt about going to practice.

The Guardian really takes the US style of play to task after the loss to the Netherlands.

"What did the US lack most at the World Cup? Football intelligence"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/04/what-did-the-us-lack-most-at-the-world-cup-football-intelligence

"This is a difficult one to handle,” Berhalter reflected when interviewed on the pitch after full-time. “We came up short today, but not for a lack of effort.” Effort may not have been lacking, but many other qualities essential to footballing success were: commitment off the ball, defensive nous, ruthlessness in front of goal. Despite the precision of the opposition’s finishing, the US were not undone by moments of individual brilliance, quirks of technology, or other acts of semi-divine footballing intervention; instead their demise was almost entirely self-inflicted. The US failures were in defense and attack, basic areas of core technical competence. Truly, this was a team who saved their worst for last."

"USA’s familiar shortcomings exposed against clinical Dutch at World Cup"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/03/usa-netherlands-world-cup-2022-soccer-last-16

"The Americans’ profligacy from promising attacking positions, their imprecision in building chances from possession and their consistently poor set-pieces all came under a harsh glare on the world stage after persisting through an often-rocky World Cup qualifying campaign. For three matches in Qatar they were able to make up the difference with closely knit team play fueled by boundless energy in midfield. But when the reserves ran dry on Saturday night, their defects finally caught up with them."


How many US Youth soccer matches have I seen with this same style of play. Run-run-run-run until you are tired and then sub out someone else who run-run-run-run-runs. It's frustrating that this mentality has such a hold in the US when over and over again it isn't working at the top levels.

following

Thanks. My boys are in DC (near Bethesda) and '05 and '08.

I think we are probably looking at something less formal than a full league schedule. Don't want the regular weekly trips all over the area but instead looking for something more controllable, like a side of players that gets together for tournaments or plays friendlies against other clubs on an ad hoc basis.

My son and his friend are 'done' with academy soccer. It's just too much time and although they have the talent, they don't have the desire to go the final yards to college level or beyond. Fair enough, but they want to keep playing and I'm trying to find some options for them.

We did some local rec soccer but it was basically not worth it. They walked the ball around players like they weren't even there and the only time they were stopped is when some kid flat out tried to pancake them into the ground. It was really just a waste of time and actually a tad dangerous (besides the 'klutzy' players there were a couple kids kind of raging after being beaten).

Is there some in-between? A place where they can play some decent soccer but not have to run the gamut of multiple practices per week and far away trips?

First, welcome to the majority of American parents. By age 13, 75% of kids have quit travel sports.

As for your specific situation, I would encourage you a) to talk to the coach and b) consider a break.

If you get a coach that is like "fine, leave, we'll replace you easily enough" than leave--this isn't a coach who is really interested in your development. Chances are if you have a good coach they'll work with you on a plan to get your kid through this and give you some time to make the right choice, which leads to the second part.

Consider taking a 3-4 week break and let your kid go without soccer and see if they are still certain they want to leave after. Keep them fit of course doing other sports or even a kick about or something like that, but after 3 weeks re-engage with them about their long term plans for soccer.

The camp that sucks one week is killer the next.
The camp that has some friends in it is great, the camp with random kids from another team is awful.
The camp with this coach is atrocious and the camp with that one is amazing.

Basically--it's really too hard to say "this camp is great". You'll find much better luck finding a camp with something like "all of our friends are there" or "our team is there" or "we really like this coach" than a specific camp brand name.

Kids leaving soccer fall into two groups—those who have already found a new interest and those who are having problems with soccer. Of the latter group there are five signs. You might want to scorecard her experience against these.

Negative sports experiences. Research has shown that the following reasons often underlie a decision to drop out:

• Not getting enough playing time.
• Poor relationships with coaches or teammates.
• An overemphasis on winning that creates stress and reduces fun.
• Over-organization, excessive repetition, and regimentation leading to boredom.
• Excessive fear of failure, including frustration or failure to achieve personal or team goals.

I think some teams are already doing I.D. sessions, like Arlington.