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I'm happy you found a better environment for your son. But I am curious why you felt the need to share this here? Are you implying all ECNL teams and clubs work this way and MLS is better? Or maybe it's just your ECNL team/coach in which case it does no good unless you share the name of the team. What did you hope to achieve by posting here?
RantingSoccerDad wrote:soccer_dc wrote:FPYCparent wrote:I'm not here to promote or defend BRYC, as I have no affiliation, but ...
Isn't ECNL(/GA/MLSNext) play more so about getting participants opportunities to play at collegiate, professional, and/or national team levels?
Don't get me wrong, winning is nice, but if BRYC's players are earning slots to play at those levels, do team results matter?
Yes and no on team results. While it is true that even players on losing ECNL teams will have chances to be seen by college scouts, it also helps to be on a winning team because winning teams play more games in front of more scouts as the team advances in playoffs, etc., and branding matters when it comes to college recruiting. If the club is a well known "brand", has a track record of producing college players, coaches have strong relationships with certain colleges, then that will certainly help the players on those teams, and winning helps to build the club brand. Of course, if a player is really good enough, it doesn't matter if their ECNL team is at the bottom of the table, they will still get noticed. But all things being equal it is better to be a player on a winning team. A better metric for evaluating ECNL teams is probably to look at how many college commits they get vs how many wins.
I really wish there was a central clearinghouse for that information.
It's not a perfectly complete list but you can get a decent idea of commitments by club at https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/search/?area=commitments
Select a state and year and you'll see which clubs have the most commits.
FPYCparent wrote:I'm not here to promote or defend BRYC, as I have no affiliation, but ...
Isn't ECNL(/GA/MLSNext) play more so about getting participants opportunities to play at collegiate, professional, and/or national team levels?
Don't get me wrong, winning is nice, but if BRYC's players are earning slots to play at those levels, do team results matter?
Yes and no on team results. While it is true that even players on losing ECNL teams will have chances to be seen by college scouts, it also helps to be on a winning team because winning teams play more games in front of more scouts as the team advances in playoffs, etc., and branding matters when it comes to college recruiting. If the club is a well known "brand", has a track record of producing college players, coaches have strong relationships with certain colleges, then that will certainly help the players on those teams, and winning helps to build the club brand. Of course, if a player is really good enough, it doesn't matter if their ECNL team is at the bottom of the table, they will still get noticed. But all things being equal it is better to be a player on a winning team. A better metric for evaluating ECNL teams is probably to look at how many college commits they get vs how many wins.
I feel like the open tryout sessions are mostly for building club awareness and making existing players feel like they need to compete and commit. In reality, very few players are taken from the open sessions. As you observed it's a lot of players in a small space with very little way for coaches to get a real evaluation. In the future, I would definitely contact the coaches much earlier in the process about attending practices with the team. They might even let your son guest play with the current team. Then by the time open sessions come around they already know who he is and have evaluated him, and the open session is just a confirmation. Unfortunately all parents need to go through this as I did with my oldest child to learn how it really works. Or maybe if I had known about this forum I could have saved us a lot of stress and wasted tryout sessions years ago.
Saw a social media post by FCV about tryouts this week, and the link went to Barca Academy's registration system https://barcaacademynv.sportngin.com/register/form/650284179 with this message:
"Please note that for the 2022-2023 season all Barça Academy teams are converting to FCV United teams"
So, Barca is still running it but under the FCV name now? Seems a little odd that there are no public announcements or the typical press release with positive spin. Anyone have more info on this worst kept secret?
"Please note that for the 2022-2023 season all Barça Academy teams are converting to FCV United teams"
So, Barca is still running it but under the FCV name now? Seems a little odd that there are no public announcements or the typical press release with positive spin. Anyone have more info on this worst kept secret?
For tryouts our club just has prospective players come to regular practices. I have seen a steady flow of new players (U12) at practices starting in March but really picking up the last few weeks. Some players have already joined the team mid-season instead of waiting for the new season in the Fall, which does seem like maybe pent up demand from last 2 pandemic years. But U12 is always a year of movement as teams prepare for increasing roster sizes and beginning play in ECNL/MLS Next/GA at U13 so hard to tell if there is more this year. I also feel all the recent club consolidations has created a lot of instability.
Boys soccer becomes much more physical around age 14-15 as puberty does its thing. Kids get stronger, faster, more aggressive and it's uneven for a couple years as not all boys mature at the same time. If your son is later to mature that could explain some of the injuries. Some kids are definitely more willing to sacrifice their body which could lead to more collisions and injuries. They'll need to learn how to choose when to sacrifice and how to protect their body.
SoccerCzar wrote:soccer_dc wrote:SoccerCzar wrote:Does anyone know when and where the U12 Girls VPSL state cup final is between SYC and VYS? ... or maybe it already happened. If so, result? Thanks
Doesn't look like they've reached the final yet.Semi's are next weekend. https://www.vysa.com/thestatecup
2010 girls schedule: https://vysa-2022springstatecup.sportsaffinity.com/tour/public/info/schedule_ladderview2.asp?sessionguid=&flightguid=261F307D-D722-435B-943F-FD6E0575385C&RoundType=0&sortby=Group&tournamentguid=74D845F8-5384-4584-A5DF-A61B803EA1FC
Thanks. That's USYS. I'm asking about the Club Soccer state cup or as they call it...VPSL.
https://system.gotsport.com/org_event/events/11623/schedules?group=61187
I had no idea there were 2 state cups! VPSL looks like a smaller field with only a few strong teams. Are there really just 7 teams in a tournament that declares a statewide winner?
SoccerCzar wrote:Does anyone know when and where the U12 Girls VPSL state cup final is between SYC and VYS? ... or maybe it already happened. If so, result? Thanks
Doesn't look like they've reached the final yet.Semi's are next weekend. https://www.vysa.com/thestatecup
2010 girls schedule: https://vysa-2022springstatecup.sportsaffinity.com/tour/public/info/schedule_ladderview2.asp?sessionguid=&flightguid=261F307D-D722-435B-943F-FD6E0575385C&RoundType=0&sortby=Group&tournamentguid=74D845F8-5384-4584-A5DF-A61B803EA1FC
I get so annoyed when I hear parents on the sideline complaining that a ref is giving all the calls to one team. As if the ref cares who wins. Of course they make many mistakes. These are not professional refs. Some mistakes go your way, some do not. No one remembers or talks about the bad calls that went their way.
Dcum1300 wrote:Manodedios wrote:It’s great that all of these mergers of clubs that are an hour away from one another are happening so that about a dozen adults can stay employed as mediocre (at-best) TDs/Directors. Meanwhile, 1000s of kids are wasting time they could be on the field in the car and we are burning enough gas to keep a small gulf nation encrusted in gold.
Spot on. Youth soccer exists to support and ensure the livelihoods of a few select club administrators that honestly aren’t very good at their jobs. Seemingly very few decisions are made for the benefit of the players and families.
Youth soccer exists in its current form because parents have created the demand for it. Clubs can only charge as much money as the demand will allow, can only have travel to far away practices and games because parents allow and want it, and can only sustain the number of teams because there are that many players and parents willing to go along. It's naive to think the current system is a result of a handful of administrators concocting a scheme to ensure their livelihoods. There are two sides to every market. Youth soccer wouldn't exist if there wasn't parents demanding it.
dmv_directkicks wrote:
Alexandria girls won't magically allow them to compete. The teams will continue to be at best below average.
Probably true in the short term. In the longer term, Alexandria has pretty decent girls teams at U9-U12, so if they can get those girls to stay with the club at U13 and older, instead of leaving for other clubs as they do now because Alexandria isn't in ECNL/GA, then it could result in improved teams in a few years. A club as big as Alexandria should be able to field strong teams at every age.
Not surprising. We are in a period of club consolidations all over NoVA. This one makes sense. Metro is struggling because they don't have a pool of younger players to feed into their teams. Alexandria has the player pool but does not play in a top level girls league, and so many of their girls leave as they reach U13 and older. This should solve both of those problems.
The question is how bad the transition will be as many current Metro players will not want to travel to Alexandria for training. Expect to see many of those current players at tryouts this week at nearby girls clubs.
The question is how bad the transition will be as many current Metro players will not want to travel to Alexandria for training. Expect to see many of those current players at tryouts this week at nearby girls clubs.
I haven’t seen any public announcements yet but an email was sent to Barca parents. All the existing teams will stay intact and play as FCV next season, with the (former) Barca coaches staying with their teams.
I also think it's better now. There is still a decent amount of activity. When you filter out all the troll garbage there used to be, there wasn't much more real activity than there is now. It's still anonymous. I don't know who any of the posters are and can't trace usernames to real people. Maybe the admin could trace to an email address (assuming people use their real email addresses) but that only becomes necessary if you are doing something inappropriate