Anonymous wrote:I have 9 year old who was on the strongest team in our previous club (out of state).
We are equidistant to GFR training fields and Herndon training fields. Kid liked both fine when trying out - says he has no preference.
For the seasoned soccer parents, is one club preferred over the other? I see him playing long-term and he aspires to play in high school. Thank you for any information.

Anonymous wrote:Has your son been offered a spot on a specific team for this spring? Or is he going to try out this spring and start on a team in the fall? Not sure where you are coming from, and how competitive it was there, but top team in a smaller area may not translate to top team here because there are so many kids here. Herndon has two boys teams for that age group. If your son isn’t good enough for top team, they will be placed on second team which has a wider range of skills. Last fall Herndon placed both teams in the same league division which led to a lot of lopsided losses for second team. Not so fun for the kids. GFR has at least 3 or 4 teams that all play in different league divisions, so maybe better chance to find a good fit there. I would see if you can get both clubs to tell you which team your son would be on before committing.

DaniRojas wrote:Practice with both teams and guest play with both teams as well.

Anonymous wrote:

DaniRojas wrote:Practice with both teams and guest play with both teams as well.

He has practiced with both teams twice but neither will let him guest play- I asked.

-OP

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from Herndon. They start out strong in the younger age groups but it's a dead end U14 and up. It is a disaster organizationally, the TD should have been fired years ago, and many of the coaches on the boys' side are verbally abusive with huge egos. The majority of the talented players leave on bad terms after U14. If you think your son will continue long term and might want to play in college, Herndon is NOT it. Look at GFR or NVA/Loudoun.

Anonymous wrote:That’s not a good sign that they won’t let him guest play. Every top team that my kid practiced with were open to the idea at least.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not a good sign that they won’t let him guest play. Every top team that my kid practiced with were open to the idea at least.

Might not necessarily be a bad sign. Teams that have full rosters will have less opportunities for guest players, even if they are excited to have the player join in the future. Coach may not want to bring in a guest player when multiple parents are already complaining about playing time. And a full roster is not necessarily bad - top teams with great coaches end up with very full rosters, and they still have opportunities as the team moves from 7v7 to 9v9 to 11v11.

Btw OP, depending on the commute for you, another club to consider would be VSA.