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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You ask great questions. I don't have great answers but no one on this board does. Lots of "silly" ideas out there and blanket statements that come from biased, often ill-informed people. As such, this is my opinion and informed by having coached in the area on boys side and having daughter in the HS process now. Without knowing what year your daughter is it's tougher, but here goes.

The coaching is the place to start. Every club is different according to the year and there are wide variants from staff to staff. if you have good ones, do everything in your power to keep kid on team and keep coaches. One crappy relationship can mess a kid's love of the game up. a few seasons with good coaching can turn a decent player into a potential college player. Most if not all programs have an A and B team. Realize that A teams get more/better resources than B, so the coach for B is more important. Read "B" as developmental and "A" as more advanced - often MUCH more advanced. B can be great for a kid who needs to build confidence or mature physically. Amazing things happen over the course of a year!

In general, the older the player is the more club "matters". Youth club reputation matters some in relation to HS club, but far less than how fast, strong, big, skilled kid is. Bottom line the stronger athlete the kid is less team matters. most youth travel teams have an affiliation with HS clubs, so get a sense of that.  Familiarity matters to people and programs. People want to view it as a greedy conspiracy but it's more human nature. Again, that matters more to average athletes, less to stronger.

If recruiting is your goal, look at program and where players go, but there are ALWAYS individuals who go D1/hiD3 from decidedly average programs. They are athletes (see a theme here?). The stronger programs go to better tournaments and play in front of more coaches, but because of NCAA rules they really focus on 10th/11th grade summer nowadays.

For my money, a happier kid is a kid who wants to put in time and effort to get better. If she's views it as more social, then stay with the friend group and have her enjoy it. If she is driven to get good and the friends are holding back because they are less serious, then it's tougher - so good luck. If aligned on expectations, then awesome!

Alrighty, clubs...Everyone wants to "rank" clubs - on what metrics? how do you rank apple juice to orange juice? So, having said that here is my decidedly less than perfect opinion on things: 
Youth - too many options to really comment on all and lord knows I don't want to know all of them anyway. Everything depends on coaching. MC Elite coaching varies wildly from year to year. Our personal experience was less than optimal but other friends had great experience. Their HS teams are not the top of the competition scale but individuals have different results. Bethesda is good for developing player, most have parent coaches or at least more parent coaching exposure, most teams are less competitive than others the older they get. Our experience was great but no illusions that parent coaching can be a nightmare. Madlax - I mean why? Stars was considered best for a long time, but St. James is far away from Bethesda and the whole crossing the river thing is traumatizing for some. Pride - McClean so some of issues with Stars. Program has good reputation on development side on youth level. The whole M&D, Green Turtle, Skywalkers thing is beyond my geographic patience but there are those that swear it's the end all be all - whatever. Assume that VA Metro, 3d are all a bridge too far (...sorry about the awful pun)

HS - First off, this is where parents seem to lose their minds. Every single one of these programs have questionable parent dynamics. Seems to come with the territory. MC Elite: not top tier but individual results vary. seems to have coaching inconsistency. less advanced. Pride: young program so next couple of years will be interesting. Some radical divisions on leadership, but coaching seems a positive for a very young HS program. advancing but relatively new. Capital: Considered most "advanced" in DMV, but will competition for players change that? Coaching seems to be a plus for them. not formally affiliated with Stars but leans that way. Madlax - I mean why?  A vocal minority will say that one club or another is best and trash everyone else - some will argue that VA Metro is far and away the greatest program on the planet or that if you want real HS club lax you have to go to Baltimore. I don't believe either, so this is MY opinion, and I offer it because I wish someone shared this with me whether I started.(...and I had 45 minutes to kill)
Plus, there are more and more programs popping up every year, so good luck.

Remember, enjoy this time with your kid because it ain't coming back.

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Shout out to whomever wrote this out...thanks for the info [/quote]

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