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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You're probably better off with msi, it's the soccer league that is run by Montgomery county. There are three levels, recreational, classic, and premier.

Recreational is very low-key and mostly for fun and exercise and typically a volunteer parent coach. Players commit to the program for one season at a time. The two seasons during the year are the fall and the spring. One or two practices a week during the season. Recreational is open to anyone whose parents sign them up. You can have absolutely no skill, no athleticism, no motivation whatsoever, and you can be on a team. You won't find too many kids like that but this is a participation league where everyone gets a medal.

Classic is run pretty much the same way as recreational, except coaches are typically paid and have some experience developing players and have a better idea of what they're doing compared to the average recreational coach. Typically the coach has more soccer playing experience themselves, a coaching license, and actually knows what they're doing other than looking of drills online. This is for more committed players who want to improve and who may spend time outside of practice trying to get better, do some summer camps or play on their own outside of practice. This is for the more competitive player looking for a greater challenge. Two practices a week during the season, probably some form of off-season skills clinics or skills training, and encouraging players to go to a soccer camp over the summer or just keep getting better on their own. For these teams you have to attend to try out and find a team that is looking to pick up new players. If I were you I would start with classic if you're not really sure yet about your son's commitment level to the sport and you don't really know where he stands in terms of ability level. This is a good way to feel that out.

Recreational and classic both play in leagues that are run within Montgomery county. They do not travel outside of the county to play games and they do not play against teams from other soccer clubs, only other MSI teams.

Premier is the "travel" part of msi. Travel means that these teams play against other teams from other clubs around the DC Metro area. Some MSI teams play in League called national capital soccer league, which is basically based around the beltway. So your home games would be in Montgomery county and you're away games could be in nearby parts of Maryland or Northern Virginia. These are competitive teams where the players have been selected through a tryout process, and many of them have been training at least starting from the age of 8 with professional coaches if not earlier. You also find talented players who may not have had much coaching but who are highly skilled and play as much soccer as they can with their families or with other kids in their neighborhoods, commonly children who come from families with ethnic backgrounds or from other countries where soccer is the only sport that they follow. These kids have been playing soccer basically since they could walk and they are in love with the sport.

Playing time on a premier team is based on ability level, the coach will set expectations with you based on your player's position and ability level and factoring in the age group. When you commit to a premier team in other words a travel team, you commit from the end of the spring season for a full year until the end of the next year spring season. So it is a 12-month commitment. The fees are much higher than recreational and classic because you're paying for a professional coach, tournaments, and other fees necessary to run what is essentially a travel team. It is expected that players on this team are constantly striving to get better, or training on the road, attending clinics, or have a way to keep improving skill level in one way or another through their own means. This is a big commitment and is really only for players who know that soccer is their number one choice of sports or number one choice of extracurricular activities.

Keep in mind that the classic league is pretty sizable and there are some fairly good players in it who still don't quite have what it takes to play on one of the premier teams. MSI has a very large pool of players to select from so you have to be pretty darn good to make a premier team, especially going into the u12 year which your son is doing right now.

I would say that the premier level for MSI would be something aspirational, you are probably better off going with a classic team and testing the waters first.

Your other alternative is to try out Bethesda soccer club, instead of being a league in itself, Bethesda has numerous teams in each age group, and they put you on a team with players of similar ability. The higher level teams are some of the best in the area, your son would probably start off on a lower team and if he decides he wants to get better and commit to the sport and get a lot of training, he might be able to move up by one team level in a year if he really commits to the sport.

So again, two of your options are MSI classic and a lower Bethesda team. Bethesda can be frustrating because if you join then you see how many teams are above you and all of the Superstar players who have literally been doing nothing but playing soccer since they could walk. It's kind of frustrating when you are still in catch up mood and the players are so much better. But anyway your son needs to figure out where he is in the big scheme of things and find a team that's on his level and a starting point for his soccer journey.[/quote][/quote]

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