Reply to any hope of extending Arlington's ADP program to older ages?

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Reply to "any hope of extending Arlington's ADP program to older ages?"

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[quote=RedCard][quote=NoVaRTP]Yes, the total amount of teams in Arlington and the limited space/fields impact all levels of soccer in Arlington.

As a long-time parent of Travel Soccer in Arlington, it is frustrating.  Whereas Fairfax may have 10 different travel programs - pulling from ~1.1 million people.  Arlington has 1 travel program, pulling from ~250K people.  And due to traffic patterns, it is much easier for Fairfax people to drive into Arlington, than it is for Arlington to drive out to other Fairfax clubs.

So Arlington's top travel teams can be more selective, and they generally turn out to be pretty decent.  This brings in top talent from outside Arlington year after year.  MY DC is on a team that is in Division 1 NCSL, and about 1/3 of the team is from outside Arlington, and one or two new outside players are brought in every year.

We would try out elsewhere since our DC could make a top team elsewhere, but my spouse and I are both working professionals, and don't have time for far-away practices.  And let's face it, my DC is not getting a college scholarship for soccer and will not make a career out of soccer.  I might have reconsidered staying, but when ASA pulled out of CCL, the competition got much better and their games are fun to watch again.[/quote]

If 1/3 of each travel team is coming from outside of Arlington, and if there are about 100 teams, each with an average of 16 players, then over 500 non-resident kids are participating in Arlington soccer. This is nearly equal in size to the entire ADP program. If this is the case, then ASA needs to reconsider its approach to non-residents.

I've run into quite a few kids who have dropped out of soccer after "graduating" from ADP. They don't have the time for travel, but rec is not challenging. These kids probably would have continued to play soccer if ADP were available at older ages. Yet ASA says ADP can't be extended due to space constraints. Keep in mind that ADP is composed almost entirely of Arlington residents.

This isn't fair. In effect, some of Arlington's kids are getting squeezed out of soccer to make room for non-residents.

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