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

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[quote=RedCard][quote=Heloise][quote=RedCard][quote=Heloise][quote=RedCard][quote=Heloise]I think it’s completely unrealistic to expect ASA to stop accepting non-Arlington residents into its travel program.  We get so many out of county residents because it’s a strong program, but it’s somewhat circular - ASA is a strong program in part because it draws talent from a wide geographic area, and it draws from that wide area because of the strength of its program.  But ASA is a private club, not part of the county government, so it has zero obligation to prioritize county residents over the strength of its program.

That said, the lack of field space is a real problem on many levels.  It would be great to expand ADP, just like it would be great if travel teams didn’t have to practice on, let alone play games on, the hellscape of Kenmore’s field.  Unfortunately I don’t see field availability increasing anytime soon, and ASA certainly isn’t going to shrink the club, so we are stuck with it unless we want to go out-of-county. [/quote]

If the pro coaches are indeed worth the money, surely they don't need to grab talent that has been developed outside of Arlington?

How about ASA travel figures out how to better develop the talents of its resident population, as opposed to kicking its own residents aside in favor of kids from elsewhere?

ASA is a private company, but it doesn't own Arlington's fields -- it rents them. The fields are owned by the government. Surely that gives the government some leverage? 
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Are there any other clubs in the region that limit themselves to only residents of a particular locality?

I doubt the county government would be interested in battling this with ASA, for a whole host of reasons.  The optics of trying to force a local private business to prioritize (largely more affluent) county residents over non-residents who simply cannot afford to live in Arlington would be pretty bad on its own. 
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I'm not sure if there are residency requirements for other travel leagues, but keep in mind that Arlington could potentially be facing space constraints that are more severe than in neighboring counties.

While I don't have the data, it seems possible that the number of non-resident kids in Arlington's travel program might be about equal to the total number in Arlington's ADP program. This means that ADP could double in size if non-resident kids were excluded from the travel program.

At the very least, it would be useful if the ASA would share their data. Exactly how many non-resident kids are in the travel program? 
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I highly doubt pp’s estimate of a third of players coming from out of county holds true across all ASA travel teams.  For the highest-level teams, sure, I can see it, but not for teams at the blue or black level.  From what I’ve seen, those teams are almost all Arlington residents, and the ones from outside Arlington tend to come from McLean or Falls Church, not Springfield or Reston.  If Arlington residents want more options, McLean and PAC are very accessible.

All that aside, if ADP expanded to later years, I think there is a risk that it would effectively kill the rec program for those age groups.  [/quote]

I agree that it is possible that extending ADP's upper age boundary from 11 to 13 could potentially hurt the rec league. But there is also a chance that it would breathe new life into the non-travel programs at those ages. Some good players are dropping out of soccer at age 12 because (1) rec isn't sufficiently challenging and (2) travel takes too much time. An expanded ADP program would help to draw some of those players back into the league. [/quote]

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