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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thinking of my son's future...

I have an 05' very competitive teen, who's been playing Travel soccer since U9 in top teams. We live in Fairfax and I (mom) don' really care (refuse) to drive to Arlington or Loudoun....any decent options in the area? Interested in a good solid coach and competitive teammates.

With two sons playing, I'm exhausted of all the driving... and secretly glad with the "break".[/quote]

I don’t know where you live or where your 05 son plays, but there are some very good teams in Fairfax County like Doradus (SDor) and SYC (Franconia and Springfield). Those 2 have been stronger than any other 05 teams in NOVA with the possible/probable exception of VDA.[/quote]

Good teams, among tops. Alexandria won the state in the fall and is top ranked in this age group but probably a little too far out given what you said. [/quote]

U15 (2005) boys:
SYC, Doradus, Alexandria, Villarreal, Herndon, VYS, FcV McLean, Loudoun are ALL ranked higher than Arlington.

[/quote]

According to what? [/quote]

Gotsoccer.  Arlington is much lower in state rankings for 2005B.  I’m not sure who is pimping them out on this board.  In many boy age groups, they are not one of the top teams in the state.  Many local teams are higher. 2007 and  2008 boys, they are ranked lower than 8 other local dmv teams.

DA in the older years is a separate thing with mostly non-Arlington players.

[/quote]

Youth soccer rankings can be better (they don't just give points for trophy hunters who sandbag in lower divisions for gotsoccer points, etc) and it includes DAs.  Here's U15  for VA:

1	SOCA ELITE [109]	37.95
2	ALEXANDRIA SA RED [133]	37.74
3	ARLINGTON SA [159]	37.63
4	VIRGINIA LEGACY SC CCL [169]	37.59
5	RICHMOND KICKERS YOUTH SC ELITE RED [205]	37.38
6	RICHMOND UNITED [294]	37.00
7	RICHMOND STRIKERS ELITE [369]	36.76
8	LEE MOUNT VERNON SC SPRINGFIELD SOUTH COUNTY YOUTH CLUB LIONS BLUE [375]	36.74
9	LOUDOUN SC SOCCER RED [427]	36.60
10	LOUDOUN SC SOCCER ECNL [447]	36.52
11	DORADUS SDOR ELITE [485]	36.39
12	ANNANDALE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB VILLARREAL VIRGINIA ACADEMY [511]	36.33
13	HYS CICLONES BLACK [520]	36.32
14	ARLINGTON SA RED [526]	36.30
15	COMMONWEALTH FC BLACK [571]	36.15
16	VA RUSH SC [590]	36.12
17	MCLEAN YS ECNL [674]	35.92
18	FREDERICKSBURG FC BLACK [868]	35.47
19	VIENNA YS EAGLES [929]	35.35
20	FC VIRGINIA UNITED ELITE [990]	35.23
[/quote]

Arlington is #17:

http://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/results.aspx?Level=National&Country=USA&Gender=Boys&Age=15&state=VA&search=&pos=1

So obviously rankings don't mean anything.  When in one instance you are ranked 3rd and in another you are 17th in the State.

There are a lot of great teams and training in the DMV and many aren't all the 'big' names.  Teams without a long history have to work themselves up from the bottom brackets and work to get into tournaments.

Everyone knows that the bigger Clubs often intimidate and black ball smaller Clubs from their leagues and tournaments.  Everything should go pro/rel.

I agree that the ranking thing is horsesh*t.  The talent is too diluted. There are too many different leagues and barriers for smaller Clubs.

However, the idea that some of the biggest in the area do it best is just plain untrue.  The coaching often is stretched thin and unless your kid is put on a track with the top 15 kids in a 100 kid age group, you just might be better off elsewhere. It's often completely impersonal.

[/quote]

I have been looking at rankings on both different websites and Alexandria boys are consistenly in the top 1-2 under both parameters/ranking systems and across age groups--yet they get a lot less press on this board than the big boys.[/quote]

1.  Alexandria has good teams and good coaching.  That is an excellent club.

2.  Despite that, Gotsoccer rankings are a joke.  They're based on a mathematical model which doesn't work for the way youth soccer teams actually play.  There are two fundamental problems.

Firstly the model requires teams to play each other in a homogenous fashion in order for the ranking system to compare between teams correctly.  So for example if MLS and DA teams just play each other, and everyone else plays in a completely separate group then the rankings cannot be used to compare between the groups.  the same caveat would apply to West coast vs East coast - or any other pooling of teams where teams largely play within separate pools.

Secondly the specific model gotsoccer uses rewards teams for just playing more tournaments.  So a team that plays ten tournaments and wins three will be ranked much higher than a team that plays two tournaments and wins both.

On top of that DA teams typically don't play in ranked events.

So
-  the Arlington 05 boys DA team is actually ranked 5140th with zero points.
-  the red travel team (actually Arlington's second team) is ranked 96th (3rd in VA) with 10301 points and a 6-2-3 record (54.5% win rate) including winning the state cup.
-  by comparison Doradus is ranked 57 (1st in VA) with 12991 points and a 14-4-13 record (45.2% win rate).

3.  In general, MLS teams are significantly better than DA teams, and in general the DA teams (in the DMV area anyway) are better than the non-DA teams.  In most (but not all) cases the gap is significant.  That doesn't mean that DA teams don't sometimes beat MLS teams, or that a non-DA team can't sometimes win a game against a DA team of course.  And the best non-MLS DAs generally have some age group teams which are truly competitive with MLS teams, and the best non-DA clubs have some teams which are truly competitive with DA clubs.

Moving on from that, I think the OP here is absolutely correct when he suggests that "The coaching often is stretched thin and unless your kid is put on a track with the top 15 kids in a 100 kid age group, you just might be better off elsewhere."

Only two things matter for your kid:

1.  The quality of the coach for his team.  Maybe playing in a program with really good management (which is different from just "big club", although there is a correlation) helps every coach on the program get better and maybe the biggest clubs are able to attract better coaches - but there are still bad coaches at the best clubs and great coaches at smaller clubs.

2.  The level of players on your kid's team and the teams they compete against.  This needs to be sufficient to ensure your kid can develop properly.

That's it.

So sure - if your kid is really talented and will make the first team at a big club, and you can put up with the drive time - then its likely worth picking a good one.  But if your kid is going to be on the second team, let alone the third, fourth, or fifth team - then a smaller club is likely just as good, and may well be better.[/quote

Agreed with all you said. But to be clear, the rankings above your post are from youth soccer, not gotsoccer, and include DA teams at appropriate ages. Gotsoccer is absurd. Smaller club first teams may definitely be better for kids under the conditions you described above. We started small and went bigger as our kids talent permitted. It’s quite possible we will go small again when my kid waits for his genetically late growth spurt.  [/quote]

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