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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]At least for U9-U10:

Arlington's strategy at the younger ages seems to be to collect the top 97-99th percentile of athletically developed kids who have decent skills and put them on the red team together.

The players who are skilled but not in the top size percentile get put on White

The undersized, but skilled players are put on Blue

The oversized but unskilled players are put on Black

The less skilled, less athletic group of players who are still part of the program are on Silver

Gold is a developmental group and they are interchangeable with some kids in ADP.[/quote]

To be fair, this is true in the majority of Clubs in the area (and around round the country) that have the benefit of a large player pool.

They do it to get wins.  In theory, they all say when the kids grow they will be able to move up.  In reality, with so many teams--even with vast improvement and later growth these players never materialize on the top team in the same Club.  They have to leave entirely to get noticed.

This is because they will look at new players each following year vs digging deep into their player pool.  Also, if they reach down and pull a kid up, they get massive complaints from other parents on why 'Timmy' got moved up and not 'Jimmy'.  IT is just much easier to take a brand new kid of equal talent.

If you do have a talented, smart smaller U9-U12 player, you really have to protect their development.  They will often get less chances, less competitive players in practice and games and the last pick for coaches.  They are not getting the same product as the kids on the first team for the same $.

Then, anytime a kid is going to try to move somewhere the first thing they have to provide is former team/coach---many clubs won't bother looking at a Club's 3rd-5th team players or just place them on a similar team in their Club.

[/quote]

+100. Protect your kid's development at these early ages. Funny...DS fits in this category and was an undersized, skillful player at U9 and made the Blue team. We did not accept and he played on a top team at a smaller club. He then got dropped after his U9 season, for more aggressive, physical players. Played at a smaller club the following year where he was the top player, but really looking for something where he falls in the middle of the pack. The challenge has been to get him on a team where he can train/play with kids of similar technical abilities. DS has now been getting outside small group training to keep him challenged until we can find the right environment for him at a club.  [/quote]

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