Has your son practiced with this team yet? If not, attend 2 or 3 practices before deciding on what to do. If the kids at this practice are a better fit than his rec team and he likes this team, then decide to join. If not, you can go back to rec and tell him that you'll be better prepared for tryouts next year for him. There are lots of soccer opportunities for him throughout the year even if he doesn't join a club team right now.

You've taken your 1st step into the whole club soccer scene. Now you know how to navigate the tryout scene next year. Then 3 years from now, you'll have learned that tryouts themselves are fake as others here post. You'll need to "get accepted" on a team before tryouts.

Will he be 7 this calendar year? If so, he’s only starting a year early. And usually kids who start a year early are put on the top team the next year with their cohort.

I’d stay the course, he will grow significantly. Our daughter started at 7, and was put on the top team the next year. Starting at age 7 for u9 is not too much unusual!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone makes a team. Your kid made the lowest one and they are happy to have your money. Lowest team for u9 is totally fine as long as you know what you are signing up for

What do you mean by "totally fine"?

DH and I are not sure about all this. There are some older neighborhood kids who play travel (PPA) that DS plays with sometimes, and so DS asked to try out. By the time we were aware of his interest, DCSC was the only tryout we hadn't missed. DS is still only 6.

I personally feel like we should wait at least another year, but DS really loves loves soccer and his current rec team isn't enough for him.

If he is only 6, I would wait another year. He will still be going for u9 in another year.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone makes a team. Your kid made the lowest one and they are happy to have your money. Lowest team for u9 is totally fine as long as you know what you are signing up for

What do you mean by "totally fine"?

DH and I are not sure about all this. There are some older neighborhood kids who play travel (PPA) that DS plays with sometimes, and so DS asked to try out. By the time we were aware of his interest, DCSC was the only tryout we hadn't missed. DS is still only 6.

I personally feel like we should wait at least another year, but DS really loves loves soccer and his current rec team isn't enough for him.

Everyone makes a team. Your kid made the lowest one and they are happy to have your money. Lowest team for u9 is totally fine as long as you know what you are signing up for

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just kidding it says B16 not U16…. Looks like it’s the lowest team in that age group. How is gold lower than silver? Weird. I guess they’re trying to trick us!

You got your foot in the door! Are your referring to DC Soccer Club, better known as DCSC? The team levels and colors are not standardized across most of the clubs. They are trying to conform to a confusing landscape. From U11-U9 some teams color levels go like this: Red, White Black, Blue, Silver, Gold.... then from U19-U12 it is Elite League Name, then Red, then White. Even some teams have moved away from colors to other names Like Courage, Spirit and Wave or Lavell, Rodman and Saurbrann..... it will be confusing for a while. You can get a the Soccer Rankings App, which helps sort the team levels out for you. This will be helpful in a few years in tournaments when you are playing new teams with strange team names. Enjoy!

Yes it’s DCSC. Re getting our foot in the door, doesn’t everyone make a team?

Thx for the tip re the app.

Anonymous wrote:Just kidding it says B16 not U16…. Looks like it’s the lowest team in that age group. How is gold lower than silver? Weird. I guess they’re trying to trick us!

You got your foot in the door! Are your referring to DC Soccer Club, better known as DCSC? The team levels and colors are not standardized across most of the clubs. They are trying to conform to a confusing landscape. From U11-U9 some teams color levels go like this: Red, White Black, Blue, Silver, Gold.... then from U19-U12 it is Elite League Name, then Red, then White. Even some teams have moved away from colors to other names Like Courage, Spirit and Wave or Lavell, Rodman and Saurbrann..... it will be confusing for a while. You can get a the Soccer Rankings App, which helps sort the team levels out for you. This will be helpful in a few years in tournaments when you are playing new teams with strange team names. Enjoy!

They do appear to have a lot of teams. Without seeing your child play, it’s hard to determine if this is an appropriate team placement. DS had many friends at that age play on 3rd-5th level teams. In some cases there can be talented and focused kids there. He has one friend who worked his way from the bottom team (4th or 5th) at a big club all the way to the top over 3 years. He had a teammate at u10 who was placed on the bottom team at u9 but the following year was promoted to the B team. A few years later he was on the A team. So i’d like to believe that talented kids who are incorrectly placed are identified. The issue is sometimes it can be a very frustrating experience. At the same time, sometimes these low level teams are created to make the club money and don’t turn anyone away at u9. My nephew is at another big club playing on the 4th team. It actually is the correct level for him and he is having a blast even if parents on this board would say it’s a waste of money.

Just kidding it says B16 not U16…. Looks like it’s the lowest team in that age group. How is gold lower than silver? Weird. I guess they’re trying to trick us!

Actually his invitation is for the U 16 team so I’m guessing they just made a mistake.

It’s DC Soccer. I woke up to a email this morning. That was fast. Where does Gold fall in the DC Soccer hierarchy?

Is DC soccer a “real” club? If not what are the real ones in DC?

Depends. If it was an id session with just your kid practicing with the existing team, your DH should have talked to the coach before leaving. It's possible the coach wasn't impressed and didn't want to bother giving any feedback. If there was a large group trying out, then it will be no more than a week.

Not sure which club, but if it was a true tryout then usually within a couple days if it's the last tryout session for that club. Otherwise would be after the last tryout session.

You can always reach out to the club/coach for info.

All the "real" teams have had their tryouts. They will email you and create a team for every kid.

I'm not new to DCUM, but I'm new to DC soccer and to this forum. I have some very basic questions that I'm hoping someone can shed light on.

Kid is U9 and went to a tryout tonight and DH swears he got no info on what happens next.

When do they generally tell people if they made a team or not?