DC Soccer (formerly stoddert) is where we started with travel, and to be honest it wasn't that bad in the early years. There's so much soccer in this area that there are plenty of teams to play that you don't have to travel long distances. Practices are harder. And being EOTP you might have to do some WOTP weekday driving.

If he's begging I'd do a lot to get him on a team.

DC Eleven, DCYFC will be the best options based on what you described.

Everything is sane within these clubs, the travel is local and people have multiple kids doing multiple sports so carpooling and collaborating are easy within these communities.

You will have your choice of Arlington, Alexandria, Bethesda, etc. if your child wants to get more competitive later.

My best tip is since you have a rec team built around an elementary school, you best bet is to have them start playing pick-up after school together and just participate in small tournaments like https://3v3live.com or https://5v5soccer.com. McLean has one coming up. Small format is best for development and club soccer screws that up.

Get some Bownets and pennies and have them play organically every day after school. You can get create group and parents take turns and hire someone to watch them and possibly hire a coach once a week to do some ball mastery with the group. Carter Barron fields are wide open all of the time as an example. Do the False8 ball mastery volume 1 at home a few nights a week and you will skip ALL OF THE DRAMA but have a kid who would step onto ANY 1st team in the area by U11/U12 because he understand how to master the ball and he would have had pure fun with his friends for 3 years and WANT to push to the next level on his own.

This is the way...

Local tournaments and travel sounds great! Would you have to be on the 3rd string team to make that happen? or do you have to make a request to the club coach/officers/management?

Anonymous wrote:And by "push him" I don't actually mean that. He is begging to play travel soccer. I just want him to play other sports for a while, and I personally am not ready for the commitment, as we have other kid's schedules to consider etc.

The lower teams for most travel clubs have less "commitment" and travel. Most play local tournaments. Something to consider if he is begging.

And by "push him" I don't actually mean that. He is begging to play travel soccer. I just want him to play other sports for a while, and I personally am not ready for the commitment, as we have other kid's schedules to consider etc.

Anonymous wrote:He’s 2017 so 8?
You are already on the crazy train OP whether you know it not.

OP back and I am sure you are right. We were committed to our DC Soccer school-based rec team for the sake of community and fun, but half the kids are leaving to do travel. So now we're looking to see what our options are.

I do want him to have the opportunity to do travel at some point. I loved my travel team when I was growing up! But I didn't even start playing until I was 8, and didn't get on a high-level travel team until I was 14.

I realize things are different now and I'm trying to figure out if I truly need to push him now if he has any hope of making travel later on, or if we can just keep chilling out for a bit.

He’s 2017 so 8?
You are already on the crazy train OP whether you know it not.

McLean
PPA
DCSC
DCYFC

If he starts to get more competitive look into Arlington/Bethesda.

Some inbetween options at NOVA clubs - maybe there is something similar in DC?

- Arlington ADP
- McLean MDP

They're development programs that practice more than rec but don't actually travel. My DD did ADP for U9 and U10 and made a 2nd team once she switched to travel.

We are in another area of the country but declined a travel offer this year until DC is a little older. Similar reasons. Mine is a little older but not much. Apparently it is common. Travel is a lot.

Anonymous wrote:You don’t know it yet, but you’re already on the path.

lol. And will be constantly thinking, this is so different from when I came up.

You don’t know it yet, but you’re already on the path.

You have options within 30 mins drive?
Take those
Don’t worry about the rest

I don't know the DC clubs well enough to list them for you, but in Nothern VA it's not uncommon for new kids to join travel teams at the U11 age. That's when they expand the roster and usually more kids get picked up, and they might shed some kids who burnt out or didnt develop. After U11 I think it's less common to join a travel team (but more common to lateral between clubs).

Please help me figure out a reasonable path through travel madness for my son.

Year: 2017
Location: NW DC, EOTP

He's done rec and PTA through DCSC. I played D1 soccer and I know the sport well enough to know that he's good but he's not exceptional.

My priorities are:

- Practices near us during the week
- Sane weekends
- Him playing with kids who are in his ability level
- Not falling too far behind because we're not pushing him to top travel teams etc.

Is there a path where we're pretty chill for a couple more years and stick with the leagues that aren't travel, and then aim to start travel at around 10?

Separately, is there a place to see what the top travel teams are in DC? I would like just to see what options are near by.

TIA for any help.