I'll second what some others have already said. Potomac U11 coach is one of their better coaches and his current 2014 team is quite strong, Potomac 2 team will have a fairly new/inexperienced coach for U11. Most of the 2015 Potomac parents are personable and easy to get along with. Bethesda 1 teams are always strong and most of the girls on their current 2015 roster are pretty decent kids with decent parents (not the crazy Bethesda story parents). I hear negative rumors/stories about Bethesda's 2nd teams U11 coach, but personally have no idea about him. Usually, Bethesda 2nd team is fairly strong too... I'd say BSC 2 is equivalent to Potomac 1. Rosa, I have met some of their player, parents, and coaches. I think they take player development seriously, but as a smaller club are not as competitive and lose a good amount of kids to the larger clubs.

If you're making decisions on practice locations, make sure you know where the clubs are practicing. Younger teams usually practice close to "home base" for the club. Older teams not so much.

As a smaller club, ROSA has more fewer teams and more control over where they practice. Bethesda and Potomac have practices from Bethesda to Germantown to Colesville.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:op here. Genuinely thank you for the feedback. It's our first attempt to have a kid play at this level. I live in MoCo. My dd loves soccer and dance, and out of our kids, she is the most naturally gifted. She wants to try a more challenging atmosphere.

Where in moco?
Do you want to be driving an hour each way 3x a week ?
Practice location matters

People are not driving an hour each way to practice in MoCo.

I live in northern part of silver spring. In rush hour traffic it’s totally an hour to get to Potomac area. Maybe not on Sunday morning… but 6pm on a Weds… nightmare.

I would also recommend checking out Liverpool and FCGB in MoCo.

Definitely the new club that the "sleepless nights" poster is forming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:op here. Genuinely thank you for the feedback. It's our first attempt to have a kid play at this level. I live in MoCo. My dd loves soccer and dance, and out of our kids, she is the most naturally gifted. She wants to try a more challenging atmosphere.

Where in moco?
Do you want to be driving an hour each way 3x a week ?
Practice location matters

People are not driving an hour each way to practice in MoCo.

Anonymous wrote:op here. Genuinely thank you for the feedback. It's our first attempt to have a kid play at this level. I live in MoCo. My dd loves soccer and dance, and out of our kids, she is the most naturally gifted. She wants to try a more challenging atmosphere.

Where in moco?
Do you want to be driving an hour each way 3x a week ?
Practice location matters

Websites ranking 2015 teams based on win/lose or even margin of victory is a hilarious exercise. They are 9-10 year olds. These sites should be almost as ashamed as the parents that rely on this crap.

At that age, I would almost prefer finding teams that loses most of its games if the focus is on possession, they are trying to build from the back, and they work on switching the field. If they spend a season or two giving up easy goals making mistakes in the back, they have spent two years learning to play! The mistakes go away eventually and they start destroying the teams that boot and chase for youth trophies.

If the coach plays the strongest players in the back or center mid (I guess the 6 but for 7 v 7) at u9-u10 it is often a good sign compared to the coach with the most athletic kid they play at the 9.

Rant over. I am not in MoCo, but we play those teams a lot. Bethesda seems like a good club for girls at that age. They were actually nice kids when we played and the parents didn’t totally suck. Those two things go a long way for choosing where your kid spends so much time.

Anonymous wrote:I recently saw that Potomac coach (AG) is taking over that 2015G team starting in the fall. Should be fun to watch being that his current 2014G team is ranked # 1 in Maryland per gotsport. Don't know much about ROSA. But I did see that a couple Bethesda girls tried out for (AG) team at Potomac. At the end of the day, you do what is best for your child.

Let 'em cook! Keep posting my dude, I think you have some more gems in those fingers.

Anonymous wrote:I recently saw that Potomac coach (AG) is taking over that 2015G team starting in the fall. Should be fun to watch being that his current 2014G team is ranked # 1 in Maryland per gotsport. Don't know much about ROSA. But I did see that a couple Bethesda girls tried out for (AG) team at Potomac. At the end of the day, you do what is best for your child.

Please for the love of god, do not ever quote "Gotsport" for rankings. Since you did, you must not know it only gives points out based on matches within their platform. There are other rankings available (rankings app is the best & youthsoccergames if you just want to see game history, but it misses more than the app.

op here. Genuinely thank you for the feedback. It's our first attempt to have a kid play at this level. I live in MoCo. My dd loves soccer and dance, and out of our kids, she is the most naturally gifted. She wants to try a more challenging atmosphere.

I recently saw that Potomac coach (AG) is taking over that 2015G team starting in the fall. Should be fun to watch being that his current 2014G team is ranked # 1 in Maryland per gotsport. Don't know much about ROSA. But I did see that a couple Bethesda girls tried out for (AG) team at Potomac. At the end of the day, you do what is best for your child.

Where do you live OP?
My kid plays for OBGC travel and we’ve been happy.
We were not impressed with Rosa and I’m not paying for Potomac/Bethesda.

Really depends on what your daughter is looking for. Development, atmosphere, style of play? It is very competitive at Bethesda and making the top team will be very difficult. However the coach (JT) that is taking over is great in developing players and the players like him. ROSAS, the coach (JR) is a great coach as well. She is great in development and the players like her as well. They may not have the talent of Bethesda but just as good in development but significantly less in competitive opposition. Potomac, I'm just not a fan personally. Many teams (not all) avoid playing the highest of level teams. The 2015s play in a very low league division where playing the game vs strong competition is critical in player development. There are some teams are solid and are quite good (2014s coached by AG). It really boils down to what your daughter really desires in playing soccer.

For girls born 2015, would you recommend Bethesda, Potomac, or ROSAS?