Anonymous wrote:NoVa parent here -- I can't imagine leaving MoCo to play youth soccer unless you're going to D.C. United's Academy or happen to work/have relatives in/already drive somewhere else. If your closest club doesn't suit you, Bethesda surely will. If Bethesda doesn't, try one of the other good clubs.

We live in Bethesda and my DC played with McLean for 3 years. There were 5-6 Bethesda/Potomac/DC kids (about 25%) on the team each season. Our commute to McLean was shorter than it would be to many of the MoCo club practice fields and much shorter than some of the kids on the team coming from Loudoun County and other parts of VA. At the time BSC had one team in my DCs age group and he didn't like the coach. The McLean team was the closest NCSL Div 1 team (DC was not interested in regional teams because of other weekend sports commitments in the spring so we focused on NCSL teams).

Anonymous wrote:NoVa parent here -- I can't imagine leaving MoCo to play youth soccer unless you're going to D.C. United's Academy or happen to work/have relatives in/already drive somewhere else. If your closest club doesn't suit you, Bethesda surely will. If Bethesda doesn't, try one of the other good clubs.

I generally agree with this for younger age groups and less serious players in older age groups. But talented players who don't make a top team at one of the competitive clubs for whatever reason often do find success moving across state or county lines to play for another. There are plenty of kids who started out in Arlington, McLean, Bethesda, or Baltimore that ended up on a showcase team at one of the other clubs.

What age?

NoVa parent here -- I can't imagine leaving MoCo to play youth soccer unless you're going to D.C. United's Academy or happen to work/have relatives in/already drive somewhere else. If your closest club doesn't suit you, Bethesda surely will. If Bethesda doesn't, try one of the other good clubs.

Here's a thread from a while back that has some discussion of the MoCo soccer scene: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/303573.page You should also check out the thread about soccer teams around NOVA if you haven't already--lots of interesting discussion there: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/376898.page

The MoCo based clubs I'm familiar with are: Bethesda, OBGC, Potomac, Damascus, Maryland Rush Montgomery, and MSC (the travel component of MSI). Plenty of kids from MoCo play for clubs outside of the area though, for example with McLean or DC Stoddert (which may offer practice fields that are close than some of the MoCo clubs) Soccer Association of Columbia, and Baltimore Celtic. All of these clubs have good and not so good coaches, and whether a particular one would be a good fit for a child depends on factors like how old the child is, how serious he is about soccer, how committed the parents are to supporting his soccer (including the willingness to spend both time and money), and where the family lives.

Most of our travel soccer experience has been with Bethesda, and overall we think they have an excellent program, especially for elite-level soccer players, since they offer both ECNL for girls and the Development Academy for boys at the older ages. They seem to do a very good job developing younger players (on the boys' side anyway--can't speak to the girls' youth program), though you will certainly here complaints about how they favor the teams and kids they deem most talented.

OBGC has a number of good coaches and teams, and gorgeous fields. They are affiliated with Bethesda at the Development Academy level, so there is a pathway for boys who are serious about soccer to move up. I think Potomac probably does an ok job teaching skills to younger kids, so that can be an option for starting out. It doesn't seem to be a place for serious older players, with the exception of high level teams that move over from other clubs. MSC has some good teams and not so good teams, and doesn't really operate like a club. It could be a good option depending on who is coaching. I don't know much about the other two.

Can anyone share the differences between the various travel soccer clubs in Montgomery County? I have heard of MSI, OBGC, Bethesda. What are the main differences? Do you have feedback about any of these programs?

Thank you!