Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I can only respond to your first question because the second makes no sense. NCSL (WAGS back in the day) was/is as close to a grass roots local organization as there has been, and what you see is that teams/clubs get to division 1, and then look for more competition elsewhere. It is the competitive desire that fuels this. If you can only point to one cause, it simply starts with parents looking for the best for their kids. I don't think you can ever avoid this basic parental instinct, and as a result, youth sports is in a continuous state of change. Barring youth sports becoming a govt run thing (ahem), I think you're stuck with this scenario which is fed by a mostly free market.

We already have a pretty good solution. NCSL is a large, mostly local, tiered system with pro/rel. Yes, there are warts that are common with many large not for profit youth sports orgs. But by and large, it offers what most people seem to want. And yet, teams and clubs run from it looking for better. If you are not happy with the variety of options available, it seems like it would be better to choose the one that is closest to your needs and put your energies into that.

This is spot on. If you want competitive, affordable, local soccer then support options like NCSL. Many people complain a lot about the current state of travel soccer and then continue to buy the latest travel soccer snake oil. If you do not want to spend $4K - $5K per year, do not want to travel all over Virginia for league games etc. then stop supporting it with your dollars.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

$15,000 per team

That might be for a top team/club. Many make a lot less than that.

Coaches have real jobs and families to feed too.

Thanks coach for the appeal to emotion. And some coaches don't have families to feed. Some coaches drive Mercedes to practice.

They may well drive Mercedes to practice - but they're not paying for it with what they get paid to coach a single travel team. The ones that run have good jobs, or their own successful soccer businesses, or are part of club management can make quite a lot from that. But the coaching itself is not highly paid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

$15,000 per team

That might be for a top team/club. Many make a lot less than that.

Coaches have real jobs and families to feed too.

Thanks coach for the appeal to emotion. And some coaches don't have families to feed. Some coaches drive Mercedes to practice.

Either you do too and you want to preserve your privilege or you don’t and you should have done better professionally. Either way, why is that any of your business or concern? This isn’t an essential service or item and you have many choices. Grow up.

In other sports in the US, the money is at the pro level. The incentive for the youth structure is to sort out the kids that the pros might want to take a look at — and the financial incentives for the youth clubs are to do what the pro clubs want. This helps funnel kids through the channels that the pro leagues endorse. This is the model in Europe (which is not a panacea — check out The Daily podcast on the quick demise of the Super League if you want a good primer on the financial realities of the current European model and its talent race to the bottom).

In soccer in the US, and to a degree in other youth sports (check out The Atlantic article from a couple of months ago on the squash craze buoyed by elite college admissions hooks), the money is at the youth level. So the incentive for the youth club directors is to create demand and attract a whole lot of paying customers. And if you create a new youth club where there’s a gap in the market (FCV about a decade or 15 years ago for youth girls, at the inception of ECNL), you can make a ton of money. There is no $$ incentive for youth clubs to join together or collapse or serve the rec player market. It’s a very capitalist, winner-take-most system.

Follow the money. The problem in an affluent area like ours is that the parents have the ability to pay for their kids to move to a higher level and the clubs have no incentive to stop them. There are no consequences for telling everyone that they, too, can be elite, whatever that means, or for failing to sort talent appropriately. In a system driven by a set of pro teams looking for a reliable talent funnel, a club that didn’t appropriately funnel would soon lose out. That led to the death of the boys DA; unclear what it means for MLSNext at the 15-16-17-18 ages as the MLS academies are going to probably be the only place where there’s some real financial incentive to find and develop homegrown players. And their incentive will be to take the MLSNext players ASAP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

$15,000 per team

That might be for a top team/club. Many make a lot less than that.

Coaches have real jobs and families to feed too.

Thanks coach for the appeal to emotion. And some coaches don't have families to feed. Some coaches drive Mercedes to practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I can only respond to your first question because the second makes no sense. NCSL (WAGS back in the day) was/is as close to a grass roots local organization as there has been, and what you see is that teams/clubs get to division 1, and then look for more competition elsewhere. It is the competitive desire that fuels this. If you can only point to one cause, it simply starts with parents looking for the best for their kids. I don't think you can ever avoid this basic parental instinct, and as a result, youth sports is in a continuous state of change. Barring youth sports becoming a govt run thing (ahem), I think you're stuck with this scenario which is fed by a mostly free market.

We already have a pretty good solution. NCSL is a large, mostly local, tiered system with pro/rel. Yes, there are warts that are common with many large not for profit youth sports orgs. But by and large, it offers what most people seem to want. And yet, teams and clubs run from it looking for better. If you are not happy with the variety of options available, it seems like it would be better to choose the one that is closest to your needs and put your energies into that.

This is spot on. If you want competitive, affordable, local soccer then support options like NCSL. Many people complain a lot about the current state of travel soccer and then continue to buy the latest travel soccer snake oil. If you do not want to spend $4K - $5K per year, do not want to travel all over Virginia for league games etc. then stop supporting it with your dollars.

This is how free markets work. If you think something better could exist, go build it. But remember, the way youth soccer is organized is a reflection of what the market wants (i.e. parents). It's not like it happened top down with someone deciding this is how it should be. It arose this way because there were unmet demands from us.

Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?


I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make


$15,000 per team

Yeah, much as my son's coach was a weird guy and kind of yelled at the kids a lot, I feel for him. He coached two teams and had to drive all over the DMV on weekends, deal with crazy kids and crazy parents, and work six practices per week, all for $30K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

$15,000 per team

That might be for a top team/club. Many make a lot less than that.

Coaches have real jobs and families to feed too.

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I can only respond to your first question because the second makes no sense. NCSL (WAGS back in the day) was/is as close to a grass roots local organization as there has been, and what you see is that teams/clubs get to division 1, and then look for more competition elsewhere. It is the competitive desire that fuels this. If you can only point to one cause, it simply starts with parents looking for the best for their kids. I don't think you can ever avoid this basic parental instinct, and as a result, youth sports is in a continuous state of change. Barring youth sports becoming a govt run thing (ahem), I think you're stuck with this scenario which is fed by a mostly free market.

We already have a pretty good solution. NCSL is a large, mostly local, tiered system with pro/rel. Yes, there are warts that are common with many large not for profit youth sports orgs. But by and large, it offers what most people seem to want. And yet, teams and clubs run from it looking for better. If you are not happy with the variety of options available, it seems like it would be better to choose the one that is closest to your needs and put your energies into that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

Depends on your club but it's a market rate, and the market isn't dictated by the supplier (consumer has a say as well).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

$15,000 per team

Anonymous wrote:Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?

I'd love to know what you think youth travel coaches make

When you get an offer, just tell them you're unwilling to pay the price. Instead of 2,000 counter-offer 1750.

Is changing the soccer scene in NOVA contingent to USA as a whole or can we lift from the ground up a new environment? All these partnerships, organizations, leagues, ridiculous fees feeding bloated salaries for YOUTH SOCCER and all the charade it has become this college machine scam to sell to parents?