Anonymous wrote:I was only talking about girls. Boys side has some completely funded academy teams.

The girls side is a country club. Argue all you want but it is. Top girls soccer is for families with the funds to buy it and if you can't see the obvious dozens and dozens and dozens of articles from a variety of organizations examining the reality of youth soccer and other sports say the exactly same thing with lots of data to back it up.

Anonymous wrote:I was only talking about girls. Boys side has some completely funded academy teams.

The girls side is a country club. Argue all you want but it is. Top girls soccer is for families with the funds to buy it and if you can't see the obvious dozens and dozens and dozens of articles from a variety of organizations examining the reality of youth soccer and other sports say the exactly same thing with lots of data to back it up.

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Anonymous wrote:I am not going to run around saying I play with the greatest players in the greatest league when a third or more are excluded from the get go. High end youth soccer is great and my players love it but the marketing BS should go in one ear and out the other. It is a youth sports country club regardless of the spin.

A third? You are dreaming. Over half of us families make less than 75K a year. These families are not flying their kids around to play youth sports. You people are so in a bubble.

You're wrong. Plenty of kids playing on the top teams in this area with families making less than that.

Define plenty. One?

Every family has to make their own decisions but spending gal or ecnl level money on that limited an income would be very difficult especially if the family has more than one child and is atypical.

If you have a significant number of low -income players on your team that is highly unusual.

Having been at this with multiple players for long enough to know something about the teams in my own children's age groups and the teams in neighboring clubs, the demographic that plays this sport are families with the disposal income available to pay the fees, the hotels, the rental cars, the gas, the plane tickets, the gear, the meals, the souvenirs, the lattes, etc.

I have yet to meet a parent without a college education

and I have seen the families drop out as the costs become too much of a burden. Families with very tslented competitive, players, not bench warmers.

Nothing is wrong with developing and marketing a high end product but don't pretend that product is available to the mass market.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not going to run around saying I play with the greatest players in the greatest league when a third or more are excluded from the get go. High end youth soccer is great and my players love it but the marketing BS should go in one ear and out the other. It is a youth sports country club regardless of the spin.

A third? You are dreaming. Over half of us families make less than 75K a year. These families are not flying their kids around to play youth sports. You people are so in a bubble.

You're wrong. Plenty of kids playing on the top teams in this area with families making less than that.

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Anonymous wrote:Essentially get rid of BRYC, FCV and Metro.

agreed. The 3 or so good players from those leagues will find a spot somewhere the rest/most of the team can play rec somewhere or High School. Like they should anyway. All they are doing is paying for sub par coaches to pump their kids full of promises of D1 play at VMI.

Kids are going for VMI and citadel on free rides. You keep bringing that up like it’s a joke.

Here is what your missing in your attempt to be funny

1. 120,000 dollar savings
2. A good education for FREE
3. Influential alumni network

If they do commission

4. Graduate and become a officer
5. Get discharged at 26 years old with more training and experience then there counterparts
6. Extremely marketable
7. GI bill for masters or can use for their kids in the future (another 120,000 in savings)

So laugh it up. You lack big picture vision.

ok ..get a life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Essentially get rid of BRYC, FCV and Metro.

agreed. The 3 or so good players from those leagues will find a spot somewhere the rest/most of the team can play rec somewhere or High School. Like they should anyway. All they are doing is paying for sub par coaches to pump their kids full of promises of D1 play at VMI.

Kids are going for VMI and citadel on free rides. You keep bringing that up like it’s a joke.

Here is what your missing in your attempt to be funny

1. 120,000 dollar savings
2. A good education for FREE
3. Influential alumni network

If they do commission

4. Graduate and become a officer
5. Get discharged at 26 years old with more training and experience then there counterparts
6. Extremely marketable
7. GI bill for masters or can use for their kids in the future (another 120,000 in savings)

So laugh it up. You lack big picture vision.

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Anonymous wrote:And yes, the majority of females at these schools are athletes

VMI is notorious for the hazing. Do you want your DD to have this experience to save some money vs. rotc at a non prison-ish university? Or why not usna if your DD wants to be a marine so badly.

Anonymous wrote:And yes, the majority of females at these schools are athletes

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Anonymous wrote:Tell us, based on your observations, when should the best 36 players per age group be picked and consolidated and by whom. Who is the expert who is going to find, evaluate and pick the best in a population of 2.5 million people in NOVA.

Also, what exactly is the point to consolidate the best 36 while throwing away the other 100. You trust the system to be free of politics and fair. You believe all kids will stay the same?

Are you will to throw away talent song your kid can beat Real SoCal?

I posted the original. Why is narrowing the elite clubs to two “throwing the other kids away?” They would still play on non ECNL teams and have the chance to compete for ECNL positions on those teams. By the way, the next tier would be much better in that scenario and it would be much healthier for all involved. And what’s wrong with fielding local teams that can compete nationally? That’s how I’d define elite, not the watered down s show we have today.

What does compete nationally mean to you?

Again, the OP of this thought. The original response was the the comment that this area is a "hotbed" for youth girls soccer, with the justification of this comment by stating there are 7 "elite" girls teams locally (5 ECNL, 2 GA). While I agree there are many girls who play soccer here,I don't feel this qualifies the region as a "hotbed." If you look at the composition of those 7 "elite" teams, you find many non-elite players within. Distill those so called elite clubs from seven to two, and I believe then you'd have a true elite set of players on teams that could hang with the best in other regions. The fact there are 7 of these clubs has much more to do with the wallets of the parents in this area than the quality of talent in the girls pool vs. other regions.

The fact is that there is nothing special about this area with regard to attributes that would give girls who are raised here head and shoulders advantages over the other regions, and this region certainly doesn't have a population advantage over the other regions that consistently produce better teams than are found here. I understand that there is much privilege in this region. and many here feel themselves elite when compared to the other regions of the country, but this outsized ego needs to be checked with a little reality. Your job titles and salaries don't convey soccer talent to your daughters.

Two elite clubs with a pyramid up to compete for spots is about right. No hotbed, just a hot mess at present.

Another 80 sentence post of non-sense. I’m not claiming it’s a hotbed based solely on my belief. It is in fact considered A HOTBED by every single analyst in the country. It has been considered one for over twenty years. You are mistaken if you think you have a clue what you’re talking about in the regard. In fact, you don’t even read the response properly. It was said that it is fertile ground and a war to dominate the area created two many clubs on the girls side. I never said it was justification. I am in fact stating what happened. I also said three clubs need to go and four will do the trick if properly spaced. I further stated that if each county had one club we would be in much better shape...Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William.

It’s not a hotbed. It was a hotbed back in the 80s when many local players made it to the top. Now it’s a hot mess. You still haven’t disproven that statement.

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Anonymous wrote:I am not going to run around saying I play with the greatest players in the greatest league when a third or more are excluded from the get go. High end youth soccer is great and my players love it but the marketing BS should go in one ear and out the other. It is a youth sports country club regardless of the spin.

A third? You are dreaming. Over half of us families make less than 75K a year. These families are not flying their kids around to play youth sports. You people are so in a bubble.

You're wrong. Plenty of kids playing on the top teams in this area with families making less than that.

I gotta fundraise with my players. We will be playing nationals this Summer in California