So let me understand this.

A CA parent comes into a DMV forum to brag about their DD moving up and all of her coaches love her?

Kudos to the DD but a little distasteful for the parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to her!
Some coaches like someone a different coach is not as crazy about. I hope she has a great year!

Op here. Actually all her coaches have loved her - she’s been moved up every year she played (only two girls last year and only her this year) and except for very hot days (rare in the Bay Area) she doesn’t get subbed out much. She goes to the extra practices they offer which the coaches appreciate and, although they rotate captains typically for games, for one season and at tournaments the coaches have asked her to be the captain. As a parent I’ve seen a ton of growth and improvement. She has good ball distribution/ field instincts and isn’t afraid to fight for the ball. I just am a little unsure how she’ll do on her next team, but I’ve felt that way each year so far lol.

How bored are you? Go make friends in Cali and get off a DMV message board.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to her!
Some coaches like someone a different coach is not as crazy about. I hope she has a great year!

Op here. Actually all her coaches have loved her - she’s been moved up every year she played (only two girls last year and only her this year) and except for very hot days (rare in the Bay Area) she doesn’t get subbed out much. She goes to the extra practices they offer which the coaches appreciate and, although they rotate captains typically for games, for one season and at tournaments the coaches have asked her to be the captain. As a parent I’ve seen a ton of growth and improvement. She has good ball distribution/ field instincts and isn’t afraid to fight for the ball. I just am a little unsure how she’ll do on her next team, but I’ve felt that way each year so far lol.

How bored are you? Go make friends in Cali and get off a DMV message board.

Stay classy Virginia

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to her!
Some coaches like someone a different coach is not as crazy about. I hope she has a great year!

Op here. Actually all her coaches have loved her - she’s been moved up every year she played (only two girls last year and only her this year) and except for very hot days (rare in the Bay Area) she doesn’t get subbed out much. She goes to the extra practices they offer which the coaches appreciate and, although they rotate captains typically for games, for one season and at tournaments the coaches have asked her to be the captain. As a parent I’ve seen a ton of growth and improvement. She has good ball distribution/ field instincts and isn’t afraid to fight for the ball. I just am a little unsure how she’ll do on her next team, but I’ve felt that way each year so far lol.

How bored are you? Go make friends in Cali and get off a DMV message board.

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to her!
Some coaches like someone a different coach is not as crazy about. I hope she has a great year!

Op here. Actually all her coaches have loved her - she’s been moved up every year she played (only two girls last year and only her this year) and except for very hot days (rare in the Bay Area) she doesn’t get subbed out much. She goes to the extra practices they offer which the coaches appreciate and, although they rotate captains typically for games, for one season and at tournaments the coaches have asked her to be the captain. As a parent I’ve seen a ton of growth and improvement. She has good ball distribution/ field instincts and isn’t afraid to fight for the ball. I just am a little unsure how she’ll do on her next team, but I’ve felt that way each year so far lol.

After reading all your responses I'm shocked she moved up as well.

Congratulations to her!
Some coaches like someone a different coach is not as crazy about. I hope she has a great year!

The cynic in me notes that a lot of kids drop out of soccer as they age — people fret about this, sometimes justifiably so, but the reality is that kids may have 3-4 activities at age 10 that they whittle down to 1-2 at age 15 — and so it’s only natural that kids move “up.” I see a lot of kids who finally make travel teams at U-14 after years of trying, and while it’s nice to see their persistence rewarded, the reality is that the club has gone from having 100 or more kids try out at U-9 to having 40 kids try out at U-14, so nearly everyone is on the first or second team. I saw some ECNL-R rosters (roughly NPL equivalent) recently and was surprised by some of the people who made it.

And the realist in me notes that physicality is a bigger part of the game than we care to admit. We have romantic notions that soccer is all about skill because we see relatively short people like Messi succeeding. But if you watch Messi closely, you’ll see that he’s a tough dude who can fight through physical challenges. That’s one reason why he’s a megastar while a player who was also being hyped as a youth player around the same time fell out of pro soccer altogether. Everyone remember who that was? Hint — started at DC United at age 14. (And no, the fact that he was comparatively slow and not so physical wasn’t the only reason he didn’t pan out the way everyone thought he would.)

But at the same time, your DD clearly takes the game seriously, and that’s great. There are plenty of physically gifted players in rec leagues who either didn’t “get it” or chose to focus elsewhere. Your DD has done well to find her level, and that’s good. I don’t know if colleges recruit heavily at NPL level, but maybe if she wants to play D3, it could open a couple of doors for her. That’s secondary, though, to the fact that she’s thriving in something she loves, and her hard work is being rewarded. We should all be so lucky!

Thanks. I just learned about trapped 8th graders reading this forum today, but if we stay in CA soccer is actually a winter sport in the high schools here so I think that’s less of a problem (maybe)? At any rate, I’m not sure what we could do to prepare for or prevent it.

Anonymous wrote:Op again - she also has a fall birthday so is one of the younger kids on her team. That hasn’t mattered too much in terms of aggressiveness/ height so far but I suspect it will make a bigger difference over the next year or two.

Something to be aware of: Google "trapped 8th graders" since most of the girls on her soccer team are in a grade above her unless is she young for her grade? Her fall season of 8th grade there won't be a team in the fall because the 9th graders will be playing high school soccer.

The other thing to be aware of when she moves up to the second team and they sometimes practice and play with the first team and move kids up or down for games / scrimmages. She might be getting less playing time depending on how many first team players there are and how many girls are in between the first and second teams. Some clubs will roster more players for the second team because it is easier to move them up since some leagues won't let players move down a division for games but will let them move up. Or will have first team members who aren't getting playing time play down on the second team for tournaments.

Op again - she also has a fall birthday so is one of the younger kids on her team. That hasn’t mattered too much in terms of aggressiveness/ height so far but I suspect it will make a bigger difference over the next year or two.

Op here. Thanks to people who said kind things. I haven’t found a general forum like this in our area (and still miss DC / like “checking in”) so I post here, albeit just found the soccer forum so hadn’t read or posted on it before.

She is very physical / aggressive. She’s not the biggest on the team at all (and probably won’t be tall given my height). She does have very good field sense and her teammates seem to listen to her / value as she’s yelling out instructions from her spot (ie “Sara, mark #14; Caroline, watch the right wing…). She does a good job with things like switching the ball from one side to the other or mixing up long kicks vs short passes so does have a lot of strategy. We try to go to a few Stanford women’s games a year and she likes to watch recordings of their games too, which I think helps.

She’s not on ENCL. The league plays in NPL but not at this age. The highest level is pre-NPL but she’s moving to the 2nd highest (“premier”). That said, the players from the two highest teams do a lot of practicing and scrimmaging together and players across teams will sub at each others’ matches / tournaments.

When she originally thought she was invited back to the 3rd level this coming year (out of 4 teams) her reaction was “oh yay, I made a team and I get to keep playing.” Honestly I think getting to have fun playing and continuing to improve are her goals. Especially since we have a younger daughter and we want to have time / energy to support her interests as they become clear I’m happy our 11 year old is playing at a level that requires her to work hard to be competitive and is showing commitment and grit but I’m also happy it’s not all-consuming.

I did look up ENCL (which I’d never heard of). I had seen before that about 3-4 of the Stanford women from our area played for the same town (not where they grew up) and now it makes sense to me since that’s an ENCL team. We play that club and, although matches are sometimes competitive, it’s clear that club and one other north of us are pretty consistently the best in the league.

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to your DD. Is she at an ECNL club right now? If not, is that her goal, to play at the highest level? I'm sure she has high soccer IQ, when you say she's not physically the most athletic.

They is no way in American soccer any kid is playing ecnl without being physical let alone physical and 'athletic'. That's just not how our country works as far as soccer goes, unfortunately.

Congrats to your DD. Is she at an ECNL club right now? If not, is that her goal, to play at the highest level? I'm sure she has high soccer IQ, when you say she's not physically the most athletic.

Anonymous wrote:Trust me, most of the girls who are dominant at younger ages are not dominant by the time they are in middle school and high school. A few select remain the best players. Many top players quit of move on to other sports. Don't count your blessing yet. She may do well, she may not. Being on the top team means nothing.

This.

Happens like clockwork every year as kids age up in all sports. It's actually really sad because some of them really did have amazing potential