Anonymous wrote:Yet another thread created by an uninformed person. Usually when a kid is moved down, the parents get upset leave for another club. They then come on this forum and post about the club not being loyal to returning players. If a family doesn't leave, it's because they like the club and agree with the decision or they didn't get a better offer from another club.

Or the parents don't care and they don't want to drive 45+ min to and from other clubs practice fields.

Or the parents know that many of the super players at u7 will burn out by u13.

Or again the parents don't care.

Yet another thread created by an uninformed person. Usually when a kid is moved down, the parents get upset leave for another club. They then come on this forum and post about the club not being loyal to returning players. If a family doesn't leave, it's because they like the club and agree with the decision or they didn't get a better offer from another club.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun rarely does it... But I do know boys in younger ages being moved down in teams. The parents were unhappy but stayed.

We've observed the opposite on the girls side, happens frequently. Many players moving up and down.

Up? Absolutely. Down? Really? What ages? Definitely not the younger girls. I've only listened to upset parents thinking it going to happen to their girl only to then be relieved they stayed on the same team.

Arl girls move up and down.

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun rarely does it... But I do know boys in younger ages being moved down in teams. The parents were unhappy but stayed.

We've observed the opposite on the girls side, happens frequently. Many players moving up and down.

Anonymous wrote:When DS was at Potomac Soccer kids moved down all the time. As a matter of fact, he was moved down. Promotion was far less frequent but it happened. So to say this doesn’t happen is untrue. However, some clubs move kids up/down more than others. His new club seems to do all of its A team recruiting from outside the club. They took nobody from the B team for next year but 3 new players from outside. Apparently this is the story year after year.

Why do parents feel like their kids are entitled to their spot on the A team or if they’re on the B team, they feel entitled to be in line for an A team spot?

That another kid (many kids in reality) are better than a large clubs B team players should not be surprising. There are plenty of small clubs who do development right. Those kids do all their developing elsewhere, usually at small clubs where they get plenty of individual attention and playing opportunities, and then move to ECNL/MLSNext clubs when they need to.

When DS was at Potomac Soccer kids moved down all the time. As a matter of fact, he was moved down. Promotion was far less frequent but it happened. So to say this doesn’t happen is untrue. However, some clubs move kids up/down more than others. His new club seems to do all of its A team recruiting from outside the club. They took nobody from the B team for next year but 3 new players from outside. Apparently this is the story year after year.

Bethesda moves 2-3 kids down per team per year on the boys side (well at least until u15). Some don’t accept it and choose to play on the top team of a smaller club.

OP, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Apparently many clubs move players down

This post gets a grade of: F

Anonymous wrote:

It was the kids like mine that had to continually move around for development, continually got shafted and learned grit and to grind and had the benefit of many different coaches, rejections/failures, and come backs that succeeded. It was a pro team scout that ultimately found him—not a HS coach (cut him), not club team coach, etc. Parents that are quiet generally have kids like this—have to fight for everything themselves. Sucks going through it but so much better for them in the long run.

We are going through some of this now also. We got our foot in the door at another club on the 2nd of 4 teams. My player has grown so much because of this process, it certainly gets her thinking about the process more and what it takes to succeed in a new environment. We didn't get moved down, but it was hard to move up when kids from the outside kept coming in or the head coach seemingly puts a label on your player. Hopefully, this turmoil helps with development in the long run. Now, if the club did move players down and bring players up, then we probably would have stayed. Nothing wrong with moving a player down for a season for development purposes.... but we haven't seen that happen.

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, if a demotion or promotion is a surprise, then the club is not doing a good job of communicating or those promotions or demotions were not merit-based. None of the promotions into, or demotions from my kids top teams were surprises. It was clear who were the kids likely to be demoted.

This is true at our club. No communication from the coach on development at all. Mid year player feedback was an e-mailed form with boxes checked. We left in part because of this. But next year, I'll have my player request feedback monthly to every 6 weeks from the coach, so there are no surprises the following year or at mid-season.

FWIW, if a demotion or promotion is a surprise, then the club is not doing a good job of communicating or those promotions or demotions were not merit-based. None of the promotions into, or demotions from my kids top teams were surprises. It was clear who were the kids likely to be demoted.

Anonymous wrote:No club has a system of players being moved down. If a club has 2-3 teams in the age group, clubs will not move a kid down. Now obviously you have things like chemistry and it is also based on positions, but if you have a tryout or a kid on the 2nd or 3rd team who improved a lot, if the team above has a full roster they won't be added. A shame clubs' administrations don't want to deal with that kind of parent backlash of their kid being moved down.

Because your kid didn't get moved up doesn't mean others are not.

Loudoun rarely does it... But I do know boys in younger ages being moved down in teams. The parents were unhappy but stayed.

At Alexandria on the teams my kids play on, I have seen players moved up and moved down. It definitely happens.