Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re in the DC area, there is a team for you. Last summer, long after tryouts, my kid’s club cut his whole team (the B team for his age group)—they lost some coaches, so cut three whole teams from different age groups. That meant that there were a lot of us parents out there scrambling, so we found every team that practiced within about a 30 minute radius, and my kid tried out with three of them and I had one more tryout lined up but cancelled because we found the right club for us.

These were all clubs I hadn’t heard of until I was forced to look, mostly from clicking every link on the NCSL website. (Not helpful if you’re not in DC, but you can still figure out what league travel teams near you play in and contact all the teams near you.)

The happy ending for us is that my kid is now in a club where he fits much better, the coaching is stronger, and I like the parent community more. His team getting cut was such an unexpected blessing.

This is exactly what we did and had same situation. We researched every team in NCSL and EDP and learned that there are many, many clubs in the area that we had not known of. Our child was sad and could not understand why he was cut after clearly being one of the most productive on the team. But youth sports do not always make sense. Back room (hate to say it) agreements were made between two clubs and his team was gutted. But, the process forced us to really look and opened our eyes and landed in a better place for him. Depending on your kids age, it’s a blow but use this season to get better even if it’s not on a team he wants. Practice drills and athleticism can all be done without a team. And for many, high school is the end goal of travel ball

Where did you land? Which club.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“they love the sport, they have fun with it, it is great exercise and they like being on a team” these are the reasons kids play rec soccer. Perhaps adjust your expectations and let them play rec again.

When a kid is past the rec level it’s not that easy. My kid was cut and left rec years ago as he was scoring 3goals a half and the coach put restrictions on him for second half. For rec, that’s the right move - sportsmanship and not blowing out the other team is also a part of rec. so it’s fair to all but our kid. So we moved on. And could never go back

There are better rec leagues than that. All my years coaching and reffing in rec leagues (and being on the losing end of some beatdowns), I haven't seen a lot of first-half hat tricks.

Vienna's rec league isn't completely balanced, and some teams do some recruiting whether it's condoned or frowned-upon, so you may occasionally have one dominant team or one team that's overmatched (often with the kids who don't show up or have some physical limitations). But even then, the rest of the league has competitive games. NCSL-Rec seems to be reasonably competitive as well.

Rec leagues also get better as kids get older. A lot of players quit playing travel as they start focusing on other activities -- maybe they're also good basketball players or lacrosse players, or maybe they just see that they're not going to play MLS Next and figure NCSL travel isn't worth the time and money -- so you have players who've had 3-4 years of more serious training under their belts. The players who are being pushed out on the field by their parents generally disappear by U13 or U14, if not sooner. as their parents finally recognize that this just isn't the activity for them, and there's nothing wrong with that.

If you left rec a few years ago, your kid must be at least U13. They're playing full field now, so it takes more than a couple of big boots to score a goal. Give it another shot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You put them on a no cut team.

Do those even exist for travel soccer? Which don't cut?

PAC makes a serious effort to take everyone who shows up as long as they can actually form a team. The sales pitch is “We don’t cut kids - we train them.”

A cynic would say they’ll just take anyone’s money, but I’ve seen them take U9s who weren’t at NCSL level and turn them into strong NCSL players and maybe EDP players. And I’ve seen them take kids who fell through the cracks at Arlington, McLean and Vienna and turn them into decent high school players, though they often (but not always) leave PAC at a later age so they can play ECNL or ECNL-R.

The tough part is when they have, say, 18 kids at U9. Then they have to do some serious recruiting to get kids who may not be serious players. The games can get pretty lopsided. But the training atmosphere is great, and they really do boost the typical player up a level or two, from rec league or low NCSL to high NCSL, EDP or higher.

PAC was great for my kid's early development (we lived nearby) and they truly are a place that will take training kids seriously in playing the right way. I know a number of kids who started at PAC and went on to top ECNL teams and MLS Next teams. But it is also a great place to keep playing even if your kid has no aspirations to play on top teams at top clubs in the area.

Anonymous wrote:“they love the sport, they have fun with it, it is great exercise and they like being on a team” these are the reasons kids play rec soccer. Perhaps adjust your expectations and let them play rec again.

When a kid is past the rec level it’s not that easy. My kid was cut and left rec years ago as he was scoring 3goals a half and the coach put restrictions on him for second half. For rec, that’s the right move - sportsmanship and not blowing out the other team is also a part of rec. so it’s fair to all but our kid. So we moved on. And could never go back

Anonymous wrote:If you’re in the DC area, there is a team for you. Last summer, long after tryouts, my kid’s club cut his whole team (the B team for his age group)—they lost some coaches, so cut three whole teams from different age groups. That meant that there were a lot of us parents out there scrambling, so we found every team that practiced within about a 30 minute radius, and my kid tried out with three of them and I had one more tryout lined up but cancelled because we found the right club for us.

These were all clubs I hadn’t heard of until I was forced to look, mostly from clicking every link on the NCSL website. (Not helpful if you’re not in DC, but you can still figure out what league travel teams near you play in and contact all the teams near you.)

The happy ending for us is that my kid is now in a club where he fits much better, the coaching is stronger, and I like the parent community more. His team getting cut was such an unexpected blessing.

This is exactly what we did and had same situation. We researched every team in NCSL and EDP and learned that there are many, many clubs in the area that we had not known of. Our child was sad and could not understand why he was cut after clearly being one of the most productive on the team. But youth sports do not always make sense. Back room (hate to say it) agreements were made between two clubs and his team was gutted. But, the process forced us to really look and opened our eyes and landed in a better place for him. Depending on your kids age, it’s a blow but use this season to get better even if it’s not on a team he wants. Practice drills and athleticism can all be done without a team. And for many, high school is the end goal of travel ball

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the same situation for a nine year old. My kid lives for soccer, but they are small for their age and a December birthday. I don't understand the mentality of not building in space at the early ages for kids who are really committed to soccer and would benefit from the resources to develop. Another year in development soccer where there are half the practices and no professional coaching means another year of getting further behind.

Where are you? At that age we found Potomac Soccer and Bethesda took all the kids and just added teams. At later ages this wasn’t true but at 9 there should be a team. DS has had small players on every team he’s played on as long as they had the skills. My nephew and nieces play for FC Frederick which is huge and they also have the same mentality. There are 4-5 teams for each age level. My nieces and nephews on the bottom teams are having fun and improving because they get professional coaches and more hours practicing and playing than they would on rec. Don’t hesitate to reach out even after tryouts have ended because often they still need to round out the rosters on lower teams. I’m sorry I don’t know the travel teams in Va to make any suggestions there.

What I've seen in VA is the opposite.

The big clubs scramble to fill teams -- at the older age groups, when a lot of players have either moved up to MLS Next/ECNL/ECNL-R/EDP and a lot more have either dropped out or play rec. At the younger age groups, they're turning dozens of people away -- 100 boys trying out for 44 spots at U9 is pretty common, and the tryouts are often poorly run zoos that may help them pick players 1 through 10 but give them no insight into players 11 through 44.

Those are the *big* clubs, though -- all the clubs that are named after a town (Arlington, Alexandria, McLean, Vienna, Herndon) or a county (Loudoun) -- and things can vary elsewhere. My DS tried out for Great Falls U10 back before the GFR merger. We were told he had to attend at least two of the tryouts to be considered. He went to one and didn't seem too enthused. He didn't have a negative attitude, but he played passively in the scrimmage. I watched a bit and figured, "Yeah, he's just not into this. That's fine." A couple of days later, we had an offer. (We didn't take it -- he was already playing travel at U9 at another small-ish club and decided to stay put.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the same situation for a nine year old. My kid lives for soccer, but they are small for their age and a December birthday. I don't understand the mentality of not building in space at the early ages for kids who are really committed to soccer and would benefit from the resources to develop. Another year in development soccer where there are half the practices and no professional coaching means another year of getting further behind.

Where are you? At that age we found Potomac Soccer and Bethesda took all the kids and just added teams. At later ages this wasn’t true but at 9 there should be a team. DS has had small players on every team he’s played on as long as they had the skills. My nephew and nieces play for FC Frederick which is huge and they also have the same mentality. There are 4-5 teams for each age level. My nieces and nephews on the bottom teams are having fun and improving because they get professional coaches and more hours practicing and playing than they would on rec. Don’t hesitate to reach out even after tryouts have ended because often they still need to round out the rosters on lower teams. I’m sorry I don’t know the travel teams in Va to make any suggestions there.

this right here is very accurate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You put them on a no cut team.

Do those even exist for travel soccer? Which don't cut?

PAC makes a serious effort to take everyone who shows up as long as they can actually form a team. The sales pitch is “We don’t cut kids - we train them.”

A cynic would say they’ll just take anyone’s money, but I’ve seen them take U9s who weren’t at NCSL level and turn them into strong NCSL players and maybe EDP players. And I’ve seen them take kids who fell through the cracks at Arlington, McLean and Vienna and turn them into decent high school players, though they often (but not always) leave PAC at a later age so they can play ECNL or ECNL-R.

The tough part is when they have, say, 18 kids at U9. Then they have to do some serious recruiting to get kids who may not be serious players. The games can get pretty lopsided. But the training atmosphere is great, and they really do boost the typical player up a level or two, from rec league or low NCSL to high NCSL, EDP or higher.

Anonymous wrote:You put them on a no cut team.

Do those even exist for travel soccer? Which don't cut?

How about helping to *not* make this activity such a big part of their life?

Anonymous wrote:We are in the same situation for a nine year old. My kid lives for soccer, but they are small for their age and a December birthday. I don't understand the mentality of not building in space at the early ages for kids who are really committed to soccer and would benefit from the resources to develop. Another year in development soccer where there are half the practices and no professional coaching means another year of getting further behind.

Where are you? At that age we found Potomac Soccer and Bethesda took all the kids and just added teams. At later ages this wasn’t true but at 9 there should be a team. DS has had small players on every team he’s played on as long as they had the skills. My nephew and nieces play for FC Frederick which is huge and they also have the same mentality. There are 4-5 teams for each age level. My nieces and nephews on the bottom teams are having fun and improving because they get professional coaches and more hours practicing and playing than they would on rec. Don’t hesitate to reach out even after tryouts have ended because often they still need to round out the rosters on lower teams. I’m sorry I don’t know the travel teams in Va to make any suggestions there.

For the OP, how many teams played in your child's league last year. Reach out to all those clubs to see if they have a spot for your child? If not B team, maybe some of them have C teams where your child will fit in? It sounds like moving down a level at a big club is preferable to your child playing rec.