Ask yourself this question: Are you yourself (or were you as a parent) a very athletic adult who was/ is passionate about competitive sports? Do you see your kid playing soccer well into the future/ possible in college? If so, I'd go with the bigger club. You can truly get a sense of your kid's realistic capabilities and 'ranking' against others in a big club with multiple teams. If you stay on the top team in a smaller club, you will not have a very good sense of where your kid is when compared to other players.

We made the switch at U11 to a bigger club vs small one. At the smaller club, we were never in the top brackets of any tournaments, we usually were beat in the middle bracket of most tournaments. When I inquired about attention other training sessions, my kid was always placed in the 'B' training group because they were from our small club.

We're not on the top team at our bigger club, but I can see what it takes to get onto one of the top teams in the state. I can see those kids and talk with the parents and know how much work is being put in. At my smaller club, no-one did much extra work. It was a mystery to figure out what it takes to become truly good at soccer.

I played in college and was a stellar athlete, so I knew I had to get my kid around other quality players.

Not sure if that perspective helps. But yeah, also gauge your kid's level of interest and motivation to work harder and do more soccer outside of team traianings.

You also need to look at what league they play in.

Our kids played with a smaller club for a while.

It was good for my son because there was excellent coaching and the other boys on the team were pretty much all on the same level.

For my daughter, it didn't work even though the coaching was excellent because they just didn't have enough girls, they had to combine ages, and some of the kids were only there because their parents signed them up. They played in a lower league because of this and after a couple of years we went back to the big club in our city--it definitely has issues but it's either that or drive 60-90 plus minutes each way to play for a club in the bigger city.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Herndon

I think all of those would be considered small at least on the girls side. Loudoun East is sort of confusing to me. People seem to be attracted to the Loudoun name, and some good coaches are going there, but East is separate from the “regular” Loudoun. I wonder if they’re trying to draw kids in with the promise that they can break into one of the top Loudoun teams, but that seems hard to do if you’re practicing at a separate site with a different coach. I’ve heard it’s hard enough if you’re not on the top team at their main site.

My daughter is going to Loudoun East next year. She isn’t ever going to play for a GA/ECNL team, so we aren’t worried about that. We’re just looking for a good coach that isn’t too far from our house, and they did a good job recruiting coaches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which two clubs are you considering?

Considering several. The closests are Loudoun East, Sterling and Sterling. Work close to Great Falls.

If you give the year and boys vs girls might get some input on the coaches.

We just made the same decision and stayed on the top team. Our club is not necessarily small, but they do not have ECNL or MLSN. They have several levels of travel teams though and our team beats their NCSL opponents from more highly regarded clubs regularly. The level of the players on the team is generally fairly strong, with no huge outliers. Because of the lacking league associations though they struggle to attract quality players when expanding rosters. We stayed for U11, but will probably reassess again at U12 and definitely at U13.

Anonymous wrote:*Herndon

I think all of those would be considered small at least on the girls side. Loudoun East is sort of confusing to me. People seem to be attracted to the Loudoun name, and some good coaches are going there, but East is separate from the “regular” Loudoun. I wonder if they’re trying to draw kids in with the promise that they can break into one of the top Loudoun teams, but that seems hard to do if you’re practicing at a separate site with a different coach. I’ve heard it’s hard enough if you’re not on the top team at their main site.

Anonymous wrote:Go with the better coach for her and your family.

Done. Lock thread.

Coaches are salesmen. Remember the coach you get during tryouts and "practice' guesting isn't the same one you will get when you are formally on the team. So it depends on what is the smaller club and what is the bigger club.


Arlington - second team is a great idea
Loudon-second team is a great idea

Valor-top team is a terrible idea
Any of the "academy" teams from europe like Ac milan and or Villareal top team is a terrible idea.