So where would a new arrival to Virginia look with a very good player (top 5% of his team, multi year MVP, league all star with current team)? Is there a big difference DA and ECNL?

Anonymous wrote:If you're son is that good, he should be trying to get on a team with better playing opportunities than NCSL. I would look for a team that plays in CCL, DA or NPL leagues.

+1 Or possibly Region 1 or EDP

Though it's good to be open to a range of clubs, keep in mind that many of these clubs have early-ish practice times several days a week. If you pick a club that's far from home/school, you are going to be doing a LOT of rush-hour driving and it is likely to conflict with work. It'll be harder to find a carpool if you don't live near the other families.

For example, last year our Arlington travel team practiced 3 times a week, at 4:55, 5:00 and 6:00. There were kids from Loudoun who tried out for ASA - I can't imagine trying to do the commute from Loudoun to Arlington 3 days a week, especially when there are many closer clubs.

Anonymous wrote:
CSC (Chantilly Soccer Club) sends up all sorts of red flags for me. Have they sorted out whatever problems they had a couple of years ago? Their site lists only four boys travel teams -- one ODSL, three NCSL, none higher than Division 5.

Nothing against those who currently are stuck in CSC, but anyone with half a mind should stay away. CSC does not have the player pool or coaching resources to support travel teams sustainably. And their U9 team from last year found the coach to be substandard and disbanded en masse to Great Falls, Herndon, and who knows where else for this year.

Anonymous wrote:At this point we are way in the weeds for the OP and it really doesn't matter.

I read this as "ODP," which proves I need to do something else for a while.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

I'm not the PP, but whatever Herndon teams that enter EDP won't be the first ...

http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=59881&ApplicationID=4108519

This is true, Herndon is more a federation of teams. I believe Herndon allows independent teams to play under their banner so there are some good Herndon teams that fly under the radar and play in EDP.

Pretty sure these aren't independent teams that just happened to register with Herndon. This is "Nacionals Black." They also have "Nacionals Red" and "Nacionals Silver." The same coach is also with another Herndon team.

Are you sure you're not thinking of VISTA?

At this point we are way in the weeds for the OP and it really doesn't matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

I'm not the PP, but whatever Herndon teams that enter EDP won't be the first ...

http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=59881&ApplicationID=4108519

This is true, Herndon is more a federation of teams. I believe Herndon allows independent teams to play under their banner so there are some good Herndon teams that fly under the radar and play in EDP.

Pretty sure these aren't independent teams that just happened to register with Herndon. This is "Nacionals Black." They also have "Nacionals Red" and "Nacionals Silver." The same coach is also with another Herndon team.

Are you sure you're not thinking of VISTA?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

You don't. EDP is its own bucket of mystery. A few VA teams will do EDP but it is pretty random. You would have to ask the coach if they intend to register for EDP.

I agree about EDP but prior post made it seem that they somehow knew that they would be entering EDP. Any club's team can go to EDP if current league is not fulfilling their competition needs. My only knock against EDP is that there aren't enough NoVA teams which makes the travel difficult for any NoVA team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

I'm not the PP, but whatever Herndon teams that enter EDP won't be the first ...

http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=59881&ApplicationID=4108519

This is true, Herndon is more a federation of teams. I believe Herndon allows independent teams to play under their banner so there are some good Herndon teams that fly under the radar and play in EDP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

I'm not the PP, but whatever Herndon teams that enter EDP won't be the first ...

http://events.gotsport.com/events/schedule.aspx?EventID=59881&ApplicationID=4108519

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

You don't. EDP is its own bucket of mystery. A few VA teams will do EDP but it is pretty random. You would have to ask the coach if they intend to register for EDP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

My U12 son also has played against Herndon, and yes, they're very good. If I were running CCL or VPL, I'd be trying to get Herndon in the league, but I guess the model of playing NCSL D1 with the occasional EDP team is working for them.

CSC (Chantilly Soccer Club) sends up all sorts of red flags for me. Have they sorted out whatever problems they had a couple of years ago? Their site lists only four boys travel teams -- one ODSL, three NCSL, none higher than Division 5.

Yes, CYA has also had some problems, but they're a big enough club that their general operations should keep moving along.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

How do you know that they'll be entering EDP?

Anonymous wrote:Thank your for the comments. I noticed that the leagues mentioned above all post their schedules so we will probably sneak into a few of those to see how the kids/coaches look. I'm assuming the Herndon person has a slight bias to the club which is fair.

That's me. No bias. I have a U12 player who does not play at any of the clubs you mentioned, but he has played against them. So my opinion is based on that. The top Herndon boys team will be entering EDP soon.

Agree with the PP. The fact that a club may be "affiliated" with DC United or another DA program is basically meaningless. All the DA programs care about is players who will help them win. If your son is a very good player, it is best to try to move him to DA at around U14 if possible and if it makes sense for your family. What league you are playing in prior to that won't make a difference, though it should be one that provides a lot of competitive games for your child. Time will tell, but I'm not convinced that the boys ECNL experiment is going to be successful. It may still be worthwhile for girls' for a few years.