HS sports are a completely different vibe than travel. It’s about playing with your friends and your school. School spirit, senior night, homecoming, pep rallies, all that. It’s social. Winning a state championship for your school is memorable. It’s not about individual development or getting recruited to college teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids don’t want to play for the HS team and be coached by the science teacher who sucks at soccer and is also a bully.

My kid’s HS has half a dozen ECNL players. Most of them want to play. They don’t care if half their team isn’t at the level of their club team. They don’t care that the HS coach isn’t at the level of their club coach. They know the handful of ECNL players at their rival schools — some of them are teammates. They want to smash them. That’s the way competitive people are.

Amen. 100% correct.

Anonymous wrote:Some kids don’t want to play for the HS team and be coached by the science teacher who sucks at soccer and is also a bully.

My kid’s HS has half a dozen ECNL players. Most of them want to play. They don’t care if half their team isn’t at the level of their club team. They don’t care that the HS coach isn’t at the level of their club coach. They know the handful of ECNL players at their rival schools — some of them are teammates. They want to smash them. That’s the way competitive people are.

Anonymous wrote:I see parents putting kids of all abilities in travel soccer. Some great. Some for fun. What do you think about the bar of "would they make a cut school team" as a bar? Would you kid clear it? Do you care?

I think HS soccer is much different from travel because we pay $$$. I feel like parents can influence things on the travel side because we pay $$$. We can at least vote with our feet from year to year. But HS is different. It's a crap shoot. It's political. It's social. It's who you know. It's who you bl0w. My son is a Freshman who plays on an ECNL team and REALLY REALLY wants to play HS. I am active in his travel stuff because it costs me a lot of money. Travel is the priority as long as I'm paying. HS soccer is ALL on him. He finds out where to be when. What he needs to do. Talks to the coach about conflicts. I don't get involved unless he asks. Basically giving him a ride. But he wants to play HS so badly. He has an ego and wants to play a HS sport because it's important in his circle of friends. His buddies all play HS sports at various levels, so so does he. I worry that it might be too much but ... we'll see. Even at the ECNL level...kids make the team who don't deserve it because of who their parents are. It's a life lesson.

Has one person come one here and said that HS soccer is quality soccer? No. Not one person. Why do people love saying crap everyone already knows. The point is....are HS taking the best kids. Noone is talking about recruiting from HS, noone is saying HS soccer is better than travel, noone is saying that a HS team can beat a top travel team, why do people make up their own crap? Can't focus on the actual topic?

Some kids don’t want to play for the HS team and be coached by the science teacher who sucks at soccer and is also a bully.

Anonymous wrote:The harsh reality is some "top level" travel soccer players just aren't that good - but once they are in the system can hold onto their place.

New environment, no prior history, fresh set of eyes - throw in some fast, strong athletic kids from other sports - no wonder travel kids can't make their HS team.

The 30 grand you paid in travel fees over the years wasn't a deposit for HS soccer.

And it needs to be stated that HS soccer is not good soccer. You are already stating that teams are made up of "athletic kids from other sports". This is precisely why HS soccer is bad because HS soccer coaches are looking for bigger faster kids but not necessarily good soccer players.

Take that same HS team and put them up against a good travel team and they will lose. Seriously, are we supposed to take a team made up "athletes looking for something to do in the spring' with little soccer experience to actually be either a good team or good soccer?

Any big fast oaf can foul and win a ball.

Anonymous wrote:Agree that high school soccer is disgustingly political-especially on the girls side in DMV privates. When you see 3rd and 4th level travel players making Varsity over ECNL/EDP players there is a problem…

I am talking about Premier 1/2 level EDP players being denied spots…absolutely mind blowing-and clusters of other lower level players making the team 🤮

Anonymous wrote:The harsh reality is some "top level" travel soccer players just aren't that good - but once they are in the system can hold onto their place.

New environment, no prior history, fresh set of eyes - throw in some fast, strong athletic kids from other sports - no wonder travel kids can't make their HS team.

The 30 grand you paid in travel fees over the years wasn't a deposit for HS soccer.

Noone said anything about that they are entitled to anything because of what they paid for travel soccer so STFU with that. People love to create drama when there is nothing there. Did anyone say...well I paid 30K for travel soccer so I expect my kid to play HS? NO. You just want to try to shame parents for spending money of travel soccer. Share your budget so we can see what you spend your money on? Here's the thing 99% of parents have their kid playing travel soccer because they have the money OR they wanted something more competitive than rec OR their kid wanted to push themselves OR the kids and parents thought that baseball was too F-ing boring. The other 1% many think they they can buy a scholarship or some other crap but they at 1 of 100. Maybe less.

The harsh reality is some "top level" travel soccer players just aren't that good - but once they are in the system can hold onto their place.

New environment, no prior history, fresh set of eyes - throw in some fast, strong athletic kids from other sports - no wonder travel kids can't make their HS team.

The 30 grand you paid in travel fees over the years wasn't a deposit for HS soccer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local HS had 150 travel soccer kids try out for the varsity team the year before covid. Probably 50 of them were on the top teams for their clubs so all excellent players. They started with a timed run and if you didn't make the very competitive time you got cut automatically but I can guarantee you all of those 50 made it. There were a couple of stars and position mattered of course, but for the rest it seemed pretty random. It was hard to differentiate between many of those top 50. I'm sure politics/pressure from parents who have influence in the school plays in to it as this is a school in a wealthy area. This is the boys side.

150 at tryouts seems crazy to me. My son plays on HS team and travel before that. At our HS of probably 1300-1400 kids, there were maybe 35-40 kids trying out. Some of those were good athletes in other sports just looking for something to do in the spring to stay active. Some were rec players who hadn’t played on a team in years. Anyone with travel level experience easily made the team. It’s so different from school to school, and year to year.

Some of the VA 6A schools - especially the overcrowded ones in PW, Fairfax and Loudoun - are around 3K students. A couple of years ago, at my son’s HS, there were 140 trying out for 50 spots. Last cut for JV had about 45 (for 25) and just about all were travel players. Obviously, not all were ‘A’ team players, but there were enough and enough decent ‘B’ team players to make just about everyone nervous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local HS had 150 travel soccer kids try out for the varsity team the year before covid. Probably 50 of them were on the top teams for their clubs so all excellent players. They started with a timed run and if you didn't make the very competitive time you got cut automatically but I can guarantee you all of those 50 made it. There were a couple of stars and position mattered of course, but for the rest it seemed pretty random. It was hard to differentiate between many of those top 50. I'm sure politics/pressure from parents who have influence in the school plays in to it as this is a school in a wealthy area. This is the boys side.

150 at tryouts seems crazy to me. My son plays on HS team and travel before that. At our HS of probably 1300-1400 kids, there were maybe 35-40 kids trying out. Some of those were good athletes in other sports just looking for something to do in the spring to stay active. Some were rec players who hadn’t played on a team in years. Anyone with travel level experience easily made the team. It’s so different from school to school, and year to year.

1300-1400 is a small high school.

Not big but not sure I would call that small either. In Virginia that would be a class 4 or 5 school. Class 6 are the biggest. Classes 1-3 are really small typically outside NoVA. Around here class 4 and 5 are the average size

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care, and I don’t see why you do either. What does it matter to you if other parents let their kids play on lower lever travel teams?

"Let" them play on lower level tearms? okkay...

So it appears the answer to OPs original question is overwhelmingly “no”.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local HS had 150 travel soccer kids try out for the varsity team the year before covid. Probably 50 of them were on the top teams for their clubs so all excellent players. They started with a timed run and if you didn't make the very competitive time you got cut automatically but I can guarantee you all of those 50 made it. There were a couple of stars and position mattered of course, but for the rest it seemed pretty random. It was hard to differentiate between many of those top 50. I'm sure politics/pressure from parents who have influence in the school plays in to it as this is a school in a wealthy area. This is the boys side.

150 at tryouts seems crazy to me. My son plays on HS team and travel before that. At our HS of probably 1300-1400 kids, there were maybe 35-40 kids trying out. Some of those were good athletes in other sports just looking for something to do in the spring to stay active. Some were rec players who hadn’t played on a team in years. Anyone with travel level experience easily made the team. It’s so different from school to school, and year to year.

1300-1400 is a small high school.