Anonymous wrote:OP here. She is u9 so this is the first year for travel period. Does this make a difference at all or is it still once you’re labeled a C/D player that’s it? Again I truly don’t believe she is that level and would be “ranked” higher if she had more than 2 hours of scrimmages to showcase herself.

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun C team or FCV top team?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She is u9 so this is the first year for travel period. Does this make a difference at all or is it still once you’re labeled a C/D player that’s it? Again I truly don’t believe she is that level and would be “ranked” higher if she had more than 2 hours of scrimmages to showcase herself.

Anonymous wrote:The smaller club will have a wider variety of skill levels on their top team. It can be frustrating for the player if others are far below their level and if they are outperforming there is no option to move up. I'd say coaching matters a lot here. If you post age/club you might get some guidance.

Kids do move up a larger clubs. Seen a few at DDs club go from 4th to 1st, 4th to 2nd, etc.

It can be true that your DD is as good or almost as good as some on a higher team but doesn't get moved up. Kids have to be clearly better before they will make room and start moving someone down.

Anonymous wrote:We left the big club's 3rd team to be on the mid-size club's top team.
At games and tournaments we played against the big club that we left the B team and they beat us every time with high scores, that sucks!

Make me realize kids in this small club was all the kids who didn't make it to the big club the A, B, or C team but parents willing to pay for THE TOP TEAM!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

being on their 3rd team is akin to being on the top team at most clubs because they are that strong.

I think that is wishful thinking for 3rd team. I would say being on the 2nd team of a top club like Loudoun, McLean, VDA, Arlington, Bethesda is akin to being on the top team at smaller clubs, but not 3rd or 4th team. Before NVA being on Loudoun Red was the jam, being on Loudoun Black was good - you could of been on Loudoun Black and probably make the top team on any other club in the area. Once you get into Loudoun White/Silver/whatever that is where the level of play really dropped off, because most of those 3rd team and 4th team players ended up taking a top team spot on a different club.

Once you're labeled as a 3rd/4th team player at a top club, it's very hard to shake that stigma and often times, the big clubs are looking externally to fill their top team - it's a tale as old as time.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She is u9 so this is the first year for travel period. Does this make a difference at all or is it still once you’re labeled a C/D player that’s it? Again I truly don’t believe she is that level and would be “ranked” higher if she had more than 2 hours of scrimmages to showcase herself.

Anonymous wrote:The smaller club will have a wider variety of skill levels on their top team. It can be frustrating for the player if others are far below their level and if they are outperforming there is no option to move up. I'd say coaching matters a lot here. If you post age/club you might get some guidance.

Kids do move up a larger clubs. Seen a few at DDs club go from 4th to 1st, 4th to 2nd, etc.

It can be true that your DD is as good or almost as good as some on a higher team but doesn't get moved up. Kids have to be clearly better before they will make room and start moving someone down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're assuming that there is any organizational continuity between the top teams and bottom teams at large clubs. The D team is not practicing with the A team. The A team coach will not even know your kid exists. The technical director and any age group coordinators do not care about that team. When you kid shows up for tryouts the next year, they are already labeled. Meanwhile, smaller clubs care about their teams and if the team happens to be one of their better teams, they will get attention from the TD. They aren't automatically slotted (can't have the C team rising above the B team), so they'll play as high as they are capable of playing both in league play and in tournament brackets

Agreed. A lot of it is just neglect. Too much hard work for one person to get to know a large age group. Too much hard work for the coaches to actually communicate with each other (in a large organization they don't even know each other that well) on a regular basis regarding placement. When tryouts come along, the A-team coach doesn't have any idea about most of the players in the age group.

There are exceptions. I've seen A-team coaches occasionally observe lower teams. Also, adjacent tiers often practice together.

You would think that there would be a least one person (age group TD?) whose job it was to get at least a brief eyes on all the players in an age-group to make sure the placements are still making sense, but....no. Just think how much the parents would appreciate seeing the age group TD get out to the team practices once in a while. Most families (not all of course) are just looking for the opportunity to get looks here and there, it would go a long way.

Having said all this, is it a good idea for DC to get placed onto an A-team? So much stress can be avoided by avoiding that goal based on a realistic assessment of DC's developmental status/potential/interest etc. I know some parents on this forum disagree, but playing on a well-managed and decent C or D team can be a good experience for the child (although expensive!).

Anonymous wrote:

being on their 3rd team is akin to being on the top team at most clubs because they are that strong.