Anonymous
Post 05/19/2019 09:42     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Parents have ruined youth sports. The pursuit of alway trying to get one leg up on everyone is what lead to pay to play. Before, everyone played town. Same with academics now. A 4.0 used to be somebody special. Not anymore.
Anonymous
Post 05/19/2019 09:03     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


We would need a mega club to get this started, a huge club that could have regional teams. Some areas have a mega club where they do this and setup regional teams and have a few "elite" teams that are fed from the regional teams. This area has far too many clubs that have their own interest to make something like that happen without consolidation.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 16:50     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


This is how Little League is organized. There is a national Little League organization that issues franchises to local clubs, along with a franchise comes a defined territory. All players for the club have to reside within the franchise territory. At one time all coaches, umpires and board members of the club also had to reside within the territory, but I think they've relaxed that. This is a million years away from where youth soccer is in terms of regimentation.

Almost everywhere, Little League has the best facilities of any youth sport. The reason for this is that the franchise system makes fields a hyper-local issue. You can't jump to another club for better facilities, you have to work within your territory (or move). Local governments are more willing to spend on facilities when they know that local residents are going to use them. (Plus baseball has that "apple pie" cred that soccer just doesn't have.)

The downside is that this is not a player-friendly way of organizing. If you are a promising player who lives in a territory that happens to be poorly run you are out of luck. Also, the territory system is a vestige of the racial segregation that was the norm for much of the 20th century. When it began Little League was segregated. Even when it officially integrated the boundaries were maintained along the lines of racial segregation to keep white players from playing with non-whites. If you look at a map of Little League boundaries for DC they pretty clearly follow racial boundaries.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 14:12     Subject: Re:current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:How about a summer pick up league? Set times. Broad age categories and mixed gender allowed. No coaching allowed. Just facilitation, supervision, and officiating by organizers. Rent field space and play round robin 20 minutes games with 3rd team rotating in. 2 hours per group. Age ranges U9-10 mixed; U11-12 mixed; U13-14Open and also girls only; U15-18 open and also girls only. 8 weeks. Mid June thru early Aug. Costs to cover fields. Bring your own ball. Volunteer organizers. Parents are allowed to watch but must be quiet. Coaches allowed to watch but must be quiet and can’t “bring” a team. Teams selected each week by random captains. Pennies with numbers provided and persistent dangerous play results in removal from days activity and or league. Registration required. Run these in eastern Fairfax / Arl. / Alex; western Fairfax/Loudoun; westDC/MoCo.; and east DC/PG.


I was the PP that mentioned about a summer league but your idea might be better. Would love for this type of unofficial league to be organized for MoCo.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 13:25     Subject: Re:current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
How about a summer pick up league? Set times. Broad age categories and mixed gender allowed. No coaching allowed. Just facilitation, supervision, and officiating by organizers. Rent field space and play round robin 20 minutes games with 3rd team rotating in. 2 hours per group. Age ranges U9-10 mixed; U11-12 mixed; U13-14Open and also girls only; U15-18 open and also girls only. 8 weeks. Mid June thru early Aug. Costs to cover fields. Bring your own ball. Volunteer organizers. Parents are allowed to watch but must be quiet. Coaches allowed to watch but must be quiet and can’t “bring” a team. Teams selected each week by random captains. Pennies with numbers provided and persistent dangerous play results in removal from days activity and or league. Registration required. Run these in eastern Fairfax / Arl. / Alex; western Fairfax/Loudoun; westDC/MoCo.; and east DC/PG.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 10:40     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


They could, just requires good coaches to step up and form new clubs, then attract players to be competitive. Also they need to secure local field space around those areas for practices. Parents might be willing to accept an unknown club for the benefit of being close by. Eventually they might convince the more established clubs to join them in a new town league.


Most jurisdictions have a lot of rules that make it difficult to get field space, which makes it difficult to get a new 'town' club off the ground. You typically need to have a fairly significant number of kids/teams - I've seen 5 teams or more a couple of places - usually who all of nearly all reside in the county/town, the club needs to be a non-profit with an unpaid board, the club has to take kids of all abilities, etc. In order to do that, you either need to start with a rec league and add travel later -- which the good coaches aren't looking to do -- or pay for private space, which means your club isn't making a lot of money or is going be a lot more costly than existing clubs.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 10:37     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


They could, just requires good coaches to step up and form new clubs, then attract players to be competitive. Also they need to secure local field space around those areas for practices. Parents might be willing to accept an unknown club for the benefit of being close by. Eventually they might convince the more established clubs to join them in a new town league.


It’s best to start with a summer league so it won’t be directly competing against all established clubs and league except those that are involved in Super Y.

There would be more available soccer fields as well. We can have a Wash Metro League, then a Baltimore Metro League and a Richmond (or other) Metro League. The first place and second place of these leagues would play in a end of summer tournament to determine who the Mid-Atlantic Champion is.

Once this summer league is established and stable, then it could start thinking about the fall & spring seasons. It could be pretty cool.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 10:10     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


They could, just requires good coaches to step up and form new clubs, then attract players to be competitive. Also they need to secure local field space around those areas for practices. Parents might be willing to accept an unknown club for the benefit of being close by. Eventually they might convince the more established clubs to join them in a new town league.


It would also require coaches and league officials to drop their ego, which might be more of a battle.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 09:37     Subject: Re:current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Most of the Virginia clubs are this way so you must be talking about Maryland.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 09:35     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.


They could, just requires good coaches to step up and form new clubs, then attract players to be competitive. Also they need to secure local field space around those areas for practices. Parents might be willing to accept an unknown club for the benefit of being close by. Eventually they might convince the more established clubs to join them in a new town league.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 07:58     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Can someone just start a town /city based travel league where say Bethesda plays Potomac, Gaithersburg, Kensington, Chevy Chase etc.? Same for Virginia. More than one team per town/city as necessary.Then we could put a stop to this insanity. Kids could play with their friends and it would be plenty competitive.
Anonymous
Post 05/18/2019 07:43     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:Any rumors about what BRYC is going to do about their coach problems on the girls side?


Isn't the wee boy in charge of everything and he'll coach the teams that have the best chance to win?
Anonymous
Post 05/17/2019 22:42     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:Any rumors about what BRYC is going to do about their coach problems on the girls side?


And boys side too?
Anonymous
Post 05/17/2019 19:28     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Any rumors about what BRYC is going to do about their coach problems on the girls side?
Anonymous
Post 05/17/2019 16:51     Subject: current list of implosions, additions and Club shake ups...
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: soccer is a sport that most Americans haven't figured out yet... with other sports there isn't as much guesswork
What are you talking about, Soccer is the most figured out sport ever. Tell them parents anything and they will pay thousands.

LOL.

{in thick accent} I played for the ______ Academy in my homeland of _________. I then played pro for _______. I suffered an injury which cut short my career...but, lucky for you, I moved to America and am here to provide your child with world class training.

-- Signed
{99% of elite coaches in America}


And I will also offer your child individual ________ type of training for $600 per hour, but if you join my futsal academy for $750 I'll reduce that individual rate to $550 an hour. But, don't worry about the cost as I will help your kid get a college scholarship because I know a lot of those coaches.
--Signed
{Director, Soccer made in <<insert country (Holland, England, Italy, Brazil)>>}


I did not make this up (the college part). Truth.

I have heard the first pitch a few times; however, with both my boys playing travel and doing all sorts of supplemental training...NEVER and I mean NEVER have I heard a coach/trainer say that his training will help a kid get a scholarship nor do I know anyone who this has been said to. I think you blew it trying to be funny.