Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As has been stated repeatedly in this forum, if you truly want to get your DC looked at appropriately then reach out to the coach of the team you want to be considered for and attend a training session or two. This lets the coach asses your DC independently and also allows him/her to measure your DC's abilities versus the actual team's players.

I get all that and agree completely. But that does not address the point about having more than a couple of distracted eyes trying to evaluate multiple players at tryouts. It is simply a question of effort and getting more than a couple of eyes on players. Really good coaches can vary widely in their assessments of the same players, and having them talk and evaluate together can be useful. It also gives others a lot more confidence in the process. Sort of like the way the rest of the world generally has job candidates see more than a couple of people?

Also as been stated repeatedly here is tryouts are meant to fill in lower teams that some people call "cash grabs." True or not, tryouts aren't meant to find top team players unless there is a clear outlier. Coaches are asked to spot outliers or to ensure they fill in the necessary quota of players to fill the planned number of teams the club wants

They have tryout because you never know who might show up. These are not professional athletes and things can change quickly with them. So a kid from another program may just show up at your tryout.

Also if you have been around soccer for a little while you can quickly pick out a top kid in a field of 30.. It’s not about the kid who makes the step over and has one nice play. It’s about kid showing a consistent great touch, taking a bad ball and making it good, ball control, one or two touch play, movement off the ball, work rate, seeing the field, etc. There is a certain smoothness to a top player.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Also most of the big clubs will only take a kid of they need one but they have to be a lot better then who is being replaced. Not even or a little better.

NP here - curious what are the "big clubs" around here? I am new to soccer world but understand travel sports in general and agree this is exactly what happens in those other sports.

Arlington is huge. McLean and Alexandria are big. SYC and Vienna are pretty big.

In Maryland, Bethesda (Biggest), Pipeline, Potomac, Maryland Rush, Maryland United, Next Level, Baltimore Celtic, SAC