Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 10:52     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Travel tryouts are mainly held to fill open spots on lower teams after promoting players from within the club. This is where the rec players usually fall. If you are from another club, you get placed with mid to top teams for assessment and get moved up or down from there. If you care about what level your kid starts at with a club, setting up id sessions before travel tryouts begin is the best way to get your kid noticed.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 10:08     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:Witnessed 2 clubs with top teams at tryouts already pre-picked. They had a cursory small sided scrimmage and after 10 minutes the top team was called out by the head coach to scrimmage on another field. The coach watching my daughters group totally got side tracked by talking to 1 parent on a break and never went into the coaches huddle to select the top team. Yet magically, top girls were selected for the field he was watching. He never provided input on whom to select from his clipboard and yet girls were selected. It was for show for sure.

At our current club, only 3 outsiders made it to the top team. The B team players all stayed where they are. What is also sad is that the B team girls do not get the same development as the A team girls. The get a worse coach, less tournaments and no video review. They are hardly set up to move up from their current team.


I love how they all have clipboards and walk around all serious. It’s all a pony show pretty much everywhere.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 09:30     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Witnessed 2 clubs with top teams at tryouts already pre-picked. They had a cursory small sided scrimmage and after 10 minutes the top team was called out by the head coach to scrimmage on another field. The coach watching my daughters group totally got side tracked by talking to 1 parent on a break and never went into the coaches huddle to select the top team. Yet magically, top girls were selected for the field he was watching. He never provided input on whom to select from his clipboard and yet girls were selected. It was for show for sure.

At our current club, only 3 outsiders made it to the top team. The B team players all stayed where they are. What is also sad is that the B team girls do not get the same development as the A team girls. The get a worse coach, less tournaments and no video review. They are hardly set up to move up from their current team.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 09:01     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Annoyed that McLean held tryouts the same night that my kid’s high school held their winter sports banquet which resulted in my kid having to choose between picking up an award or going to club tryouts. My kid chose soccer and of course it was an unorganized cattle call where it appeared as if selections had already been made at some positions based on certain incumbents in attendance.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 08:54     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The lack of transparency for making top teams is flat unfair to some families. My kid is happy where they are, which is not too team; but we learned a lot this year about the ins and outs of how utterly rigged/preselected players are for every single club's top team. I say it's unfair not because the kids who make it aren't good. It's unfair because they parents know who to speak to and where to be and when in the winter months before tryouts while 90% of parents do not. A very few get lucky; most do not. Anytime who thinks they got lucky most likely just didn't realize they were of the right person's radar at the right time by sheer dumb luck.


Or maybe the majority of players deserved to be there?


I never said they weren't. Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, eh? Doesn't change if you don't get in early or know the right people the likelihood of ever making a top team is extremely small off sheer talent. Many kids also park their butts on the bench that got in at the beginning / early just to say they are on these teams that have no business playing at that level, let's be real.
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 08:23     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
This year our club formed a new top team. All our second and third team kids "tried out" for the top team with the hope (promise?) of moving up.

Instead, guess what? The club brought in a new coach who brought almost their entire team WITH them from their old club. So now our new top team is basically composed entirely of a team from a previous club, and almost none of our "lower" kids even had a chance to move up, even though the club touted this as such an amazing opportunity for existing club players.

I guess i knew that is the way the soccer world works, but the kids were very disappointed. Maybe it was just a money grab by the club, or the only way to get a coach to move clubs?
Anonymous
Post 06/01/2024 00:08     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
I thought the tryouts this year were done well, we had kids from below practice with us for weeks and kids moving up practicing with the higher team. There were a number of formal tryouts and kids who did well were invited back to the last few practices.

Last year I thought they did a much worse job and it was reflected in the mix of kids, several of which didn't make the cut for this upcoming year.

Our coach was serious about development, but, unfortunately that led to a pretty meh result over the season and a lot of parents swapped clubs. For the second year running our ENCL-RL team had 66% turnover, my DS is now 1 of 3 players remaining from the u13 team moving on to U15 next year..

Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 22:22     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The coach for our team knocked down several good players for a few kids who tried out from another club even though they didn't necessarily look better in try-outs. Our kid was one who was bumped, and so we left. Disappointing, as it was a nice team and we hadn't anticipated having to leave.


C'mon, you don't honestly believe that tryouts for the big clubs are anything other than charades do you?
The only point to tryouts is to see if any hidden gems turn up.
Coaches know exactly where the returning players will most likely go before tryouts ever begin.
They see the kids all year...how could a few hours of try-outs possibly trump that?
Your kid wasn't bumped because he didn't do as well in tryouts as the other kids. He was bumped because your coach, that knew your kid well, decided he wasn't as good as the incoming kids.


Agreed except in some cases, the returning players are bumped for a kid with a mediocre display at tryouts. I get it if they're bumped for a kid who tries out exceptionally well. Some clubs will bump their own for anything new that walks through the door.


Yes, but again, the coaches see players from other teams during the season, not just players on his own team.


This is correct. In many cases coaches actively recruit players from other clubs and knock loyal players out/down to make room, regardless of skill (unless they are already superstars). It's counterintuitive, but given two players at a similar skill level, it seems that coaches tend to prefer the external player to the internal player; probably a "grass is greener" basis in that the coach has seen all of the negatives of the internal player throughout the year, but has yet to fully see those of the new player.

Which all points back to the question of what is more important to the coach, developing strong players from within for the ling term or winning tomorrow at any cost. And we know that answer to that one in almost all cases in this area.


Nobody develops. They just continue to look for the diamond. They look for new blood every year. Even the Clubs that swear they develop players are guilty of this.

When they drop kids down it is not to develop them there. It's to forget about them while they train their 12 elite players. But--if those guys/gals don't bring home enough Medals--they are searching high and low for that player they think will be the key to their success.

You can't develop kids when you are constantly getting rid of them. And, Clubs love to snag a player from a rival Club.


Any club that focuses on development of younger players and prioritizes each players growth and playing time over winning gets abandoned by parents chasing medals and trophies!
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 21:05     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:New to travel soccer and honestly wondering why tryouts for clubs are mid season? Is there a reason for this? It seems like it would make more sense for them to be early June.


Tryouts have moved earlier and earlier over time as clubs race to lock in their players before everyone else. Some are scared to go first, if they are not first choice clubs, but almost no one wants to be last.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 20:22     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:The lack of transparency for making top teams is flat unfair to some families. My kid is happy where they are, which is not too team; but we learned a lot this year about the ins and outs of how utterly rigged/preselected players are for every single club's top team. I say it's unfair not because the kids who make it aren't good. It's unfair because they parents know who to speak to and where to be and when in the winter months before tryouts while 90% of parents do not. A very few get lucky; most do not. Anytime who thinks they got lucky most likely just didn't realize they were of the right person's radar at the right time by sheer dumb luck.


Or maybe the majority of players deserved to be there?
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 17:45     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
The lack of transparency for making top teams is flat unfair to some families. My kid is happy where they are, which is not too team; but we learned a lot this year about the ins and outs of how utterly rigged/preselected players are for every single club's top team. I say it's unfair not because the kids who make it aren't good. It's unfair because they parents know who to speak to and where to be and when in the winter months before tryouts while 90% of parents do not. A very few get lucky; most do not. Anytime who thinks they got lucky most likely just didn't realize they were of the right person's radar at the right time by sheer dumb luck.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 17:43     Subject: Re:Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Here is what annoyed me

#1- priority given to new players vs current players-even if those players coming from B teams at other clubs
#2 - head coach did not show up to tryouts even though new to age group and unfamiliar with each player
#3 - randomness of the decisions made (promoting untested players, bumping proven performers)
#4–lack of transparency...appreciate the clubs who share the final roster to avoid drama, share coaching lineup in advance so you know what you are signing up for and don’t try to sweep relevant changes under the rug (roster size, coaching changes, policies, league changes)


The ranking at another Club means shit. Some of those B team players got screwed over at their Club and have A team talent. That’s why they are over at your Club now.

If they are the same quality, but play goalie too or have some other needed talent I get it.

I agree with #2-4 and #1 conditionally as I stated. But, you are just as bad as the Clubs that ask potentially new players for their current team rank—A, B, C at registration and use it to guide where they put them at tryouts or place on their teams. Look at players as if there are no labels. It’s how you are currently playing ultimately and it could be that their Club never gave their players another look and relied on somebody else’s opinion instead of forming their own. The same thing you are complaining about. A lot of great players are lost in the system that way.


This is a good point. Many B team players are leaving their current club because they're actually BETTER than many of their current club's A team players but have been kept on B because of politics or because the B team needs a striker or whatever.
This is definitely the case for many who just left B at our club.


You also have to look at the coaches. Many times they stay with an age group too long and keep their biases about players. Best to mix things up every two years.


Our club switches coaches every two to three years and I never understood why, thanks for the explanation.


This is good. Travel soccer is such an awesome side gig you will find coaches playing real politics to stay in their perch well past due date. You have found a solid club there!
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 17:43     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Every season there is always movement of players from one club to the next. Clubs need time to let this shake out and still have time to hold additional ID sessions for the players who missed tryouts or not happy with where they ended up.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 17:09     Subject: Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
New to travel soccer and honestly wondering why tryouts for clubs are mid season? Is there a reason for this? It seems like it would make more sense for them to be early June.
Anonymous
Post 05/31/2024 15:23     Subject: Re:Travel Soccer Tryout Results - what annoyed you this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Here is what annoyed me

#1- priority given to new players vs current players-even if those players coming from B teams at other clubs
#2 - head coach did not show up to tryouts even though new to age group and unfamiliar with each player
#3 - randomness of the decisions made (promoting untested players, bumping proven performers)
#4–lack of transparency...appreciate the clubs who share the final roster to avoid drama, share coaching lineup in advance so you know what you are signing up for and don’t try to sweep relevant changes under the rug (roster size, coaching changes, policies, league changes)


The ranking at another Club means shit. Some of those B team players got screwed over at their Club and have A team talent. That’s why they are over at your Club now.

If they are the same quality, but play goalie too or have some other needed talent I get it.

I agree with #2-4 and #1 conditionally as I stated. But, you are just as bad as the Clubs that ask potentially new players for their current team rank—A, B, C at registration and use it to guide where they put them at tryouts or place on their teams. Look at players as if there are no labels. It’s how you are currently playing ultimately and it could be that their Club never gave their players another look and relied on somebody else’s opinion instead of forming their own. The same thing you are complaining about. A lot of great players are lost in the system that way.


This is a good point. Many B team players are leaving their current club because they're actually BETTER than many of their current club's A team players but have been kept on B because of politics or because the B team needs a striker or whatever.
This is definitely the case for many who just left B at our club.


You also have to look at the coaches. Many times they stay with an age group too long and keep their biases about players. Best to mix things up every two years.


Our club switches coaches every two to three years and I never understood why, thanks for the explanation.


You’re welcome!