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Anonymous wrote:I’ll be surprised if VDA doesn’t win titles in 1 or 2 age groups given the amount of talent they have consolidated. Expectations are high.

Well, well where is your local champion? Even after pulling many players from other clubs with cheap propaganda, 0 VDA teams made to Finals.

One team in the final four. One team in the final eight. One team in the 16.

Sounds like a pretty good year to me. Let’s keep the cheap propaganda rolling.

The funny thing is how many parents think getting to the final 4, 8, or 16 is meaningful for their daughter getting recruited or a scholarship. That’s why the clubs will promote the hell out of it on social.

Tell the parent of the kid who traveled all the way to SD and Richmond just to show up on the pic and social media but who didn’t actually play.

Exactly, playoffs attracts recruiters. Finals doesnt attract that many recruiters. If theres only 8 teams there's just not much reason for them to go. Especially right after playoffs.

The only thing that matters is national champion, maybe runner up, and ranking. Everyone else is speaking to recruiters the same way.

It’s an expensive way for parents to make clubs look good. Honesty the more I think about it clubs should be funding teams travel expenses as a thank you for making it to finals.

From a recruiting perspective, being national champion, runner up, and certainly not ranking matter. What matters is how you market yourself and play when they are watching. If a college coach thinks you are good and can fill a need on the team, he/she isn’t going to choose or not choose you based on team rank or how far the team made it in playoffs. Your play on the field, on film, attitude, grades, interactions will all be assessed but they do not care about the team’s results. There are plenty of showcase opportunities in ECNL throughout the year for a good player to get enough looks. And no coach is going to overlook a player who doesn’t impress them just because they are on a winning team.

Try this...

In 2 weeks ask someone who's into youth soccer what team was the runner up in xyz age in abc league.

Now ask them who are the top ranked teams in an age group.

9x out of 10 and the tenth being a parent with a kid on the runner up team nobody will remember who the runner up is. But I bet most parents that are into youth soccer can name the highest ranked teams. Coaches and recruiters are the same way. Events like playoffs and finals are fine but ranking has a more long lasting impression.

So you are telling us college coaches can name the highest ranked youth teams? Which age groups? Even U13-15? I call BS. What they can tell you is which are the best clubs which is part track record, part relationships, and part branding.

The ranking app is just as free for recruiters and coaches as it is for you.

Yes, guaranteed that they're looking at it. Just like theyre looking at multiple other sources.

How exactly does a college recruiter make use of the team’s ranking when evaluating players? A college will have dozens of players on their board. You really think they consider the team ranking when deciding which players to make offers to or scholarship amounts?

“I really like this player and think they will be a great fit but their team is ranked lower so we’ll take the other player who doesn’t start but their team made it to the final 4 at U15”

Here's how a recruiter or coach makes use of the ranking app. A player contacts them about being a part of their team from a club theyre not that familiar with. First thing they'll do is checkout the club and team ranking to get a feel for if the player is worth spending time on.

Seems pretty logical to me.

Seems logical unless you actually know how recruiting works. First of all, college coaches will not be unfamiliar with any club that is in ECNL. Second, when a player contacts them they should be including film. Coach will watch the film and decide if something stands out. If so then they will watch them live.

Ranking tells them nothing about the player. Maybe they ride the bench.

Next thing you’ll say is college coaches are impressed by the talent ID accolades on the player bio 😂

Sure, things like videos and social media are helpful. But these are secondary to overall teams level of play. This is what the ranking app provides. A general understanding that XYZ player can play at a certain speed/level of play. Argue all you want it doesnt matter. Good luck with the social media campaign.

Good luck getting recruited from a ranking.

If your kids team could score a few more goals their ranking would increase.

The team scoring more goals and boosting the team ranking will not help your kid get recruited unless your kid is helping to make the goals happen. Standing out individually is what gets you recruited.

Ranking is how recruiters judge a team and the overall level they play at. Sorry but its true.

I know you have a lot invested in your kid's team ranking. Maybe your club/coach has been hyping it as important. Maybe you've been listening to other parents. Maybe you have been paying too much attention to winning since your kid was little and cannot fathom how little it means to recruiters. Recruiters consider any team that makes Champions league high level, and for that matter, just about any team playing in ECNL even if they are not in playoffs is high level enough for them. Sorry, but the wins and rankings you have been chasing since U8 do not mean anything at U16.

First thing a college coach does when a player reaches out showing interest is look at their teams ranking if they dont already know the club. It’s a bigger world than just the 3-4 top GA/ECNL clubs in your area.

Coaches already know the vast majority of clubs in ECNL and GA so as you say no need to look up their rankings. But let’s assume you are right and they first look up the ranking. The second thing they do is watch the first minute of the players highlight video. At that point the ranking means nothing and you better have something that stands out.

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Anonymous wrote:I’ll be surprised if VDA doesn’t win titles in 1 or 2 age groups given the amount of talent they have consolidated. Expectations are high.

Well, well where is your local champion? Even after pulling many players from other clubs with cheap propaganda, 0 VDA teams made to Finals.

One team in the final four. One team in the final eight. One team in the 16.

Sounds like a pretty good year to me. Let’s keep the cheap propaganda rolling.

The funny thing is how many parents think getting to the final 4, 8, or 16 is meaningful for their daughter getting recruited or a scholarship. That’s why the clubs will promote the hell out of it on social.

Tell the parent of the kid who traveled all the way to SD and Richmond just to show up on the pic and social media but who didn’t actually play.

Exactly, playoffs attracts recruiters. Finals doesnt attract that many recruiters. If theres only 8 teams there's just not much reason for them to go. Especially right after playoffs.

The only thing that matters is national champion, maybe runner up, and ranking. Everyone else is speaking to recruiters the same way.

It’s an expensive way for parents to make clubs look good. Honesty the more I think about it clubs should be funding teams travel expenses as a thank you for making it to finals.

From a recruiting perspective, being national champion, runner up, and certainly not ranking matter. What matters is how you market yourself and play when they are watching. If a college coach thinks you are good and can fill a need on the team, he/she isn’t going to choose or not choose you based on team rank or how far the team made it in playoffs. Your play on the field, on film, attitude, grades, interactions will all be assessed but they do not care about the team’s results. There are plenty of showcase opportunities in ECNL throughout the year for a good player to get enough looks. And no coach is going to overlook a player who doesn’t impress them just because they are on a winning team.

Try this...

In 2 weeks ask someone who's into youth soccer what team was the runner up in xyz age in abc league.

Now ask them who are the top ranked teams in an age group.

9x out of 10 and the tenth being a parent with a kid on the runner up team nobody will remember who the runner up is. But I bet most parents that are into youth soccer can name the highest ranked teams. Coaches and recruiters are the same way. Events like playoffs and finals are fine but ranking has a more long lasting impression.

So you are telling us college coaches can name the highest ranked youth teams? Which age groups? Even U13-15? I call BS. What they can tell you is which are the best clubs which is part track record, part relationships, and part branding.

The ranking app is just as free for recruiters and coaches as it is for you.

Yes, guaranteed that they're looking at it. Just like theyre looking at multiple other sources.

How exactly does a college recruiter make use of the team’s ranking when evaluating players? A college will have dozens of players on their board. You really think they consider the team ranking when deciding which players to make offers to or scholarship amounts?

“I really like this player and think they will be a great fit but their team is ranked lower so we’ll take the other player who doesn’t start but their team made it to the final 4 at U15”

Here's how a recruiter or coach makes use of the ranking app. A player contacts them about being a part of their team from a club theyre not that familiar with. First thing they'll do is checkout the club and team ranking to get a feel for if the player is worth spending time on.

Seems pretty logical to me.

Seems logical unless you actually know how recruiting works. First of all, college coaches will not be unfamiliar with any club that is in ECNL. Second, when a player contacts them they should be including film. Coach will watch the film and decide if something stands out. If so then they will watch them live.

Ranking tells them nothing about the player. Maybe they ride the bench.

Next thing you’ll say is college coaches are impressed by the talent ID accolades on the player bio 😂

Sure, things like videos and social media are helpful. But these are secondary to overall teams level of play. This is what the ranking app provides. A general understanding that XYZ player can play at a certain speed/level of play. Argue all you want it doesnt matter. Good luck with the social media campaign.

Good luck getting recruited from a ranking.

If your kids team could score a few more goals their ranking would increase.

The team scoring more goals and boosting the team ranking will not help your kid get recruited unless your kid is helping to make the goals happen. Standing out individually is what gets you recruited.

Ranking is how recruiters judge a team and the overall level they play at. Sorry but its true.

I know you have a lot invested in your kid's team ranking. Maybe your club/coach has been hyping it as important. Maybe you've been listening to other parents. Maybe you have been paying too much attention to winning since your kid was little and cannot fathom how little it means to recruiters. Recruiters consider any team that makes Champions league high level, and for that matter, just about any team playing in ECNL even if they are not in playoffs is high level enough for them. Sorry, but the wins and rankings you have been chasing since U8 do not mean anything at U16.

First thing a college coach does when a player reaches out showing interest is look at their teams ranking if they dont already know the club. It’s a bigger world than just the 3-4 top GA/ECNL clubs in your area.