Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of whether I go or stay, that's irrelevant. The comment was that WS loses consistently across multiple teams by wide margins in the name of development, whereas FCV and Arlington win because they don't care about development. They just care about winning. That's a cop out. They win because they have a deeper talent pool *and* they develop.

It does matter, because if your DD was so exceptional that she should not be playing with play-ups then she would be on a FCV roster right now.

Spirit is a start-up and in general their older groups will never catch the head start that FCV had due to established ECNL rosters. You went to Spirit to get a foot in the door at a DA and you took advantage of the watered down player pool that got your kid on a roster in the first place.

Worry more about what your DD needs to do to improve and stop worrying about the roster. Also, if you want to strengthen the roster and bring in stronger players a good place to start is stop posting all your complaints here. You can't complain about talent not coming when all you do is run the club down on a public forum. All you are doing is pissing in your own drinking water.

Anonymous wrote:Playing up has become some sort of fetish in recent years. Some parents seem to think it means their kid has more talent if they can and less if they can't. They take it as a sign of talent.

NYC FC has a GNT U15 (rising U16) team on their team. And do you know where she plays? In her own age group, every year. FCV has one too. Do you know where she plays? In her own age group. RU has a GNT U14 (rising U15). Do you know where she plays? Yep, her own age group. Clearly they have and continue to get good development.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of whether I go or stay, that's irrelevant. The comment was that WS loses consistently across multiple teams by wide margins in the name of development, whereas FCV and Arlington win because they don't care about development. They just care about winning. That's a cop out. They win because they have a deeper talent pool *and* they develop.

It does matter, because if your DD was so exceptional that she should not be playing with play-ups then she would be on a FCV roster right now.

Spirit is a start-up and in general their older groups will never catch the head start that FCV had due to established ECNL rosters. You went to Spirit to get a foot in the door at a DA and you took advantage of the watered down player pool that got your kid on a roster in the first place.

Worry more about what your DD needs to do to improve and stop worrying about the roster. Also, if you want to strengthen the roster and bring in stronger players a good place to start is stop posting all your complaints here. You can't complain about talent not coming when all you do is run the club down on a public forum. All you are doing is pissing in your own drinking water.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have yet to hear exactly how the politics works?

Same way it does everywhere, with the added bonus that Spirit isn't established in the area yet so the club doesn't have a player base to push back on the parents. Parents threaten to bring their girls to other clubs if Suzy doesn't play up. Spirit as an organization is trying to keep some stronger players in the club by appeasing 'my Suzy should be playing up' parents by playing Suzy up. Spirit doesn't have girls waiting in the wings if the stronger players go the way FCV does. I think it's fair to say that the girls who are playing up are strong players, but some of them are playing up not because the club things it's right for their development but because the parents are pushing it and the club isn't in a player resources place where they can easily push back.

Nailed it.

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of whether I go or stay, that's irrelevant. The comment was that WS loses consistently across multiple teams by wide margins in the name of development, whereas FCV and Arlington win because they don't care about development. They just care about winning. That's a cop out. They win because they have a deeper talent pool *and* they develop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have yet to hear exactly how the politics works?

Same way it does everywhere, with the added bonus that Spirit isn't established in the area yet so the club doesn't have a player base to push back on the parents. Parents threaten to bring their girls to other clubs if Suzy doesn't play up. Spirit as an organization is trying to keep some stronger players in the club by appeasing 'my Suzy should be playing up' parents by playing Suzy up. Spirit doesn't have girls waiting in the wings if the stronger players go the way FCV does. I think it's fair to say that the girls who are playing up are strong players, but some of them are playing up not because the club things it's right for their development but because the parents are pushing it and the club isn't in a player resources place where they can easily push back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is more simple than that. WS-VA is focused on player development more than winning. Difference between a pro club and a club whose entire existence depends on recruiting players and winning games.

When a player playing up can't trap the ball, can't complete a pass and is constantly falling down in a game, that is not development. It is actually hurting the development of the rest of the team who has to pick up their slack.

+1. Saying that this is all in the name of development is a cop out. If WS-VA had quaiity players to fill every age group roster out properly and if it didn't cave to parents pushing to have their kids train and play up, they'd roster normally like every other DA.

Look across the country at DAs and ECNLs alike, boys and girls, you never see rostering like this unless they have oversized rosters, have to back fill roster gaps with younger players or something similar.

Show that these players are just too good to play in their age group first. Show me a forward who scores relentlessly game after game in her own age group. Not one who can't score while playing up. Show me a midfielder who dominates in her own age group, not one who plays a team of 03s (Saturday) and can't touch the ball for 60+ minutes. Show me a player who isn't challenged playing 2 years up. Then I will say, yeah, she needs to be moved to 3 years up.

Don't show me a roster of 25, and then claim that development required a player move up. Development is challenging them, not moving them so far up they disappear. That's called the Peter principle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The answer is more simple than that. WS-VA is focused on player development more than winning. Difference between a pro club and a club whose entire existence depends on recruiting players and winning games.

When a player playing up can't trap the ball, can't complete a pass and is constantly falling down in a game, that is not development. It is actually hurting the development of the rest of the team who has to pick up their slack.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still have yet to hear exactly how the politics works?

Same way it does everywhere, with the added bonus that Spirit isn't established in the area yet so the club doesn't have a player base to push back on the parents. Parents threaten to bring their girls to other clubs if Suzy doesn't play up. Spirit as an organization is trying to keep some stronger players in the club by appeasing 'my Suzy should be playing up' parents by playing Suzy up. Spirit doesn't have girls waiting in the wings if the stronger players go the way FCV does. I think it's fair to say that the girls who are playing up are strong players, but some of them are playing up not because the club things it's right for their development but because the parents are pushing it and the club isn't in a player resources place where they can easily push back.

Anonymous wrote:The answer is more simple than that. WS-VA is focused on player development more than winning. Difference between a pro club and a club whose entire existence depends on recruiting players and winning games.

Anonymous wrote:I still have yet to hear exactly how the politics works?