Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 16:27     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Did anyone see that Husel U19 won a tournament last night in Pennsylvania at United Sports and their last game finished at 11 pm? They played 3 no name teams, giving up zero goals, then replayed a team they had already beaten in the finals. Sounds like they just went to get an easy win and show off some hardware on Instagram. Is that a good enough reason to have to drive home 3 hours in the middle of the night? Absolutely not!


Yea - they did the same thing back in December - traveled to Philly to play some weak teams. Some times clubs aren’t looking to get better but to get some Instagram worthy posts. If they cared about being challenged or preparing correctly for NITS, they would go play at the WC Eagles training facility (also in PA - haha.) But they don’t because those weekend tournaments don’t come with medals but with very tough competition.


WC Eagles is an additional hour away from northern VA so it could have been a distance/travel decision to go to united sports. PA usually has some good competition so it must have been the pool they were placed in which they don't have any control over. tournament directors for united sports' indoor series are responsible for pool placement. Teams don't know the schedule or when the games are until the week of the tournament so they did not choose to play at 11pm. As for instagram...its not that serious, every club has one, every club posts about their winnings. I don't see the difference.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 16:15     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Again, not a Husel family but I still don’t see why other parents would be upset at Husel for this. If this approach is known to be uniquely super effective and your club isn’t leveraging it, maybe your own club’s approach is the problem?

And…we’ve seen weeks where that tournament series had exceptional teams from high quality clubs where half or more of the girls on the team were already D1 commits. Husel doesn’t know who will be there in their week. They don’t control whether it is set up to be crossover play for their pool on their week or not. Criticizing them for happening to choose a week when the configuration and competition seemed less challenging feels like a stretch.


Repeat Post: Some times clubs aren’t looking to get better but to get some Instagram worthy posts. If they cared about being challenged or preparing correctly for NITS, they would go play at the WC Eagles training facility (also in PA - haha.) But they don’t because those weekend tournaments don’t come with medals but with very tough competition.



I have spent many weekends watching my daughter play at WC. Yes, there are some amazing clubs and teams that play there, but there are other places you can go to find good competition. A down side of only going to WC is that you tend to see only a small number of clubs. It’s nice to play elsewhere to change it up. I’d love for all the local teams to play locally as that would improve all the local teams.


Agreed. Don't have to go to WC Eagles to get good competition. I think there are enough northern VA/southern MD teams to have a good competitive local tournament weekend. Less travel time and there are definitely facilities that are equipped to host. Dulles sportsplex, fairfax sportsplex, GMU field house, Rockville etc. Would love to see it someday.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 16:09     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:Did anyone see that Husel U19 won a tournament last night in Pennsylvania at United Sports and their last game finished at 11 pm? They played 3 no name teams, giving up zero goals, then replayed a team they had already beaten in the finals. Sounds like they just went to get an easy win and show off some hardware on Instagram. Is that a good enough reason to have to drive home 3 hours in the middle of the night? Absolutely not!


This comment is so off the mark. this tournament day was part of a larger tournament series that united sports/premier sticks hosts every weekend in the winter. Schedules are not released until the week of the tournament and there is no prior knowledge of who the competition will be nor what time the games are. young teams play in the morning and older teams at night. This exact timing happened at Spooky Nook as well. this was honestly probably their best bet for good competition other than maybe any MD tournaments that weekend? I know of a D3 school in south central VA that hosted a tournament the weekend before and competition was abysmal so it seemed like a decent tournament pick. Lots of potential PA, Jersey, MD teams to play. VA beach may have had a tournament that weekend but that is actually a longer drive. 3.5 hours (more with traffic) rather than 2 hrs 15 min for Northern VA folks.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 15:54     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Again, not a Husel family but I still don’t see why other parents would be upset at Husel for this. If this approach is known to be uniquely super effective and your club isn’t leveraging it, maybe your own club’s approach is the problem?

And…we’ve seen weeks where that tournament series had exceptional teams from high quality clubs where half or more of the girls on the team were already D1 commits. Husel doesn’t know who will be there in their week. They don’t control whether it is set up to be crossover play for their pool on their week or not. Criticizing them for happening to choose a week when the configuration and competition seemed less challenging feels like a stretch.


Repeat Post: Some times clubs aren’t looking to get better but to get some Instagram worthy posts. If they cared about being challenged or preparing correctly for NITS, they would go play at the WC Eagles training facility (also in PA - haha.) But they don’t because those weekend tournaments don’t come with medals but with very tough competition.



I have spent many weekends watching my daughter play at WC. Yes, there are some amazing clubs and teams that play there, but there are other places you can go to find good competition. A down side of only going to WC is that you tend to see only a small number of clubs. It’s nice to play elsewhere to change it up. I’d love for all the local teams to play locally as that would improve all the local teams.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 15:46     Subject: Re:Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Just looked up the pools for u14 NITs this weekend. NL blue is playing in the advanced level (pool A, I assume these are the top teams?), while Husel is in the intermediate pool along with Hammers, Wolves, Metro, etc... Those playing in the intermediate pools have a better chance of bringing home a metal especially if they are in one of the lower pools.

Does anyone know how the levels/pools are determined for NITs? Is it the coaches or past performance?


Each club submits their own evaluation on placement level. Then USAFH snakes the pools


Which makes it easy for a club to manipulate which pool they end up in.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 15:24     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Some clubs try to make themselves appear stronger than they are by boasting about wins, club ranking etc. New families don’t know this, so while it is good marketing, it is deceptive marketing. People who have been around know what is happening.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 15:06     Subject: Re:Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Just looked up the pools for u14 NITs this weekend. NL blue is playing in the advanced level (pool A, I assume these are the top teams?), while Husel is in the intermediate pool along with Hammers, Wolves, Metro, etc... Those playing in the intermediate pools have a better chance of bringing home a metal especially if they are in one of the lower pools.

Does anyone know how the levels/pools are determined for NITs? Is it the coaches or past performance?


Each club submits their own evaluation on placement level. Then USAFH snakes the pools


For some weaker clubs playing in less competitive tournaments like Baltimore Bash and being placed in a lower pool at NITs is not a bad thing. If they can win it builds up confidence in the players and coaches and brings some good, well-needed publicity to the club. For well established and stronger clubs, the competitive play in the higher pools is welcome. Each club’s priorities are different
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 14:30     Subject: Re:Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:Just looked up the pools for u14 NITs this weekend. NL blue is playing in the advanced level (pool A, I assume these are the top teams?), while Husel is in the intermediate pool along with Hammers, Wolves, Metro, etc... Those playing in the intermediate pools have a better chance of bringing home a metal especially if they are in one of the lower pools.

Does anyone know how the levels/pools are determined for NITs? Is it the coaches or past performance?


Each club submits their own evaluation on placement level. Then USAFH snakes the pools
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 13:44     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:So in short, unless you play a tournament at WC Eagles it should not be posted on social media or included in your individual stats.

I seriously cannot think of any club in the DMV that follows this.


Just pointing out what Husel does, not the other DMV clubs. In general, other DMV clubs’ Instagram posts are less fake.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 13:40     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:So in short, unless you play a tournament at WC Eagles it should not be posted on social media or included in your individual stats.

I seriously cannot think of any club in the DMV that follows this.


I don't know that I agree that it shouldn't be posted if it's not the WC tournaments, I agree those are the strongest ones outside NIT. And if you're going to post, have SOME awareness of the difficulty of the tournament. Some of those indoor tourneys are cakewalks, as the other PPs note. So it's a bad look to broadcast it like you won the Olympics or something.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 12:55     Subject: Re:Field hockey clubs feedback
Just looked up the pools for u14 NITs this weekend. NL blue is playing in the advanced level (pool A, I assume these are the top teams?), while Husel is in the intermediate pool along with Hammers, Wolves, Metro, etc... Those playing in the intermediate pools have a better chance of bringing home a metal especially if they are in one of the lower pools.

Does anyone know how the levels/pools are determined for NITs? Is it the coaches or past performance?
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 12:55     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
So in short, unless you play a tournament at WC Eagles it should not be posted on social media or included in your individual stats.

I seriously cannot think of any club in the DMV that follows this.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 11:53     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:Again, not a Husel family but I still don’t see why other parents would be upset at Husel for this. If this approach is known to be uniquely super effective and your club isn’t leveraging it, maybe your own club’s approach is the problem?

And…we’ve seen weeks where that tournament series had exceptional teams from high quality clubs where half or more of the girls on the team were already D1 commits. Husel doesn’t know who will be there in their week. They don’t control whether it is set up to be crossover play for their pool on their week or not. Criticizing them for happening to choose a week when the configuration and competition seemed less challenging feels like a stretch.


Repeat Post: Some times clubs aren’t looking to get better but to get some Instagram worthy posts. If they cared about being challenged or preparing correctly for NITS, they would go play at the WC Eagles training facility (also in PA - haha.) But they don’t because those weekend tournaments don’t come with medals but with very tough competition.

Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 11:45     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Again, not a Husel family but I still don’t see why other parents would be upset at Husel for this. If this approach is known to be uniquely super effective and your club isn’t leveraging it, maybe your own club’s approach is the problem?

And…we’ve seen weeks where that tournament series had exceptional teams from high quality clubs where half or more of the girls on the team were already D1 commits. Husel doesn’t know who will be there in their week. They don’t control whether it is set up to be crossover play for their pool on their week or not. Criticizing them for happening to choose a week when the configuration and competition seemed less challenging feels like a stretch.
Anonymous
Post 02/13/2024 11:33     Subject: Field hockey clubs feedback
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Uh…what? Why does this matter even a tiny bit? I’m not a Husel parent but I literally cannot think of one reason why it would bother me if a team played a game out of town at 11 at night and then said nice things about the girls that play for them on social media.


I think the poster is saying Husel is playing teams they know they can beat for easy wins so they can post about winning. And pointing out that they drove to PA and played late at night against lower level teams as if that makes it not worth the drive at 11pm. Its about creating the illusion you are better than you are.


You don’t see Metro or Next Level going to rinky dink tournaments to “win” useless medals. That’s definitely a Husel thing - been doing it for years. I agree it’s creating an illusion that their club teams are better than they actually are at every age level. Instagram can be a great recruitment tool for those that don’t see through the facade!


Wouldn’t good recruiting coaches know better? You’re an anonymous parent on the internet and you were able to easily look up this info. Who cares!


You know how many emails coaches receive and kids trying for spots on teams? They don't know everything. (I'll also say that I find how some of these coaches treat recruits -not being transparent and ghosting them after emails/calling/watching games for months, is pretty appalling. Not all but many. So it's not always clear what they know, want, etc. It's been a pretty appalling process.)