You all seem to forget that you're not their age. HS soccer is about playing with friends, so as much as the soccer may not be good, it's the friendships. Especially when your kids have gone to school since elementary school and never had a chance to play with them.

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm...interesting discussion.

My son played club soccer (classic level in VA) and also HS soccer. His HS soccer experience was really disappointing due to the coach's ineptitude. Just poor play, organization on the field, favoritism with time, etc.

He had a couple of friends on the local boys ECNL team who wanted to play their senior year and didn't last the entire season because it was so bad. One is playing at a Sun Belt D1 program now and the other at a local DIII school as freshman in college.

There are some HS boys programs locally here that are better, but it's still not great.

My daughter, freshman ECNL player, choose not to play HS - her ECNL club field a combined "Super Cup" team and played other local girls ECNL clubs and even a few younger ECNL boys squads. Much better experience compared to public HS girls soccer for her.

Now, there are a few privates that have good coaching and good squads overall, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

This was both my sons' experience at a private. Many kids in this area have been playing for 10 years by the time they get to HS. Many at very top clubs with International coaches and former International national academy and pro players. They are playing almost every day of the week. To step away from that and onto a high school field, where in my kids' private conference you have some very tiny schools that can only field a team if they recruit hockey players or other kids that barely play soccer and you get 15-0 wins and tackles that are season-ending by kids that don't know the proper way to slide tackle, etc.

It's really hard to play at that level and then play with kids that have zero concept. When you really love the sport--bush league is really not your thing.

Hmmm...interesting discussion.

My son played club soccer (classic level in VA) and also HS soccer. His HS soccer experience was really disappointing due to the coach's ineptitude. Just poor play, organization on the field, favoritism with time, etc.

He had a couple of friends on the local boys ECNL team who wanted to play their senior year and didn't last the entire season because it was so bad. One is playing at a Sun Belt D1 program now and the other at a local DIII school as freshman in college.

There are some HS boys programs locally here that are better, but it's still not great.

My daughter, freshman ECNL player, choose not to play HS - her ECNL club field a combined "Super Cup" team and played other local girls ECNL clubs and even a few younger ECNL boys squads. Much better experience compared to public HS girls soccer for her.

Now, there are a few privates that have good coaching and good squads overall, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

I’m convinced people here just copy each other with the whole high school soccer is poor quality without even attending a game.

If I went with what people said in this forum I would not have attended last nights game and been stunned at the high level.

I also think there are people here whose kids attend horrible soccer playing high schools. Probably private and have this idea that this is what it’s like.

Well it’s not. I really recommend watching the state tournament they have going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is nonsense. 150 boys try out for our large public's two soccer teams.

we had 75 freshman boys try out for our 1 team

Same in DS private school. The kids who didn’t make the cut were not soccer newbies either and had travel soccer backgrounds (altho not as long as those who had made the team).

And we had non-club kids make it over high-level players. Your point?

The number of players tells you nothing. Quantity does not equal quality. Plenty of kids that never played soccer seriously also come out.

Why are you so angry? I just shared what it was like at DS school.

Perhaps the point is that it’s competitive - lots of kids apply.

At DS school, most who made the the team are club players who’ve played a while which is also not reflective of skill since there are so many diff levels of travel soccer. And for sure, a few players didn’t make it who we thought are shoeins.

I think DS have the skills to play good soccer but it is abt winning in HS and my goodness, there is some ugly soccer played. Just pure brute force some of these games.

Hate to tell you but ALL high school (except football) are recreational. That’s the whole point! It’s for fun with your classmates. It’s not a professional league, coaches are barely paid. It’s about playing rival schools with/against your friends. There is no problem with HS sports. Only problem is some parents think they should be something else.

Anonymous wrote:HS soccer is a bigger deal amongst the girls. ECNL works the league around HS play. Granted it is not great soccer but there are club coaches that are HS coaches and recruit into the private schools. The boys side is worse off as the DA’s old rules seem to linger into MLS. For the girls it’s a huge leadership opportunity coming into HS. My daughter had a great experience. My son played DA so no HS sports for him back then. You need to balance the workload if your kids are doing double duty….club and HS at the same time. It can be extremely rewarding when done right.

Agree. Yes on boys side you get MLSNext players skirting the rules to play HS. These are generally not the best MLSNxt players doing this. The ones that are do not play HS. They are training hard 4 nights a week year round with MLSNxt and have many double headers. Those really good players don’t risk injury and overuse or want to miss “the real” games and practices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is nonsense. 150 boys try out for our large public's two soccer teams.

we had 75 freshman boys try out for our 1 team

Same in DS private school. The kids who didn’t make the cut were not soccer newbies either and had travel soccer backgrounds (altho not as long as those who had made the team).

And we had non-club kids make it over high-level players. Your point?

The number of players tells you nothing. Quantity does not equal quality. Plenty of kids that never played soccer seriously also come out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

What are you looking at?

I saw last night a game between Whitman and Churchill where every single player out there was playing high club soccer. MLS Next, ECNL, E64, EDP regular.

They all moved the ball around, they all had technical skills.

The entire rosters in both teams were almost all seniors and juniors.

The JVs are stacked too. If you see a varsity team with only one or no freshmen and maybe one or two sophomores - and all of those are MLS Next or ECNL (not ECNL-RL!), then you know you are facing a great team.

If varsity has like 5+ underclassman playing regular travel (Bethesda C or Potomac B or lower), they are just trying to build for next year or the year after that (or just don’t know what they are doing)

No team is winning a state championship with underclassmen. You need size, strength, and speed of seniors to win. Seen too many freshmen and sophomores getting career ending injuries playing on varsity. It’s just rough sometimes and they don’t have the size or stength.

It's way more than size.

You are clueless

Man I’m old school but after watching that game you need size (not height) but you need to beef up a bit and work on athletic part as well. It was technical but very physical. I saw some viscous tackles out there where if the guy had been some lightweight kid he would have been broken in half

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is nonsense. 150 boys try out for our large public's two soccer teams.

we had 75 freshman boys try out for our 1 team

Same in DS private school. The kids who didn’t make the cut were not soccer newbies either and had travel soccer backgrounds (altho not as long as those who had made the team).

I've seen players make the team at private schools after parents buy a new clubhouse for the school.

I've also seen parents get coaching jobs at public schools while their kids attends and quit when they graduate.

Both highlight that most HS sports are BS. Football and Basketball kind of matter but 80-90% of being good in either sport is size and height.

I've seen girls parents buy their way onto the bottom of Duke, UVA and UCLA rosters that have zero business trying to play there. This is nothing new around the DMV and if you have the access/influene why not. Just don't brag about and rub it in everyone's face which unfortunately happens with social media these days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought MLS next couldn't play in high school soccer

Shhh don’t tell anyone!

Exemptions are allowed and freely given, especially for private school kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is nonsense. 150 boys try out for our large public's two soccer teams.

we had 75 freshman boys try out for our 1 team

Same in DS private school. The kids who didn’t make the cut were not soccer newbies either and had travel soccer backgrounds (altho not as long as those who had made the team).

I've seen players make the team at private schools after parents buy a new clubhouse for the school.

I've also seen parents get coaching jobs at public schools while their kids attends and quit when they graduate.

Both highlight that most HS sports are BS. Football and Basketball kind of matter but 80-90% of being good in either sport is size and height.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is nonsense. 150 boys try out for our large public's two soccer teams.

we had 75 freshman boys try out for our 1 team

Same in DS private school. The kids who didn’t make the cut were not soccer newbies either and had travel soccer backgrounds (altho not as long as those who had made the team).

Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

Where is this? In Montgomery County MD, HS soccer has a large population and depending on schools public or private, even a club player will not make the team.

Of course I can’t say about all the schools, two private school coaches told me at the Open House this fall that my son is not guaranteed to make the team. One other school said they have a Freshman team separate from JV/Varsity but seems competitive overall…

And yes I know HS soccer is more for fun and not for college recruits but still!

Anonymous wrote:It’s not cheating btw. It’s allowed, even encouraged, in the private schools.

Holding your kid back so they can be a year older in sports but playing against kids a year younger is 100% cheating.

You're trying to normalize cheating.