Some players should move between fields at tryouts. Players nobody knows should probably start together and then be moved to appropriate fields. I know at our club, coaches get together after tryouts end and discuss the kids. How do I know? I've heard them say things like "lets have a zoom at 9:00" or name a local restaurant where they'll meet for dinner and go through the lists. I assume that is normal, everyone takes his or her own notes and then they sort the kids out later.

The generalities of tryouts here without specific club names make this thread impossible to provide insight. Name your club. I can tell you at Potomac and Bethesda, the actual "coach" to be was not there, they had other coaches and the age director never saw many of the players within his own club prior

Anonymous wrote: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.

This. We went to three different IDs prior to tryouts, two asked by the club after signing up for tryouts. It's all for show and the off chance some insanely good kid shows up out of no where.

And to the people claiming outsiders just show up and make top team off of tryouts, they're woefully ignorant to the fact that those kids 100% were pre-selected to be watched at the tryouts.