Hi,
Do you have any thoughts on DC Youth Futbol Club?

DC Stoddert U9/U10 - I only know a few things about the club firsthand:

The culture at DC stoddert has a heavy emphasis on continuing education for coaches. Len Oliver used to be the Technical Director for many years, and he taught the "D" License courses for VYSA for a very long time.

Now Karen Kelser as the new "Director of Soccer" does the same, so there is a culture where the coaches are continually developing. Some clubs just give their coaches a reimbursement for attending a course once or twice or year, and that's about it.

DC Stoddert has teams in CCL, so I imagine tryouts are competitive. I'm not sure how many players would be competing for 20-24 spots spread across 2 teams, but I think it would be a lot considering how many people live within the DC Stoddert territory.



Wish I could be more helpful - best thing would be to ask the same question on the "Travel Teams Lets Discuss" forum.

I'll only recommend camps that I have direct experience with that I can say are quality -

#1 - Soccer Academy
#2 - Golden Boot Soccer

There are many others in the area but I can't say how good they are one way or another since I don't have experience with them.

Hey, thanks for the recommendation, AMA Soccer Coach! We value referrals from our players and parents, but shout-outs from fellow professionals mean a lot to us as well.

- Amanda in the Golden Boot Soccer office

What are your thoughts on stoddert travel - girls u9-u10?

Private training - either small group or 1 on 1. Usually GK trainers work with a group of keepers at the same time. Also ask your club if they provide anything.

What do you think are the best options for additional goalkeeper training for U12-U15 kids?

I love your last two paragraphs. So true.

I don't know the people actually involved behind the scenes with the girls DA happenings locally, but I'm reading these forums and trying to stay on top of what is going on.

There's the "soccer" part of the DA and the "$$$" part of the DA - I'm not a good resource for knowing the business model, marketing, fees, and who gets paid what and how the pie is divided and all of the politics/turf war shakeouts, but I think I have a good feel for the "on the field" stuff.

So my thoughts on the Girls DA is just my 2 cents without the knowledge of the marketing machine behind the boys and girls DA programs.

I think the choice between ECNL and DA would be heavily dependent on the coaching staff and what people say about their ability to develop players, not just win games or prep for showcases. The coach ALWAYS make or breaks the program. The coach is always has more direct influence over your player's development than the club or the league the team plays in, despite what anyone tells you.

If you take a summer class at Harvard and get a bad/inexperienced teacher who doesn't know what they are doing, you are paying a lot of money not to learn anything. But, it still looks good on paper to everyone else that you took a class at Harvard, and they start to assume that you must be bright, even if you're not.

Same with soccer! See the product on the field - it doesn't lie. Getting a hodgepodge of good players on the field together does not make a team. It takes a great coach to mold a great team together after working with them consistently for a longer time period.

We live in Maryland and had our kids start with MSI and then the MSC Academy program. MSI was the classs team and then she made the MSC (travel team) Academy. We have been really unhappy with the MSI Soccer program. The quality of the coaches and the lack of support from the main office to deal with any issues that arise. Doug Schuesler is the MSI Soccer executive director and you would think he would come out if his glass ceiling office to observe his coaches and the programs. When we seek help for our team (review the curriculum, look at this coach, etc) we are ignored. MSI wonders why Schuesler has a bad nasty image and the program does not produce quality developed soccer players.
What other opportunities are out there for my daughter?



Funny story - I actually played MSI myself in the late 90's in the high school recreational boys division (which was pretty competitive considering its a rec league... some teams we'd play against had 19 (almost 20) year old african & hispanic freshman going to Montgomery College that probably could have played college soccer somewhere.

As a 9th grader, by pure luck, I was placed on a team full Damantha and Gonzaga players that played MSI on the side just get in more games during the season, which helped me improve a lot. I didn't play club in the area because at the time, I didn't even know how anything worked as a high school kid... so I just played HS soccer & MSI, trained at Montgomery College-Rockville in the summer, and also tagged along everywhere with a buddy who played for a very good team in northern VA.



It's hard to expect that the director of the entire program will take much time to deal with something like this.

With these types of issues there's usually more going on beneath the surface, just send me a PM and we can talk further.

Soccer is a great sport and can do so many good things for kids (it did for me when I was that age) and I hate to see the experience for a young person ruined because of adult stupidity - a huge pet peeve of mine.

I have two kids who are good, successful rec players. U11 girl and U13 boy playing in CYA rec league. Any recommendations for good summer soccer camps for them? Preferably out in our area... Chantilly/Centreville/Fairfax.

I'll only recommend camps that I have direct experience with that I can say are quality -

#1 - Soccer Academy
#2 - Golden Boot Soccer

There are many others in the area but I can't say how good they are one way or another since I don't have experience with them.

So what do you suggest for a u9 player who plays u10, but skill wise(touch, control, vision, etc) is at a higher level vs the u10. She is not a poke and chase player.

The problem is if she plays at her age or around it, she holds back(no scissor move, no chipping, no quick give and goes in tight space, etc). The other kids don't do this, so she does not do it. If she goes up in level she is still one or two in terms of skill, but the physicality gets too much. She is caught between to world.
[Report Post]


This doesn't make sense - a U9 player who has better skill than anyone else in her age group should be playing with U10. The speed of the game is faster, the play is "slightly" more physical, but look at it this way:

Her development will basically stop or even regress if she plays with other U9s, as you have said.

Her development will either continue or accelerate playing with the U10s. It may take her a month or two to adjust, but once she's at enough training sessions and picks up some of the decision-making or skills that the coach is teaching, she will be learning the same things they are, and should start to show progress. If she isn't making progress in 2 months with the U10s beyond the level of "just good enough to be practicing with them", then the coach is doing something wrong. Players naturally adapt their play to the other kids they train and play with, so that will happen on its own given enough time.

No need to worry, keep her at U10.

Any input on EDP and what types of teams currently participate versus more "local" leagues such as NCSL or CCL? Seems to be very independent especially with the geographical distance of teams/clubs. Are clubs putting in their top teams? If individual team focus, why would one team choose to participate in EDP?

Anonymous wrote:We live in Maryland and had our kids start with MSI and then the MSC Academy program. MSI was the classs team and then she made the MSC (travel team) Academy. We have been really unhappy with the MSI Soccer program. The quality of the coaches and the lack of support from the main office to deal with any issues that arise. Doug Schuesler is the MSI Soccer executive director and you would think he would come out if his glass ceiling office to observe his coaches and the programs. When we seek help for our team (review the curriculum, look at this coach, etc) we are ignored. MSI wonders why Schuesler has a bad nasty image and the program does not produce quality developed soccer players.
What other opportunities are out there for my daughter?

MSC has always been pretty random and disorganized. There is no club-like structure to it at all, just an assortment of loosely affiliated teams.

Have you looked into Potomac or Bethesda? Potomac doesn't have any kind of reputation for their girls' teams, but there are a lot of nice people there. You may be able to move your whole team over. Bethesda is not without its flaws--especially the girls program--but it's still a good destination for serious players.

Anonymous wrote:

asksoccernova wrote:The thing I've noticed with Arlington on the girls side is that girls selected for the travel teams sometimes believe they are the best players in the land, because they are sitting on top of a large player pyramid (18 or so house teams). Especially if they also play on an Arlington Rec team along with their friends / classmates and they score all of their team's goals every weekend.

Hey, I've seen players in Vienna who think that. They see 100 kids try out, they get picked among the top 12 or 24, and they think they've "made it." Just a nasty side effect of our tryout culture.

I think that the Girls DA has a lot of potential because it is going to be run by US Soccer people who don't care at all about marketing, just player development. It does not need to market itself and over hype/over promote itself, so the focus can be on the players instead of trying to hype it up.

Finally, you say something that I can't agree with. That's a first.

Knowing a lot of the people involved, if I had a choice between handing my kid over the ECNL staff or the DA staff, I'd pick the ECNL.

That doesn't mean the ECNL will be better across the board. Some DA clubs will offer a better experience than the nearest ECNL club, some won't.

But the DA is vanity-driven to some extent and misguided in other ways. U.S. Soccer has finally realized it can't just sit back and let chaos reign in youth soccer, so it's come out with a lot of mandates and programs. But they're not thinking them through. The intent behind small-sided games is fine; the regulations that will make clubs scramble to find fields that meet the requirements are not. The intent behind the DA may be sound, but they've done it in a way that creates utter chaos.

That characterization is true for all of Arlington. It's a truly insufferable place.

asksoccernova wrote:The thing I've noticed with Arlington on the girls side is that girls selected for the travel teams sometimes believe they are the best players in the land, because they are sitting on top of a large player pyramid (18 or so house teams). Especially if they also play on an Arlington Rec team along with their friends / classmates and they score all of their team's goals every weekend.

Hey, I've seen players in Vienna who think that. They see 100 kids try out, they get picked among the top 12 or 24, and they think they've "made it." Just a nasty side effect of our tryout culture.

I think that the Girls DA has a lot of potential because it is going to be run by US Soccer people who don't care at all about marketing, just player development. It does not need to market itself and over hype/over promote itself, so the focus can be on the players instead of trying to hype it up.

Finally, you say something that I can't agree with. That's a first.

Knowing a lot of the people involved, if I had a choice between handing my kid over the ECNL staff or the DA staff, I'd pick the ECNL.

That doesn't mean the ECNL will be better across the board. Some DA clubs will offer a better experience than the nearest ECNL club, some won't.

But the DA is vanity-driven to some extent and misguided in other ways. U.S. Soccer has finally realized it can't just sit back and let chaos reign in youth soccer, so it's come out with a lot of mandates and programs. But they're not thinking them through. The intent behind small-sided games is fine; the regulations that will make clubs scramble to find fields that meet the requirements are not. The intent behind the DA may be sound, but they've done it in a way that creates utter chaos.