Help a mom out please! Boy - choosing between PDA Hiberian and Matchfit (Mercer)

[Guest]

MLS next club I meant

Matchfit is a dumpster fire
1) The DOC is Chris Leahey, son of the owner Malcolm, no soccer coaching experience outside of working for his dad. Played bench for Rider, i am sure you have higher expectations. Claim to fame 2001 when his team finally beat PDA.
2) Coach Woods. Just retired was soccer and golf coach at William Patterson. Hasn't advanced in coaching methods since the 90s. Believes fitness above all. Kids run blindly all game but few can play. His 2 teams have a combined record of 4-37-3 the last two years.
3) Rick Le. Brought in a team from GAK a few years ago when the age change happened. Had to split into 2 the 06 and 05 teams. They were top in NJ when the came to MFA now high end of mid table. He coaches his own kid and his friends. Very few leave his team and very few get on them.
4) Everyone gets accepted to ECNL in all age groups and then get tossed into a pool that selects NL and RL teams each week. You are not on a team but in a pool of players. PDA not different but more honest about it
5) MFA has trouble getting enough quality and since age groups practice together the quality is all over the place. Top players move quite often because of this. They cannot recruit top quality in the HS ages but do a decent job of attracting better players pre u14 from local town programs. They practice 2x per week with many weeks just 1x. 30% of all practices are off the ball fitness. They don't put significant amounts of kids into college ball, at least colleges you would want to go to.
6) Fees. Don't be suckered in by what looks like a lower price. Everything at MFA is an add on. Tournaments, summer, winter all come later as added expenses. They are slightly cheaper than PDA North but its a rounding error in the end.
7) Coach licenses. They have none. Their is no coach or even the DOC at MFA that has an advanced license. Now does this make them good or bad? No. But it says something when not a single coach in an org has an A or B license.
8) Hibbos they are a local club that has issues at the older ages to get exposure as not in top leagues. They do a good job of funneling kids to PDA north but understand that is where you will need to go around U16 if college soccer is a dream

Unfortunately local choices all have issues but I wouldn't let MFA train my dog let alone a child

[Guest]

PDA isnt the best. Especially the current coach for Ream/Ream White. He has his favorites and those are the kids that get the most play time. That being said- if there are 2 games in a weekend, 1 for Ream and 1 for Ream White, the coaches favorites, whether they are good or not, will play both games as the rosters are fluid. The favorite player will play 120 minutes as opposed to the other which will get 60 minutes. Even less if he switches him out every 15 minutes. 30 vs 120? Of course the player that is getting 120 minutes of field time is going to excel through experience. If a player is good enough to be accepted into the Academy then both players should have equal amount of chances to get touches on the ball. How is denying a player on any team adequate amount of fieldtime considered development?
Now, for the upcoming season starting in fall, we will have a new coach. Will he be the same as the other? As it stands we have more than enough players to create 2 full teams. Why not split them evenly down the middle to create two winning teams instead of a better and lesser?
you should see how the parents act when they are told their child is playing for the White team instead of Ream or when they arent rostered for a tournament and 90% of the team is. Im sure there are better clubs out there. $3000 is a lot for aggravation .

[Guest]

Hibos is a joke

[Guest]

Run away from MF.

[Guest]

Matchfit is a dumpster fire
1) The DOC is Chris Leahey, son of the owner Malcolm, no soccer coaching experience outside of working for his dad. Played bench for Rider, i am sure you have higher expectations. Claim to fame 2001 when his team finally beat PDA.
2) Coach Woods. Just retired was soccer and golf coach at William Patterson. Hasn't advanced in coaching methods since the 90s. Believes fitness above all. Kids run blindly all game but few can play. His 2 teams have a combined record of 4-37-3 the last two years.
3) Rick Le. Brought in a team from GAK a few years ago when the age change happened. Had to split into 2 the 06 and 05 teams. They were top in NJ when the came to MFA now high end of mid table. He coaches his own kid and his friends. Very few leave his team and very few get on them.
4) Everyone gets accepted to ECNL in all age groups and then get tossed into a pool that selects NL and RL teams each week. You are not on a team but in a pool of players. PDA not different but more honest about it
5) MFA has trouble getting enough quality and since age groups practice together the quality is all over the place. Top players move quite often because of this. They cannot recruit top quality in the HS ages but do a decent job of attracting better players pre u14 from local town programs. They practice 2x per week with many weeks just 1x. 30% of all practices are off the ball fitness. They don't put significant amounts of kids into college ball, at least colleges you would want to go to.
6) Fees. Don't be suckered in by what looks like a lower price. Everything at MFA is an add on. Tournaments, summer, winter all come later as added expenses. They are slightly cheaper than PDA North but its a rounding error in the end.
7) Coach licenses. They have none. Their is no coach or even the DOC at MFA that has an advanced license. Now does this make them good or bad? No. But it says something when not a single coach in an org has an A or B license.
8) Hibbos they are a local club that has issues at the older ages to get exposure as not in top leagues. They do a good job of funneling kids to PDA north but understand that is where you will need to go around U16 if college soccer is a dream

Unfortunately local choices all have issues but I wouldn't let MFA train my dog let alone a child

Rick Le is the best and very fair. There are many games where his own son does not even play. Many have left PDA to go to his ECNL Teams.

Stay away from the losers at PDa Hibos such as Mark Pratico, James Angiolino, and Joe Hoenisch. Their children someone conveniently all go to Notre Dame and they magically have the funds to build a new field at Notre Dame. I am sure that is where the majority of the PDA MOney is going.