and who would pick this all star team? You?

Yes, as long as they play under US Club they could play as a tournament team.

Yes
If they are FYSA clubs, then they need to create a team under another authority
USSSA is an easy one

I think this is a great idea even for the bigger clubs
I hate that talented teams are diluted bc great and talented players are spread out even in clubs that are within 30-40 minutes away from each other

I would love it if players and parents were brave enough to do this

For the idiot who provided no help ... An independent coach would pick the team

Two ways to do it. The first is done every year in every town, it's called "tryouts". The second would be if all of the club's DOC's would play nice and allow their top kids to all roster on USClub passes at a single club. They could all still play FYSA league and Region Cup/State Cup for their regular club team, and play tournaments with the "All-Star" team. The planets would have to be in perfect alignment for that to happen. In Florida, while our kids are still playing, highly unlikely to ever happen.

yea its called ecnl!!!!!!

the reason this is not an ecnl topic, is because it isn't. ecnl has many threads that clearly promote, discuss and tear down the league. that is not what the OP was discussing. The are very specifically discussing local teams. It isn't local if you are bringing in kids from 100 miles away. Hopefully you are getting it now...

Good Idea

A few things must happen for this idea to work:
1) The select team coach would need to be someone that is respected by the other locals clubs or be a joint venture, a head coach from one club and asst(s) from another club
2) The select team would need justify a value and pose no threat to the players host club (club scheduled events and the ol poaching scare) The value is identifying top players and giving them the opportunity to play with other top talented players and representing strength for the local area.


I believe if we had these opportunities it may reduce the need for parents to feel like they need to club hop. Constantly looking for better teams to play for. You get to stay at the club were your kid has friends, feels comfortable, enjoys playing, but also would give you the opportunity to turn it up and play a higher level of competition with the select team (in theory of course). To me the sweet spot for this is at the lower age groups, U9-U11. It happens for clubs going to larger tournaments like IBUR Cup, Super Copa, Denne Cup, a few big Disney Tournaments. The select teams would meet once a month for a weekend practice, play a couple tournaments during the year. The summer is a great time to do this. Some 3v3 teams are based on this idea, but can easy be replaced with a full sided approach. I have a friends who is a DOC in South Carolina that has been able to field a team represent players from SC, Miami and Jax for a couple years. The kids love playing with different players outside of their regular club. Of course the idea is to build the select team more on a regional basis. Sadly, I doubt it would happen, to much insecurities and ego's at most clubs to allow this to happen. Would be nice though!

I have thought about this for a few years now. Mainly for the Pinellas County kids. (Although a team of Tampa Bay Area kids would be much stronger.)

The biggest obstacle is the club DOCs. Without an independent coach, meaning a coach who would have to have not only the skill and knowledge but also hold no relationship with any one particular club, the greedy DOCs would always worry about losing their best talent. And that is a legitimemt concern. Imagine if the parents of a top player fell in love with a coach and decided to take their kid to the club he coaches at. Or even if the coach wasn't with a club, that could easily change if one club said, "Hey, all the best players love this guy so let's pay him to be a coach next year!" Next thing you know all the participating clubs lose their best players. Then they suddenly become bad clubs because they can't compete with the club that stole all the best players.

Any coach that was able to take the best 12 players in Pinellas county at say u-10 would win games. He would look like a guru. And if he landed at say Largo or Celtic the next year, being almost in the middle of the county he could easily end up with the best players the following year. That's why this will just never happen. And it's a shame.

Fact is, all the DOCs in this area make decent money and none of them are interested in anything that will hurt their club. They are more interested in gaining players and revenue above all else. (And of course their own pride.)

It's a fantastic idea. But just won't ever happen because money and ego won't let it. Sad.

This will never work and let me tell you why. What kid is going to want to be on a team (FYSA) where for every big tournament the 3 or 4 best kids on his team leave to play for an all star team (US Club). And how will this all star team get into these tournaments with such limited history? The key to success is to find a group of committed kids and keep them together while adding the occasional new player as they come along. The chemistry of a dedicated team will beat the talent of an all star team 9 times out of 10.

I don't necessarily agree that it can't be done and that the chosen kids would be beat 9 out of 10 times. While I don't have the solution, I can easily see that the model already exists at the high school level. At teh end of the HS season, kids are selected to play on an All-county team (or like name for other districts). This is done annually and they play games with the top kids selected from all the different high schools in your district/county. Why not approach it in the same way? Our high school team alone is nearly a model of this in reverse. In fact, I'd say some of your top HS teams reflect exactly what you are proposing. The best kids from varying local club teams playing on a HS team. Try looking at it from a slightly different angle and you might find your answer somewhere in this model.

I agree but HS works because it is free and open to everyone so there are no financial pressures to interfere with the game. As previously stated, DOCs are all about money and doing whatever it takes to keep their wallets filled. Doubt very much that two of them could get together on this let alone an entire region. No matter how one views this question the end result is always the same. Too much easy money in youth soccer for anyone to run the risk of losing some of it. Only one answer to this problem. Boycott all clubs/academies and bring the game back into high school where it belongs along with the rest of youth sports. Same with Middle School.

Then the FYSA teams need to have larger rosters or B players to bring up when All Star players are gone. It really could work and parents, coaches, and clubs know it.. but too many people guarding their turf and $.

It'll never work otherwise it would have likely been done already.

I agree that Clubs/Docs might turn their noses up at this as they might see they are losing money, but I still think it could work... of course the first few years it probably would have issues but those could be growing pains ... work the kinds out... but still looking at the HS model, why couldn't at the end of the season.. and I realize this can be different for some of the top teams, and tryouts would need to be after this, but why can't they at the end of the season, just select top kids from the area clubs... some clubs may only get one kid selected but all need to be looked at in order to be fair; select those kids and even if the kids don't play a game together in the first yr (our all-county teams were selected this year for HS and they did not play ) but select the kids through some organized system, honoring them, and with this alone you're going to see games being played eventually with clubs working together to promote their own players that were selected.