How is soccer organized up there?

[Unregistered]

Interesting. Your thread question is pretty basic for someone who has been hanging around the site. And since you suspect you are far from alone, what have you learned on the Mass site that you find especially compelling?

How many kids do you have, and what are your thoughts about them playing or not playing in college? What % of your "hybrid" players go on to play in college?

"Old Faithful" has arrived right on time! 😂

[Unregistered]

Interesting. Your thread question is pretty basic for someone who has been hanging around the site. And since you suspect you are far from alone, what have you learned on the Mass site that you find especially compelling?

How many kids do you have, and what are your thoughts about them playing or not playing in college? What % of your "hybrid" players go on to play in college?

OP here: Ok, if anyone reading this is from my hometown, they'll figure out who I am. I'm not saying anything controversial, so I guess that's OK. I have three girls. My oldest absolutely knows she has no interest in playing on college, but she enjoys the Rec aspects of soccer and she has a good shot at an academic scholarship. Maybe because she misses a lot of practices and participates in "brainy" extracurriculars.

My middle daughter plays up with her older sister (has for years) and grew into a tall and strong player. If she keeps working at it, she might someday get a scholarship because she's motivated on her own. She's the youngest on her team...has a waiver to play up...but she's one of our forwards. She sometimes pinch hits for our elite program. But she doesn't enjoy it as much as her hybrid "Premier" team, which is OK for now. The problem we have here is this area isn't exactly where the college scouts look for talent (though we have some), so only a very select few in this town get scholarships and I wonder if the extra expense would be worth it since she's having fun where she is now.

My youngest is a one of the best players on her younger team. I also coach that hybrid/"Premier" team. I figured I'd rather coach a separate team and set my own schedule with back-to-back practices than be held hostage to the schedule of some other coach and have to tape my mouth shut to avoid saying something I shouldn't. Her team bested a couple elite teams at our last tournament, which gave them a boat load of got soccer points. They play like a mid-tier elite team because there are kids on there who have a lot of talent (and don't want to leave to play elite), and (blowing my own horn), I know more about coaching than I did when I started so I'm giving them better and more efficient drills. In the back of my mind, I'd like to figure out a way to turn this team into travel team, or at least get them to do more than 2 tournaments a year. They are an unusually good team.

I am absolutely a Daddy Coach, but I am harder on my kids, and since they often find themselves hanging around for both practices, they are top players on their teams because they spend more time practicing.

Regarding what I've learned here: Ya'll bicker like the Florida site. And I get the feeling there are way less people here, but you all post more to make up for it. I have no idea about the teams or clubs, but the general stuff like the threads on Daddy Coaches are good. I really like the thread about "Is your kid developing" and it opened my eyes to mistakes I'm making as a coach the first time I ran across it. I was under the assumption that the Town teams didn't travel, but it makes sense that they'd compete against other towns since they are probably all 1 day apart on horseback. :) If I lived up there, I'd probably be really involved in town soccer, though I'd have to buy a black soccer ball so I could find it in the snow. I'd hate having to shut down for the winters.

[Unregistered]

Forgot to answer the question about percentages. I don't think any of the kids playing at the hybrid/Premier level make it to play for college because they either graduate to elite (and then try to win a scholarship there) or they aren't serious to begin with In general, since they practice 2 days a week and the Elites practice 3 or 4 days a week, their skills generally lag the elites and usually fall farther behind over time, but I have placed some of my kids on the Elite team(s) over the years and my older group is coming to a crossroads and some of my kids are moving to elite. I believe the kind of soccer we play gives them an unusually good soccer IQ because the level we're at has a heavy focus on winning instead of development. I consider it an achievement that most of my older kids can still transfer to elite since it seems kids in the hybrid/Premier program fall farther and farther behind due to limited practice time. I think some of my kids would do well at an ID Clinic, and that is likely their only shot for getting noticed since we don't play any serious tournaments. My kids are mostly highly capable Rec players and they are happy with that. What I do find humorous is my club often promotes our mid-tier program as some kind of precursor to their elite program, and then they get confused when they try to recruit my more talented kids and those kids don't want to leave. Not everyone is interested in dedicating so much time to hone their soccer skills for a slim chance at college when they can have a more balanced life. Some of my kids are academic wizards or they excel in other sports (like track) and just do Soccer for fun...but when they play soccer, they want something more serious than Rec level.

[Unregistered]

Lol. Well played. A ton of work and couldn't resist finding something "humorous" but still well played. Love the sudden display of out of state commitment and vigilance, as well as the impressive, multi-paragraph verbiage. And the whole show dressed up with a mid-tier "hybrid" coach narrative and the classic trio of 3 very competitive yet highly sensible daughters.

[Unregistered]

Forgot to answer the question about percentages. I don't think any of the kids playing at the hybrid/Premier level make it to play for college because they either graduate to elite (and then try to win a scholarship there) or they aren't serious to begin with In general, since they practice 2 days a week and the Elites practice 3 or 4 days a week, their skills generally lag the elites and usually fall farther behind over time, but I have placed some of my kids on the Elite team(s) over the years and my older group is coming to a crossroads and some of my kids are moving to elite. I believe the kind of soccer we play gives them an unusually good soccer IQ because the level we're at has a heavy focus on winning instead of development. I consider it an achievement that most of my older kids can still transfer to elite since it seems kids in the hybrid/Premier program fall farther and farther behind due to limited practice time. I think some of my kids would do well at an ID Clinic, and that is likely their only shot for getting noticed since we don't play any serious tournaments. My kids are mostly highly capable Rec players and they are happy with that. What I do find humorous is my club often promotes our mid-tier program as some kind of precursor to their elite program, and then they get confused when they try to recruit my more talented kids and those kids don't want to leave. Not everyone is interested in dedicating so much time to hone their soccer skills for a slim chance at college when they can have a more balanced life. Some of my kids are academic wizards or they excel in other sports (like track) and just do Soccer for fun...but when they play soccer, they want something more serious than Rec level.

Shoot, that's it?

I expected to read more humanitarian efforts, too.

[Unregistered]

Hey, I'm from your hometown and I know who you are!

[Unregistered]

The amusing part of all of the trolling is they clearly don't realize what they don't know about how differently soccer is organized in other parts of the country and how valuable that information is for evaluating where your child stands in relationship to the rest of the players around the country. That is an important understanding if you are thinking that a soccer scholarship might be in their future.

Consider this. Merge the Stars, FCB, NEFC, GPS as well as all of the mom & pop clubs that draw players from inside roughly the 495 beltway into one single club and then merge all of them with all of the town programs that belong to BAYS. That is effectively what you have in other states with clubs like McLean or CASL. Now consider their player pool and how many levels of soccer player they might have in it. The big difference in those other parts of the country is there isn't all of the scrambling to fill roster spots like you have here. In those places you typically hear parents complaining about having to fight through the bureaucracy to advance their child up the club's player pyramid and the mediocrity of coaching at the lower and middle levels. Same issues you hear about our town programs but in their case the players can't really just switch clubs like we can so their top level teams typically contain players that have worked their way up through multiple levels of the organization and there is generally a consensus within the organization that they are their best players. That is what is on a DA or ECNL or other top level team around the country.

[Unregistered]

The amusing part of all of the trolling is they clearly don't realize what they don't know about how differently soccer is organized in other parts of the country and how valuable that information is for evaluating where your child stands in relationship to the rest of the players around the country. That is an important understanding if you are thinking that a soccer scholarship might be in their future.

Consider this. Merge the Stars, FCB, NEFC, GPS as well as all of the mom & pop clubs that draw players from inside roughly the 495 beltway into one single club and then merge all of them with all of the town programs that belong to BAYS. That is effectively what you have in other states with clubs like McLean or CASL. Now consider their player pool and how many levels of soccer player they might have in it. The big difference in those other parts of the country is there isn't all of the scrambling to fill roster spots like you have here. In those places you typically hear parents complaining about having to fight through the bureaucracy to advance their child up the club's player pyramid and the mediocrity of coaching at the lower and middle levels. Same issues you hear about our town programs but in their case the players can't really just switch clubs like we can so their top level teams typically contain players that have worked their way up through multiple levels of the organization and there is generally a consensus within the organization that they are their best players. That is what is on a DA or ECNL or other top level team around the country.

95th percentile.

[Unregistered]

Certainly seems like it is a good thing the troll lives in this part of the country. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to buy their kid onto an ECNL and then complain about the DA taking all of her high school teammates away.

[Unregistered]

Certainly seems like it is a good thing the troll lives in this part of the country. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to buy their kid onto an ECNL and then complain about the DA taking all of her high school teammates away.

98th percentile.

[Unregistered]

OP, at your "hybrid" level do your teams play teams from across the border? Any North Florida versus South Georgia action? And do northern Floridians really consider themselves part of the "deep South" or more just a part of Florida as a separate entity unto itself?

[Unregistered]

OP, at your "hybrid" level do your teams play teams from across the border? Any North Florida versus South Georgia action? And do northern Floridians really consider themselves part of the "deep South" or more just a part of Florida as a separate entity unto itself?

Yes, because we live near the border, but since we only do tournaments once per season, we may or may not play the only close by tournament annually. I do consider North Florida the deep south. It is more like South Georgia than Central or Southern Florida.

[Unregistered]

Was this entire thread dreamed up based on a popular singing duo?

[Unregistered]

Yes, because we live near the border, but since we only do tournaments once per season, we may or may not play the only close by tournament annually. I do consider North Florida the deep south. It is more like South Georgia than Central or Southern Florida.

Interesting. Never thought of Jacksonville as a "deep south" city.

Any strong recommendations for things to do in the area for folks who usually skip that part of Florida? Are there alligators in the north?

http://www.naturalnorthflorida.com/