The tryouts ARE RIGGED.

[Unregistered]

Not just same players. Lesser players will be promoted if coach likes parents and better players held back if coach doesn't. This is too bad because the kids should neither be rewarded nor punished because of their parents but welcome to the world of competitive travel soccer in Florida and plenty of ********* coaches with egos playing god.

I can't speak for all coaches, but I can tell you that I put in a ton of time and effort because I love soccer and love my players. As a parent, you might only see the 4 hours of weekly practice and 2-3 hours of games each week, but there is so much that happens that you don't see, including coaching classes, keeping/earning certs/licenses, coordinating for friendlies, scheduling league games, planning practices, reviewing game film, etc...

Most competitive coaches - even at higher levels - are not doing this as a full time job and certainly aren't doing it for what passes for money. This is often a labor of love.

Some parents are so toxic that it 1) just isn't worth the headache and unfortunately their child will suffer for it (or find a toxic club that seems to accumulate those type of parents - you know who they are), and 2) those parents, if they can't be checked often become so poisonous to the team culture that they drive away other families.

Cut the cancers out as soon as you find them.

[Unregistered]

I can't speak for all coaches, but I can tell you that I put in a ton of time and effort because I love soccer and love my players. As a parent, you might only see the 4 hours of weekly practice and 2-3 hours of games each week, but there is so much that happens that you don't see, including coaching classes, keeping/earning certs/licenses, coordinating for friendlies, scheduling league games, planning practices, reviewing game film, etc...

Most competitive coaches - even at higher levels - are not doing this as a full time job and certainly aren't doing it for what passes for money. This is often a labor of love.

Some parents are so toxic that it 1) just isn't worth the headache and unfortunately their child will suffer for it (or find a toxic club that seems to accumulate those type of parents - you know who they are), and 2) those parents, if they can't be checked often become so poisonous to the team culture that they drive away other families.

Cut the cancers out as soon as you find them.

Amen - I'm a parent with a kid on an exceptional team. There are some very good players out in the landscape that would somewhat help our team...but the freaking parents will screw the deal every time. They need to be a gamechanger to make our team IF they have idiot parents....and there is not many gamechangers out there that are not already spoken for....and the boy's that aren't spoken for, are at their 4th spot in as many years. You crazy parents should really figure that stuff out. All you are doing is hurting your children. Our team has been churning 3-5 kids every year since they were 9. Only get better against the best.

[Unregistered]

Serious question... What is the point of tryouts. Everyone knows 99% of the decisions are already made before tryouts as they should be. Evaluation should be and is done from the prior year. Is it just to see how many kids from other clubs tryout to see where to put a few bubble players.

[Unregistered]

For good coaches, tryouts provide them an opportunity to identify someone they can mold into something better. A kid they see as having potential but unrefined and they can coach. Problem is most kids don’t listen and do what their dumb parents think they should do. For example showing off their mad skills instead of showing how well they know how to play the game.

[Unregistered]

Serious question... What is the point of tryouts. Everyone knows 99% of the decisions are already made before tryouts as they should be. Evaluation should be and is done from the prior year. Is it just to see how many kids from other clubs tryout to see where to put a few bubble players.

Exactly, at least they shouldn't allow the current team members to participate in the tryouts, that way the new players get more visibility.

[Unregistered]

I use to run tryouts for a club and had a lot to do with evaluating players and discussing with coaches what players were on the top team , what players were 2nd team, what players were on 3rd team and who was offered training only positions. I was also the one that fielded the calls from parents of why their kid didn't make top team. We would have about 100 kids in each age group tryout. Most of the kids we knew from watching them play all season and Coaches were required to "rank" their players in pools. What I mean is that it wasn't ranked Player #1 Player #2 because it was hard to say whether your top center back was better than your top forward. Instead it was top 1-5. 6-10, 11-15 buckets. so the forward and defender would be in bucket 1-5. So at tryouts after warmups the top 12 players would be set aside to lightly scrimmage against each other. The top players from the 2nd team would be scrimmaging against the 13-18 players from top team We called them Cusp players. The head Coach of team 1 would watch this group very closely and really not even watch the top team starters. We would do the same thing with the bottom 2nd team players would scrimmage against the top 3rd team players. 2nd team Coach would watch this group. Third team coach would watch 3rd team play as well as any unknown kids to the program.
After about 15 mins or so of scrimmaging Each Coach would have to determine the two top players on his field and move them up to the next higher level of competition. After 15 mins they would then move the two weakest players down to the next lower level of competition. We would do the same thing two more times. We would meet after the tryouts and discuss the rosters. We would usually have it narrowed down to top 15 on each team and always have about 6 players that could either be low top team players or high 2nd team players. We took several things into consideration. One was positions. If we had 10 defenders 5 mids, 3 keepers well then we would likely take a forward out of the 6 players for depth. We would also discuss what was best for the player developmentally. being on a team where he would be a sub and get 30 mins a game or be a starter and play closer to 75? Would they benefit by practicing with top team but playing with 2nd team. And It also came down to where the player is now and where we think their trajectory was. Were they an early developer that may slow down or are they a late bloomer that is just starting to grow. We most certainly took into consideration Parents as well as Player coachability , attitude and committment.
It is incredibly easy to identify the top 10 players from 100 kids. it is easy to identify the bottom 10. The Players on the Cusp are sometimes so close that a good Coach is going to watch for game situations. Some examples. When player loses the ball do they stop playing or do they work even harder trying to win ball back? In a 2v1 situation do they pass the ball when they should or do they force it. Do they take the ball into pressure when they should drop it back. How do they communicate? Ultimately we will have the six players play 3v3 against each other and see who separates themselves. When I talk to parents about why their kid was on the 2nd team it was usually one of the above of why they were placed there. Sometimes if it was close we would take one player over another because he was left footed.
Unlike most clubs we would rather take a smaller roster and be able to move kids up throughout the season vs taking a large roster and not giving any 2nd team players opportunities to level up.

[Unregistered]

I use to run tryouts for a club and had a lot to do with evaluating players and discussing with coaches what players were on the top team , what players were 2nd team, what players were on 3rd team and who was offered training only positions. I was also the one that fielded the calls from parents of why their kid didn't make top team. We would have about 100 kids in each age group tryout. Most of the kids we knew from watching them play all season and Coaches were required to "rank" their players in pools. What I mean is that it wasn't ranked Player #1 Player #2 because it was hard to say whether your top center back was better than your top forward. Instead it was top 1-5. 6-10, 11-15 buckets. so the forward and defender would be in bucket 1-5. So at tryouts after warmups the top 12 players would be set aside to lightly scrimmage against each other. The top players from the 2nd team would be scrimmaging against the 13-18 players from top team We called them Cusp players. The head Coach of team 1 would watch this group very closely and really not even watch the top team starters. We would do the same thing with the bottom 2nd team players would scrimmage against the top 3rd team players. 2nd team Coach would watch this group. Third team coach would watch 3rd team play as well as any unknown kids to the program.
After about 15 mins or so of scrimmaging Each Coach would have to determine the two top players on his field and move them up to the next higher level of competition. After 15 mins they would then move the two weakest players down to the next lower level of competition. We would do the same thing two more times. We would meet after the tryouts and discuss the rosters. We would usually have it narrowed down to top 15 on each team and always have about 6 players that could either be low top team players or high 2nd team players. We took several things into consideration. One was positions. If we had 10 defenders 5 mids, 3 keepers well then we would likely take a forward out of the 6 players for depth. We would also discuss what was best for the player developmentally. being on a team where he would be a sub and get 30 mins a game or be a starter and play closer to 75? Would they benefit by practicing with top team but playing with 2nd team. And It also came down to where the player is now and where we think their trajectory was. Were they an early developer that may slow down or are they a late bloomer that is just starting to grow. We most certainly took into consideration Parents as well as Player coachability , attitude and committment.
It is incredibly easy to identify the top 10 players from 100 kids. it is easy to identify the bottom 10. The Players on the Cusp are sometimes so close that a good Coach is going to watch for game situations. Some examples. When player loses the ball do they stop playing or do they work even harder trying to win ball back? In a 2v1 situation do they pass the ball when they should or do they force it. Do they take the ball into pressure when they should drop it back. How do they communicate? Ultimately we will have the six players play 3v3 against each other and see who separates themselves. When I talk to parents about why their kid was on the 2nd team it was usually one of the above of why they were placed there. Sometimes if it was close we would take one player over another because he was left footed.
Unlike most clubs we would rather take a smaller roster and be able to move kids up throughout the season vs taking a large roster and not giving any 2nd team players opportunities to level up.

It sounds good, but this is not reality. When a player may be in the bottom of the first team or in the top of the second team, the improvement depends on how good or how bad is the second team. Normally, the second teams don't compete, have a bad coach, don't have the attention of the clubs, etc. Playing time in a bad team means no grow in the game.

I know selecting a team is not an easy task, but the way many clubs/coaches determine the roster is not close to your description. You can see that some players in the second team are much better in all the aspects than players in the first team, but they don't have any opportunity to improve. Same thing happens with third and second teams.

Rigged ? Of course, everywhere and every time, and any level. It's the behavior of the human being, but I think things can be better if clubs/coaches focus more in the game instead of friendship.

[Unregistered]

We most certainly took into consideration Parents .

All good but this part. The parent should not come into the equation good or bad to help or hurt a kid. Especially hot moms. Kids can't pick their parents. You think every parent of National Team players were model citizens when their kids played youth soccer? No they were not. The kids just were really good. All kids deserve the benefit of the doubt. Maybe even feel sorry for those kids instead of punishing and discouraging them.

[Unregistered]

Exactly, at least they shouldn't allow the current team members to participate in the tryouts, that way the new players get more visibility.

How do you compare new players to existing players if they don't tryout together?

[Unregistered]

I use to run tryouts for a club and had a lot to do with evaluating players and discussing with coaches what players were on the top team , what players were 2nd team, what players were on 3rd team and who was offered training only positions. I was also the one that fielded the calls from parents of why their kid didn't make top team. We would have about 100 kids in each age group tryout. Most of the kids we knew from watching them play all season and Coaches were required to "rank" their players in pools. What I mean is that it wasn't ranked Player #1 Player #2 because it was hard to say whether your top center back was better than your top forward. Instead it was top 1-5. 6-10, 11-15 buckets. so the forward and defender would be in bucket 1-5. So at tryouts after warmups the top 12 players would be set aside to lightly scrimmage against each other. The top players from the 2nd team would be scrimmaging against the 13-18 players from top team We called them Cusp players. The head Coach of team 1 would watch this group very closely and really not even watch the top team starters. We would do the same thing with the bottom 2nd team players would scrimmage against the top 3rd team players. 2nd team Coach would watch this group. Third team coach would watch 3rd team play as well as any unknown kids to the program.
After about 15 mins or so of scrimmaging Each Coach would have to determine the two top players on his field and move them up to the next higher level of competition. After 15 mins they would then move the two weakest players down to the next lower level of competition. We would do the same thing two more times. We would meet after the tryouts and discuss the rosters. We would usually have it narrowed down to top 15 on each team and always have about 6 players that could either be low top team players or high 2nd team players. We took several things into consideration. One was positions. If we had 10 defenders 5 mids, 3 keepers well then we would likely take a forward out of the 6 players for depth. We would also discuss what was best for the player developmentally. being on a team where he would be a sub and get 30 mins a game or be a starter and play closer to 75? Would they benefit by practicing with top team but playing with 2nd team. And It also came down to where the player is now and where we think their trajectory was. Were they an early developer that may slow down or are they a late bloomer that is just starting to grow. We most certainly took into consideration Parents as well as Player coachability , attitude and committment.
It is incredibly easy to identify the top 10 players from 100 kids. it is easy to identify the bottom 10. The Players on the Cusp are sometimes so close that a good Coach is going to watch for game situations. Some examples. When player loses the ball do they stop playing or do they work even harder trying to win ball back? In a 2v1 situation do they pass the ball when they should or do they force it. Do they take the ball into pressure when they should drop it back. How do they communicate? Ultimately we will have the six players play 3v3 against each other and see who separates themselves. When I talk to parents about why their kid was on the 2nd team it was usually one of the above of why they were placed there. Sometimes if it was close we would take one player over another because he was left footed.
Unlike most clubs we would rather take a smaller roster and be able to move kids up throughout the season vs taking a large roster and not giving any 2nd team players opportunities to level up.

Here’s what really happens. Kids don’t have one choice. They tryout for multiple clubs and teams, and the top kids say where they like the other kids or the coach at a particular club and that’s where the kid goes. Any club with a second team is really getting kids 4-5 teams down because the other clubs pick up anyone not on the first team.

This tryout above sounds very familiar to Weston tryouts but they are notoriously bad at evaluating future talent sure they can pick who’s good now but they never get who will be better by the time the fall rolls around 3 months later.

[Unregistered]

Evaluating kids in a tryout situation isn't easy. Coaches won't always get it right because it's an artificial situation, usually with limited time. If it's a large group there's multiple coaches evaluating but only one will be the team coach. Best thing for everyone involved is for layers to come to at least team practices. The coach can run them through his drills, watch them play against and with his players. Never wait for "official" tryouts if you're trying to make it onto higher level teams. You should already have been getting your kids to practices.

Here's the other fun fact about tryouts - if you're not seen as an impact starter it's going to be tough to displace someone already on the team. It has to be clearly worth it to take a new player and cut someone who is a known quantity. Most won't trade out #16 for another #16

Also, despite it being a big state, it's still all local. If you as a parent or kid has a reputation for causing trouble, club hopping etc chances are the other clubs know about it already.

[Unregistered]

''It's all about ''money'' or blackmail,lets face it people.

[Unregistered]

''It's all about ''money'' or blackmail,lets face it people.

I have some extra money. Can someone point me to the person in charge that can get my kid on the A team.

[Unregistered]

I have some extra money. Can someone point me to the person in charge that can get my kid on the A team.

'lets call it a hefty donation.

[Unregistered]

I have some extra money. Can someone point me to the person in charge that can get my kid on the A team.

Just call Novi Musk