Is it worth it

[Unregistered]

Is club soccer worth it?

I don't see a player getting out of youth soccer paying nothing less than 16K (that would be 2K a year for eight years). GDA and ECNL way more! GDA route 21K ECNL 40K over the youth career?

There is the life experience and lessons but that can be duplicated elsewhere. Why not just be a multi sport middle school and high school athlete and save the money. High school coaches can teach you life is hard just like the club coaches. Unless you are the best player on the team all coaches seem bad.

I don't understand America's desire to invest so much money in soccer. The only athletes that truly make out are D1 Football and D1 men's basket ball.

[Unregistered]

Is club soccer worth it?

I don't see a player getting out of youth soccer paying nothing less than 16K (that would be 2K a year for eight years). GDA and ECNL way more! GDA route 21K ECNL 40K over the youth career?

There is the life experience and lessons but that can be duplicated elsewhere. Why not just be a multi sport middle school and high school athlete and save the money. High school coaches can teach you life is hard just like the club coaches. Unless you are the best player on the team all coaches seem bad.

I don't understand America's desire to invest so much money in soccer. The only athletes that truly make out are D1 Football and D1 men's basket ball.

I don't know - very active in the sport, but find myself often exhausted as a youth soccer parent. Wish one of my kids would focus on another sport to be honest. Having said that, keeps them active and fit, provides a healthy social circle, as well a sense of community.

While the sport has given me plenty of pain, has also given me a lifetime of joy, so if my kids get that too not a bad thing.

[Unregistered]

Is club soccer worth it?

I don't see a player getting out of youth soccer paying nothing less than 16K (that would be 2K a year for eight years). GDA and ECNL way more! GDA route 21K ECNL 40K over the youth career?

There is the life experience and lessons but that can be duplicated elsewhere. Why not just be a multi sport middle school and high school athlete and save the money. High school coaches can teach you life is hard just like the club coaches. Unless you are the best player on the team all coaches seem bad.

I don't understand America's desire to invest so much money in soccer. The only athletes that truly make out are D1 Football and D1 men's basket ball.

My daughter is at the end of the ride. We have spent a fortune. But she has friends from soccer all over Oregon. The 30-40 kids that have been her teammates are all various levels of friends, some very close. She has been all over the country playing soccer. Learned an immense amount about responsibility and hard work. Thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Spent a lot of time around really good kids.

I wouldn't change a thing. Incredible experience

[Unregistered]

The one thing that annoys me, I guess, is the travel.

Especially teams/clubs/leagues that include travel as a regular part of how they do business.

In a relatively small soccer market like PDX, this is often justified with "we need to fly to California or drive to Seattle to find a worthy opponent". BS. Unless you're the top team in the area, there's someone else in town who can beat you. And even if you are the very best team in your age group, there's a group of older kids who can beat you.

Travel is fun--especially if the trip is long enough so that the kids can do a bit of sightseeing--but it's expensive; if done during the school year it impacts education, and it represents a major time commitment from families.

And some coaches seem to go overboard.

[Unregistered]

My daughter is at the end of the ride. We have spent a fortune. But she has friends from soccer all over Oregon. The 30-40 kids that have been her teammates are all various levels of friends, some very close. She has been all over the country playing soccer. Learned an immense amount about responsibility and hard work. Thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Spent a lot of time around really good kids.

I wouldn't change a thing. Incredible experience

I agree with you. I don’t look at parenting decisions with an eye towards my return on investment. Kids are ungodly expensive. She loves her team and her coaches. She has traveled all over the country playing. She’s won some big games and experienced heartbreaking loss. She’s going to play in college soon. Wouldn’t change a single minute of the ride.

[Unregistered]

Is club soccer worth it?

I don't see a player getting out of youth soccer paying nothing less than 16K (that would be 2K a year for eight years). GDA and ECNL way more! GDA route 21K ECNL 40K over the youth career?

There is the life experience and lessons but that can be duplicated elsewhere. Why not just be a multi sport middle school and high school athlete and save the money. High school coaches can teach you life is hard just like the club coaches. Unless you are the best player on the team all coaches seem bad.

I don't understand America's desire to invest so much money in soccer. The only athletes that truly make out are D1 Football and D1 men's basket ball.

If you are into club soccer for D1 scholarships or your child to go pro you are failing your child.
Your child is navigating this world and should be doing some sort of extra curricular activity where they can learn to be a good teammate and more importantly learn to build their character whether it be youth sports, church or playing an instrument.

What should the dollar figure be? I don’t know. I do know that guitar lessons are $50/30 minutes.... Gymnastics is up to $20k/year....b-ball is year round now.

If you think for one minute that these coaches are making money to work with your child then you’re incompetent. Coaches are making between $3-$5 per hour to coach your child and deal with us crazy parents.

[Unregistered]

I can't really think of many things besides sports that I can discuss with my kids on a level playing field. They don't get to drink beer, so we can't discuss microbrews. I can care less about their social media, movies, and phone apps. We can evaluate one of their games or a game on tv and share ideas equally. The rest of the time, I am the parent trying to teach them to someday be responsible adults. Step one in that process should be to tell them to stay away from here when they have kids.

[Unregistered]

I don't know - very active in the sport, but find myself often exhausted as a youth soccer parent. Wish one of my kids would focus on another sport to be honest. Having said that, keeps them active and fit, provides a healthy social circle, as well a sense of community.

While the sport has given me plenty of pain, has also given me a lifetime of joy, so if my kids get that too not a bad thing.

You idiots need to ask yourselves.....

How many games does my child play in 52 week year?
If it’s more than 35 you are failing your child and it is the direct reason why kids quit and why you are tired.

Please pass this info on to more parents so they don’t make the same mistakes....and you need to jump in with the rest of us and fight the clubs that think they need to play in five tournies a year with FWRL, OYSA fall and spring and state cup....
Oh, and play indoor/futsal too.

Why are parents tired? Lol

[Unregistered]

My daughter is at the end of the ride. We have spent a fortune. But she has friends from soccer all over Oregon. The 30-40 kids that have been her teammates are all various levels of friends, some very close. She has been all over the country playing soccer. Learned an immense amount about responsibility and hard work. Thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Spent a lot of time around really good kids.

I wouldn't change a thing. Incredible experience

Pretty much the same here.

[Unregistered]

You idiots need to ask yourselves.....

How many games does my child play in 52 week year?
If it’s more than 35 you are failing your child and it is the direct reason why kids quit and why you are tired.

Please pass this info on to more parents so they don’t make the same mistakes....and you need to jump in with the rest of us and fight the clubs that think they need to play in five tournies a year with FWRL, OYSA fall and spring and state cup....
Oh, and play indoor/futsal too.

Why are parents tired? Lol

Why not just tell the coach that you want your kid to play in less than 35 games. If they play more, that gives the other kids more opportunities. Win win.

[Unregistered]

You idiots need to ask yourselves.....

How many games does my child play in 52 week year?
If it’s more than 35 you are failing your child and it is the direct reason why kids quit and why you are tired.

Please pass this info on to more parents so they don’t make the same mistakes....and you need to jump in with the rest of us and fight the clubs that think they need to play in five tournies a year with FWRL, OYSA fall and spring and state cup....
Oh, and play indoor/futsal too.

Why are parents tired? Lol

To each their own. Who is the "rest of us" that are fighting the clubs and saving us stupid parents from the evils of tourneys and futsal?

[Unregistered]

You idiots need to ask yourselves.....

How many games does my child play in 52 week year?
If it’s more than 35 you are failing your child and it is the direct reason why kids quit and why you are tired.

Please pass this info on to more parents so they don’t make the same mistakes....and you need to jump in with the rest of us and fight the clubs that think they need to play in five tournies a year with FWRL, OYSA fall and spring and state cup....
Oh, and play indoor/futsal too.

Why are parents tired? Lol

One of the alleged benefits of the DA (and GDA) is reining in of this sort of thing. One one hand, DA teams no longer have to drive to Medford, usually only have one game per weekend, etc. OTOH, there's still various DA showcase events, the "off months" are often filled with summer tournaments and winter futsal, and various DA teams still managed to do things like Surf and Dallas.

And a lot of coaches believe, in their heart of hearts, that this is not only good but necessary.

(And if you ask many of the kids, they would spend more time in games and less in training).

[Unregistered]

the DA program is not looking after the best interests of the kids. It is trying to grind out some better skill levels. What they overlook is what kids need to be happy.

Kids would much rather play games so the train more, play less is bad.

Kids want to win tournaments, titles, state cups, surf cup..etc. DA pretty much eliminates all of that.

[Unregistered]

To each their own. Who is the "rest of us" that are fighting the clubs and saving us stupid parents from the evils of tourneys and futsal?

Last year, BSC tended to take a "no tournament" stance, declining to participate in the large spree of summer tournaments, and even not including state/pres cup as part of the basic package. OTOH, that club had financial issues and has now been eaten, and the new club seems eager to haul it's DA teams off to a vacation tournament in Spain.

Other than that, I'm not aware of any local clubs that are publicly taking the position that "we will limit summer tournament activities".

Generally, most clubs view participation in summer tournaments as optional--families do vacations, parents have work commitments, etc. Coaches may hint otherwise, but generally won't force the issue (if a coach drops your kid because he's not available the weekend of Surf Cup, chances are said coach didn't think too highly of him/her to begin with).

[Unregistered]

Is club soccer worth it?

I don't see a player getting out of youth soccer paying nothing less than 16K (that would be 2K a year for eight years). GDA and ECNL way more! GDA route 21K ECNL 40K over the youth career?

There is the life experience and lessons but that can be duplicated elsewhere. Why not just be a multi sport middle school and high school athlete and save the money. High school coaches can teach you life is hard just like the club coaches. Unless you are the best player on the team all coaches seem bad.

I don't understand America's desire to invest so much money in soccer. The only athletes that truly make out are D1 Football and D1 men's basket ball.

Talk to the board and leadership at the 'club' they aren't here to serve the mission of a membership, just meet payroll.

Sad state affairs.