Maple

[Unregistered]

Town soccer will always be successful assuming that a few smart people are charging the right amount (now up to 300-400 dollars for the year) for the following reasons:

They use town fields and these don't add to the family cost.

There will always be a large range of players who want to go and kick a ball around. These kids will always find a home in the town leagues.

There will always be dads and moms who get a kick out of volunteering to coach and help out.

There will always be large numbers of parents who realize that Academics are more important and a better avenue to invest large amounts of money into....or for that matter....any amount of money.

There is always time to play town soccer as the travel is not excessive (even for the travel teams) and the tournaments are local ones

For the convenience, the economics, and the realisms of life, Town soccer will always be a steady success.......no matter how much the club-lovers (like myself) recognize how variable the coaching and training is.....

[Unregistered]

Then volunteer and address it. It's tought to fire a volunteer.

Bingo. That is why there are so many really iffy town coaches.

[beentheredonethat]

Bingo. That is why there are so many really iffy town coaches.

Which is why you need to revise a lot of this environment. For a whole lot kids, the volunteer mom/dad is all they need and want out of their youth soccer experience. The town programs do this better than anyone. The problem becomes the players with more advanced expectations. This is where things get crazy. One of the problems that I see is we keep trying to use same structure we have for high level players and use it with intermediate ones. I think this is what creates the really warped expectations you find in club soccer. The thing about the club model around here is it was originally intended for a relatively small segment of die hard soccer prospects who wanted to push through to the college game. The problem we have now is the clubs have expanded tremendously and their overall player base is not really looking for the same experience as that original target yet the expectations and costs still comensurate with them. If you really want to start to understand the issue go do some research on clubs like McLean or YMS and see how they address the player needs from different levels. Outside of MPS we don't have a single entity around here that approaches anything like them. I personally think the town programs could do a better job if they wouldn't confine themselves to their town boundaries.

[Unregistered]

Which is why you need to revise a lot of this environment. For a whole lot kids, the volunteer mom/dad is all they need and want out of their youth soccer experience. The town programs do this better than anyone. The problem becomes the players with more advanced expectations. This is where things get crazy. One of the problems that I see is we keep trying to use same structure we have for high level players and use it with intermediate ones. I think this is what creates the really warped expectations you find in club soccer. The thing about the club model around here is it was originally intended for a relatively small segment of die hard soccer prospects who wanted to push through to the college game. The problem we have now is the clubs have expanded tremendously and their overall player base is not really looking for the same experience as that original target yet the expectations and costs still comensurate with them. If you really want to start to understand the issue go do some research on clubs like McLean or YMS and see how they address the player needs from different levels. Outside of MPS we don't have a single entity around here that approaches anything like them. I personally think the town programs could do a better job if they wouldn't confine themselves to their town boundaries.

Excellent post. I can't help but think that with all passion for soccer in MA ,and the huge number of players and teams we have here, we can do much better job of meeting the spectrum of expectation that these young player have for their game. I am about to launch a college player and absolutely could not have done it without club soccer and a very good HS team. We left our town program at U10, totally frustrated, and never looked back. If that had been our only option, I'm not sure he would have still been playing by HS, which would have been sad given how much he loves this game. He did do Distract Select, and really enjoyed it. That should be more along the lines of how the town programs work.