Jack is better than either 2006 GK on the NL team at TSC. I know both of them and my son has done a lot of training with both of them as well as with Jack. One of them will be Jack's backup at Jenks. The other will likely start at BA for lack of a better option at BA. And I'm not advocating that Jack is a top player nationally. Top players have D1 offers. He's got some really good shot stopping qualities in his game and some good instincts. Good GKs need both. He has some deficiencies in other areas. He's OK with the ball at his feet, but not great. And his decision making in distribution should be better.
Youth soccer club
- Thread starter BasPlayr
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It’s been a slow period for youth soccer these past few months. That all is about to change. High school soccer, ECNL showcases and the stretch run in league to qualify for ECNL nationals in Seattle this June.
We have a showcase this weekend in Dallas. Calling a group of three games a “Showcase” for age groups younger than sophomores is silly btw. College coaches aren’t watching U13-U15. Call them what they are…overpriced friendlies. The positive side is we do get to play the top teams out of Florida, Georgia and NY this weekend so the competition should be high quality.
We need one point out of our final four games to qualify for nationals. Shouldn’t be a problem. More of a question of seeding at this point. I’ve never been to Seattle so I’m looking forward to the trip.
Good luck to all the high school teams this spring. Hopefully the east side can bring home some hardware.
We have a showcase this weekend in Dallas. Calling a group of three games a “Showcase” for age groups younger than sophomores is silly btw. College coaches aren’t watching U13-U15. Call them what they are…overpriced friendlies. The positive side is we do get to play the top teams out of Florida, Georgia and NY this weekend so the competition should be high quality.
We need one point out of our final four games to qualify for nationals. Shouldn’t be a problem. More of a question of seeding at this point. I’ve never been to Seattle so I’m looking forward to the trip.
Good luck to all the high school teams this spring. Hopefully the east side can bring home some hardware.
So my son was talking with Jack Franklin (Jenks) and Will Franks (Bixby) about their prospective HS seasons. The 3 of them are pretty sure the 6A champ will be from the west side this season. Jenks lost a ton last year and will be young. Bixby wasn't very good last season and lost several key seniors. They will struggle this year. And Union isn't going to be very good. The team simply has no leadership and there are a lot of cliques and infighting...and the coaches seemingly doesn't see it or won't do anything about it.
I'm ready for HS and club soccer to be done at this point. Union graduation is basically 3 months away. I think my son is ready to be at college already
We spend so much time, money and emotion into our kids and their sports. Then the day comes and we realize it’s over and time to move on. Will you still ref going forward ?
100% will still referee. I like the extra spending money and the activity. I've already been approached by the OSSAA ref coordinator and the local OSSAA ref assignor about doing OSSAA games and I told them next season because my son is a senior playing at Union this year.
Yeah, it's weird thinking what I'll do with the extra time and money of not having to travel to all these places and games all weekend (unless I want to ref) when he's done with club. Right now he still has some options of playing in college and we'll know more in a month or so. But I won't be going to all of his games obviously since he won't be anywhere near here and I don't have the type of money to travel to New England every weekend to watch his games...YouTube streaming will be my friend
Good luck to him re his choice of colleges. Please keep us updated.Yeah, it's weird thinking what I'll do with the extra time and money of not having to travel to all these places and games all weekend (unless I want to ref) when he's done with club. Right now he still has some options of playing in college and we'll know more in a month or so. But I won't be going to all of his games obviously since he won't be anywhere near here and I don't have the type of money to travel to New England every weekend to watch his games...YouTube streaming will be my friend
Will do. Things will be delayed this year for sure because the FAFSA is a cluster**** of epic proportions right now. Colleges aren't anticipating getting any FAFSA information before March 15th, which is really late compared to previous years. Right now, out of the schools he knows he's accepted to, WPI is the leader in the clubhouse but there are other schools he's still waiting to hear from that with the right amount of merit scholarships he'd probably lean towards over them. It's all going to come down to scholarship packages from these schools.
If your daughter is in the national team pool, aren't we going to be talking NIL money?
lol. Huge difference between being in the national team pool and making the national team. I would be happy with a 1/2 ship and some academic money thrown on top at this point.
I forgot what we were talking about and started wondering when I mentioned my daughter was "in the national team pool" but talking about swimming. Sorry...I spent the entire weekend watching my daughter swim in a meet. Not a really competitive bone in her body...at least I thought that until this weekend. really thought she enjoyed just hanging out at the pool and with the girls between events. Well, this weekend she made her first 3 event finals and won the 100M Butterfly. Interesting on the fly is she was 2nd seed going into finals but was more than 5 seconds behind the prelim time #1 seed. She beat the #1 seed by 6 seconds in the final AND knocked 5 seconds off her prelim time. She also cut time in all of her events which is a big thing. And she was only about .5 seconds behind one of her friends in the same club in an event that she had been about 3-4 seconds behind that girl in most events. My daughter has only been swimming competitively for a little over a year and it was something we let her do because of the amount of exercise she was getting while doing it. Her jam is more pom/dance and theater.
For the first time, she was excited about swimming and can't wait for the next meet. Union's HS coach also took notice of her this weekend and asked what grade she was in and was "Darn, I've got to wait two more years".
Sorry...the pool comment threw me for a loop 😂
Ask Taylor Malham and Parker Goins about that. I do think they got to play on a USWNT in one junior event back when they were in HS. TSC wouldn't shut up about that.
I think just being invited to those camps, training with that caliber of player, and getting coached by high level coaches (even higher than most ESNL coaches) is a tremendous experience for kids. I know when my son goes to some of the college camps, being coached by D1 coaches, some of whom coach top 20 programs, is a great experience. It's hard for a kid to grow or even maintain a certain level going against the same girls in training every day and if you're not playing regular games, the growth slows. Experiences like that give players an opportunity to see things and do some self evaluation about areas they need to work on.
It’s very difficult to get national recognition playing in Oklahoma. Oklahoma had two 2010 girls selected to the U.S. Soccer camp pool this year. Texas had well over 20. To my knowledge a Tulsa area kid has never been a fixture on any USWNT other than an isolated appearance here or there. I do believe Parker is probably the most talented girl to come out of the Tulsa area in quite some time.
Never been to a swim meet. Guess we will have swimming instead of soccer updates to look forward to after this spring.
Do you guys know what Parkers dad's name is? I played rec soccer with a guy named David Goins in Broken Arrow around 1980, and I'm wondering if it might be his kid.
Aaron. I believe he was a second round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in 1989. Parker’s sister plays at KState.
Maybe David was his cousin or something then. Goin is not a rare name, but is not common either. I'm betting they were related somehow.
So, swim meets...not nearly exciting as soccer games at these ages. So my daughter swam 4 events on Saturday. We were at the pool at 7:30am for warm ups. Meet doesn't start until 9:15am. Most of these pools are freaking saunas, literally, so you're just sitting there getting a good sweat down waiting for your kid to swim, which might be once an hour until 1pm. Then if you're lucky enough that your kid made a final, you get to come back at 4pm to do it all again, except now you're also fighting parents of 10 and under kids who are now there to swim (that age group doesn't do prelims, they just swim as many heats as needed to get all the entered swimmers through....best time wins. Well in events like the 50 free, you usually have 6-8 heats of that. I always thought it odd they had lifeguards on duty in these events...I mean we're talking a pool full of competitive, accomplished swimmers...and their coaches. If you ever watch 10U trying to swim a 50 backstroke or a 50 fly, you would then understand why lifeguards are on duty. You're hoping the poor kid bringing up the rear doesn't just sink to the bottom at some point.
That was basically Saturday and Sunday this past week. Oh, and we were there Friday night too as my daughter swam in a couple of long races. She swam the 400 Free and the 200 IM.
Her next meet is the Oklahoma Swim State Meet Feb. 24-25 in Jenks. She is swimming in 2 relay events for her team as she has not quite met state standards (again, she's only be doing it a little over a year). She swims the anchor for the 200 Medley relay, and she'll probably swim the 3rd leg of the 200 free relay.
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I had no idea what meets were like. My only experience with a swim meet prior to her swimming was watching it on the Olympics.
Sounds like dance recitals. Spend 4 hours there while watching your kid perform two 3 minute dances. They always seem to have one dance early in the program and one near the end so there’s no escape.
Correct. Aaron Goins was in the Top 5 of the most sought after Oklahoma high school recruits of the 1980’s. He was a Parade All-American when that was the most sought after recruit distinction. He made Owasso a contender when it was a small school without any success. He committed to OU over Notre Dame and Southern Cal in one of Switzer’s final recruiting wins, took the money to go play baseball, then came back after less than a year and tried to make the team at OU. He quit and wound up as a bit player for OSU football a few years later. He was also All-State in basketball and could have played D1 collegiately. He was one of the best wrestlers in the state until he gave it up to concentrate on other sports. He wasn’t a bust, but he’s a good example of an exceptional high school all around athlete who never develops at a higher level. He should have signed wuth TU, he could have had a chance at being an All-American defensive back, instead of RB4 in Stillwater. Coach Rader tried really really hard to recruit him but some local kids get focused on the money and notoriety and it ends up not working out.
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This slaps.
My daughter also competitive pom for Union. 3 weeks ago at a regional they hosted, my wife was there from 7:00AM-10:00PM. My daughter was there at 10:30am for their 3:30pm performance. And then we were there until 10:00PM when awards concluded. Since Union hosted, I was voluntold to sign up to help. I was there from 1:30PM until 10:00PM. Union MS performance clocked at 3.5 minutes. And my daughter also does the dance recital thing so yeah, I know about that too.
Makes me so thankful to be a soccer girl dad. Show up 45 minutes prior to kick. Watch the game and immediately leave once over. Main downside is wondering who makes the team and who gets cut every summer during “tryouts”. We all know the coaches have all but selected the teams prior to tryouts.
That does suck. Even now, there are such distinct A and B teams in academy stuff. I wish they would kick some kids down to rec because they are wasting some kids in practice.
However, some are new to the academy, so they are learning how competitive it is and have potential. They are young (5,6,7) so I must give them grace. If they were teenagers, I would have no grace.
Teaching the kids that can play how to play with kids who can’t is a lesson that will last forever. The kids that should be in rec aren’t there to get better. They won’t. They are there to make your kid better. The sooner your child understands that and embraces that, the sooner they will truly love the game
The kids know who are better but at this age they kind of just like goofing off too.
Let's be honest...TSC, Blitz, WSA, etc. should not be doing any tryouts for kids younger than the U9 age group. U*s and below are still playing small sided, 4v4 games. All that matters at that age are touches, touches, touches, touches, and more touches. At U9 when you move to 7v7 and you have to learn a little of the tactical stuff that goes with the technical stuff, then you can start sorting so you have girls playing the appropriate level and coaches can work on appropriate skills and tactics with the kids for the playing level.
But I know what Lawpoke is saying, a kid from WSA who tries out for TSC's ECNL team has a better shot of making that team than a kid from TSC's 2nd team even though the kid from the 2nd team is clearly the better player. Everyone thinks winning and development are the top goals of any club...and that's 100% BS. The #1 goal of any of these local clubs is $$$. A new kid from WSA adds extra $$ to the TSC account. Promoting a player from within the club and telling the WSA kid he didn't make the top team means the WSA kid is going back to WSA so TSC would be missing out on an additional $3500/yr (or more) from that kid's dues and overcharged uniform fees.
They're 5, 6 & 7. It's supposed to be fun and goofy. Parents don't need to add the pressure to a kid that young that they need to be the next Messi. I coached those age groups back in the day. I had a kid who always looked miserable and I asked him why and he said "I don't really like soccer." I asked him why he was playing and he said "My dad signed me up because he was a good player when he was a kid"
I asked my son the same question at the end of every competitive season. Do you still love soccer? Do you still want to play at this level? 2 reasons for this...I didn't want him to think he had to continue playing for my sake. 2nd, if he wasn't really into it anymore, that'd save me a ton of money each year in club fees, travel, uniforms (and as a GK 4-5 pairs of gloves a year @ $90 a pop, and 2 pairs of cleats (GKs blow cleats out because of the torque and push)).
At 5,6 & 7 the only thing you should be concerned about is that the kid is having fun. When I was coaching those age groups, I had 5 rules and I made them repeat it every game. 5) Don't let the other team score 4) score as many goals as you can 3) Be a good teammate 2) Be a good sport 1) HAVE FUN
The last 3 are way more important than the 1st 2 at that age.
Here’s my soccer rant for the day. To parents and coaches….stop moving to bigger fields and larger rosters before its age appropriate. Parents…just because your buddy’s 9 year old is playing 11v11 doesn’t mean she’s getting better soccer training than your daughter who’s playing 9v9. Same with 4v4 versus 7v7. Smaller field size and rosters means more touches and more individual attention at trainings. There is plenty of time for 11v11 tactical. Europe does it correctly. Stays in small sides as long as possible due to the developmental benefits. Everytime I hear a parent complaining to a coach wanting to play up on a larger field it’s all I can do not to lose my sh*t on them. Bigger is not always better.
Parents with small kids playing soccer. Sit back and enjoy it. Kids should be having fun. Parents should be having fun. Very little real pressure to achieve outcomes (although it may not feel like it). This is the fun period. Enjoy. It will be over all too soon. Games will start to matter. Performance of your child will start to matter. This “fun” period will be over in a blink of an eye.
I watched an ECNL game this past weekend between Energy and TSC. Winner goes to ECNL nationals in Seattle. Loser stays home. Stakes and pressure on those girls couldn’t have been higher. Almost every girl on the losing side had tears afterwards. Parents…the pressure to win is around the corner. Enjoy the ride now.
Parents with small kids playing soccer. Sit back and enjoy it. Kids should be having fun. Parents should be having fun. Very little real pressure to achieve outcomes (although it may not feel like it). This is the fun period. Enjoy. It will be over all too soon. Games will start to matter. Performance of your child will start to matter. This “fun” period will be over in a blink of an eye.
I watched an ECNL game this past weekend between Energy and TSC. Winner goes to ECNL nationals in Seattle. Loser stays home. Stakes and pressure on those girls couldn’t have been higher. Almost every girl on the losing side had tears afterwards. Parents…the pressure to win is around the corner. Enjoy the ride now.
Every player until they sign their second professional contract should be touching the ball for one hour every single day and before they open their presents on Christmas.
A player that does that, preferably with a similarly sized but slightly quicker and faster companion, will develop so much faster than what parents are trying to buy from clubs.
Dont ask players whether they still want to play. They will tell you what they think you want to hear. And that includes your kid you think you know. Ask them what they would do if they weren’t playing. Then ask them if the game is still fun. And use those words. If they say or express it isn’t fun anymore, give them the opportunity to pursue what was said in question one and see if they do it. And watch closely if they start to drift from the previous friendships on the team. That’s usually how you know they’ve given up before you see the surrender or indifference on the pitch.
A player that does that, preferably with a similarly sized but slightly quicker and faster companion, will develop so much faster than what parents are trying to buy from clubs.
Dont ask players whether they still want to play. They will tell you what they think you want to hear. And that includes your kid you think you know. Ask them what they would do if they weren’t playing. Then ask them if the game is still fun. And use those words. If they say or express it isn’t fun anymore, give them the opportunity to pursue what was said in question one and see if they do it. And watch closely if they start to drift from the previous friendships on the team. That’s usually how you know they’ve given up before you see the surrender or indifference on the pitch.
Agree. TSC, specifically Donnie Carreno, does so many bad things that push kids to 11 v 11 before their bodies are really ready for it. US Soccer has "recommendations" for field size and team size for certain age groups for a reason. Because they see how it works in Europe. This is the same reason why US Soccer changed from school year to birth year age groups. That happened when my son was 10 going on 11. His best friend who is 32 days older than he is was born on December 30th, my son Feb. 1. We left our son with his age group rather than moving him up. We liked the coach and direction of things at the time. And my son actually flourished not being with his best friend on the soccer field.
Lawpoke will know this too, at an early age find a coach who focuses on development. And make sure the "I don't care about winning at this age, it's all about development and the boys/girls getting better" isn't just lip service. Winning should not matter until they reach HS and/or playing on the highest competitive club team in the highest competitive league such as ECNL. Even at that, it should matter that much to 13-14 year olds as much as development. My son has had 2 coaches in his club career where the development was paramount to what they were doing. 1 when he was 12 and 1 his last year at TSC. The coach when he was 12 told parents in his 1st meeting with them "I don't care if we win or lose, I need to see the boys getting better as players and teammates before we can focus on winning". Guess what happened? He followed that all season and this team struggled to win games. But they only gave up a goal or 2 a game which is almost unheard of for U12. BUT, because they had been taught how to play the game correctly and build an attack starting in the back and by the end of the season, they were State Cup champions and only conceded 1 goal in the 3 games, and that was a PK. If you teach the game right and develop kids right, the winning comes as a natural. Forcing kids to play kick and chase to get goals because you have 1 player who is bigger, faster, and stronger and maybe more skilled than anyone else on the field, is not developing the rest of the kids on that team and once they start playing on a bigger field vs players just as skilled or more, you'll find out chasing wins at U11/U12 actually is detrimental to their development as a soccer player. You get on bigger fields, you must be able to pass the ball and build an attack if you're going to have consistent success. Well, that doesn't happen if you teach kids to kick the ball as hard as they can out of the back when they're younger.
100%. Development versus winning is a struggle here in America. Parents want to win. Most don’t understand that learning to play out of the back and through the midfield is key to longterm development. They see team “B” playing direct to a kid who is currently bigger and faster than everyone else on the field and winning and want to be on that “winning” team. It’s hard for many parents to watch their kid’s team giving up goals because they are focusing on possession soccer and not the “kick it and run” style. Takes a special coach to keep his team together during the struggles of learning proper tactical soccer. Unfortunately, many clubs don’t provide the necessary support. The are more worried about the business side. Clubs need to adopt to proper tactically based soccer and teach that year to year regardless of the coach. Clubs need to meet with parents several times a year and explain there might be an immediate downside as far as wins but the long term results are out focus. Don’t leave the heavy lifting solely on the coaches as the natural reaction there is to pacify the parents.
^This. TSC immediately moved the coach my son had to a higher team because he made them look bad by having his "3rd tier" team be better than teams 1 & 2 in their fake pecking order. So instead of leaving him with his group of boys for the next season or two and allow them to continue growing and developing, they moved him to that next team up. My son's team sort of fizzled in their growth and the coach left at midseason because he was tired of dealing with certain players and their parents.
TSC tried to implement the one club, one style on the boys and girls sides by hiring coordinators who were supposed to not only develop a cohesive training plan for all teams with a consistent style but make sure coaches of the individual teams and age groups were following it. What happened? Half the girls coaches quit and went elsewhere. The boys never had that at all...and the promise of the entire age group will train together 2-3 times a month never materialized. Meaning TSC wasn't serious about developing players and moving players around to the appropriate teams/levels. The number of times I had a conversation with Barry about this specifically and heard his Utopian vision for soccer at TSC was pretty high and I'd say probably a cumulative 10 hrs or so in conversation until I just gave up on trying to get the things he promised. I mean, seriously, how many clubs the size and quality of TSC, go 3+ years without a dedicated goalkeeping coach or program in place? Do you know how many regular club coaches don't have a ****ing clue about how to train or develop GKs? And USSF doesn't include GK development in their coaching programs UNLESS you're going for a specific USSF GK Coach license. I know it's not in the Class C license class/training and that's the one that most clubs want coaches to have as a minimum at this level. They may touch on GK for an hour in the entire class.
There's a very good article in The Guardian about Freddy Adu and how things went so terribly wrong for "America's Pele". In essence, kids, and at 14 he was still a kid, shouldn't be thrust into adult situations like playing on a professional sports team. This is why MLB and the NHL don't allow kids to be drafted until they are 18. Of course MLB treats international players differently and like speculative commodities and I think the earliest they can be signed is 16. Again, Adu was 14. He needed to be able to be a kid and play for the fun of the game which you just can't do as a professional. Play more club ball, play HS ball, etc. to keep playing for fun. The pro stuff will come if you're that good...or you'll find you really don't love the game that much to be playing for money.
I'm pretty sure every TSC team is playing their age group this year. Maybe a team is playing up in a few tournaments because of the brackets or competition. But not going from 7v7 to 9v9 etc.
This girl is the best 2010 girl I have seen and by a large margin. I would be shocked if she’s not on the national team in 3-4 years.
www.espn.com
U.S. U15 star youngest to sign Nike NIL deal
Nike has signed 13-year-old soccer phenom McKenna "Mak" Whitham to a name, image and likeness deal. Whitham becomes the youngest women's soccer player and youngest athlete in any sport to sign an NIL deal with Nike.
And I like that these kids can sign NIL deals like this and not feel the pressure to sign a pro contract to play. NIL maintains their ability to play in HS and college vs a pro contract and they lose that eligibility.This girl is the best 2010 girl I have seen and by a large margin. I would be shocked if she’s not on the national team in 3-4 years.
U.S. U15 star youngest to sign Nike NIL deal
Nike has signed 13-year-old soccer phenom McKenna "Mak" Whitham to a name, image and likeness deal. Whitham becomes the youngest women's soccer player and youngest athlete in any sport to sign an NIL deal with Nike.
I would like to see an ability for MLS teams to draft kids and maintain exclusive negotiating rights within the US for their playing services for, say, 4 years. Then you can have MLS teams take some chances on younger players and still allow them to play HS and college. Sort of like the MHS deal. He wasn't ready for MLS or MLS Next out of HS, but they still were able to sign him as a homegrown player when he finished here.
Signing those early pro contracts just limit the path those players can take to continue developing.
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