There are other options online. If you have Amazon Prime you can order it and have it shipped directly to the hotel in Memphis. They also make ones that hold 2 chairs. I know parents who use it to get out of the rain but also, if it's cold and windy, it provides a nice wind block.
Youth soccer club
- Thread starter BasPlayr
- Start date
Have never even heard of Sting. I did hear about a bunch of folks leaving TSC from our coach. I suspect most of the kids who go will go for the chance to be on a top team at the new club. (Just looking them up on the internet, it looks like it's an all girls club).
We'll see what happens. TSC still has a lot of great coaches and some really good group directors in place. Yolanda Thomas has been handed the girls side of things (Fortuna Tulsa, now Tulsa SC). They will be in very capable hands as I know there is a united direction in terms of teaching the game and development on the girls side at TSC. The boys side is a different story. I know the NPL director on the boys side. I worked with him at ORU. Good guy, great soccer mind, great coach. He takes the Herb Brooks' approach "The legs feed the wolf". He runs daily conditioning sessions for his teams in the summer...but he's not one out there blowing a whistle watching the kids run sprints, or hills, or whatever. He's out there doing it with them and pushing them every second of the session.
I know a few of the coaches that left. Part of it was they only wanted to coach 1 team and Barry told them for development purposes they needed to take 2 (usually it was an assignment like 06 ECNL and 05 ECNL). There are a number of reasons for that. They didn't like it.
We'll see what happens. I might have to give Levi a call (I just threw up a bit) and ask about Tulsa Athletic for my son. He needs to be pushed more and the fact that TSC hasn't had a club GK coach for over a year tells me how little the club values the position and thus my son's development is not a concern of theirs.
Send him to No 1 soccer camp. They can clean up in a week what any local coach will slow roll for years to keep you coming back for lessons. Their director out of Dallas, Matt something, I guess he’s still there, knows what he’s talking about.
Or if you just want a shot of motivation and have money to spend, Rimando gives weekend camps in Salt Lake and is probably shorter than your son, who will catch on quick you should be tall, but don’t have to be, to do the job at a high level.
Or if you just want a shot of motivation and have money to spend, Rimando gives weekend camps in Salt Lake and is probably shorter than your son, who will catch on quick you should be tall, but don’t have to be, to do the job at a high level.
I know very little about Sting other than the have clubs through Texas as well as a few other states. My daughter has a training session with one of their new coaches tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll hear all about it. I’m hearing they took a few of Energy’s top coaches as well as those from TSC. Appears TSC and Energy will now have a common enemy and can stop hating on each other 
We watched MLS Cup 1996 where Jorge Campos was the Gk for LA. My son said "holy crap, that jersey looks huge. How tall is that keeper anyway, he looks like a 12 year old kid?" Look it up, Campos was 5'6". Told my son how Campos killed it for Mexico at that height. My son at 14 is nearly 5'9". He knows height can help but a GK at 6'1" who is technically brilliant will serve most teams well while guys at 6'2" and above may make spectacular saves but also let in extremely soft goals because of poor technique (I'm talking about DeGea, who happens to be my son's favorite keeper, go figure).
My son's coach who is moving to coaching all the girls sides next year at TSC at the ECNL/ECRL level said he hadn't heard about that. I know Kerry Shubert and John Rhein both left TSC abruptly yesterday (Shubert owns Soccer City; Rhein is the filed and facility coordinator at Titan; Rhein's brother is an assistant coach at TU I believe). I would presume those are the 2 at the forefront of the having left TSC rumors. Sting moving in will hurt TSC marginally but not nearly as much as it will hurt Sheffield, Bixby Highlanders, NEOFC and WSA.I know very little about Sting other than the have clubs through Texas as well as a few other states. My daughter has a training session with one of their new coaches tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll hear all about it. I’m hearing they took a few of Energy’s top coaches as well as those from TSC. Appears TSC and Energy will now have a common enemy and can stop hating on each other
Potentially the worst part of this will be facility use and most of the fields in the area will always be in use/overextended.
Interesting, OK Energy FC was just accepted into the ECNL ranks. The players are going to go where the coaches they know go and ECNL teams aren't under the same restrictions OPC/NPL clubs are or OSA clubs are in terms of coaches jumping clubs and not being able to coach players who jump with them for 1 year (we call this the Levi rule).
Not surprising since the ODA folded. Is it the entire Energy Club or just West and Central?
I've heard Sting Soccer Tulsa is waiting on ECLN approval before their official annoucement.
I don't know...it simply said OK Energy FC. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all of OK Energy FC. That'd give the club some flexibility...but they may only get 1 ECNL team statewide. Have no idea how that works.
As for Sting being approved as ECNL...it usually takes years for that to happen. I know they have the club structure in the parent club in Dallas to sustain that but there's not proof a satellite here, with 3 very established clubs in place, would work on the same level with 1/4 of the population.
I've still not heard about when Sting will be official. It will be interesting which platform they will play under.
NOW OFFICIAL: Energy FC (Edmond) and Blitz United (Tulsa) will be members of OPC and Red River NPL. The announcement from OPC mentioned those 2 clubs specifically so I'd have to think that Energy FC is focusing on their OKC area clubs for naming and that the Tulsa side is reverting back to the more common Blitz United moniker. I am hoping so.
BTW, TSC just released their kits for next season:
HOME:
Road:
Keeper Kits:
Training:
Will say right now I am not a fan of them not having the "Lexus" logo on the front. I think that logo and sponsor was an instant recognition thing in the region...everyone knew you played for TSC. Kia seems a bit of a downgrade (but probably netting Barry more $). But Barry also has more connections out there to hopefully keep sponsors on the practice kits and the warm-ups/bags to keep the costs down.
My son prefers the pink keeper kit which is weird but I also thinks he likes the brighter colors in goal. He says the charcoal kit doesn't stand out enough. Overall I like the kits and the look.
Tryouts in 2 weeks. Had a heart to heart with my son and asked if he still wanted to keep playing and if he was still wanting to play at that level and if he was committed to doing what it took to improve. He is involved in a lot of different things between school (academic bowl, band, soccer), Scouts (he needs to finish his project and he'll achieve Eagle), and church (youth, service projects)...there's a lot there and competitive soccer wants all your time to be devoted to them. We'll see how things go
Energy and Blitz have indeed split. Looks like everyone will no be members of the same league. Something which should have been done long ago. The coaches who left TSC have formed Hurricane Soccer Club and will be based out of the Titan complex. John Rhein will be heading the Hurricane .
I tried to respond last night and for some reason I kept getting an error.
Yes to all of us being in the same league. OSA should have never obligated the clubs to align with only the pro team in OKC which facilitated the split to OPC. TSC has been trying to get Blitz to merge for years but Wilber would never do it even though it would make sense to pool resources, coaches, players to create the best development program in the state and it wouldn't even be close. There are so many good players and coaches around Tulsa.
On your 2nd point...they actually all went to WSA to head up The Girls Academy program at WSA. The Girls Academy is an uber competitive, high-level girls competition platform similar to ECNL. WSA announced it last night via their Twitter account. There's a lot of respect in the Tulsa soccer community for Roger and Ryan Bush and what their family has created with WSA and the purpose it served. They're deviating from that original purpose which was to provide a competitive soccer program without the high cost you had at TSC and Blitz.They've been trying to get into ECNL for sometime and have been denied a couple of times....I don't know if it's the facilities or resources (which is why they've been merging with all the little clubs all over the state...to boost their "resources"). To me the facilities WSA uses are terrible. River City parks fields are meh...nothing great. Fields are fraught with bumps and holes. The west side complex just south of the Holley Refinery is awful. Awful traffic flow, awful fields, awful bathroom facility. There was a rumor those were going to be redone as turf fields (all of them) but I KNOW there is a remediation problem as the site was formerly used as a waste dump for the refinery. How do I know this? My wife worked on the soil and water analysis study. I don't know the exact amount of dirt but basically the entire complex would need to be stripped of a 4 foot layer of topsoil before any significant construction or improvements could occur there.
The Girls Academy gives them that uber competitive level program they want. Basically Roger will use it as a way to help recruit players to his women's team at ORU. John Rhein would be that connection to Titan. And Titan is getting overbooked as I know TSC continues to think of it as the exclusive user although Blitz uses the fields quite a bit, and now WSA. And those fields, save for the turf field are all too small and the majority of the goals for the full-sized fields are also too small (there's a funny story about this). I don't know about the Hurricane naming either, especially affiliated with WSA and the Bush' history with ORU. John's brother Jim is an assistant coach at TU. But my understanding of youth soccer history in Tulsa (as told by Mark McIntosh) is that the name "Hurricane" is a TSC trademark since the time that TSC merged with the former Hurrican FC club out of BA (a girls club as well). I don't know if Barry is letting that name go...it wouldn't surprise me if he did. I am not sure if John or Kerry Shubert were part of Hurrican before the merger but it wouldn't surprise me. As for the other coaches...there are a lot of good ones on the list. Looking at the TSC website, they still own the Hurricane trademark and are actively using it to highlight the club's sponsors. It's a pretty impressive list actually.
I worry about the field situation in Tulsa. With BASC and MTSC starting their own competitive sides to go along with their rec programs, field space will be at a premium in Tulsa. Blitz's practice situation is dreadful. I hate Alsuma. I hate getting in and out of Alsuma. TSC's practice and game situation is pretty awful if you ask me. Playing games and having all your practices at the same site destroys the fields. Titan looks great right now but only because no one has been on them in 2.5 months. MTSC has a great set up right now and they do a really good job of controlling the amount of play on their fields. I don't think anyone practices on the fields in the drainage ditch off of 169...only games. Those fields always seem to be in great shape with the exception of a heavy rainfall. The south MTSC fields are great with the exception of the multipurpose lines painted on it. Confuses the crap out of GKs. BASC and Indian Springs are the best fields in the area. They go to great lengths to keep their goal boxes in pristine condition. Worst part of Indian Springs is the parking and traffic flow on days when there are a lot of games.
The Alsuma complex is horrific imo, Blitz needs to do better. Blitz boys were accepted into the ECNL but as of now the girls haven't been from what I've heard. Without the ECNL or the DA replacement league the Blitz girls will become a glorified rec league imo. I know our top players won't stay.
I only know WSA from the 2010 group. They aren't very good. We only play the boys teams and handle them fairly easily. I assume other age divisions are better.
Metro probably has the best facilities in the area. Simba should do well getting their competitive side up and going. Wish they would have teamed up with some of the local clubs instead of making an alliance with the Arkansas group.
My favorite area fields are Keas btw.
This will be our first official year of competitive soccer. Tryouts for all area clubs are in the next 30 days. They still haven't cancelled Super Copa but I expect that will occur soon. Hoping we get another invite for 2021. That was the one tourney the kids were really looking forward too.
I only know WSA from the 2010 group. They aren't very good. We only play the boys teams and handle them fairly easily. I assume other age divisions are better.
Metro probably has the best facilities in the area. Simba should do well getting their competitive side up and going. Wish they would have teamed up with some of the local clubs instead of making an alliance with the Arkansas group.
My favorite area fields are Keas btw.
This will be our first official year of competitive soccer. Tryouts for all area clubs are in the next 30 days. They still haven't cancelled Super Copa but I expect that will occur soon. Hoping we get another invite for 2021. That was the one tourney the kids were really looking forward too.
Sting is an all girls club based out of Texas. Not sure if they're actually forming a club in Tulsa at this point. If they do I would assume it would be with the Broken Arrow Soccer people. The most interesting thing at the moment is all those coaches who left TSC trying to use the Hurricane name for their "new" club which has WSA affiliation.
TSC Tryouts May 18-20. They will have some great coaches still for girls your daughter's age. And Mark Wilson is my son's coach right now. Next year he is taking over as director of the girls' NPL program at TSC. I know a lot of the ECNL coaches and NPL coaches at TSC and they are going to be fantastic. Good technical coaches and they know the game well. Even the OPC teams on the girls side has great coaches (our friend's daughter is a 2009 who plays for Amanda Carreno...if you know anything about the Carrenos, they know the game and they understand how to make the finer points and nuances of the game understandable for the younger kids).
As or the Keas fields....they are great when they have the gopher problem under control. They are also doing some major upgrades to the complex in terms of drainage right now and I believe the 4-5 fields on the SE side are now also being enclosed with the rest of the complex. And I understand they're supposed to pave more of the parking on the east side as well. We have not played a game out there in 4 years. We were scheduled to play one there last month before all this hit.
I think MTSC and BASC have their work cut out for them in terms of building a competitive branch of their clubs. Many will see it as glorified Rec + at the beginning. Depending on cost, they might attract some players who want to try competitive soccer but whose parents aren't fully committed (we had a couple of players like that...really hurts the team a lot). I like Simba, a lot. He took a chance on my son 2 years ago to be the only GK for the U12 team. Simba ended up moving to OKC as his wife got a promotion. And that's when my son's team got taken over by Donovan Ricketts. The team would have been just as well off with Simba coaching....Donovan had a way different approach to the boys and he had them focus on perfecting one part of the game at a time before he moved on to the next part. That focus told the boys that this skill, this concept was really important to the game.
Some of the WSA girls teams that are older (2004s and 05s I think) are really really good sides. I also have some inside info that the TSC is filing a complaint w/ OPC against the coaches who left to go there for being in violation of a bylaw which doesn't allow them to recruit their former players from the old club (OSA has the same rule...I call it "The Levi Rule". What a bloody mess.
This would be interesting...as I said, on the TSC website right now Hurricane has a trademark on the site as part of the TSC club name. I have a feeling we are going to see some of this stuff end up in court similar to when Blitz filed an injunction against Tulsa United when United merged with MTSC and affiliated their rec program under TSC. This moved field rights to TSC and Blitz was left hanging and ended up out at Mohawk.
Overall, I think this is actually bad for soccer in the area but if you don't have anything more than a 1 year coaching agreement in place, coaches can bounce whenever.
I know the Carrenos well. My daughter guest played for 2010 NEOFC and played that 2009 team at the Highlander Cup at Titan earlier this year before the Rona shut down the season. Our core group isn't going anywhere this season. Going to wait for the dust to settle and then assess the various options.
Apparently the new OPC Director at TSC is going to be Matt Gibson. I hear he is a former TU player in the late 90s. Have been told he is a good coach.
In other news, my son's team had an informal training session on Saturday. 9 boys. Worked out great, they seemed to enjoy themselves and be happy about being out there again. Couple more planned for this week. Tryouts apparently are next week May 18-20.
In other news, my son's team had an informal training session on Saturday. 9 boys. Worked out great, they seemed to enjoy themselves and be happy about being out there again. Couple more planned for this week. Tryouts apparently are next week May 18-20.
Good luck with tryouts. We're going through our first experience with the "tryout" thing. Seems a bit silly for all but new players to the club but I understand why the clubs all go through the process.
Is your daughter on the top team now? Kids playing at this level are competitive by nature and they want to be able to prove themselves. My son was placed on a team 3 years ago because the top 2 teams were "sheltered" because of the coach thinking that only the kids he had from the time they were 8 were worthy of those top 2 teams. My son was probably appropriately placed at that time. In the 2 "tryout" cycles after that he grew 10 inches and went from being the shortest GK in the age group to 2nd tallest and 2nd strongest. GK coach he has worked with (and who has worked with all of the other GKs in the group) said he was technically better than the others but he lagged a little athletically. Fair assessment. But this is how the US keeps not ID'ing the best players. Players who are gifted technically and tactically are being overlooked because they are not being moved up because they are not the fastest or strongest because some other freakish 14 year old is 6' right now and can manhandle a normal 14 year old. Zach Steffen is a perfect example. Athletically gifted. He is technically terrible with his GK skill, angles, and his footwork. One of the good things about being a GK parent is when you send them to be trained by GK coaches 1 on 1 and 3 of them have played at the highest level in their respective leagues, you learn some really good stuff about what is the most important part of playing the position.
You can't properly evaluate a GKs ability level if you throw kids on a field and tell them to scrimmage for 45 minutes and call it a tryout. The GKs in that situation MAY touch the ball 2-3 times in that scenario. You've got to put them through a series of GK drills. See their footwork, see their technical touch on the ball with their feet, are they able to be used as an extra defender to work the ball out, do they catch the ball cleanly, do they make proper decisions coming off their line, are they communicating with their defenders. I asked Cerda (when he was with the Roughnecks why he was constantly screaming on the field) and he said it was his job to let his team know what was happening because he was the only one who could see everything happening and what was developing.
We'll see what happens. I don't think it matters...my son just wants to play really. It will be interesting because my son hasn't had to share minutes in goal with anyone for 4 years now. If he gets moved up he most assuredly will need to share minutes with another GK and it looks like there will only be one OPC team so he might have to share minutes if he stays put. The good news for him is he is a capable field player so he could see more field time if he shares GK time.
Yes. My daughter is on the top team (we have 4 in her age group). I’m skeptical of a three day tryout changing the opinion of coaches who have seen these kids play countless games over the past year plus. This obviously does not apply to players new to the club. On my daughter’s team there are realistically probably 2 to 3 spots actually available. I assume every club with an established top team is in a similar position.
Cheering for your son. Love seeing kids who are passionate about anything but especially sports and work at their craft. His experience with soccer will serve him well later in life. Please let me know how tryouts turn out for him.
Cheering for your son. Love seeing kids who are passionate about anything but especially sports and work at their craft. His experience with soccer will serve him well later in life. Please let me know how tryouts turn out for him.
All of these people are wildly over paid for what they do, but Matt knows the game. He didn’t play for TU. Either OCU or in Tahlequah. Then a season or two with a former iteration of the Roughnecks. You can trust him. He’s been around. He knows the basics and knows which ones are the most important to master.
He played at NSU. His wife, Susan (Day) Gibson played at TU for Damon. I got bad info from the guy who introduced me to Matt. I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with Coach Gibson the other day. He's got to win the kids over. Hard to do over a Zoom meeting but he'll be combining the best of the 2 teams into one team...and these kids absolutely adored their coaches last year.
He and I talked about how he played for Charlie Mitchell at NSU and some of the craziness around that program at the time including a spring break trip to Florida to play some spring training matches.
Thanks for the word...it certainly makes me feel a little better about things.
Lawpoke, some interesting news from over the weekend between talking with parents and different coaches. So the WSA Girls Academy is a 1 year deal as the group that left TSC was trying to do the Dallas Sting thing this season but couldn't get it organized in time. The WSA thing is a placeholder.
I had heard a couple of different rumors that some good boys players at WSA were moving to Tulsa Athletic to play for Levi Coleman, which I found odd, because Athletic basically has like 2 other clubs it can play in the state of Oklahoma right now as almost every other club is OPC now and OSA is virtually defunct. My son's GK coach double down on this as he said Athletic was going to merge with WSA which made some sense because Levi coveted a couple of players from that club. But then another parent from Blitz told me that Levi was bringing Athletic teams to Blitz and merging with them. The '06 boys group would move from 1 team to 3 teams.
Also, another TSC coach has left and rumor is he was bringing his entire team to Athletic...however if Athletic is merging with Blitz he won't be allowed to coach that age group for 2 yrs per OPC bylaws. This would move my friend's daughter up to the top team at TSC and she deserves it. She got caught in some politics last year with this coach promising too many spots on a squad and not having enough spots to fulfill all of those promises. Just know in those cases, if one of those spots is promised to a kid from another club, that kid will get it (all about the Benjamins).
Tryouts for TSC tonight My kid has already received his offer from the coach...which is good because my son injured his wrist in a training session yesterday. I ran a practice for 10 kids...we always finish with a friendly OK shootout. Kid hits a rocket that my son got his right hand in and it strained the ligaments in his wrist. Later in the shootout he made another ridiculous save. Now, my son knows his teammates and their PK tendencies, but he saved 9 of 14 PKs. 3 were of the "OMG how did you get to that" variety.
I will be interested to see which new kids show up tonight.
I had heard a couple of different rumors that some good boys players at WSA were moving to Tulsa Athletic to play for Levi Coleman, which I found odd, because Athletic basically has like 2 other clubs it can play in the state of Oklahoma right now as almost every other club is OPC now and OSA is virtually defunct. My son's GK coach double down on this as he said Athletic was going to merge with WSA which made some sense because Levi coveted a couple of players from that club. But then another parent from Blitz told me that Levi was bringing Athletic teams to Blitz and merging with them. The '06 boys group would move from 1 team to 3 teams.
Also, another TSC coach has left and rumor is he was bringing his entire team to Athletic...however if Athletic is merging with Blitz he won't be allowed to coach that age group for 2 yrs per OPC bylaws. This would move my friend's daughter up to the top team at TSC and she deserves it. She got caught in some politics last year with this coach promising too many spots on a squad and not having enough spots to fulfill all of those promises. Just know in those cases, if one of those spots is promised to a kid from another club, that kid will get it (all about the Benjamins).
Tryouts for TSC tonight My kid has already received his offer from the coach...which is good because my son injured his wrist in a training session yesterday. I ran a practice for 10 kids...we always finish with a friendly OK shootout. Kid hits a rocket that my son got his right hand in and it strained the ligaments in his wrist. Later in the shootout he made another ridiculous save. Now, my son knows his teammates and their PK tendencies, but he saved 9 of 14 PKs. 3 were of the "OMG how did you get to that" variety.
I will be interested to see which new kids show up tonight.
Thanks for the info. I can confirm that Tulsa Athletic has joined Blitz. I was told that on Saturday by a Blitz director. I had heard that Sting was coming to Tulsa and wondered what happened to them. Makes sense now why the Hurricane coaches hooked up with WSA.
We’re going to hang tight this year and see how everything shakes out. My daughter and several others on the top team were asked not to come to tryouts tonight due to the amount of players expected so we get the night off. We were asked to train with TSC’s top 2010 team last night. My daughter did and it was a good experience for her to see other girls and other coaches.
We’re going to hang tight this year and see how everything shakes out. My daughter and several others on the top team were asked not to come to tryouts tonight due to the amount of players expected so we get the night off. We were asked to train with TSC’s top 2010 team last night. My daughter did and it was a good experience for her to see other girls and other coaches.
Was it Tina Banham running that training session? I can't remember all of the coaches for the 2010 girls. Shane Chambers is one but I don't know what level.
I am excited to see who comes out. Right now it looks like 11 boys at least from last year will be back which is huge for continuity. Also getting a kid who took a year off but is a really good player (his dad played with Coach Gibson at NSU). Kid probably stands about 6'0" right now which finally gives us some size on the back line. We know a couple of our kids are being recruited by Blitz to go over. We had a team Zoom mtg last Friday and Coach Gibson surprised the boys by bringing the NPL coach in and many of them felt reassured about staying at TSC after that (I set the mtg up and didn't know he was joining us).
Yes. Tina ran the session and was assisted by a male coach. Not sure of his name. Shane is coaching the TSC second team. Looks like almost all of Simba's team (TSC #2 team last season) will be playing for Todd Pemberton at Hurricane (WSA).
1) Todd's a prick.
2) I'm not sure they can play for him because of the OPC ruling
I have a feeling this is going to end up in court with TSC filing an injunction
1) LOL
2) My understanding of the OPC ruling is that those coaches aren't prohibited from coaching the same age group. Thus, Todd can't coach the 2009 girls but should be able to coach the 2010 girls.
What's sad to me is the kids are the ones who get caught in the middle.
As a former ref, and former bouncer in a Chicago soccer bar who occasionally pulled out yellow and red cards on rowdy regulars rather than going hands on, I have to admit I would want to be a judge just long enough to pull out a yellow or a red after a lawyers argument in a soccer related case.
Yep. Yanked back and forth. Coaches don't care about the kids per se, just the numbers because each kid they bring is $ in their pockets. For me, I would never let my kid play for Todd after the sideline demeanor I've witnessed from him. 9-10 year old girls probably aren't going to respond that great to a screaming lunatic. Kid makes a mistake, fine, coach them. Demeaning them isn't going to help them improve at all...not at that age. Same reason why I never took my kid to Levi Coleman. All it took was one instance of hi trashing a 12 year old kid for forgetting to check his CBs position and keeping a kid onside. I'm OK if you want to take him out and coach him up and get him to realize the mistake, but I shouldn't be able to hear every single word of him putting the kid down from 100 yards away. People swear by Levi as a coach...even coaches who don't like him think highly of his coaching ability.
Tryouts last night were fine. My son is caught in a numbers battle at keeper. The new coach said he isn't carrying 2 keepers it just will boil down to my son and the kid who's on the NPL team. He's also not taking everyone who came to tryouts who didn't make the NPL team so there's a good chance we're still looking for players after all this. That will create some hard feelings as there are kids who won't make a TSC team that my son knows and has been friends with for quite some time. I like Coach Gibson and Coach Smith. Seems like the age group will finally have some continuity in direction...hopefully. I'm sure there are kids who think they should be moved up who didn't who might not return because of that. Then we're screwed.
Reminds me a bit of sorority rush. I have to believe there's a better way. Coaches switching clubs right and left recruiting players. New teams forming and kids who have been with a team or club for years being left out and forced to scramble to find a team. These kids just want to play soccer. It's the adults who are creating this chaos and the kids and their parents are caught in the middle.
Part of it is the ruse of a "tryout" process when no actual evaluation done. It's the same issue I've had for a few years that no actual evaluation is done for GKs. Throw 11 kids on this side and scrimmage the 11 on that side. My son touched the ball 4 times. The GKs on the other field didn't touch the ball at all. How do you evaluate GKs based on that? The only thing that would give my son an advantage in those situations is he has a much stronger leg and can take his own goal kicks. Neither of the other 2 he was being compared against take their own goal kicks.
Again, coaches have no problem having a conversation with a kid to move him/her up a team but no one wants to be that bad guy of telling a kid he's moving down because there's a better player for that position. Even my son's coach told a 2nd goalkeeper he could be part of the team but he wasn't guaranteeing him any minutes and overtly told the kid (and his dad) that my son was the starting keeper and would get the majority of minutes. Of course the kid (or his parents) should never accept that offer. It costs way too much money to play in these clubs to sit on the end of the bench. At least most of the field players will get minutes because you can't run 14 year olds into the ground...but it doesn't work the same for keepers.
I've spent the better part of the day talking with other parents about what way they were leaning. I've spent some time talking to coaches at other clubs and their needs for a GK and when their tryout process is. I talked to Simba and it looks like Metro's new competitive program is going to struggle in year 1 and probably a combined 05/06 team. I know my son will be going to a WSA tryout/training session tomorrow. He has some friends on the team and my understanding is they need a GK.
One of the biggest reasons I have nothing but disdain for American youth soccer. Not that turning 11 year olds into full time employees in Europe is much better.
One of the TU women posted on their girls team social media account that her favorite time on campus was pre-season training just playing with her friends for the fun of the game. She gets it.
Unless you're new to the club the entire tryout process appears (at least to myself) to be a farce. We were excused from the first night so i can only comment on the second night. There were 40 girls there. They ran a course with and without the ball and were timed. They then played 2v2. There is no way a coach is going to learn anything from those two practices to change his mind over what he's seen in countless games and practices the year before. Complete nonsense.
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