Youth soccer club

[TU_BLA]

Nobody cares about keepers.

I do. But I am biased...I get that.

It's funny you mention that because Nemanja Vukovich (former Columbus Crew defender, played with the Roughnecks 3-4 years ago, now a Roughnecks coach) is coaching the ECNL team in my son's age group and the NPL and OPC coach asked him for player evals on the keepers in the group and he didn't have one for the keeper who played for him last year. Word is he doesn't like or understand keepers. My guess is Cerda screamed at him too much in Spanglish when he was playing for the Roughnecks.

 

[Gmoney4WW]

I do. But I am biased...I get that.

It's funny you mention that because Nemanja Vukovich (former Columbus Crew defender, played with the Roughnecks 3-4 years ago, now a Roughnecks coach) is coaching the ECNL team in my son's age group and the NPL and OPC coach asked him for player evals on the keepers in the group and he didn't have one for the keeper who played for him last year. Word is he doesn't like or understand keepers. My guess is Cerda screamed at him too much in Spanglish when he was playing for the Roughnecks.

Nobody cares bout Lamar!(Unless it's a shoot out.)

 

[lawpoke87]

On a positive note which affects several Oklahoma based teams, SuperCopa has been moved to Labor Day weekend and is now in Dallas. Assume it will be a go now since Texans just don't give a damn about most covid related stuff. Since the tourney involves teams from all over the country it will be interesting to see how many decide not to come.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

Nobody cares about keepers.

lol, until the first-stringer gets hurt and LEC has to put his beer down. Then it’s time to buckle up.

 

[HuffyCane]

lol, until the first-stringer gets hurt and LEC has to put his beer down. Then it’s time to buckle up.

Or tunnel through the hot tub to Freedom, as the case may be ... lol

 

[TU_BLA]

On a positive note which affects several Oklahoma based teams, SuperCopa has been moved to Labor Day weekend and is now in Dallas. Assume it will be a go now since Texans just don't give a damn about most covid related stuff. Since the tourney involves teams from all over the country it will be interesting to see how many decide not to come.

Who the hell wants to get on a plane right now? I know I don't.

 

[Chris Harmon]

I somehow feel like I've never seen this thread, and it was started almost a year ago. Weird. I played for Tulsa United and played against Sheffield in U14 and U16. Arsenal and TFC were big youth clubs back then too. These were Premier and Classic clubs...but I don't think those designations exist anymore.

 

[TU_BLA]

I somehow feel like I've never seen this thread, and it was started almost a year ago. Weird. I played for Tulsa United and played against Sheffield in U14 and U16. Arsenal and TFC were big youth clubs back then too. These were Premier and Classic clubs...but I don't think those designations exist anymore.

There are so many things happening in youth soccer today. Tulsa Nationals no longer exists. Tulsa United and Metro Tulsa merged a few years ago and pissed off Blitz. Blitz merged with OKC FC under the OKC Energy name. TSC has tried to acquire several clubs, started to, then backed off. TSC is still, for the moment, the largest competitive club in Tulsa. Sheffield United has now merged with Broken Arrow SC as their competitive branch. Metro Tulsa has started their own competitive side. WSA has merged with a bunch of small clubs all over the state and is trying to get their girls program to the highest level of competitive soccer and lured 14 TSC coaches away. Blitz UNMERGED with OKC FC and is now back to Blitz. Bixby Highlanders merged with Blitz. Tulsa Athletic which took over Tulsa Nationals merged with Blitz (basically, Levi Coleman took his teams back to Blitz after taking them away from Energy last year). Basically Tulsa has been left with TulsaSC, Blitz, and WSA as the most competitive clubs, Sheffield and NEOFC (Owasso) are also there but they don't have the ECNL designation.

And the player pool is a merry go round every time a coach switches clubs.

 

[lawpoke87]

About the only positive thing to come from all of these "moves" imo is the fact that most of the area teams are now members of the OPC and will play each other on a regular basis. Part of my daughter's contract with Blitz is an clause stating that she will not train or play with people outside the club without permission. WTH is that? I "politely" told them to she would train with the best people available if asked.

 

[TU_BLA]

About the only positive thing to come from all of these "moves" imo is the fact that most of the area teams are now members of the OPC and will play each other on a regular basis. Part of my daughter's contract with Blitz is an clause stating that she will not train or play with people outside the club without permission. WTH is that? I "politely" told them to she would train with the best people available if asked.

The training part is ridiculous, especially if you're a GK. Also, parents who set up private training will frequently look outside the club to train with coaches who do that as well.

I can see the playing part and technically the kids can't guest play for another OPC club without a form authorized by their coach. But if your team is not playing and you get asked to play for another team, definitely go ask. It happened more (and was easier) when Blitz was OSA and most of the other clubs were OPC. Now I would assume coaches will make it much more difficult to guest play on a team from another club because they're afraid of poaching when it comes to tryouts the following season. I would guess almost none of these requests will be approved during the Spring season for this reason.

 

[lawpoke87]

I frankly believe clubs should move girls up from their other teams when a player is needed so I have no issues with not playing with an another club without permission. The training restrictions go all over me. Probably in part because my kid is training with a few TSC girls as I type this . Training with the best coaches against the best players only helps kids develop. These clubs once again are thinking only of themselves and not the development of the kids.

 

[HuffyCane]

These clubs once again are thinking only of themselves and not the development of the kids.

Now you’re learnin’ boy-o.

 

[Chris Harmon]

There are so many things happening in youth soccer today. Tulsa Nationals no longer exists. Tulsa United and Metro Tulsa merged a few years ago and pissed off Blitz. Blitz merged with OKC FC under the OKC Energy name. TSC has tried to acquire several clubs, started to, then backed off. TSC is still, for the moment, the largest competitive club in Tulsa. Sheffield United has now merged with Broken Arrow SC as their competitive branch. Metro Tulsa has started their own competitive side. WSA has merged with a bunch of small clubs all over the state and is trying to get their girls program to the highest level of competitive soccer and lured 14 TSC coaches away. Blitz UNMERGED with OKC FC and is now back to Blitz. Bixby Highlanders merged with Blitz. Tulsa Athletic which took over Tulsa Nationals merged with Blitz (basically, Levi Coleman took his teams back to Blitz after taking them away from Energy last year). Basically Tulsa has been left with TulsaSC, Blitz, and WSA as the most competitive clubs, Sheffield and NEOFC (Owasso) are also there but they don't have the ECNL designation.

And the player pool is a merry go round every time a coach switches clubs.

My daughter was recruited to Tulsa Nationals several years ago and played for them a couple of years. She finally got burnt out and decided to switch to track two or three years ago. I didn't know all these changes had taken place.

 

[TU_BLA]

My daughter was recruited to Tulsa Nationals several years ago and played for them a couple of years. She finally got burnt out and decided to switch to track two or three years ago. I didn't know all these changes had taken place.

Constantly changing. There's big $ in youth sports these days and you make more money by eliminating your competitors. And this is only stuff I am aware of from the last 5-7 years.

 

[Chris Harmon]

Constantly changing. There's big $ in youth sports these days and you make more money by eliminating your competitors. And this is only stuff I am aware of from the last 5-7 years.

Interesting. Anyone know where Chris Mason is coaching now? He was heavily involved in Tulsa Nationals and recruited my daughter to his team. Victor Moreland used to come out and run our practices occasionally. Moreland would tell the girls to put on "pennies", referring to scrimmage jerseys, and they would all giggle because it sounded like he was saying 'panties' in his Irish accent.

 

[HuffyCane]

Interesting. Anyone know where Chris Mason is coaching now? He was heavily involved in Tulsa Nationals and recruited my daughter to his team. Victor Moreland used to come out and run our practices occasionally. Moreland would tell the girls to put on "pennies", referring to scrimmage jerseys, and they would all giggle because it sounded like he was saying 'panties' in his Irish accent.

Phillips 66 hired a recently retired EPL player to work in their international division in Bartlesville but his real job was coaching the sons of the company executives of which I was good enough to be selected to play on. He was a real Walter Matthau Bad News Bears type. Came to practice with a beer in his hand and a cooler, which was insane for Oklahoma in the early 80’s. He didn’t care if they fired him and sent him back to England and they wanted his expertise and pretended to look the other way. The mothers and their Baptist pastors were horrified. But we got even better quickly. And he followed us as we aged up. We lost three games in 7 years by a total of 4 goals, three of which were penalties. (BTW, I bet you I could kick this ball over that mountain). But every other word out of his mouth was a drunken gravelly voiced slurred epithet in a Geordie accent. Every single practice for years someone would intentionally dribble over the practice cones just to hear him scream “don’t kick over the bloody cones” not because that was funny but because he knew we would all immediately be overcome with laughter and that frustrated the crap out of him. Four beers in, he wanted to break something and to 14 year old boys, that was solid gold.

And I still can’t watch a youth practice or the USMNT warm up and not think to myself “don’t kick over the bloody cones” when they bring out those new fancy disks to practice with.

 

[TU_BLA]

But every other word out of his mouth was a drunken gravelly voiced slurred epithet in a Geordie accent

My wife hoped beyond hope that my son would be placed on Michael Umelo's team at some point just so she could listen to him bark at the boys in his Nigerian accent. She had to settle for Donovan Ricketts' Jamaican accent and telling a GK from Norman to "Shut up. That was a grown man's tackle boy!" which shocked the hell out of the parents because we rarely heard Donovan ever say anything more than "open up" while he was coaching. We've also had some interesting characters for parents as part of the team too. They were the nicest people but it was hard to understand the broken Spanglish.

 

[TU_BLA]

Lawpoke, did your daughter play in the Blitz United tournament this weekend? We did not...brand new team, not much chemistry yet. But there is some promise there and the parents like what we've seen of the coach and his style so far.

Went out to watch a game yesterday as it had 2 kids who are/were teammates with my son. One was guest playing with a Rec+ team and the other moved over to Blitz for this season. Let's just say the Blitz team was not very good. It's a brand new team with all new players to the club. Zero chemistry. The Rec+ team has 4-5 former TSC players from the NPL and ECNL teams in the 06 age group. I wondered why they would leave that level to go play rec soccer. After watching them, it's because they were good players, but not great and were part of the "protected" group on those teams who had spots because of who the former coach was, not necessarily because they had earned their places on those respective teams. I know 2 of them left specifically because they were going to be moved to the bench as backups if not down to the OPC team flat out. Like I said, they were decent players but probably not the level they thought they were at.

I am looking forward to my son's team and its progress through the year. The coach has done some small things so far that have revealed the amount of actual talent some of these kids had but they needed some confidence to be able to reveal it. Technical drills are done but there's a purpose to them. Coach constantly reinforces why they are working on a specific drill and will call a kid out for not going full speed or only going through the motions. Where kids were jogging during passing and movement drills, they are now sprinting. It helps that when they do the drills correctly the kids are seeing improvement and progress in themselves but also in their teammates. They had a little 7 v 7 scrimmage at the end of practice the other day. Ball goes out of bounds and the defender walks to the ball and takes his time getting it back in. Coach stops him and says, from the time the ball goes out to the time you're throwing it back in there better not be more than 5 seconds gone by. Move quickly and get the defenders to chase. Sure enough, the pace of play immediately picked up. He's already fixed the problem of kids not wanting to stay wide...one practice is all it took. He's spent more time with my son in 2 practices and showing him what to look for in restarting play from the back than any of his other coaches save for Donovan Ricketts. There are still some questions in terms of who will be reliable enough to play center back, but as the coach mentioned they have speed and talent for days up front and in the MF. He has already told the team they will give other teams fits with their speed on the outside and their technical ability to create with the center mid and holding forward.

 

[lawpoke87]

Yes....and it was hot . We played in the 2008 division (we’re a 2010 club). Lost in the finals 1-0 to a team we had beaten 6-0 on Saturday. One of those games where the ball just doesn’t find the back of the net.

My daughter played with TSC’s top 2010 team last night (scrimmage) as a guest player. She’s interested because of the ECNL opportunity. Not sure if we will make that move this year or stay put for one more. I came away thinking the two teams are very comparable at this point. That will likely change going forward as Blitz currently has no high level soccer opportunities and few high level coaches. We are going to need to make a decision in the next few days.

 

[Chris Harmon]

Anyone know where Chris Mason is coaching now?

I found out that Mason left coaching...had a disagreement with Victor Moreland. Then Nationals fell apart or was consumed or whatever. Not sure what Moreland is doing now.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

You can usually find Victor and his wife at Kilkenny’s or Dalesandro’s on a Friday night having dinner. Well, before the pandemic anyway.

 

[TU_BLA]

Yes....and it was hot . We played in the 2008 division (we’re a 2010 club). Lost in the finals 1-0 to a team we had beaten 6-0 on Saturday. One of those games where the ball just doesn’t find the back of the net.

My daughter played with TSC’s top 2010 team last night (scrimmage) as a guest player. She’s interested because of the ECNL opportunity. Not sure if we will make that move this year or stay put for one more. I came away thinking the two teams are very comparable at this point. That will likely change going forward as Blitz currently has no high level soccer opportunities and few high level coaches. We are going to need to make a decision in the next few days.

Who would be the coach of the TSC team? I know a few 2010s and kids who play in that division.

 

[TU 98]

I haven’t posted here in forever but came across this youth soccer thread. I have 2010 on the Southlakes cosmos girls first team and an 06 boy on that team. We played the tsc team twice in the last 6 months and lost 1-0 and 3-1. They are a good group. Comparable to that nokc team who we have also played several times and are a little below them as well

 

[TU 98]

Next year should be fun. TSC, OEFC, blitz, Southlakes and Norman 2010’s will all be in opc. All are solid although I think Norman is below the others.

 

[Chris Harmon]

I haven’t posted here in forever but came across this youth soccer thread.

Where have you been hiding!

 

[TU 98]

anymore

Where have you been hiding!

Haha. OKC (where I live) got the Thunder and I started following them a lot more closely. That and I have 4 kids now all playing competitive soccer and so I feel like between that and work I am barely keeping up with anything else. What have you been up to?

 

[Chris Harmon]

Haha. OKC (where I live) got the Thunder and I started following them a lot more closely. That and I have 4 kids now all playing competitive soccer and so I feel like between that and work I am barely keeping up with anything else. What have you been up to?

I completely understand. I've felt that way for about 16 years...coincidentally, my oldest child is 16.

 

[TU_BLA]

I haven’t posted here in forever but came across this youth soccer thread. I have 2010 on the Southlakes cosmos girls first team and an 06 boy on that team. We played the tsc team twice in the last 6 months and lost 1-0 and 3-1. They are a good group. Comparable to that nokc team who we have also played several times and are a little below them as well

Whose your son's coach? My son is a 2006 as well. He doesn't play on the ECNL side but we usually play the 2nd or 3rd team at SLSC depending on what tournament we're entered in. I know we played an SLSC team in the State Cup final 2 summers ago (still 9v9) which was one of the best 9v9 games I've ever witnessed. Played mostly the same team and coach the next year in State Cup in Tulsa. Again, a phenomenal game marred by 6 yellow cards, some of which were incredibly stupid and petty on the ref's part.

I am looking forward to playing the Blitz teams again, not so much the Energy teams from OKC. They always seemed to be chippy and somewhat dirty in their style of play.

 

[TU 98]

My 06 is a slow grower just like my oldest (who just graduated) was. When my oldest hit junior high he was little and not super slow but not especially fast either. He hit puberty and he turned into a really fast physical player. My 06 seems to be on a similar path. He's small but is just now starting to grow and he's getting faster. He was on the team that lost to you guys in pk's in the state cup semi-final a couple of years ago. He actually missed the PK that ended the game (cross bar that bounced straight down and hit the line and didn't go in haha). He was so devastated by that game but that is part of what sports is. Teaches you a bunch of good life lessons. We played the TSC 2nd team in OPC before the corona ended the season early and you guys scored 2 late goals to beat us 3-1. You guys have such a big overall team. We are small haha. One of our parents actually posted some videos of this game on youtube...

 

[TU 98]

I completely understand. I've felt that way for about 16 years...coincidentally, my oldest child is 16.

That's crazy! Life is going way too fast! My oldest just graduated.

 

[TU 98]

My 06 is a slow grower just like my oldest (who just graduated) was. When my oldest hit junior high he was little and not super slow but not especially fast either. He hit puberty and he turned into a really fast physical player. My 06 seems to be on a similar path. He's small but is just now starting to grow and he's getting faster. He was on the team that lost to you guys in pk's in the state cup semi-final a couple of years ago. He actually missed the PK that ended the game (cross bar that bounced straight down and hit the line and didn't go in haha). He was so devastated by that game but that is part of what sports is. Teaches you a bunch of good life lessons. We played the TSC 2nd team in OPC before the corona ended the season early and you guys scored 2 late goals to beat us 3-1. You guys have such a big overall team. We are small haha. One of our parents actually posted some videos of this game on youtube...

View embedded media

The pk game might have been against the team above. I can't remember.

 

[TU_BLA]

My 06 is a slow grower just like my oldest (who just graduated) was. When my oldest hit junior high he was little and not super slow but not especially fast either. He hit puberty and he turned into a really fast physical player. My 06 seems to be on a similar path. He's small but is just now starting to grow and he's getting faster. He was on the team that lost to you guys in pk's in the state cup semi-final a couple of years ago. He actually missed the PK that ended the game (cross bar that bounced straight down and hit the line and didn't go in haha). He was so devastated by that game but that is part of what sports is. Teaches you a bunch of good life lessons. We played the TSC 2nd team in OPC before the corona ended the season early and you guys scored 2 late goals to beat us 3-1. You guys have such a big overall team. We are small haha. One of our parents actually posted some videos of this game on youtube...

View embedded media

That's the NPL team. My son is the GK for the OPC team. 3 of the kids on that team were on the 3rd team the year they won state cup (I think the SLSC coach was Jeff Boateng?). It's not the same team. 3 kids were moved to the ECNL side and then a bunch of the giant kids just quit playing. The size of the team won't be nearly of a stark contrast as it has been in the past. The defense may be a lot tougher than you're used to seeing though.

I will give you a hint though. High press the GK on goal kicks. He is always going to play a tap to the defender in the box. He doesn't have the technique or leg strength to get it over a front line either. We actually scrimmaged that side last Thursday. 0-0 through the 1st half. 2nd half our kids lost their legs (they're so out of shape). We simply don't have the depth...our starting 11 can run with them...once subs start hitting the field we lose quite a bit. Hopefully will see you all out there.

 

[TU 98]

Yes for sure.

 

[TU 98]

Yes for sure.

The final last year was really bad. Jeff lost his mind a little bit in that one lol. That wasn’t good on his part.

 

[lawpoke87]

Who would be the coach of the TSC team? I know a few 2010s and kids who play in that division.

Banham

 

[TU 98]

Banham

Did your daughter to the nokc 3v3 this weekend? I know the nokc coach fairly well. Seemed like a good final. We played you guys last year in that I think.

 

[TU_BLA]

Banham

Nice. Tina's a good coach. Knows the game well. She trains them up right and passes them on to 11v11 coaches later. I don't think I've seen her coach an 11v11 team at TSC since we've been there. She also serves as the club registrar so I have had many a conversation with her in the past as the manager for my son's team. I can say that Tina plays the girls up quite frequently in tournaments.

 

[TU_BLA]

The final last year was really bad. Jeff lost his mind a little bit in that one lol. That wasn’t good on his part.

Are you talking the 2018 final in OKC or the semi-final last year in Tulsa? It was interesting that my son's team played the same team 2 years in a row in State Cup...same coach, and he absolutely lost his mind both times which I think rattled the boys some. Last spring they had to bring in parents from several fields to keep him from killing the referee. That was the game I was yelling at Milo to blow the whistle to end the game forgetting he gave the boys like a 5 minute water break in the 2nd half. It's funny (and sad) how invested parents get in the games and yet the boys mostly are like, "Meh, it's a game."

 

[lawpoke87]

Did your daughter to the nokc 3v3 this weekend? I know the nokc coach fairly well. Seemed like a good final. We played you guys last year in that I think.

Yes. We lost 3-2 to the NOKC Strikers in the finals. I know they lost by a goal in the national finals last year but there the best 3v3 team in the country imo.

Who does your daughter play for in 3v3?

 

[TU 98]

Yes. We lost 3-2 to the NOKC Strikers in the finals. I know they lost by a goal in the national finals last year but there the best 3v3 team in the country imo.

Who does your daughter play for in 3v3?

She was on the Bratt Pack team last year. They haven’t done any this year. I think we played you the very first game of the Edmond 3v3 last year early. You guys got us by a goal I think but I’m not positive. Tbh we didn’t know you guys were going to be that good. We played nokc in the final of every 3v3 in the city both of the last 2 years before that one. We played you guys early and you came out strong and beat us. That feels like 3 years ago even though it was only a year.