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Youth soccer club

I was just saying his days of club soccer are over. HS soccer will be over soon as well, hopefully mid May to be honest. He might get one more State Cup in June but who knows, Blitz can't seem to figure this age group out.

Yeah, he's missing a day of school to go up and he really doesn't like doing that and he has to be back before Tuesday as they have a game against Sand Springs, and you can't be absent from school and still play (I don't know how well OSSAA monitors this). We'll be going to Tufts the following week and he has met their coach at a camp and spoke with him a bit. He needs to reach out to them and to the WPI coach as those are the schools he is down to at this point unless GaTech comes back with an offer of admission OR NC State comes back with a nice scholarship.
Tech will bleed and offer late. Still think Michigan and TU are the best options.
 
Tech will bleed and offer late. Still think Michigan and TU are the best options.
Try and convince him that TU is among the best offers. We have tried. He is set on going away from Tulsa for school and experiencing what is out there. He also knows a lot of kids who will be going there and he really wants to have that fresh start and not be stuck in HS mode. This is why he never considered OU or OSU. We could be those parents and force him to go to the school with the best financial offer and he would resent us for the remainder of our lives, or let him go where he feels is best for what he wants to do and try to be supportive of that.

Personally I think WPI is his best option if TU is not in serious consideration. Just me. My wife is worried because WPI's reviews in terms of dorm quality and dining hall options are pretty bad. Right now, I think he is leaning towards Tufts because I really think he wants to be in Boston. The pull to Michigan would be his best friend also got into UM and is seriously considering it. That kid also has family up there as his dad grew up (and played HS soccer) in the area.
 
Michigan opens doors world wide. None of the others do. Especially if he washes out of engineering or gets the degree and decides to do something else.

TU would give him the chance to be the leader you claim he wants to be. None of the others will.

He won’t have a date for four or five years if he goes to WPI or RPI.
 
Michigan opens doors world wide. None of the others do. Especially if he washes out of engineering or gets the degree and decides to do something else.

TU would give him the chance to be the leader you claim he wants to be. None of the others will.
Agree with both of these statements.

TU_BLA….I feel your pain. My soccer daughter currently wants nothing to do with any of the instate schools. Hoping that will change
 
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Try and convince him that TU is among the best offers. We have tried. He is set on going away from Tulsa for school and experiencing what is out there. He also knows a lot of kids who will be going there and he really wants to have that fresh start and not be stuck in HS mode. This is why he never considered OU or OSU. We could be those parents and force him to go to the school with the best financial offer and he would resent us for the remainder of our lives, or let him go where he feels is best for what he wants to do and try to be supportive of that.

Personally I think WPI is his best option if TU is not in serious consideration. Just me. My wife is worried because WPI's reviews in terms of dorm quality and dining hall options are pretty bad. Right now, I think he is leaning towards Tufts because I really think he wants to be in Boston. The pull to Michigan would be his best friend also got into UM and is seriously considering it. That kid also has family up there as his dad grew up (and played HS soccer) in the area.
You can't inhibit a desire to see other parts of the US/World. That in itself is worth something, no matter the institute he wants to go to. Him doing a semester abroad in Japan will further that goal even more so. I'm glad you aren't getting in the way of those desires. My parents supported my travels abroad, and I'm ever so grateful to them. I saw things I would have never experienced here in Tulsa. It has influenced my life and opened my mind in ways I never could have, if I stayed here. College is the perfect time for this to happen. If he was in Boston all his life, I would say the same thing if you wanted him to go to Boston U, and he was interested in the University of Tulsa. Going somewhere for a visit is not the same thing as living there.
 
You can't inhibit a desire to see other parts of the US/World. That in itself is worth something, no matter the institute he wants to go to. Him doing a semester abroad in Japan will further that goal even more so. I'm glad you aren't getting in the way of those desires. My parents supported my travels abroad, and I'm ever so grateful to them. I saw things I would have never experienced here in Tulsa. It has influenced my life and opened my mind in ways I never could have, if I stayed here. College is the perfect time for this to happen. If he was in Boston all his life, I would say the same thing if you wanted him to go to Boston U, and he was interested in the University of Tulsa. Going somewhere for a visit is not the same thing as living there.
My parents really wanted me to go to TU out of the gate and not stay close to home. I stayed probably for the wrong reasons although BU had been the dream since I was a freshman in HS. We visited campus with band and I just really liked the thought of being in that place. Until I realized the school itself, the style of classes, etc. really wasn't the best for me. We visited BU with my son at his request but after being there I asked him the question if he saw himself going to school there and he said no. And it's fine. So many schools do tours and let their reputation do the talking. I thought BU did that. Tours of the engineering school weren't even an option and the tour guides didn't even cross Comm Ave to even see the building. They just pointed. MIT sort of did the same thing although they spent a little more time talking about student life and showing those locations although they did not show you a dorm or the cafeteria. Again, not a great tour. WPI I thought did a great job on their tour showing all of the places you'd expect to see, a dorm, a cafeteria, a couple of the academic buildings including their version of FabLab, some dept. HQs, the fitness center, and Gompei (if you don't know who Gompei is, look it up...it's almost as great a story as how TU become the Golden Hurricane). To that, WashU in StL does a fantastic tour as well. My wife and I were disappointed that my son wouldn't even apply. From my memory of going to Tufts to hang out with a friend from HS who went there, Wash U and Tufts are similar and even have similar campus styles, close to the main city and close to public transportation to get you to downtown and other places where fun things happen.
 
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TSC’s ECNL girls director resigned yesterday. Rough last month for TSC. They’ve now lost their longest serving boys coach, longest serving girls coach, and now it’s girls ECNL director.
 
Lewis Amos
Wow. Lewis is a great coach as well. I know he was coaching the 07 NL team with all that great talent. What sucked for my son is when Lewis took the role of the ECNL girls director, he no longer had any time to train GKs. My son trained with him for a couple years and as a GK, Lewis is certifiably insane and his training sessions were very intense and not much down time. They definitely challenged my son and he was training with 3 other area GKs so he was always trying to raise his level to make sure he kept up with them.

I wonder where he's going...if anywhere. I wonder if he's just stepping down from that role but will continue to coach there (don't know just speculating). Or maybe he is moving on to a different club. I wouldn't be surprised if a big club from Dallas came calling for him and I don't think Lewis has anything tying him to Tulsa specifically.
 
Wow. Lewis is a great coach as well. I know he was coaching the 07 NL team with all that great talent. What sucked for my son is when Lewis took the role of the ECNL girls director, he no longer had any time to train GKs. My son trained with him for a couple years and as a GK, Lewis is certifiably insane and his training sessions were very intense and not much down time. They definitely challenged my son and he was training with 3 other area GKs so he was always trying to raise his level to make sure he kept up with them.

I wonder where he's going...if anywhere. I wonder if he's just stepping down from that role but will continue to coach there (don't know just speculating). Or maybe he is moving on to a different club. I wouldn't be surprised if a big club from Dallas came calling for him and I don't think Lewis has anything tying him to Tulsa specifically.
He took a job in Florida.
 
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He took a job in Florida.
That makes sense. He hated the cold here, so basically October through April 🤣 which is hilarious considering he's from England. I wonder how he ever got along at Spurs academy. I'm trying to remember where he played in Italy but I think it was for Torino or somewhere close to the mountains and the north, so not always warm.

That's too bad. He's a really good coach and a great GK trainer. I wish him the best of luck. Maybe if I see him this weekend at the TSC tournament I'll get to tell him that.
 
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So, in what may have been his last club matches this past weekend, my son's team lost in the finals of the Blitz Tournament, 2-1 to the TSC team he left a couple of seasons ago. First game Saturday was a 3-0 win vs the Eklund Blitz team. Thorough domination. My son maybe had a couple of saves he had to make. Most impressive move was when the D played the ball back to him and the 9 decided to try to pressure him into the mistake, coming hard at him, my son made a nice little cut back dragging the ball back behind him to his left and the attacker slipped down trying to stop. It drew the whoops from the boys. 2nd game was a tough 2-1 win vs a Sheffield RISE team (don't ask me where or who that club is). The Sheffield team had a defender who plays CB at Union and is a Senior like my son. They shared a nice moment after the game. It was a tough game. The only goal against was the result of a PK. Right call IMO but my son thought the kid took a dive. Blitz scored an equalizer with about 10 minutes left which was actually an own goal created by some really good play and link up passes and the right wing sent a wicked cross into the box where there was a Blitz player waiting and the defender trying to make a play put it in. Always tough for the kid that happens to. 2nd Blitz goal was the result of a PK. Definite foul, really tough to see if he was in the box or just outside. Blitz had a ton of chances to score more though. They had 2 free kicks from just outside the area hit the cross bar and another chance where the GK for Sheffield just made an incredible save and about lost his head in the process (literally, the ball hit him so hard in the face I was surprised he got up). 2-0 in group play and 1 seed going into the semis. Semifinal was against one of the WSA directional teams, don't remember which one. Blitz took a quick 2-0 lead off of two set pieces and header by one of the CBs (this kid will be a senior at BK next year and is a really good player IMO...dominant in the air, good with his feet and can send the LOOOONG cross field diagonals and he's really accurate on them...BK coach kept playing him at striker this season...he's not technically skilled enough to be a hold up 9 and not fast enough to stretch the field, but as a CB or even an outside back I think he can play in college). WSA played with only 10 players the first half...not sure why but they only had 10 there. 11th showed up at half and a light went on for them and Blitz had fallen into a half-asleep malaise as though they were disinterested in the rest of the game. WSA scored 2...one on a long shot that dropped into the upper 90 far post. My son said he sw it, was moving towards it and the ball kept moving further away from him. Crazy. 2nd goal came on a whiffed clearance in the box that fell at the feet of an attacker who blasted home a high shot. With about 4 minutes left, Blitz renewed their attack and had created a couple of chances. One shot (from the Jenks keeper who played striker for Blitz in this one), got blocked and bounced to about 25 yards out where an 07 Blitz player took a waist high volley and absolutely hammered a shot into the upper corner near post. I wish I had video because it was a thing of beauty. Blitz held on to win.

Finals vs TSC: So this is always a fun game because there are many kids who my son played with still on the team AND there are 3 Union players on the TSC team including one of his best friends and the other senior GK at Union. This was a well played game. TSC had a couple of ECNL guest players and they played at a different level than the other players on the field. The speed and pace they played at was impressive. That said, Blitz struck first, about 10 minutes in. My son intercepted a through-ball and came up and hammered a punt about 80 yard where his winger ran onto it (after the defender misjudged it and missed heading it) and beat the keeper with a nice far post shot. So my son got an assist...and he hit this punt into a head wind. (He's been hammering his punts and goal kicks lately). TSC created several chances and my son made some impressive saves, had a nice punch out on a corner (where he also punched one of his Union teammates in the head trying to clear it out). TSC knotted the score with about 4 minutes left in the 1st half on a nice play where the attacker beat the defender to the goal line and then slotted a pass to the top of the 6 where one of the ECNL players hit a one timer back across goal to the far post. TSC took the lead in the 2nd with maybe 25 minutes left on a nice individual play by the aforementioned ECNL player who beat 5 defenders on route to being 1 v 1 with my son. Blitz had several opportunities to knot the score...a couple really nice saves, a couple big blocks by defenders, a hit crossbar, and a hit post in the last few minutes but no goal. The crossbar strike came off a free kick from about 20 yards and the player that hit the crossbar against Sheffield, hit this incredible hooking, dipping shot...probably the best technique I've seen in this age group personally. Hit the cross bar and rocketed out. GK wasn't even in the same zip code. Last minute, Blitz had a couple of corners and shots, my son nearly got a head to a corner kick as they threw everyone forward. One last shot fell to the 9 who hammered a shot near post and hit the outside netting. The last 10 minutes of this game was super tense and there was probably one red card worthy tackle that the ref only showed yellow for. My son nearly had a 2nd assist on the day after the ball had been played back to him and he took a touch and picked out his left wing and sent a ball about 60 yards onto him. The defender took the attacker down to keep him from going towards goal.

Bummer they lost but it was a well played game. I know the boys had a nice moment with coach after the game and my son also got some nice pictures with his Union teammates afterwards.

Only a few more soccer games. Hopefully my son will email the Tufts coach and ask to meet him on Wednesday. We'll see.
 
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We finally get back into ECNL league play this coming weekend. Four league games left with us needing 3 points to qualify to nationals. All four will be highly contested.

For never been a Baylor fan but I’ll give it up to them for this past weekend. They invited the U14-u16 FC Dallas teams down on Sunday to play in their soccer stadium. Baylor’s coaches were present and the entire Baylor staff was very nice. They even let my 9 year old son into their baseball stadium after seeing him playing catch outside the gate. Classy move from a university I generally view as anything but classy.
 
We finally get back into ECNL league play this coming weekend. Four league games left with us needing 3 points to qualify to nationals. All four will be highly contested.

For never been a Baylor fan but I’ll give it up to them for this past weekend. They invited the U14-u16 FC Dallas teams down on Sunday to play in their soccer stadium. Baylor’s coaches were present and the entire Baylor staff was very nice. They even let my 9 year old son into their baseball stadium after seeing him playing catch outside the gate. Classy move from a university I generally view as anything but classy.
Don't let the Dave Bliss and Art Briles fiascos skew your opinion too much on Baylor. There are lots of good people who work/have worked there and the world of Baylor outside the $$$ driven football and basketball teams, it's still an overall a good place for the large majority of students.
 
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Don't let the Dave Bliss and Art Briles fiascos skew your opinion too much on Baylor. There are lots of good people who work/have worked there and the world of Baylor outside the $$$ driven football and basketball teams, it's still an overall a good place for the large majority of students.
It starts at the top Ken Starr should be in jail.
 
It starts at the top Ken Starr should be in jail.
All that stuff that happened under Starr was atrocious. The incident with Dave Bliss and basketball was atrocious. There were some high $ boosters that sold out their integrity for a few wins in football and basketball. That said, I worked their in the late 90s in student life/student affairs. Some of those folks are still there. Lots of good people with impeccable integrity who went out of their way to improve the lives of students. One of those individuals moved from judicial affairs in residence life to being the chief judicial affairs officer for Baylor and was there for the Briles sh*t. She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she was not to touch this case and that it was being handled by the athletic dept. student conduct folks (I didn't even know that was a thing). Seeing as how there were probably only 2-3 people above her in that hierarchy, with one being the VP of Student Affairs/Student Life and another being Starr, you know where this was coming from.
 
Referee'd 4 games yesterday in the WSA tournament out at Jenks. Not really anything insane. 1st game was a U11 boys...headers not allowed. Kid catches a clearance to the face, he was fine. Parents start yelling at me to call the header because "...thought headers weren't allowed". Pretty much my cue to not listen to a thing the parents were saying. Coach even asked about it at which point I had to explain that a header has to be an intentional play to play the ball with the head (essentially the interpretation can be looked at the same way as determining if the ball was played with a hand or if the ball hit a hand in a natural position). A second call for a header in the box on a play where the kid bent down and ducked and the ball hit him on the back of the neck reinforced my opinion that the parents just don't have a clue. Game was a good one though. Nothing really happened in any of my other games. We did get some u11 girls parents screaming about a yellow card because their daughter got knocked over. Ref called a foul on the play but it wasn't close to being a yellow card infraction. I've learned to tune out the nose by now. And I will say that there were way more capable referees willing to come to this tournament than the TSC tournament. I had some really solid crews to work with yesterday. Chris and Mike with WSA do a good job of pairing referees together. If I didn't have to drive to Sand Springs all the time I'd probably try to do more games for WSA.
 
Referee'd 4 games yesterday in the WSA tournament out at Jenks. Not really anything insane. 1st game was a U11 boys...headers not allowed. Kid catches a clearance to the face, he was fine. Parents start yelling at me to call the header because "...thought headers weren't allowed". Pretty much my cue to not listen to a thing the parents were saying. Coach even asked about it at which point I had to explain that a header has to be an intentional play to play the ball with the head (essentially the interpretation can be looked at the same way as determining if the ball was played with a hand or if the ball hit a hand in a natural position). A second call for a header in the box on a play where the kid bent down and ducked and the ball hit him on the back of the neck reinforced my opinion that the parents just don't have a clue. Game was a good one though. Nothing really happened in any of my other games. We did get some u11 girls parents screaming about a yellow card because their daughter got knocked over. Ref called a foul on the play but it wasn't close to being a yellow card infraction. I've learned to tune out the nose by now. And I will say that there were way more capable referees willing to come to this tournament than the TSC tournament. I had some really solid crews to work with yesterday. Chris and Mike with WSA do a good job of pairing referees together. If I didn't have to drive to Sand Springs all the time I'd probably try to do more games for WSA.
Did you eat the food at the concession?
 
One of my best friends owns it. I also know the people who operate the concession stand (Los Cobos/Water Front)......I'm not a fan of TSC though
They’ve done a great job renovating that complex. Kudos to them. Much needed in Tulsa. Best of luck to them with their dealings with TSC. Very few people who have entered into business dealings / contracts with them have had a positive experience imo. At least in the past 5-6 years.
 
I think that’s why they host everyone. This Month they hosted OSA, TSC, Blitz and WSA. Hosting Side FC tonight. They host NOAH and Tulsa Classical. I’m not sure who else. No one wants to count on just Barry’s $$
 
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Saw BLA’s pics of the fields this am. Are the turf fields elevated enough so not to flood ?
 
Saw BLA’s pics of the fields this am. Are the turf fields elevated enough so not to flood ?
I actually met the owner out there today to volunteer if he needed help getting fields ready…. Obviously couldn’t help those. I asked the same question. It would take more than a 100 year flood. It also has two drainage systems. He said the grass fields would be playable by Tuesday.
 
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Did you eat the food at the concession?
I had a turkey sandwich. It was fine although the tomatoes had been on there a while and made the bread a bit soggy. I wasn't in the mood for the pulled pork's little too warm for that type of food.
 
Saw BLA’s pics of the fields this am. Are the turf fields elevated enough so not to flood ?
I'm sure the turf fields were fine but how are you going to pick which teams get to continue the tournament and which ones are done? It was the right call. We joked with my son he should have told the organizers that he was a certified life guard so he could both ref and lifeguard for the game in the lake 😂. I mean I don't think anyone is complaining that the call was made to cancel the rest of the tournament seeing that the majority of the fields in Jenks were under water, literally
 
I'm sure the turf fields were fine but how are you going to pick which teams get to continue the tournament and which ones are done? It was the right call. We joked with my son he should have told the organizers that he was a certified life guard so he could both ref and lifeguard for the game in the lake 😂. I mean I don't think anyone is complaining that the call was made to cancel the rest of the tournament seeing that the majority of the fields in Jenks were under water, literally
Agree. No way you can continue a tournament that size with two playable fields.
 
@Lawpoke, you'd find it interesting that Donny Carreno stopped and talked to me last week at the Blitz tournament. This is a guy who played the politics game at TSC and handpicked his teams while not even looking at other kids in the age group. He was also a big reason why the 06 age group is in shambles and scattered across several different clubs. He refused to give up his 06 players who would have moved to the top 06 teams at TSC, Jim and Mark don't fight him on it, and Levi Coleman, who was the 06 age group director, quit on the spot. Levi took 20 or so players to Blitz with him. The 06 group in Tulsa has been fractured ever since.

Anyway, we talked for about 15 minutes. He's started his own group called Tulsa Select and I think he just has some 2016 girls right now. They're good and running the equivalent teams at the big clubs off the field right now. He'll have some issues when the girls get older and he tries to get into one of the alphabet soup leagues since he doesn't have a chartered club as his backing. He remembered me and my son. I didn't bring up how he screwed my son and several of his teammates who had been playing for Donovan Ricketts at U12 (the team that was listed as 3rd team at TSC and had risen to be the best 06 team in the state that season). Anyway, it was a weird conversation as I don't go out of my way to talk to him. He is a good developer of technical skill as are all the Carreno's who are coaching. Amanda may actually be the best when it comes to that.
 
My daughter’s team tied Challenge yesterday 1-1. We still need 3 points in our final three games to reach nationals. Frustrating game. Our midfield is arguably our weakest group. Unfortunately, FCD style is possession and to play through the middle. Since we struggle to move the ball through the midfield our scoring chances are very limited. We did move to three in the back over the last 15 minutes and it was effective. Couldn’t get the winning goal though.

Last three games are against Sting, Albion and Solar. Not sure we should be favored in any of those three. Expecting significant roster changes come next season.
 
@Lawpoke, you'd find it interesting that Donny Carreno stopped and talked to me last week at the Blitz tournament. This is a guy who played the politics game at TSC and handpicked his teams while not even looking at other kids in the age group. He was also a big reason why the 06 age group is in shambles and scattered across several different clubs. He refused to give up his 06 players who would have moved to the top 06 teams at TSC, Jim and Mark don't fight him on it, and Levi Coleman, who was the 06 age group director, quit on the spot. Levi took 20 or so players to Blitz with him. The 06 group in Tulsa has been fractured ever since.

Anyway, we talked for about 15 minutes. He's started his own group called Tulsa Select and I think he just has some 2016 girls right now. They're good and running the equivalent teams at the big clubs off the field right now. He'll have some issues when the girls get older and he tries to get into one of the alphabet soup leagues since he doesn't have a chartered club as his backing. He remembered me and my son. I didn't bring up how he screwed my son and several of his teammates who had been playing for Donovan Ricketts at U12 (the team that was listed as 3rd team at TSC and had risen to be the best 06 team in the state that season). Anyway, it was a weird conversation as I don't go out of my way to talk to him. He is a good developer of technical skill as are all the Carreno's who are coaching. Amanda may actually be the best when it comes to that.
I just happened to be talking about soccer with the parents of a boy who plays on my son’s u10 baseball team. He knew I had a daughter who played and was asking me about the alphabet soup. As irony has it his daughter is on that Donny Carreno team. I had not beard of Tulsa Select until then. I asked him what his goals were for his daughter. He said start at Bixby and then possibly play D1. I told him he will eventually have to play the alphabet soup but for now his daughter has a high quality technical coach.
 
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I just happened to be talking about soccer with the parents of a boy who plays on my son’s u10 baseball team. He knew I had a daughter who played and was asking me about the alphabet soup. As irony has it his daughter is on that Donny Carreno team. I had not beard of Tulsa Select until then. I asked him what his goals were for his daughter. He said start at Bixby and then possibly play D1. I told him he will eventually have to play the alphabet soup but for now his daughter has a high quality technical coach.
If you all don't follow Tulsa Soccer Guy on Facebook, you should. He's hilarious and sometimes very blunt about the state of club soccer in Tulsa and there are folks who take offense with him for pointing out the obvious about the shortfalls of each club. Debbie Hess Rhein, who I believe is married to John Rhein, who is the brother of Jim Rhein (women's HC at TU), agrees with his takes on a lot of stuff and she's been privy to a lot of the inside shenanigans at TSC, mostly how none of the clubs really have your kids best interest in mind.

Your friend's daughter is in good hands at least for the technical development aspect of learning soccer at this age. For him to have a D1 goal in mind for her when she's 8 is a little crazy. Heck, she probably wants to be Barbie right now and that's OK. She's 8. Parents should probably not even be thinking about that next level/step for their kid in terms of playing sports and trying to get a college scholarship until they're at least in HS. College coaches aren't paying attention to them and probably won't until they're at a minimum a sophomore in HS (of course there are exceptions).

3 months ago my daughter was dead set on being part of Union's pom team in HS (my daughter's 12 and in 7th grade). She made the middle school pom team. She has also gotten the acting/singing/dancing bug which is fin, they sort of go hand in hand. But then, she made a couple of state times for her swim club and is now pushing the 2 best in her age group at her club. She started swimming competitively way later than they did. And now the Union HS coach (who is also one of the club's coaches) is pushing her to swim and she's caught that bug. Point is, kid's at that age should try lots of things that may pique their interest to find who they are. Pushing an 8 year old who's playing soccer for the enjoyment and stating the goal is a D1 scholarship is a little insane IMO.
 
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If you all don't follow Tulsa Soccer Guy on Facebook, you should. He's hilarious and sometimes very blunt about the state of club soccer in Tulsa and there are folks who take offense with him for pointing out the obvious about the shortfalls of each club. Debbie Hess Rhein, who I believe is married to John Rhein, who is the brother of Jim Rhein (women's HC at TU), agrees with his takes on a lot of stuff and she's been privy to a lot of the inside shenanigans at TSC, mostly how none of the clubs really have your kids best interest in mind.

Your friend's daughter is in good hands at least for the technical development aspect of learning soccer at this age. For him to have a D1 goal in mind for her when she's 8 is a little crazy. Heck, she probably wants to be Barbie right now and that's OK. She's 8. Parents should probably not even be thinking about that next level/step for their kid in terms of playing sports and trying to get a college scholarship until they're at least in HS. College coaches aren't paying attention to them and probably won't until they're at a minimum a sophomore in HS (of course there are exceptions).

3 months ago my daughter was dead set on being part of Union's pom team in HS (my daughter's 12 and in 7th grade). She made the middle school pom team. She has also gotten the acting/singing/dancing bug which is fin, they sort of go hand in hand. But then, she made a couple of state times for her swim club and is now pushing the 2 best in her age group at her club. She started swimming competitively way later than they did. And now the Union HS coach (who is also one of the club's coaches) is pushing her to swim and she's caught that bug. Point is, kid's at that age should try lots of things that may pique their interest to find who they are. Pushing an 8 year old who's playing soccer for the enjoyment and stating the goal is a D1 scholarship is a little insane IMO.
Agree with 100% of this. I tried to explain to him how fortunate he was to have someone like Carreno coaching his 8 year old kid. He won’t fully understand until she’s 13-14 though.

Didn’t mean to come across that he was pushing her to play D1. He simply stated he wanted her to have that opportunity when the time comes if that’s something she wanted. Told him she’s in good hands and had several years before he needed to look at alphabet soup.

I know zero about swimming other than I’m not a fan of indoor pools :).
 
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If you all don't follow Tulsa Soccer Guy on Facebook, you should. He's hilarious and sometimes very blunt about the state of club soccer in Tulsa and there are folks who take offense with him for pointing out the obvious about the shortfalls of each club. Debbie Hess Rhein, who I believe is married to John Rhein, who is the brother of Jim Rhein (women's HC at TU), agrees with his takes on a lot of stuff and she's been privy to a lot of the inside shenanigans at TSC, mostly how none of the clubs really have your kids best interest in mind.

Your friend's daughter is in good hands at least for the technical development aspect of learning soccer at this age. For him to have a D1 goal in mind for her when she's 8 is a little crazy. Heck, she probably wants to be Barbie right now and that's OK. She's 8. Parents should probably not even be thinking about that next level/step for their kid in terms of playing sports and trying to get a college scholarship until they're at least in HS. College coaches aren't paying attention to them and probably won't until they're at a minimum a sophomore in HS (of course there are exceptions).

3 months ago my daughter was dead set on being part of Union's pom team in HS (my daughter's 12 and in 7th grade). She made the middle school pom team. She has also gotten the acting/singing/dancing bug which is fin, they sort of go hand in hand. But then, she made a couple of state times for her swim club and is now pushing the 2 best in her age group at her club. She started swimming competitively way later than they did. And now the Union HS coach (who is also one of the club's coaches) is pushing her to swim and she's caught that bug. Point is, kid's at that age should try lots of things that may pique their interest to find who they are. Pushing an 8 year old who's playing soccer for the enjoyment and stating the goal is a D1 scholarship is a little insane IMO.
He is sometimes funny and sometimes an idiot. He wishes to go back to the good old days of soccer, but that isn't happening.

You have expressed in the past that American soccer could be fixed with high school. I am sure TSG would be right there with you. Huffycane and I have both howled out loud at that notion. It is because you have never watched MLS Next games and how they are conducted, let alone reffed one. You just don't understand.
They are conducted in professional environments. Given your penchant for not liking to be bitched at, I can only imagine what would happen if you stepped onto the field with those coaches and players.

The difference between ENCL-NL and RL is also a big chasm.

He seems to never talk about soccer needs to be talked about getting what you want out of the sport. He likes to bitch about clubs. But I don't believe he understands the national landscape or what it takes to compete at the highest levels. He just wants to bitch about clubs and be a :crap:-stirrer.


There are a bunch of levels now I believe. Rec, Competitive State, Competitive Regional, Competitive National. Parents have a hard time dealing with this. There should probably be an expanded rec team with less competitive teams. Many "competitive teams" are glorified rec. They want their kids to play at the highest levels but don't realize what it takes. The sport starts earlier, and it is more technical from my perspective. I played for promising high school teams and was offered D1 scholarships. My competitive team won state championships and would take games off of teams from Dallas with MLS players like Drew Moor and Stuart Holden. It starts earlier. I truly believe the players are better and more technical overall than they were. This is why Americans are doing better internationally now. Goalies sucked with their feet. Now they are regularly integrated, etc... I could continue on forever.

I don't think the dad is an idiot for saying that. Do you know what they are doing in Baseball with Travel ball, basketball with AAU, or volleyball these days? This is not unique to soccer.


One interesting thing: Your love for the super huge high schools contributes to the pay-for-play. You aren't going to get a game at Union, Jenks, or Broken Arrow if you don't play club soccer. I am sure you will testify to one-off, but let's get real—it is one out of 30, and most of the time, you have to be a pretty good club player even to see the field at those schools. But let's get them even more significant. Broken Arrow had 6,059 kids in their last Average daily attendance survey for 6A. That is INSANE. If it broke in half, it would be sixth and seventh ahead of Yukon (2,913).
 
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He is sometimes funny and sometimes an idiot. He wishes to go back to the good old days of soccer, but that isn't happening.

You have expressed in the past that American soccer could be fixed with high school. I am sure TSG would be right there with you. Huffycane and I have both howled out loud at that notion. It is because you have never watched MLS Next games and how they are conducted, let alone reffed one. You just don't understand.
They are conducted in professional environments. Given your penchant for not liking to be bitched at, I can only imagine what would happen if you stepped onto the field with those coaches and players.

The difference between ENCL-NL and RL is also a big chasm.

He seems to never talk about soccer needs to be talked about getting what you want out of the sport. He likes to bitch about clubs. But I don't believe he understands the national landscape or what it takes to compete at the highest levels. He just wants to bitch about clubs and be a :crap:-stirrer.


There are a bunch of levels now I believe. Rec, Competitive State, Competitive Regional, Competitive National. Parents have a hard time dealing with this. There should probably be an expanded rec team with less competitive teams. Many "competitive teams" are glorified rec. They want their kids to play at the highest levels but don't realize what it takes. The sport starts earlier, and it is more technical from my perspective. I played for promising high school teams and was offered D1 scholarships. My competitive team won state championships and would take games off of teams from Dallas with MLS players like Drew Moor and Stuart Holden. It starts earlier. I truly believe the players are better and more technical overall than they were. This is why Americans are doing better internationally now. Goalies sucked with their feet. Now they are regularly integrated, etc... I could continue on forever.

I don't think the dad is an idiot for saying that. Do you know what they are doing in Baseball with Travel ball, basketball with AAU, or volleyball these days? This is not unique to soccer.


One interesting thing: Your love for the super huge high schools contributes to the pay-for-play. You aren't going to get a game at Union, Jenks, or Broken Arrow if you don't play club soccer. I am sure you will testify to one-off, but let's get real—it is one out of 30, and most of the time, you have to be a pretty good club player even to see the field at those schools. But let's get them even more significant. Broken Arrow had 6,059 kids in their last Average daily attendance survey for 6A. That is INSANE. If it broke in half, it would be sixth and seventh ahead of Yukon (2,913).
You obviously don't pay attention to what I am actually saying. I've never said the path to college is through HS soccer. NEVER. I post about HS soccer because my son plays, and I post about Union because that's where my son plays HS soccer. And I post about the others in 6A because that's who they play and I know a lot of the boys playing on those teams because of....club soccer. But we all know club soccer in Tulsa is broken. No longer is it about player development to put the best 18 together on a roster to compete at the highest level. I mean we all know tryouts are a farce right? TSC or WSA or Blitz will ever jeopardize moving a kid down knowing they will take their monthly dues and leave in order to move a kid up. Instead they will promise the kid on the lower team guest playing opportunities on the higher team...which come in small doses in August/September in warm-up tournaments but once ECNL action starts, the coach has forgotten that kid's phone #. These clubs are all about the $$$ now...and TSC is the worst about it.

And for some reason you continue to hate on the large 6A schools that haven't split. Again, I will defend Union for not dividing its resources when it can provide every advantage and resource and opportunity more easily than if it split. I speak from knowledge here and know the opportunities my son has had in both academics and extra curriculars. The Edmond schools bitch because they can't compete in football...yet, Bixby is one of the smaller 6A-1 schools and still routinely hammer everyone. It's not about size as much as it is about culture and when that culture starts.

And I didn't say the dad was an idiot. I said it was insane to be pushing a D1 scholarship pursuit on an 8 year old.

As for me refereeing games...I've never said I wanted to do MLS next games. I'm over 50 w/ 2 surgically reconstructed ACLs and a bad case of osteoarthritis in my left knee. I've done some ECNL games and those are nuts enough. Again, parents view referees from a very one-sided standpoint...whether or not it benefited their kids team. Case in point, I called a very tight offside the other day on a player that was maybe 1/2 step to the wrong side of the next to last defender. Immediately involved, put the flag up...blown dead. Parents close to me, applauded the call. 2nd half, their team has a girl in an offside position, comes back from there to play the ball and I flag it...they're upset because "she wasn't offside at the time she touched it". I just chuckle. I can let most things roll off my back but when it starts getting to be personal, profane, and public...that's when they get to leave. FIFA agrees, this is why refs stop games when Mexican fans yell their homophobic slur at the goalkeeper.
 
Arguing with the ref is cultural.

I used to be a bouncer in a soccer bar. During WCQ or other big games, you had to be good natured to control the crowds, which could exceed 200 people for big games. It was just me and a buddy. The industry standard is one for every 15 patrons.

I would show a yellow card to anyone rowdy or breaking rules and a second yellow gave you the option to walk out or my sidekick and I would take you out.

I could come over and tell people to calm down or quit bothering the girls or what ever and never have a problem. Any time I showed the yellow, not just the subject I was talking to, or his friends, but also people in the crowd would immediately begin to argue with me. The upside was the rest of the crowd would howl with laughter.
 
I know zero about swimming other than I’m not a fan of indoor pools :).
Man, they are saunas. The big thing now is bringing your portable, rechargeable shop fan to meets to move the air.

My wife, son, and daughter went to Bartlesville to watch a friend of ours' son swim in his last club meet (he's a SR as well and my son's best friend for 18 years). The chlorine level in the air was making everyone sick....several kids had to scratch from races because of the irritation. They all came back with some pretty blood shot eyes. Wife and daughter were back there this past weekend for her to swim. Levels were back to normal. My daughter actually won her age group in the 50 free and qualified for the state meet which has been a goal. She's about a second off of state times in another couple of events, and the Union coach is really pushing her to swim more butterfly events as she has complimented that stroke and her breast stroke.
 
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That used to be the best swim facility in the world. Kinda sad how time flies.
 
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