Youth soccer club
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WSA's sheer size is one of the things that touches this off every season. The fact the Bushes went and absorbed all these tiny clubs all over the state and renamed them WSA-North/South/East and Western Wear (Drysdales) makes them seem bigger and better qualified for ECNL membership. The problem is their facilities throughout the state are not good and outside of the one field at River Parks in Sand Springs (#10 I think it is) their game fields are actually pretty bad. I'm not sure they've ever gotten the lights fixed at River Parks after the flood 5 years ago and #10 is the only lighted field and we know West Bank is a complex no person should ever play or practice soccer at until they get an environmental company to come in and dig up the top 10 feet of soil and ship it off to a contamination isolation facility and bring in new soil with a barrier liner around the complex to keep the refinery materials from leaching in.
The size and volume of players WSA can claim is still all window dressing. The majority of their teams that are not based in Tulsa can barely compete on the OPC level. Their teams in Tulsa, even the RL teams, are on par with Blitz. I've always heard TSC had a territorial veto right to admitting any new clubs within a certain radius. I don't know if that's true or not but it might not matter if TSC loses their NL status due to poor performance and a relegation.
Do you think? I've known Travis for a couple of years and nothing he's said in conversation with me sounds anything remotely like Tulsa Soccer Guy. We had an extended conversation with him in the Tulsa airport when we were taking my son up to Boston to move in at Tufts. And I've refereed games with him and his daughter before. Her daughter is a good player and I believe she just committed to College of the Ozarks just south of Branson, MO (interesting school finance concept there).
And this is why I find it puzzling that Barry ran the Carreno's off from TSC. Donny, Bobby, and Amanda all were great technical teachers and taught kids at a very young age to play this way coming out of the back and lots of passing.
Maybe coincidence that TSG waited until Joao left Blitz before putting him on blast ? TSG has always struck me as a bitter man who has grown tired of the Tulsa club soccer scene. Something I can at least partially agree upon.
Top level coaches have egos. Barry has an ego. It can be hard to coexist at times when neither party is willing to put their’s aside. I also believe Barry historically hasn’t been willing to pay to retain top level coaches.
Yes, Tulsa Soccer Guy had some insights to the Tulsa club soccer scene and politics and the $ games they play with people all while understanding that the clubs miss the mark most of the time when it comes to actual player development. TSG was also a harsh critic of clubs sending teams 1000s of miles away to play in all these tournaments and showcases and not playing any local tournaments, especially in those of rival clubs. And he has a point with that, especially when you're talking 2nd or 3rd teams travelling 6-8 or more hours away to play in a simple tournament. I get the top teams playing in NL or RL (or even EA) might be obligated to play in a couple of those leagues' showcases each season, but you can plan for that and not make every tournament one that you have to take an extra day off work just to get there are a reasonable hour on Friday so you can be at the field at 6:30AM for a 7:15AM kick. I always appreciated my son's time with Blitz because they played in lots of local tournaments in OK and always tried to do a couple each season requiring an overnight stay in Dallas or St. Louis. Even my son's 3rd team at TSC was always wanting to go to anywhere except Oklahoma and we were still traveling to Wichita, KC, Arkansas, north Texas to play league games.
TSG was also a vocal critic of all the animosity between the clubs in Tulsa. He was right about that too...it actually hurts soccer in Tulsa overall.
I have never talked to Barry once, but I find it odd how many people blame him for everything. Many of these coaches have huge egos, too. They want more money; they think they should be coaching something different. He has probably screwed up a lot but don't doubt these idiots' ability to mess up too.
Being a part of soccer for 36 years, there is a vast array of opinions about the ills of soccer, locally and nationally and how they should be fixed. This market is funky for those who have never lived outside of Tulsa. It also helps to see how other places do things. As I mentioned, OEFC has been blessed with being big and homogenous. The question is, why? What has allowed them to do that?
Being a part of soccer for 36 years, there is a vast array of opinions about the ills of soccer, locally and nationally and how they should be fixed. This market is funky for those who have never lived outside of Tulsa. It also helps to see how other places do things. As I mentioned, OEFC has been blessed with being big and homogenous. The question is, why? What has allowed them to do that?
A whole host of clubs perform at one level of TSC in the NL division. There are a couple of awful ones, a couple of good ones, and lots of mid-tier ones. Who is speaking about the relegation? I have heard this stuff since I have lived in Tulsa for the past 5.5 years. It has never happened. If you listen to the ECNL director, he talks about a club-based vs. team-based model. Joao recently had a phenomenal 2015 girls' team at blitz, but they aren't getting promoted to the ECNL-NL division at Blitz. Ain't happening—sorry bruh. One team isn't getting them there. He was, however, telling them that you don't really need to be in NL anymore to get recruited, which is valid....to an extent. How do I know this? We have a very close friend's daughter on that team.
West Bank is total dog dook. I come out of there coughing because it is windy and dusty when I visit. The fields are terrible.
What are the “couple” of girls ECNL teams at TSC which are good? There’s not a single team with a winning conference record nor is there a team ranked in the top 75 nationally.
Agree the West Bank is crap. You don’t need NL to get recruited but it is very very difficult to go D1 from a non NL team. Especially based out of Oklahoma
I have talked 1 on 1 with Barry many times. I was the manager of my son's team at TSC. Most of the conversations started as an email from me to Barry and he would always call me to address them and what he planned. Issues ranged from the lack of transparency in the tryout process, i.e. the ECNL boys in the age group never had to go to "tryouts" and if they did go on those nights, they were kept on a separate field from the rest of the age group and the NL coaches/boys' director never saw kids who weren't on the NL team at the club already. It was like this before Barry took over (I expressed the same concern to Mark McIntosh). Boys coming into the club who had been promised NL spots were dropped onto their field and usually they were only there for 1 day out of the 3 tryout days. Also, the lack of a GK coach and consistent GK training at TSC was a concern...we discussed that and even needing that GK coach to do an actual GK tryout and provide recommendations on placements. While Barry promised this for 3 years, it never actually happened. There was also the concern about training fields and conditions as my son's team had several injuries occur at the now Scheel's complex playing in the gravel. My son actually ripped open his arm from elbow to just above the wrist diving on the gravel. We also discussed the lack of attention from the club to the lower teams in scheduling. We were supposed to communicate with the club GM to get us registered for tournaments that weren't the TSC tournaments because the club went to a single pay fee model for all teams instead of the manager's collecting any monies (I appreciated this greatly). This was always a bigger chore than it needed to be. Same with rescheduling games...always supposed to go through TSC GM to do reschedules. Did this several times and on more than one occasion the two teams would show up for a game and there were no referees. Anyway, managers were always part of meetings with Barry and Eric to discuss tryouts, upcoming season stuff, processes, etc. Lots of promises were made, only a few of those were ever followed through on. If I seem jaded towards TSC about some stuff, it's because I am because promises were made by Barry and Eric and not followed up on and those things always seemed to negatively affect the 2nd, 3rd and lower teams. I don't blame him for everything, but I do hold a grudge for not following up on promises made. Also, he came in with a drill sergeant approach and basically told coaches it was his way or the highway. Many of the coaches on the girls side all left (for WSA) when this was made clear. @lawpoke can attest to this.
As for the Carrenos, they were tired of the promises not being kept. They were also basically busted down to the lower level teams every time TSC got the idea to hire some coach from another club. And with all coaches, they also didn't appreciate the micromanagement from the top. I did have a conversation with Donny about this last Spring. He was sort of done with the club culture altogether and I think it was easier for him to walk away from clubs and do his own thing when his son basically finished out his club career (he might still have this year, I know he's an '06 but I think he was on the younger side, trapped '06; going to be a senior at BTW this year). Bobby was (and may still be) working for FC Tulsa and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets involved with the youth academy FC Tulsa is rumored to be starting.
Yeah. I’ve been to a few of those
WELLLLLL it wasn't that actually.
They seemed to *very lightly* touch on just how awful the team culture is on the teams, reiterated showing up ready to train, be on time (early), dress weather appropriate, etc.
I think they were too light handed, tbh. They need direct action to address the actual problem with the team culture, which includes moving players. There are very few, if any, players at this age that are so good that their terrible attitude is acceptable.
I mean, I have pretty solid proof of it tbh.
I disagreed with TSG once and they got mad / upset enough to message me directly on Facebook Messager.
They tried to share a document with me via Messenger. They did not do it correctly, so I saw the path to the file...which had a username. Not a whole lot of people in the Tulsa area that cares about Tulsa soccer with a name that matches the username I saw 👀
As far as I know:
The RL Frontier League was only possible if TSC agreed to join it, but I'm not sure how accurate that actually is.
ECNL players should not have to be reminded to be on time and be ready to train. Those things typically improve with maturity
Let's be honest about where the problem is and it being a priority. It's the parents. My son was only old enough and licensed to drive himself to practice his last 2 years of club soccer. At that point, the responsibility for him to get himself to practice on time became his and his alone. Prior to that, it's partially on the parents. And we actually had a parent call out other parents on a team group text message when he and his son showed up on time for a game along with 3 others and everyone else was probably 15 minutes or more late.
I understand this was a "parents'" meeting so them mentioning this in that realm is appropriate but also parents need to make sure they don't allow their players to bail out on practices because they don't want to go...and sometimes these parents and players feel entitled enough by their spot on the team that prioritizing showing up to practice and actually working to get better is pushed back.
I’ve been amazed how parents attitudes change toward being on time for trainings and games when coaches start sitting their kids for being tardy. The key is that the punishment must be administered equally regardless of how talented the player might be or regardless of what the parent has bought the coach previously. One of the longstanding issues at TSC is parents being able to “buy” favor for their kids with coaches.
Oh yeah, I feel like the coaches / club don’t do enough to deter poor behavior.
Act like a jerk to a teammate? Sit down.
Show up late regularly? Sit down.
Disrespect referees? Sit down.
Etc.
That’s just not happening.
Excellence demands discipline.
Coach Tina sit a kid once because that kid made unkind comments about someone’s body. The kid was another coaches kid and is supremely talented. But she sat her for an entire game, maybe 2.
I’ve also seen Tina tell parents to be quiet or leave.
Even now, she isn’t involved with TSC, but I’ve seen her show up to drop a kid that needed a ride off at training.
TSC should’ve given her whatever she needed to stay.
Tina was a victim of cost cutting by the club. They could hire a coach(s) from Central and South America (or lower level clubs) at a much lower salary and retain control over them due to their Visa status.
Tina was another exceptional coach who could teach players both technically and she was really good at the tactical side as well. And I have never heard anyone complain about Tina as a coach.
Tina had basically the exact same 12 NL roster and made them the 2nd, maybe tied with 1st, best team in the state. She could get the girls to work for her.
And just like last time: when she lost them, the team got noticeably worse. It’s wild.
Edit: well, probably not worse.
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