Youth soccer club
- Thread starter BasPlayr
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I can’t see them dropping TSC over a single bad season. There’s so much that goes into it.
It would have to be due to Barry / coach retention / something else.
Going to revise (or clarify) my announcement statement. ECNL doesn’t typically announce demotions. I’m assuming WSA receives the NL which defacto eliminates TSC from NL. If ECNL decides not to have an NL team in Tulsa next year the info will have to leak out.
Until NL is awarded to another Tulsa area club nothing is set in stone.
Agree, it takes a number of factors to pull NL from a club. Last time it occurred in Oklahoma was Celtic.
My guess would be that ECNL needed to offer OEFC an NL spot in order to entice them to leave DA/GA. That NL spot just happened to be Celtics
Losing NL on the girls side creates a problematic business model for TSC as the girls side subsidizes boys NL.
I disagree. I actually think TSC's response to ECNL if they pull ECNL will be better for TSC and the Club. No Tulsa team can finish in the top 4 in the Texas league. Parents are tired of getting killed. If TSC was in almost any other league they would be successful. WSA will fail miserably in NL.
Current TSC is TSC because of ECNL, all the problems they have had with coach and player departures will only grow if they lose ECNL.
100% disagree. TSC has been the top club in the Tulsa area solely because they had NL. Without NL they are Blitz with a hated owner who no one wants to work with or play for. Top 4 in NL is irrelevant as top 6 go to nationals. Top 6 and nationals is always the goal. If the Tulsa area club can keep the areas top girls at home, they should be able to field a couple of teams a year in contention for a top 6 spot. Coaching retention and quality will also be vital for success as will a club wide approach to training and tactics. TSC has failed miserably on the girls side in these areas for years.
I was told TSC keeps NL on the boys side with a 12-24 month probationary period. If they do lose the girls I hope they at least keep the boys. The boys side hasn’t been bad
My assumption is that if TSC loses ECNL the club that gets it will have to play their Games at Scheels or Mohawk.
To be fair, TSC played their NL games at Mohawk for years. Fields went downhill the last couple of years they were out there. TSC also trained on the gravel and gopher fields at old Titan for years. Scheels has been a blessing for Tulsa area soccer. I have not been told that WSA is getting NL but if they do I assume they will find decent fields. They have advocated for NL for years. I have a hard time believing they will not do everything they can to find NL quality fields.
When Barry bought the club, he brought in sporting directors for the boys and girls sides and they tried to implement the club wide style of play, integrated training in age groups, etc. The coaches didn't buy into it and when Barry and Eric basically said it's our way or the highway, a lot of the girls coaches left to WSA and took entire teams of girls with them (you are aware of this). Barry wasn't looking to get rid of those coaches. He was however trying to clean house on the boys side and he ran a lot of good coaches off with his micro-managing approach. We've discussed this before as well. I just know the parents/players were told, a lot, that all the teams in the 06 boys age group would practice as a group 2-3 times per month. Now, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams would occasionally train together and certain players, like my son, were told they could go to the NL and RL training sessions, the NL team was almost never seen at trainings, and it was by design. Parents from the lower teams were to never see the NL team for fear that players from the lower team might actually prove to be better than the NL players and that would create friction and they were never ever telling a kid on the NL team he needed to go down a level for playing time and development.
During tryouts, the NL players were kept on a separate field and only players invited from a different club had the opportunity to tryout/train next to them for that week. I don't know if the girls were subjected to the same isolation or not. And Barry is high on credentials for a coach. If they had a UEAF this license or a USSF B or A licence, then they got hired...but I don't know if any actual screening to philosophy or fit with the club and its goals was ever made. A lot of these high profile coaches left for other clubs after only a few months to a year.
If WSA does get NL, they will most assuredly look to Scheel's to schedule NL games (first) and then to Mohawk if Scheel's doesn't pan out. WSA has exactly 1 field that is good enough to play NL games on, and that's field 10. It's the only field where the lights still work (they still haven't gotten the lower fields lighting fixed since the 2019 flood). Field 10 on the north side is a pretty good field.
And yeah, so if WSA gets NL and a bunch of girls leave TSC for WSA, seriously what is that going to do? We don't expect the WSA teams to be any better than the TSC teams right? It's all the same players and those TSC players are only moving over if they are guaranteed NL spots at WSA and I can't imagine a coach is going to be able to improve a team from 12-16 to higher than 10th in that league. So really, what's the point in shifting the NL spot? If I'm Barry, that's the argument. You'd be shifting the bad soccer from one club to the next with no real plan to improve the product from WSA.
The product may be less of the issue, the bigger issue is who’s managing the product. I think if TSC loses NL it has more to do with the leadership. Just my opinion.
ECNL put TSC NL in a really difficult situation when they took ECRL away. TSC second teams are now playing in the third tier of the ECNL platform. Expecting kids playing that level to be able to fill NL spots due to injuries or players transferring to other clubs is simply not reasonable. TSC’s performance in NL this season was totally to be expected given the position ECNL placed the club.
The boys side have it a little easier as the top players in Texas play in the MLS Next platform. Making it a little easier for TSC to compete with those Texas clubs.
Agree with the leadership or lack thereof comments
The boys side have it a little easier as the top players in Texas play in the MLS Next platform. Making it a little easier for TSC to compete with those Texas clubs.
Agree with the leadership or lack thereof comments
My son isn't going to play next year so it really doesn't matter to me. But the rumor I'm hearing is if TSC loses NL on the girls side they go MLS Next and GA. MLS Next and GA has a gap between Texas and Missouri. This will divide the soccer in Tulsa to the point everyone is on bottom.
I’m afraid the quality and travel for GA in this part of the country would mean a death sentence for the girls side. League is below ECRL and travel is worse….in this part of the country.
MLS Next would be a move up as long as it’s MLS Next and not MLS Next 2. I wonder how many parents are going to be willing to deal with the travel required in MLS Next if it’s MLS Next 2? MLS Next would be a huge get for Tulsa area boys soccer. Next 2 not so much
My understanding is that is MLS Next (not 2) and GA's partnership with them is really helping. I think the girls belong with
At the end of the day you are who you are. We aren't Solar or FC Dallas, Sting. We don't have the population.
- BVB International Academy NTX (Carrollton, TX)
- Cap City SC (Austin, TX)
- HTX Soccer (Houston, TX)
- Lou Fusz Athletic (St. Louis, MO)
- Louisiana TDP Elite (Baton Rouge, LA)
- Renegades Soccer Club (Richardson, TX)
- RISE Soccer Club (Houston, TX)
- San Antonio City SC (San Antonio, TX)
- St. Louis Development Academy (St. Louis, MO)
At the end of the day you are who you are. We aren't Solar or FC Dallas, Sting. We don't have the population.
I would be curious where the info is coming from. You usually have good sources, but there are always so many rumours surrounding them.
Why did the Celtics get knocked out?
Well, there are only two clubs in Dallas that do it.
I was at a game where Dallas Texans Academy had nine guys going to play Division 1, and they claimed to have beaten Fulham's Academy recently. So, while not MLS Next, I bet they could have beaten AT LEAST 50% of them.
Why did the Celtics get knocked out?
Well, there are only two clubs in Dallas that do it.
I was at a game where Dallas Texans Academy had nine guys going to play Division 1, and they claimed to have beaten Fulham's Academy recently. So, while not MLS Next, I bet they could have beaten AT LEAST 50% of them.
That is a lot of travel to play in an ECRL level league. All but two of those teams are a 6 plus hour drive.
MLS Next would be a big get for the boys side.
The Texans are a really good ECNL club on the boys side. That figure doesn’t surprise me.
Yes…there are two MLS Next teams in Dallas. There are also a handful of Dallas area kids playing MLS Next for other clubs. My daughter’s teammate here is one. Subtracting 35-40 of the top players in Dallas certainly has an effect on the quality of ECNL soccer in Dallas. It’s still damn good but not what it would be if there were no MLS Next.
There are six ECNL girls teams in the Dallas area. If you subtracted 6 of the top 8-9 girls from each of those teams the Oklahoma teams would have a much better chance to compete with them.
I addressed why I thought Celtic lost NL in an earlier post.
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Sounds like it was basically a done deal on girls ECNL until they figured out TSC had options that would really hurt the quality of both Girls and Boys sides. I think something gets worked out soon one way or the other . There are deadlines (Maybe they can be moved) etc. to join leagues. Personally I don't see why ECNL would move NL. I could see just taking it away but that would leave Energy without a travel partner.
If it doesn’t get replaced with another team
In Tulsa I wonder if OEFC partners with a team in Dallas. Travel partner doesn’t seem like as much of a concern as teams traveling to OK for one game, not sure that would work.
Hopefully ECNL and TSC can work something out. I have many friends with kids who play NL at TSC. They are lost at what they would do if there were no more NL. Especially if WSA isn’t awarded NL. I was flat out told NL was gone from the girls side by someone who would know so the fact that the sides are still talking is encouraging.
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