Rafael will be good for that parent group. Considering WSA was shooting for a couple Dallas NL coaches that list is a bit underwhelming imo
Youth soccer club
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The best coach on that list is a part time coach. I think WSA got sticker shock when they found out how much $$ it takes to hire a full time good coach. Rafa is a super nice guy. Troy is a great coach but does he still have the fire in his belly.....? I would give this staff a B.
What was is prior record in ECNL at TSC? I don't really care about him dominating 5A soccer with overwhelming talent at BK.
Beating Catoosa does not equate to competing with Solar and FC Dallas. I would like to know how much ECNL experience he has and his results therein. I don’t think people realize the huge difference between coaching crappy girls 5A soccer and Texas league ECNL.
I will say everyone I’ve talked to speaks very highly of Troy
Hard to believe WSA didn’t know it was going to take $125-150k a year to land an establish Dallas ECNL coach
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Have those “folks” ever been happy with their coach?
I love the hyping of Troy like he is the best coach in OK... it's too good. People actually think that dominating 5A and 4A soccer at BK and Holland Hall is evidence of a great coach. In 5A, BTW and McGuiness were the only girls' schools in any competition year, both in and out. 4A has only Metro. Holland Hall has a losing record, but they have played only 5A and 6A, except for Cascia. Cascia could be decent this year; they knocked off BTW and Holland Hall. 3 years ago, they were awful, so maybe they got a new coach or a talent influx.
5A boys' competition is now with most the TPS schools being good like East Central and Rogers. BTW and Edison have always been competitive. Hell, even Hale has been decent recently. If you dominate 5A boys, you are probably a good coach and have talent.
6A Boys is the same way. You have to show up. Even Enid, Bartesville and PC Orginal will give you a game or upset you. Those same teams could be 10-0ed by half on the girls. Hale girls are the worst team you have ever seen in your entire life. It is so sad.
5A boys' competition is now with most the TPS schools being good like East Central and Rogers. BTW and Edison have always been competitive. Hell, even Hale has been decent recently. If you dominate 5A boys, you are probably a good coach and have talent.
6A Boys is the same way. You have to show up. Even Enid, Bartesville and PC Orginal will give you a game or upset you. Those same teams could be 10-0ed by half on the girls. Hale girls are the worst team you have ever seen in your entire life. It is so sad.
He deserves to be given a chance. He will inherent roughly the same team as Nathan coached this past year. Comparison will be easy
Is he causing a massive movement of OEFC's people to run up the 'pike?
Greatest high school coach in history....you know right there.
I guarantee you Central's girls are worse than Hale's. I've seen them both play. It is Central's 1st year to field a team and they have about 3 actual soccer players and the rest are out there so they could have a team. Hell, I even had to tell one of the girls that their shin guards had to be covered by the socks.
Memorial's boys team is actually really good this year. Rogers is decent. They have a new coach and they're still learning what he wants them to do. They're going to struggle against teams that have a fast striker because they're running a CB out there that looks like he should be playing OL. He's extremely smart back there and extremely gifted with his feet, he just lacks the quickness you need as a CB to close gaps or catch a breaking striker. Their MF is extremely good at keeping possession and moving the ball to the correct places. I haven't seen East Central's boys in action but I understand they're doing pretty well this season.
I am doing Holland Hall and Claremore tomorrow. Don't know anything about either team.
This past weekend I ref'd some games at in BA. Worked with a young lady who is the GK for Union's girls team. She knows my son. I asked her what she thinks of her coach and the look I got was priceless. Tells you all you need to know. I asked how their season was going...they beat Ponca City last weekend at the Stillwater tournament but then lost to Coweta and another 5A school. I can't imagine things are going great at Union right now if your players aren't on board with you as a coach. I know there are parents who are not on board either.
Bulk of district play is ramping up this week. Should be interesting.
What’s your angle here?
Do you not like Troy? WSA? TSC? Tulsa soccer in general?
This seems personal to you
Imagine being Union and getting beat by a side with zero ECNL or ECRL girls. Assume Coweta has a number of Frontier RL players.
I don't know if I have typed this out on this thread, but I think I have. I have had so many conversations about what is happening between different groups now that it is almost tiring—whether that is people on my team, other people, members, and coaches of the groups that are changing.
I want Tulsa soccer to thrive over all others. We are a smaller market, making thriving at the highest levels much more complex than for others. We have talked about this extensively. I think I have told you about prior OKC rivalries back in the day. I feel like the vitrol between the markets has dialed back. Maybe the Thunder has helped with that. After living there, I think OKC people don't care about Tulsa. They are largely pretty damn ignorant.
If we lose 2-4 players and go down to OKC, that is not good for us if we are trying to compete against Dallas, Houston, Austin, Denver, and KC.
As for the Troy thing, if you haven't figured it out, I also like to make fun of things.
Worse than Hale Girls? My god.
Memorial's boys team has been decent for a while. They haven't leapt to the quarterfinal /semi level. As mentioned above, 5A is pretty competitive. Their games are almost always competitive.
The change from TSC to WSA was needed imo. I do believe there is now hope to keep those girls in Tulsa. That was never going to occur with a club headed by Barry. Any change in culture is going to take some time. I don’t expect those players to all of sudden return to Tulsa to play ECNL. Patience will be needed. I expect 5 of the top 6 local 2010 girls will be playing elsewhere this upcoming season. I don’t have the numbers for the 2011s but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were similar. For the first time in awhile I’m optimistic for Tulsa soccer. Hopefully that optimism is warranted
You should be optimistic. Tulsa soccer needed a change, we got a change, no reason to just assume it'll suck.
I am optimistic because, whether we like how it happened, the age groups of the arguably top teams in the Tulsa area are forced to combine now. There are always going to be people who say "this won't change because all the top girls were on NL already" but I truly don't agree with that. There are talented girls that didn't play NL for one reason or another. Lots that just didn't go because of club loyalty, etc.
There are girls on NL teams that just weren't ready. They got the spot because of low tryout turn outs. I think we're going to get teams that are overall better than what we had. Does that make Tulsa NL teams good enough to be truly competitive in Tx? Maybe not, but it's a step in the right direction.
And I can tell you that from what I've seen so far, the coaching is already on a better track.
Well, it sounds like the players are unhappy but I also think that side is devoid of actual leadership within the students. Way different than the boys' side in that regards.
Coweta has some nice players. I know both of the GKs are really good players. I think a few of them are top level Blitz/FC Tulsa Academy players. They're not Jenks, they're not BA for sure but Coweta is not pulling from the same pool of players as either of those places. But you're right, Union should not be losing to them. (They also lost to BK, little better comp but still). I bring the lack of leadership up because I know on the boys side, if they felt the coach wasn't a good fit for the group and the culture, they'd be in the ADs office. The AD will listen to parents but she's not going to fire/hire individuals based on that. But even as an outsider to the girls' program at Union, I can 100% see that the coach is not a good fit and is actually not a very good coach at all.
That may change this year. I saw them early on. They've got some really skilled MFs who facilitate the attack really well, a good group of backs who are in tune with one another, and their strikers can break down defenders and are super quick. To boot, they have a very good GK, big, really good with his feet, really good shot stopper, very much a QB and sees the field well and communicates with his D. GKs who are able to see the field like a chess board and be able to communicate like that are very much under appreciated IMO.
IMO, and I will be the first to admin that the game I saw Rogers play was against a completely over matched opponent (Central), Memorial was a little better than Rogers. They're both better than Coweta who I think was a quarterfinalist in 5A last season. I'll see Claremore tomorrow. BTW has been struggling this season but against probably better than 5A competition (lost to BA 3-0, lost to BK, lost to Bixby). I don't know anything about Edison this season. I know they lost a lot off of last season's championship team and I believe their coach left after his 1 season. New coach is from AR (?)
I hear the 2011 TSC girls don't like the coach at WSA (Shocker they get a coach fired every year)
2012's at Both TSC and WSA are terrible. Emma Hayes can't help them.
2013's at TSC I think will stay at TSC if they get GA. WSA 13's are awful (won't win. a game in league without help)
2014's at TSC and WSA are good. WSA was better until Leo took over 14's at TSC would like to see that game now.
2010's are rated higher than league standing indicate. Texas NL is no joke. People don't understand how hard that league is.
Will TSC land GA? If so I give WSA zero chance to be successful in NL. Top talent will still play for Energy and other Dallas, KC teams. TSC has better fields and location. WSA obsession with West Bank and Case will kill them with other ECNL teams. If WSA loses NL then GA will be the top platform here and the rumors will be out every year that WSA will lose NL just like it was for TSC. Then you have FC Tulsa Academy that is really just Blitz playing 4th division in boys and girls. Some really good coaches and good people but if you're serious about playing soccer at the next level this isn't it.
Is Greenwood going to announce coaches? Are they having problems attracting the coaches to Tulsa? Where are they going to practice and play? How much are the dues going to be without a girls side to supplement?
Man, so many questions. I'm glad instead of soccer dues I'm paying for Country Club membership for my son to play golf. Golf lessons way more than soccer. We can pick our tournaments and in locations we want to vacation.
2012's at Both TSC and WSA are terrible. Emma Hayes can't help them.
2013's at TSC I think will stay at TSC if they get GA. WSA 13's are awful (won't win. a game in league without help)
2014's at TSC and WSA are good. WSA was better until Leo took over 14's at TSC would like to see that game now.
2010's are rated higher than league standing indicate. Texas NL is no joke. People don't understand how hard that league is.
Will TSC land GA? If so I give WSA zero chance to be successful in NL. Top talent will still play for Energy and other Dallas, KC teams. TSC has better fields and location. WSA obsession with West Bank and Case will kill them with other ECNL teams. If WSA loses NL then GA will be the top platform here and the rumors will be out every year that WSA will lose NL just like it was for TSC. Then you have FC Tulsa Academy that is really just Blitz playing 4th division in boys and girls. Some really good coaches and good people but if you're serious about playing soccer at the next level this isn't it.
Is Greenwood going to announce coaches? Are they having problems attracting the coaches to Tulsa? Where are they going to practice and play? How much are the dues going to be without a girls side to supplement?
Man, so many questions. I'm glad instead of soccer dues I'm paying for Country Club membership for my son to play golf. Golf lessons way more than soccer. We can pick our tournaments and in locations we want to vacation.
That’s very inaccurate about the TSC 2011 girls and why the coaches getting fired every year. The coaches not finishing the seasons had a lot more to do with clubs inability to prioritize the girls side and putting qualified coaches in place.
The areas 2012 girls class is similar to the 2008 class. There’s just a void of talent. Not a lot that can be done now with that age group. The 2010 girls class is the most talented to come through the area at least since the 2007s and probably further back than that. I anticipate they will continue to struggle to reach .500 in league but as you pointed out the Texas League is loaded. Not to mention five of the states top 2010s who are from Tulsa will likely be playing elsewhere. There are three US team ID pool players in that group. I’m curious to see how the 09s do at WSA. Their ECRL team was good. Can adding 7-8 TSC NL players to that group lead to a competitive Texas League ECNL squad?
Like the 10s the 11s probably need those players who left back to be competitive in the Texas league. It’s going to take some patience and time imo
I would think Greenwood has to announce coaching staffs and training / playing facilities in the next few weeks. I had heard they were working out those specifics but haven’t heard any details.
I'm going to defend the 12s a little bit because my daughter is a 12 lol
They did not do well in NL this year, for sure. I don't think it's because the group was just incapable of playing better, I truly think it can be traced back to the age group split some years ago, when Doug Melton left with a huge swath of girls for WSA. Couple that with the coach turnover rate specifically with the 12s at TSC and you have a group that's delayed. To flatly call them untalented isn't really fair. There are some talented 12s, but for one reason or the other, they will not play together.
1 very talented 12 plays with a boys team at Greenwood.
1 plays up at WSA on the 11s
1 Plays with a boys team at Blitz and, ALLEGEDLY, their parents are very...unstable...and so they've bounced around from club to club and are a difficult situation to deal with, I'm told.
2 12s go to OKC to play.
Of the 12s that are still in Tulsa, I think there is a strong group that just needs a good leader and coach. The TSC 12s played pretty well with Tina. Then, for their first year in NL, they got a new coach. Like, new to NL, new to Tulsa, new to coaching. There were stifiling personalities on that team that had quirks that weren't being dealt with. There was no sense of team. It was just individuals on a roster and nothing was being done about it.
If you had actually been at the NL games, you'd know that the final score of their matches don't tell the whole story, even if it tells the only story that matters at that level. There were a lot of games against really great teams, like Sting and Solar and DKSC, where the 12s went into the half either tied at 0-0 or only down a single goal.
I'm really optimistic about next year. Preston's coaching philosophy is much different than what we saw at TSC. The way he wants them to play, in my experience, should match up much better than whatever we were doing at TSC.
Didn’t mean to offend you. I’ve seen the 12s play a couple of times as I have a good friend with a daughter on your team. The 12s were a -55 goal differential in 15 games this season. Even with below average coaching there’s a talent issue when you have a -55 gd. Not sure I would read to much into Tina’s pre-ECNL results. TSC teams typically fare well pre ECNL and then the Texas teams consolidate rosters when academy soccer ends and they go ECNL. It’s a different ballgame at that point.
Merging with the WSA girls should help. They were a .500 team in ECRL so the talent isn’t great but adding a couple solid players would help. From what I saw the 12s are missing two or three of the elite players you need to be competitive in the Texas league. One is at Greenwood and one plays for WSA 11s….as you said. Decent chance one of those two will play with you next season. She will help. Don’t think you want to Blitz girl.
Not offended at all! I just wanna provide context from my perspective.
The blitz girl is really talented. All the stuff surrounding her is a shame though.
Prior to TSC losing NL, there was a talented girl from Wichita that was looking for a home. They may come back.
I’m hoping for the best. It’s still a long road to get where we wanna be.
That decision is going to infuriate Dallas clubs having to travel and play at those facilities. I’m sure something is going to be forced on the club as far as facilities sooner rather than later.
They really only need better facilities for what, 2-3 weekends a season for NL matches right? Just rent Mohawk for those weekends...it's not really being used fully. I would not have ECNL sides playing at Riverparks and those clubs should never ever see West Bank. Only field 10 is anywhere close to being appropriate and it has way too many dips and depressions throughout the field. Heck, there's so many uneven places on the sideline I hate being an AR out there. And the rest of the fields are worse with large bare patches throughout. And I don't think they've ever had the lights fixed out there since the entire complex was 6 feet under water in the 2019 flood. Only the lights on 10 work.
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