I think the 11’s finished 7th in the league their first year but we got hammered in multiple games that season. It’s a tough conference and unfortunately your really don’t know where you stand nationally because you play similar ranked teams from other conferences in the showcases. And in most cases those teams are considerably worse.
Youth soccer club
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That’s quite respectable. Top half of the league and one spot away from a trip to nationals. Texas league is a gauntlet.
Have you guys entertained coming to Energy? I know they are putting a pretty good 10’s team together with some of the TSC additions.
Haven’t had a lot of luck convincing the kid to make that move yet despite her two best friends playing on that Energy team. I agree the 10 Energy team should be very good next season. I know at least three Tulsa girls will be on that roster. Never know what the future holds regarding where one plays
I think our 11’s should be even better next season as well.
The 12's also lost their 2 best players (Who are 13's) So the 13's, 12's and 08's will finish last or close. That's half of the 6 age groups. I really feel sorry for the 13's families they are a great bunch.
Will the WSA do no good? But shouldn't the most outstanding high school coach in history fix everything?
I disagree that the 13s were flatly the best players.
To be clear: I absolutely adore the family of one of them. We have been around them for a long time.
But there was no stand out, productive player on that team all season long.
The real problem on that team wasn’t strictly a lack of talent. It was a mentality issue. In was inter personal issues between players that, despite going to the club about for assistance, remained unresolved and largely unaddressed.
It was so bad, that a TRUE story that I told in this very thread got blow up into a huge deal that ended up causing us to leave TSC before the end of the season. So I don’t think it’s completely fair to say the “12s are bad”. They had a lot of stuff going on. Their record was bad. That’s true. But there are talented girls in that age group and even on that team.
It will be interesting year for them since a few of them came from WSA to TSC this year. Time will tell. Preston is a good coach so that won’t be the issue. Games will be here before you know it. I predict bottom 3 again. Hope for better….. some great kids in that group.
The 2 WSA kids that came to TSC aren’t playing with WSA 12s this year, as I understand it.
First off--thank you. This thread is widely reflective of the kind of community-driven people I'm looking to connect with: those who genuinely care about Tulsa youth soccer beyond individual teams, clubs, or coaches. I appreciate the balanced, respectful, direct, and insightful conversations here, particularly the healthy approach to constructive conflict. I joined to benefit from and contribute to this collective wisdom.
Caveat: I'm not historically a "sports person." Everything I know about soccer I've learned through my daughter’s journey, so I warmly welcome any guidance.
Background: My daughter is a 2014 player who spent several seasons on a BA 2013 rec team before transitioning this spring ('25) to club soccer. We joined Blitz FC, specifically Joao’s 2013 team, as our introduction to the club-level scene. Currently, her team competes primarily in U13/U14 league matches (FPL). While initially unintended (we simply followed her friends into the 2013 Blitz/TSC ecosystem), playing up has significantly boosted my daughter's resilience, physicality, technical skills, and soccer IQ. She’s not just surviving, but thriving, and soccer has become even more energizing for her, which I'm incredibly proud of.
Seeking Advice: Although there are some positive aspects, after weighing pros and cons, I feel it would be better for my daughter's development to play within her own age group (2014). Because our experience thus far has mostly been limited to the 2013 Blitz/TSC groups, I’m seeking insights into the broader 2014 soccer landscape in Tulsa. Any perspectives or advice on navigating this shift would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again--I look forward to your insights!
PS: I’ve noticed strong appreciation here for Nathan Doll. I've known Nathan personally outside soccer for several years. While I don’t have the credentials to judge his soccer abilities, I can confidently affirm he is a genuinely caring, authentic individual and exactly the type of role model I'd want for my daughter.
Caveat: I'm not historically a "sports person." Everything I know about soccer I've learned through my daughter’s journey, so I warmly welcome any guidance.
Background: My daughter is a 2014 player who spent several seasons on a BA 2013 rec team before transitioning this spring ('25) to club soccer. We joined Blitz FC, specifically Joao’s 2013 team, as our introduction to the club-level scene. Currently, her team competes primarily in U13/U14 league matches (FPL). While initially unintended (we simply followed her friends into the 2013 Blitz/TSC ecosystem), playing up has significantly boosted my daughter's resilience, physicality, technical skills, and soccer IQ. She’s not just surviving, but thriving, and soccer has become even more energizing for her, which I'm incredibly proud of.
Seeking Advice: Although there are some positive aspects, after weighing pros and cons, I feel it would be better for my daughter's development to play within her own age group (2014). Because our experience thus far has mostly been limited to the 2013 Blitz/TSC groups, I’m seeking insights into the broader 2014 soccer landscape in Tulsa. Any perspectives or advice on navigating this shift would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again--I look forward to your insights!
PS: I’ve noticed strong appreciation here for Nathan Doll. I've known Nathan personally outside soccer for several years. While I don’t have the credentials to judge his soccer abilities, I can confidently affirm he is a genuinely caring, authentic individual and exactly the type of role model I'd want for my daughter.
Welcome to the journey!
Joao is good with the littles. If your daughter is happy there, stay with him.
Enjoy it as much as you can for now. Don’t worry about ECNL / rl / GA / whatever until you have to.
Nathan has always been kind to us.
Just like JM: joao isn’t for everyone. Joao is def good with the younger kids though and if it’s working for them, I wouldn’t change it.
Thank you both for your insights. We've trained enough with Joao that I feel I have a good understanding of his strengths and growing edges from a parent perspective. If we move to the 2014 age group though he will not be an option as he isn't coaching the 14s.
if you want your daughter to grow her technical skills, start private training.
Samba or t90futbol are great options.
Your daughter is at the age where she needs to seriously start thinking about her soccer goals. It’s difficult to give advice without knowing her ultimate objective with soccer.
D1
College but not D1
High school player
Enjoy playing and making memories with friends and level isn’t really important
There is no right or wrong answer here.
If John Michael is still doing pt I think his is your first option followed by Samba, and I’ve never heard of T90.
Thank ya'll for the recommendations, we do private training right now and have a good sampling of local options. Samba, t90, Tecnico (haven't asked JM directly but I've assumed he isn't adding to his private list with other things taking his attention so we train when we attend with Ciaran), and we supplement with Futsal. We rotate camps, clubs, coaches, etc. so she can get different inputs from different styles. We do keep her with a 1:1 small group training with a TSC coach (Luka) weekly who is absolutely amazing. I don't want to give the wrong idea that we overload her with private training as we don't take advantage of all of these options regularly. We've been doing it a few years and so we've rotated through many of the options. I think they all have something wonderfully unique to contribute. But take that with a grain of salt as I'm not a soccer coach and I've never played.
If she’s happy, you’re doing just fine.
Samba is great.
JM is great if he clicks with your kid.
Alex / T90 is amazing as well.
Thank you for the wisdom. Our primary goal right now is to keep her in a positive, challenging environment as she is heavily motivated by stretch goals and growth. At eleven years old it feels early to be making decisions about future college aspirations, but that's why I'm on this board -- to learn from those that have more experience. Our path so far has been to use soccer as a life lessons tool, but her hard work, and commitment has pushed her into the club system as we couldn't find the challenging environments (i.e., higher level of play) outside of it and she was stagnating.
So this was my daughter's first games with Nathan (TSC 13's Gold) very tough group of parents.......All I can say is everyone loves him. Yes his trainings are great but his sideline demeanor is close to perfect in my opinion. Some happy parents in the TSC gold 2013's!!!
I will echo what everyone has said about Nathan. Just a solid coach and a really good human. Now I’m not near as enthusiastic about some of the other upper level girls coaches currently at TSC which could become an issue down the road if the staff remains intact. However, Nathan and Jake Simpson are as good as it gets locally on the girls side imo.
You have to decide if your family is ready to commit to ECNL-ECRL-GA soccer. I say family because it is truly a family decision. Lots of weekends away from home. Lots of travel. Lots of private training…she will need it.
My advice is to be objective in evaluating your kid’s talent and athletic ability. Ask a coach for an honest evaluation (not a coach who’s trying to get her to come to his club). Heck….if your at Blitz/FC Tulsa currently schedule a private with Jake and ask him afterwards. He’s as honest as they come.
I would try a couple of trainers and see who your daughter prefers. Lots of high level kids train a Sambo. Nice thing about Sambo is you call and get a time and show up and train. JM has trained most of the D1 level girls in the area at one time or the other. He is exceptionally demanding and isn’t a match for everyone. He’s also exceptionally good as his results demonstrate.
Best luck…let us know where you guys are playing this coming season and keep us apprised of your daughter’s journey as her game continues to grow. Soccer can be so rewarding for parents and their children.
I remember distinctly when I started to have semi serious thoughts about college, and where I might want to go. I was 11(2nd half of the year & 12( 1st half) when those thoughts began. It might not be too early to have very basic exploratory conversations with her pointed in that direction. These weren't when people began talking to me about college, but when I began semi serious thought about the issue.
lol, it was the beginning of my senior year year when I started thinking about college. Soccer was much much different back then
The only reason I remember so distinctly is that a seemingly related interest, but really an unrelated interest began at that same time. TU basketball & Nolan Richardson was that interest. It was my interest in TU that led to my interest in TU basketball and Nolan, not the other way around.
Yes soccer was way different than it is now. I was always in rec soccer. If I had this board to read when I was 8 or 10, it might have gone differently, as far as asking my parents for training, and getting into club soccer. They were oblivious to club soccer even though they were aware of it. Time warp though, cuz this board couldn't exist then. No internet, no sports boards, etc.
Thank you for the great advice and well wishes! We'll keep you in the loop on where we land. It's nice to have such a balanced and experienced group to source helpful information from. Much appreciate the thread.
That's helpful perspective, thank you. It seems valuable to start opening up those conversations now, while it's low pressure, so she can organically start to think about what she envisions and where that could lead.
It didn't take me long after starting to think about it, to make the initial decision. Maybe a year later, I came to a semi solid decision that I wanted to attend TU. Now that was just my initial decision, and was still open to change. But I made that decision before I turned 13. I stuck with that decision. Sometimes we forget when those type of thoughts & decisions enter our brain. Luckily Nolan and our 1st NIT championship is my mnemonic.
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Referee here...and I've done a lot of games out there and I've been critical of field conditions (my son had his arm ripped open on the gravel in a goalbox prior to you taking over the complex). A dedicated referee space/meeting room would be nice. Take a look at Edmond's redo of their building, concessions, bathrooms, etc. The ref room/meeting room is phenomenal. It also has doors which dissuades unhappy club admins from just inviting themselves into the ref room to gripe about a card given to one of their players/coaches. Not to mention, we're out in the elements all day, longer than players and coaches and parents. TSC's tent always feels like we are exposing us and I need to de-dustify everything (this last tournament was particularly windy and my gear was covered with dirt and grit.
I appreciate the work done on the complex and the fields are definitely much improved from when my son was playing for TSC and training out there 2-3 nights a week.
My kid made the cover of Prep Soccer this week
Looks like she was coming off the top rope!!!!My kid made the cover of Prep Soccer this week
I wish you guys could get help from Jenks and/or Tulsa. These days, most businesses receive some level of government assistance. No other place brings in people from out of state. The number of teams telling me they have difficulty finding hotel rooms is pretty extraordinary during just regular ECNL weekends. Seems like a big opportunity.
I get it but the places I've been to referee all have good referee rooms, except for the places around Tulsa. Mohawk has a decent one, BASC has a decent one although it's way too small for even normal weekends and only if you're assigned on the east side although they do make a good attempt at making one on the west side with turning one of the gazebos into a space; WSA is atrocious. They commandeered the only room at the concessions/restroom area for tournament HQ and refs were stuck in a tent that was too small for the group this weekend PLUS there were not even port-a-johns at the complex on the south side where all the fields are and if you know anything about that complex and how WSA loves to cram games into short time slots, I didn't even have a chance to leave the field, get a drink, or use the restroom between games. The only plus to WSA is they pay cash (but they usually pay less than other clubs for regular games). Even MTSC has sheds they've put up and fitted as ref rooms (although I wouldn't want to be caught in one during a storm). Edmond and South Lakes have really nice ref areas for their tournaments as does North OKC (and Brett is a great assignor to work with to boot). Even the Wichita Stryker complex, Overland Park Scheel's, and St. Louis (Creve Couer and the Soccer Park in Fenton) have great referee areas.
Around here referees tend to go to the places with the assignors that assign games independently of the clubs. For the most part, all the assignors here are great to work with and refs will go to the ones that seem the most organized, respect your time, respect your ability and work to help their referees improve. Almost all of the clubs get people to come in from out of state for big tournament weekends. I would say this weekend at WSA we had an equal amount of Tulsa area and OKC area refs doing games along with at least a few from Wichita (one father and son team that come to most of the tournaments in Tulsa, good folks to work with, really personable). But they're all looking for the basic amenities as refs. Feed us lunch (or dinner) if we're there all day, have plenty of water and Gatorade on hand, and a place where we can sit in a cool (or warm depending on time of year) where we can be out of the public view during our off time slots. And I'll go back to the laws of the game, and parents don't like this...there are only 3 must have entities for a soccer match to be player....players (and substitutes), team officials including the coach, and referees. Sorry, the game can be played with or without fans (including parents).
A nice referee room is a nice-to-have. There are so many more important things than that.
After gaining perspective as a parent, player, coach and referee, providing better facilities for players and parents becomes more critical. They fund the referees. You can have a nice tent, water, Powerade, beer and food. The rest are just nice to have.
well, this is a TU chat board so I am waiting for the perennial complaint about parking and traffic at most events 😆 😆 😆 😆 IYKYK
Very true. Walking multiple blocks is hard in America because you know like that never happens in a place like Norman or at Okie Pokie
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