More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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tennbengal
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by tennbengal »

Nonlinear FC wrote:In news that will likely only mildly interest tb... WAGS (wash area girls soccer) announced today that it is merging with NCSL (nat'l capital soccer league - for boys.)

I bring it up because we've talked a bit about what's going on structurally with youth soccer.. in many areas, the boys are ahead of the girls in terms of playing what is called "regional" soccer... Which really amounts to taking your highest level players and putting them on academy teams and playing other like teams in the region.

The girls don't have the academy system yet, but there are couple of leagues that function that way with the major clubs fielding teams... ECNL is the big one in this area.

Anyways, a league like WAGS, which covers most of the clubs in NoVa and MoCo used to be able to boast the best girls teams. But EDP, NPL and ECNL having been bleeding the top 2 divisions for years now. WAGS is a dying league as currently arranged. While it's not totally clear what the plan is going forward, I assume part of this merger is aimed at trying to tie into the Region 1 champions league/tournament in a more formal way. Not sure how they do that, but they need do to something to make their D1/D2 better. Right now, the age brackets starting in U14 have 5 team D1s, and then skip down to D3... Not all of them, but an alarming number.
Yeah, that is interesting. Definitely a response to the pressure of EDP and other options for the more competitive teams I am sure. In Baltimore, BBSL and CMSA have been largely downgraded to just glorified rec leagues (BBSL used to be quite a strong league - no longer).
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by testuser2 »

rass wrote:^^^^hey man, how have you been?


I guess I'll bitch about this here...

The kid's team has a tournament in Hershey, PA over Memorial Day weekend. The coaches and manager missed that the tourney required that lodging be booked through one specific travel agency (under threat of team expulsion from the event, is this common???), so we all independently booked rooms at a hotel in Harrisburg. A month or so ago, someone with the tournament contacted the coach and asked where were staying, and then upon learning what we did requested that we give all of our reservation #s to the travel agent. We were assured that nothing would happen to reservations, he just needed the info for his records.

Yesterday we learned via the TA that the original hotel was apparently "overbooked", and that we needed to book rooms at a new place (and at about $30 more per night at this point). I called the original hotel to ask what happened, and they said that they had cancelled my reservation as per a request by the TA. Not sure if I'm more pissed at the hotel, the tourney or the TA (not true, I'm pissed at the TA).
That's pretty common in that area. Most of the big tournaments require out of town teams to book through the tournament. All of the PA Classics events require it. We've screwed that up before and booked too late thus missing their hotels. Never got kicked from the tournament for it. We have some teams go to the Gettysburg Memorial Day Cup that weekend. Haven't done the Hershey one before. We typically have a hard time booking rooms that weekend.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer T

Post by wlu_lax6 »

wlu_lax6 wrote:So what happens when you are not paying attention....
just realized that thes Cindi and John Harkes are/were (John is now coaching a USL team) coaches in my kids soccer club.
Just got an email from my kids club...the new travel team coach for the '03s
Bruce Murray (for those who think soccer started with Landon), Bruce is a US Soccer Hall of Famer. Has 21 goals in 85 appearances with the the National Team (plus 1 goal in 6 appearances with the Futusal National team). Played in the 88 Olympics and all 3 games in Italia 90,
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

We had our first parent kicked off the sideline by a ref yesterday. Our team is growing up so fast!

I missed most of the crap because I got drafted to play linesman and was on the sideline with the teams, but it was about as physical and intense a game between U10 girls as I've ever seen. I was told things went south after a parent from the opposing team very loudly accused one of our girls of diving on a play that resulted in a PK. After that the parents were sniping at each other constantly, something I really haven't experienced before in almost two full seasons of this. The ref then "let them play"/lost control of the game in the second half and kids were get knocked around, which got everyone pissed at him. He stopped the game at one point to ask the coaches to talk to the parents. Then a minute or two a later another one of our kids (OK, it was my kid, she ended the game with cleat marks on both forearms) got elbowed and knocked down and popped up and yelled at the ref, and our parents started yelling again. The ref stopped the game again, and I thought he was going to kick my kid out (I assumed the players talking to the ref like that was strictly forbidden, but apparently that isn't the case...I told her to refrain from doing that anyway in the future because some refs won't want to be shown up by a 10 yo), but he wanted one of our dads sent off. After some more back and forth yelling on the safety of the kids and a baseball angrily beaned into a nearby fence, he was gone and the game finished. Our girls scored to make it 3-2, the other team missed a PK of their own with about a minute left, and our girls won.

Anyway, the girls are undefeated with one league game left (home game against a team they beat 5-1 on Saturday). Tournament in Hershey, PA this weekend, which logistically has been a bit of a CF to plan, but hopefully it will be a good time.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Interesting. I probably wouldn't have commented on this, but I had a very similar situation go down yesterday.

One thing I'd say up front... In my experience, a lot of refs let WAY TOO MUCH go when they are officiating girls games. I have talked to a lot of refs about it, especially if I know the other team tends throw a lot of late/off-the-ball stuff. That can really help... "hey, ref, just so you know where I'm coming from: I'd much rather you call a tight game than let a lot of stuff go."

Anyways, we were playing the last place team yesterday. They were thugs. We had 10 players and were still dominating them, and they were getting frustrated, so they stepped up the off the ball stuff. Frankly, I'd never seen it this bad. At one point, one of their players had fouled our girls late 5 or 6 times in about a 5 minute stretch. I asked the ref to talk to/warn her and, whoo boy, did the other coach and parents not like that. They lost it. Which... Calm the fuck down, I didn't yell at the girl and I was pretty measured in what I said and how I said it.

So, the ref, who pre-game had told both teams that he wasn't going to put up with shit, came over and said he'd toss the next person who spoke up. I was like, fine, because it was pretty clear he was talking to the other bench and their fans. Ref also started calling the game tighter at that point, which, again.. fine, that was my point in speaking up. That same player proceeds to level another one of our girls and, boom, yellow card. Well, you would've thought the ref had spat in their collective faces. They are going ballistic.

My co-coach and I, at this point, are thinking we're in the Twilight Zone. Like.. These people really don't know the game. They think that there's nothing wrong with coming in late, or shoving and kneeing the opposition waiting for a throw-in. The ref is calling them on their bullshit and the coaches, players and parents are losing their shit.

So, finally, ref starts tossing people. He tosses a parent. Then another, then another. Finally, I guess in solidarity, after another dirty play gets another yellow card, coaches goes all Bobby Knight and walks 5 yards onto the field to yell at the ref. Red card.

It was a total shitshow. I'm just pissed we didn't score and cement the message that they are a crap club. Ten men to their 18 and they barely crossed half field.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

Holy shit.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by testuser2 »

Had the youngest in the u6/u7 division of a 3v3 yesterday. It's the first time they've had a tournament where they aren't playing up an age group. They are winning all of their games, but there is another team of just monster kids that are 10 run ruling every team they play. We finally play them and our group loses 11-1 or so. We then hear the parents and a few kids joking around that it was good that they were able to grab a few older kids to fill out their roster. Whatever... it's a u7 3v3 tournament. Not a big deal. Both teams make the playoffs and meet in the finals. Our coach asks the ref(16 year old kid) to verify players cards. So he calls for a tournament official. The coach of the other team takes his planned starters off the field and then has them go and sit with their parents off the field. 3 new players are now on the field that are the same size as out kids. Official finally makes it over and starts complaining and asking what's the problem. Our coach says that some of their kids are really big and he is concerned about injury. She complains some more and then looks at their printed roster for 5 seconds(no players cards, just names and birthdays) and says they are fine. Game starts and our team goes up 2-0. The other coach then brings the kids back that went and sat with their parents and puts them all in. They then go on to win 10ish-2 while always keeping at least 2 of their big kids on the field at anytime.

Our biggest kid who is right at the cutoff for u7 is normally the biggest kid on the field. Even with u8 kids. This time the other team had two of their 6 kids where he barely came up to their shoulder. Our smaller kids were around waist high on them.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Nonlinear FC wrote: One thing I'd say up front... In my experience, a lot of refs let WAY TOO MUCH go when they are officiating girls games. I have talked to a lot of refs about it, especially if I know the other team tends throw a lot of late/off-the-ball stuff. That can really help... "hey, ref, just so you know where I'm coming from: I'd much rather you call a tight game than let a lot of stuff go."
So as you know I ref lacrosse. Have done very high level and been trying to break into the college ranks. A few years ago I had to stop officiating youth because I felt that I had a hard time calling a tighter game. It is a big challenge. The best officials move up the ranks and so good refs get good games, but it ruins them from calling a tighter game. Now you get novice officials calling the younger games and struggle because they are not as good an not getting great mentorship (or just refs who are not very good or a game whore who will do too many games a day/week and just not focus on it).

This year because my wife went back to work I am doing more youth games (hard to get out of work to do top high school games). I have to do a solid pregame to remember how close I want to call the youth games.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

So, the last two weeks we have held tryouts for our WAGS and EDP teams. (We call it The Collective). As a quick recap, we took our original WAGS team and split it up into two teams, a WAGS team that at the time was in D5 and and EDP team. There's a much longer version on this, which was part of the genesis of this thread.

Anyways, this year has been kind of a topsy-turvy affair. The EDP team did OK, but suffered a boat load of injuries and the commitment level was a bit low with about a 1/3 of the roster. The WAGS team had a very choppy fall. Part of that was due to a roster that melted away before the season started due to some flakiness of our sister team. But a bigger part of it can be chalked up to a bunch of girls feeling like lesser soccer players due to not being on EDP. We finished with a good enough record to get promoted to D4, but it was not all sunshine and rainbows with that group.

Fast forward through the winter, where the WAGS girls come to just about every training, with a number of them get "called up" to EDP for the Winter League. They are bonding more as a unit, having fun again. The spring season hasn't been a romp, but they are definitely back to being the fun bunch they were before the split occurred.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

So, we post tryout notices and my Co-Coach is a wheeler dealer sort and we have high hopes of a good turnout. Whoo boy. Over the last 4 sessions, we've had 30 kids come out to take a look. Last night, we had 32 overall (we like our kids to come out and train to let the girls trying out know what we look like)... At one point, we had an 8v8 scrimmage going on, with the net pulled down out of the way running a 10 person shooting drill with 2 keepers... It looked like a god damn soccer camp and I almost got a little verklempt.

Our goal is to get to 20 players on both squads. Our biggest selling points are that we have this EDP spot, and even if you're on WAGS, you're likely to get looks up there (We have called up 10 players from WAGS this year so far, some multiple times.) The other point is that we encourage multi-sport participation. Put another way, we are not going to penalize a kid that plays lacrosse, field hockey, whatever. If it's for your high school team, that comes first. The only thing we won't put up with are players on other soccer teams/clubs prioritizing over us. That's where we make a fist.

At this point, we have 3 girls for EDP (they accepted) and 1 for WAGS (accepted.) Today is moving day, where we are going to offer 2 more EDP and up to 5 for WAGS. WAGS is a tougher sell for some of these girls, because they have an expectation of being on EDP, which is why that number is so large (realistically we only 5 slots, so if all accept, we are done on WAGS.. just not a likely scenario.)

There's a wrinkle to all this, which I'll lay out some other time. The bottom line is that after a rather disjointed and at times stressful soccer year, we are ending on an extremely high note going into next year.

TL;DR - We had a rough year, but now we've had a great tryout run and are set up well for next year.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

rass wrote:Holy shit.

Here's the email I sent to the league yesterday. Keep in mind, I've NEVER felt compelled to contact any league administrator over something like this before:

Good morning. I'm writing about a situation that occurred at our game this weekend. I am the Assistant Coach for MRM Rush Azul '99 (W9933) and we played ASA United (W99100) at Arundel High School (Game #17329) this past Sunday (5/22). The officially recorded score is a 0-0 tie.

Prior to the game, the head referee made it very clear to both teams that he would not tolerate dissension of any kind. During the game, as the tension mounted due to the scoreless tie, things got chippy. After a particularly rough foul committed by an ASA player*, the referee issued the offending player a yellow card. The ASA coaches protested loudly and the referee warned both benches, reminding us of the pregame discussion about dissension.

After another series of fouls being called, one of the ASA coaches loudly protested and the referee issued a red card and told the coach to leave, which he did. After another series of fouls, the referee issued another ASA player a yellow card. This drew the ire of the other ASA coach, who loudly protested the card. He, too, was issued a red card and asked to leave, which he did.

At this point, it is our understanding/assumption that ASA was being "coached" by the team manager. In reviewing the WAGS rules after the game, it appears that if both coaches are ejected from the game, the result is a 0-3 forfeit awarded to the opposition. I did not realize this was the case or I would've raised the issue at the game on Sunday. I am asking for the league to look into whether they, in fact, had an officially carded coach on the bench after the two ejections.

I should also note that both coaches returned after the final whistle and participated in the handshake line. They then proceeded to berate the referee and rather aggressively ask for his name. Obviously, they did not leave the playing area as a red card warrants.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I am happy to clarify any issues or address any concerns you might have.

Warm regards,

Me
cell number redacted

* - While it is not germane to the inquiry request, I should note that the foul that resulted in the first yellow card also resulted in my player being concussed. She is out for the remainder of the season. While the referee did a commendable job trying to keep ASA's rough play in check, the tone and atmosphere of the game was pretty hostile. Our benches were placed on the track below the stands with a number of the fans above, which did not help matters as the tension mounted throughout the game.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Pruitt »

My daughter plays house league (u17) and has played rep in a really large league. For the most part well run, but a major issue yesterday. Her team finished 2nd and was expecting to play the 3rd place team in the semi-finals yesterday. We were shocked to see the last place team in the league show up. Somehow they had beaten the 3rd place team.

So they lined up to play the team they had defeated 2-0 and 4-2 this season.

Right from the opening whistle, the other team (France) was dominant. Scoring a couple of goals in the first 5 minutes and cruising to a win.

As the game was going on, my wife struck up a conversation with one of the mothers of a France player. The woman was thrilled that after a long season of big losses and defaults, the league had seen fit to give them three new players... yesterday!

Meanwhile, France was playing with an extra player on the field as my daughter's team only had 10 girls show up. So I wen to tell out coaches about this and the other team's coach filled them in as detailed in the complaint letter below (NT is the name of the league):
The second issue is much more infuriating….It was discovered and confirmed by the coach of team France that 3 additional girls were added to their roster this past week. The girls are all rep quality, and as advised by their coach, all in grade 9… u-15 players. When I asked the coach how this could happen, he advised that he had been short of girls all season, and he simply asked NT if it was oaky to add players. He was told “yes..go ahead.” Our team, had 14 girls on the roster, and on only one occasion did we actually have enough girls attend to field a full team. If girls were being added to team France, why weren’t all the teams given a chance to add girls? How were these girls recruited? For the season, team France finished in 6th place out of 6, scoring only 16 goals throughout season (see attached standings). Yet today they defeated the 3rd place team, Spain, and defeated us, the 2nd place team 5-0. So in our game today, they scored almost 35% of the total goals they scored all season. What an incredible improvement in only 1 week. The team we played today is not the team that played in our division all spring and that reeks of unfairness. I have attached a copy of the NT House-league policies, and clearly the preferential treatment afforded team France contravenes NT’s own rules…specifically with respect to Player Eligibility, Player Attendance and general sportsmanship.

In case it’s not obvious, I am incredibly disappointed with manipulation of the rules and the outcome of today’s game as are the players and parents on our team. It has been a great season, yet significantly tarnished with the issues addressed above.

I believe team France should be disqualified for fielding ineligible players, and the lack of abidance to NT’s own rules should dictate that team Poland should be playing in tomorrow’s gold medal game.

Respectfully,
3rd place game kicks off in 4 hours. Guarantee that nothing will come of it, but man, I feel like kicking that team's coach in the nuts.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Pruitt wrote:My daughter plays house league (u17) and has played rep in a really large league. For the most part well run, but a major issue yesterday. Her team finished 2nd and earned a first round bye. They wereexpecting to play the 3rd place team in the semi-finals yesterday. We were shocked to see the last place team in the league show up. Somehow they had beaten the 3rd place team.

So they lined up to play the team they had defeated 2-0 and 4-2 this season.

Right from the opening whistle, the other team (France) was dominant. Scoring a couple of goals in the first 5 minutes and cruising to a win.

As the game was going on, my wife struck up a conversation with one of the mothers of a France player. The woman was thrilled that after a long season of big losses and defaults, the league had seen fit to give them three new players... yesterday!

Meanwhile, France was playing with an extra player on the field as my daughter's team only had 10 girls show up. So I went to tell out coaches about this and the other team's coach filled them in as detailed in the complaint letter below (NT is the name of the league):
The second issue is much more infuriating….It was discovered and confirmed by the coach of team France that 3 additional girls were added to their roster this past week. The girls are all rep quality, and as advised by their coach, all in grade 9… u-15 players. When I asked the coach how this could happen, he advised that he had been short of girls all season, and he simply asked NT if it was oaky to add players. He was told “yes..go ahead.” Our team, had 14 girls on the roster, and on only one occasion did we actually have enough girls attend to field a full team. If girls were being added to team France, why weren’t all the teams given a chance to add girls? How were these girls recruited? For the season, team France finished in 6th place out of 6, scoring only 16 goals throughout season (see attached standings). Yet today they defeated the 3rd place team, Spain, and defeated us, the 2nd place team 5-0. So in our game today, they scored almost 35% of the total goals they scored all season. What an incredible improvement in only 1 week. The team we played today is not the team that played in our division all spring and that reeks of unfairness. I have attached a copy of the NT House-league policies, and clearly the preferential treatment afforded team France contravenes NT’s own rules…specifically with respect to Player Eligibility, Player Attendance and general sportsmanship.

In case it’s not obvious, I am incredibly disappointed with manipulation of the rules and the outcome of today’s game as are the players and parents on our team. It has been a great season, yet significantly tarnished with the issues addressed above.

I believe team France should be disqualified for fielding ineligible players, and the lack of abidance to NT’s own rules should dictate that team Poland should be playing in tomorrow’s gold medal game.

Respectfully,
3rd place game kicks off in 4 hours. Guarantee that nothing will come of it, but man, I feel like kicking that team's coach in the nuts.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

Sorry Pruitt.

My kid's team won their first tournament this weekend. Only four teams in the bracket, round robin and then 1v2 and 3v4. Woo.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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rass wrote:Sorry Pruitt.

My kid's team won their first tournament this weekend. Only four teams in the bracket, round robin and then 1v2 and 3v4. Woo.
Happy Fathers Day! Congratulations.

Our team lost 2-1 in the 3rd place game. That team's coach was basically spitting mad at the team that used the ringers. But even though it's championship weekend, no one heard from the league.

Oh well.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

First major soccer related injury for the team (worst up until this point had been a fractured wrist). A girl fell awkwardly yesterday at practice and broke her ankle. I wasn't there, but getting the story second-hand from my daughter, the injured girl's parents were (also) not there, so she just sat there in pain for who-knows-how-long until the her mom showed up and someone called an ambulance. Apparently everyone heard the "crack".
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

So going into my first season as a coach this year. I played very high level soccer growing up, but have never coached (Except the club teams in high school where we coached ourselves). Anyway, I think I am more excited for the start of the season than my son. Completed my US Soccer Coaching F license a few weeks ago and this Saturday I am going to get my NSCAA Coaching Level 2 certification. Basically what I am saying is just a few more certifications and Ben Olsen, Jurgen, Bradley, and the Special One will need to start looking over their shoulders.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by A_B »

wlu_lax6 wrote:So going into my first season as a coach this year. I played very high level soccer growing up, but have never coached (Except the club teams in high school where we coached ourselves). Anyway, I think I am more excited for the start of the season than my son. Completed my US Soccer Coaching F license a few weeks ago and this Saturday I am going to get my NSCAA Coaching Level 2 certification. Basically what I am saying is just a few more certifications and Ben Olsen, Jurgen, Bradley, and the Special One will need to start looking over their shoulders.
It's all fun and games until you select Kyle Beckerman in your first team sheet with the Nats.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

A_B wrote:
wlu_lax6 wrote:So going into my first season as a coach this year. I played very high level soccer growing up, but have never coached (Except the club teams in high school where we coached ourselves). Anyway, I think I am more excited for the start of the season than my son. Completed my US Soccer Coaching F license a few weeks ago and this Saturday I am going to get my NSCAA Coaching Level 2 certification. Basically what I am saying is just a few more certifications and Ben Olsen, Jurgen, Bradley, and the Special One will need to start looking over their shoulders.
It's all fun and games until you select Kyle Beckerman in your first team sheet with the Nats.
I like hard tackling defensive midfielders with "soccer hair". Plus he is from "West Annapolis" (A.K.A. Bowie), which as we discussed earlier today means we know he must have a high soccer I.Q.

My big weakness would be giving Kenny Cooper Jr. another run out based on the respect I have for his dad's time as head coach of the Baltimore Blast instead of Jordan Morris.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Nice! Good luck. What age group? Anybody else coaching this year? Flaco? Or similar on here gave me an app link with good drill ideas. Don't know you but seems like youd be a good coach.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

HaulCitgo wrote:Nice! Good luck. What age group? Anybody else coaching this year? Flaco? Or similar on here gave me an app link with good drill ideas. Don't know you but seems like youd be a good coach.
U-12 rec. So not travel or allstars. I have a pretty good coaching philosophy and communication style with the parents. I also know every trick in the book for keeping that aged focused for 90 minutes without "putting them on the line". Yeah but if anyone has some pre-canned practice plans for that age or similar, I would appreciate it. My big motivation for coaching was watching my son and his teammates get no skill instruction and just poor coaching from a volunteer parents last year fall and spring. It was a shame because the parent stepped up to the job but had never played or coached anything. So he did not know about having a practice plan, positive coaching approaches, and basic soccer skills. Figured I could stand on the sidelines and be frustrated or volunteer. So into the breach I go.

So I will also take thoughts...I want to set a good example and the idea of "snacks" after the game drives me a bit bonkers. I may institute a healthy snack only policy (US Soccer actually covers this in the F-license course). Will I be hated by all?
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by sancarlos »

rass wrote:First major soccer related injury for the team (worst up until this point had been a fractured wrist). A girl fell awkwardly yesterday at practice and broke her ankle. I wasn't there, but getting the story second-hand from my daughter, the injured girl's parents were (also) not there, so she just sat there in pain for who-knows-how-long until the her mom showed up and someone called an ambulance. Apparently everyone heard the "crack".
That's a bizarre lack of response by the responsible adults. Doesn't the coach have responsibility to get the kid to medical help? Does nobody have a cell phone to call her parents? I've been to enough practices here to know that that those things would have occurred quickly on one of my daughters' teams.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

sancarlos wrote:
rass wrote:First major soccer related injury for the team (worst up until this point had been a fractured wrist). A girl fell awkwardly yesterday at practice and broke her ankle. I wasn't there, but getting the story second-hand from my daughter, the injured girl's parents were (also) not there, so she just sat there in pain for who-knows-how-long until the her mom showed up and someone called an ambulance. Apparently everyone heard the "crack".
That's a bizarre lack of response by the responsible adults. Doesn't the coach have responsibility to get the kid to medical help? Does nobody have a cell phone to call her parents? I've been to enough practices here to know that that those things would have occurred quickly on one of my daughters' teams.
I guess I didn't mean it like that. Just that she did have to sit for awhile until her parents, who were called, showed up. A couple of the dads on the team are first responder-types, and one of them helped her out until the ambulance showed. If it was my kid and just a leg injury, I don't think I would want her taken off in an ambulance without my being present. Not at 10 years old, at least.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by duff »

wlu_lax6 wrote:So I will also take thoughts...I want to set a good example and the idea of "snacks" after the game drives me a bit bonkers. I may institute a healthy snack only policy (US Soccer actually covers this in the F-license course). Will I be hated by all?
I instituted a healthy snack policy for halftime. Usually grapes or orange slices. Apples aren't bad either. For after games I told the parents it would be best if the snacks were healthy, but I left it up to them. Most of the time they bring snack bars or cracker snacks. Not the best, but nothing overly sugared.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Shirley »

wlu_lax6 wrote:
HaulCitgo wrote:Nice! Good luck. What age group? Anybody else coaching this year? Flaco? Or similar on here gave me an app link with good drill ideas. Don't know you but seems like youd be a good coach.
U-12 rec. So not travel or allstars. I have a pretty good coaching philosophy and communication style with the parents. I also know every trick in the book for keeping that aged focused for 90 minutes without "putting them on the line". Yeah but if anyone has some pre-canned practice plans for that age or similar, I would appreciate it. My big motivation for coaching was watching my son and his teammates get no skill instruction and just poor coaching from a volunteer parents last year fall and spring. It was a shame because the parent stepped up to the job but had never played or coached anything. So he did not know about having a practice plan, positive coaching approaches, and basic soccer skills. Figured I could stand on the sidelines and be frustrated or volunteer. So into the breach I go.

So I will also take thoughts...I want to set a good example and the idea of "snacks" after the game drives me a bit bonkers. I may institute a healthy snack only policy (US Soccer actually covers this in the F-license course). Will I be hated by all?
I miss coaching my kids at that age group and a bit younger. Fun stuff.

It's definitely important to keep practice moving. Find drills that involve at least a low level of competition and they eat them up. You can assign points for various outcomes and you'll see how focused they get. For example, I did heading drills where two kids would go out at once and I'd toss a ball in for them to compete for. Getting a head on it was one point. Heading it back to me was 2 points. The ball hitting the ground was -1 to both players. First player to 5 wins - and then take that kid out (go get water) and repeat until every kid gets to 5 points.

Races - dribbing around cones, etc. - work well also. At that age, I found one of the biggest weaknesses rec players have is they aren't aggressive. So I found drills where they had to go against each other and learn to be more aggressive. It made a difference in games.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by testuser2 »

A great resource we found is from http://www.onlinesocceracademy.com It's a great way to remember back to when you first learned the skills and can relay the basics.

As far as practice plans the general idea we have is to do an initial warmup. Then some combination of footwork/ passing/situational training. Finally wrap it up with a game(world cup, transition, scrimmage, etc...). Each would last between 10-15 minutes.

Steal the bacon is a good one for aggressiveness.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by degenerasian »

The Canadian version of soccer obstacles at youth levels
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/09/2 ... ment-track
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

Looking for some advice here. I am coaching my daughter's U-8 "festival" team. It is a precursor to travel, which starts next year. We are playing a series of tournaments this winter, 3v3, no goalies. We bring two squads, and up until last week tried to make the squads evenly skilled. Last week, my co-coach and I made an A and B team, to get a sense of whether our best players could compete. Evenly split, we are competitive against other towns, but when we play the regional select team, or teams from certain private academies, we get crushed.

Last week, our A team went undefeated and won the tournament, while the B team was crushed every game. The A team won a game 10-2, while the B team lost 8-1 to that same team. It had to be obvious to all the parents, but none of the parents said anything. The most likely B Team mother to complain actually said she liked this tournament, because her daughter got a lot of time on the ball. We also noticed two of the least aggressive/involved girls stepped up since they couldn't rely on the better players to cover for them. We are debating stacking the teams again this week, so here are the pros and cons I see.

Pros:
B-teamers get more time on the ball, forced to get more involved
A-Teamers able to develop passing plays, play at a higher level instead of covering for weaker players and have nobody to pass to.
A-Team players are competitive, and really thrive on competition together. They get frustrated when teammates aren't as involved.


Cons:
B-Team kids probably know they are put on the B-team. The A-team kids clearly noticed.
B-Teamers might get frustrated and lose interest when they are getting destroyed every game. My wife might put that as a pro.
I don't want to offend parents or have them pissed that we knocked their kid down to the B team or are putting winning before learning
A-team got trophies and got to play in the finals, while B-team watched. Most of the B-teamers actually stuck around an extra hour to watch.

I'm leaning towards stacking the team, as I think both sets of kids will develop more this way.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

I haven't coached, but maybe that's good here. I think it's obvious to the parents what the talent pecking order is on the team at any given time (I say that because it can certainly change over time as kids develop). I don't think you'll have an issue here unless you have a parent with a kid that is near the bottom but the parent wants them treated like a star. If that is going to the case, it might be good to figure that out now when the stakes are a little lower.

Note that at least on the team my daughter has been on for 3 years now, the kids are aware of the pecking order, too. For the most part, the kids just want to play and while losing can be frustrating, at these younger ages most kids would rather play and lose than sit and win.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco »

shouldn't have called them A and B teams. use colors (assume you have two colors for home and away games)

even if parents don't say anything... the kids will know..

i believe it comes down your own philosophy.

i'd mix them up (doing that for futsal this winter, we're playing in a league, and will bring two distinct teams.. basically split it by talent, half the starters in one half in the other... forces the better players to include their teammates, gives the lesser players the oppty to play with the better ones.. basically what we do in games.. there's always at least 3/4 starters on the pitch)
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

elflaco wrote:shouldn't have called them A and B teams. use colors (assume you have two colors for home and away games)

even if parents don't say anything... the kids will know..

i believe it comes down your own philosophy.

i'd mix them up (doing that for futsal this winter, we're playing in a league, and will bring two distinct teams.. basically split it by talent, half the starters in one half in the other... forces the better players to include their teammates, gives the lesser players the oppty to play with the better ones.. basically what we do in games.. there's always at least 3/4 starters on the pitch)
We call them Blue and White, but it's clearer to call them A and B in this thread. Outdoors we played 5v5 plus goalies, and kept the squads somewhat evenly split. A requirement to play on the festival team is taking part in the Soccer Development Academy. Half our team is in the early session, half the later, so we went by that, so they played with the same girls they practiced with.

I should have mentioned, the White and Blue squads have to play each other. I coach the A, while the other guy coaches B. I told my team they weren't allowed to shoot unless they were right in front of the goal, and they focused a lot more on passing. I was proud of my daughter, as she is a natural leader on the field, even scheming plays on free kicks and corner kicks. After a goal, she huddled her teammates up, and told them to ease up, and let the B team score. She even "misplayed" a pass to the other team, and hesitated a second to let the girl get past her and score. It was pretty subtle, none of the kids noticed, and I'd bet most of the parents didn't, either.

The other issue is both coaches kids are on the A team. It isn't even close to debateable that they both belong there, but I'm aware of the potential appearance that we want our kids to win. I'm probably overly sensitive with making sure not to favor my daughter. Without trying to boast (I'll do that in the Proud Parent Thread), she is by far the best player on the team, and never wants to come out. We have some girls who have no stamina, and a couple who ask to come out and ask to sit longer when they are out, but I try to make sure my daughter sits as many times as others, but when we are playing much stronger teams, I keep her in so we don't get demoralized.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

The club my kids play for and that I coach in just hired Jaime Moreno to work as player development advisory for ages 8-12.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Okay so getting ready for the spring season. Already can tell from the roster and parent interactions that we are going to have a tough spring. Lost one of my all star players (and just a great kid) to having baseball practice the same night as our practice (roster moving can happen for this reason). I do have the kid of an on air Fox New Politics Reporter on the team.

Anyway, with the enjoyment of the team naming I figured I would reach out to the swamp for some help. In the fall and first session of futsal I asked for names from the kids and it was a FIASCO. We ended up just going with "Team" as our team name. A nice card from the kids at the end of the season thanked me from Team Team U-12 Boys.

Figure I am going to either just pick one or give them a vote on a small subset
So any suggestions...remember this is U-12 Boys so most the names of my club teams from high school are out (FC Roosters, FC Kransics--its Sweedish for Soccers or Testicles depending on who you are talking to).
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Shirley »

U-12? One of the rec league teams I coached against a few years ago successfully lobbied the league to let them change their name to Ninjas. Normally, the league set the team names. I thought Ninjas was pretty cool.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Pruitt »

I'd bet the players would love something like "Wild Boys."

In my daughter's league, the teams are named after countries - although there are always 3 or so out of 8 teams named after a sponsor. So you get games like Italy vs. Triple Star Logistics. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

The teams are usually named after soccer powers, but every year there's a team Estonia or Latvia or Peru.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Pruitt wrote:I'd bet the players would love something like "Wild Boys."

In my daughter's league, the teams are named after countries - although there are always 3 or so out of 8 teams named after a sponsor. So you get games like Italy vs. Triple Star Logistics. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

The teams are usually named after soccer powers, but every year there's a team Estonia or Latvia or Peru.
At least you did not recommend "Young Boys"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSC_Young_Boys
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Man, I missed some good shit on this thread.

Syb, I know it's way too late to matter, but I think at that age you split up the talent if they are all going to come back together when you play outdoor. There will be a reckoning pretty soon for the less talented/athletic kids, but at this point I don't see a lot of value in so clearly delineating the talent levels. (If you go back to the origin of this thread, that was really the heart of the matter for our team... We had girls that were staring at high school and needed to find a higher quality of play or risk not making extremely difficult rosters down the road. But we're talking U12-13.)
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

I mean... my girls were FC Fury until we joined a club that forced to use Adidas naming conventions. We did that because of the Unleash the Fury thing at Caps games and it was part of our pre-game chant thing.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by DC47 »

I still have a soccer coaching shirt that says "Sardines" in script. That's from letting U11 girls name their own team. They were old enough to find the usual "Wolverine" variants from previous seasons (e.g., "Wild Wolverines") just too tame. The shirt gets a comment now and then.

The unique (at least in the upper Midwest) name did generate the funniest team photo I've seen. At the end-of-season party after a water fight, swim-suit clad girls lay down on the ground as if they were sardines in a can. Smiling, packed tight, head to toe, toe to head. A parent took the shot from a second floor balcony. A fine memory of a fun team.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

Nonlinear FC wrote:Man, I missed some good shit on this thread.

Syb, I know it's way too late to matter, but I think at that age you split up the talent if they are all going to come back together when you play outdoor. There will be a reckoning pretty soon for the less talented/athletic kids, but at this point I don't see a lot of value in so clearly delineating the talent levels. (If you go back to the origin of this thread, that was really the heart of the matter for our team... We had girls that were staring at high school and needed to find a higher quality of play or risk not making extremely difficult rosters down the road. But we're talking U12-13.)

We never intended to keep an A team permanently, just for a couple of winter tournies. We have a "mandatory" fall and spring season, and the winter tournies were optional. We usually only had enough for one team, so it wasn't an issue. We did 2 weeks of an A-team, and there was a big improvement for both teams. When we went back to the even mix, the 2 uninvolved girls went back to sleepwalking on the field.

We have one girl in addition to my daughter that who is really good. The two of them have developed a great relationship on the field, and work in a lot of passes. There aren't any other girls who capable of running plays, and we want to keep them together, because their play together is really clicking. Last week we put the two of them together, and put the next 5 best players on the other squad. 4v4 +goalie. My wife was pissed, because my daughter only had one capable teammate, 2 girls playing their first tourney, and two useless lumps. [If you saw them play, you wouldn't think that was harsh]. My daughter's team destroyed the other squad, and beat a team 6-2 that beat the other squad 4-0. My daughter scores just about every goal, so I'm now struggling with balancing her out. She became really frustrated at one of the two lumps, because the girl played goal with her arms inside her pinnie. A shot hit her leg, and she just stared down at the ball while an opponent ran in and tapped it past her. I really want to tell the Lumps' parents that their kids clearly don't want to be there. One cheers when I sub her out, and asks to sit longer when I put her back in.

We had 4 or 5 new girls join, and I don't know if they have ever played before. They have been to 3 practices now, and I am terrified to put them in a game. We will have enough for 3 teams in the Spring, so we are putting all of the younger girls (2010s) on one squad, since they will play on a younger team next year. A couple of the new girls are 2010 and a parent of a 2010 agreed to coach that squad at the festivals. That might get really ugly, but the guys who run the travel program asked us to keep the 2010s together as a base for next year.

Rambling here, I think I need to put my daughter in a regional team. She is capable of a much higher level of passing, playing positions, etc, and now she has to rely on speed and dribbling through the other team. She looks to pass, and crosses into an empty space where a teammate should be. I don't want her to learn bad habits, but I've read that at this age, don't discourage players from doing it on their own.
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