More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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

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wlu_lax6 wrote:My wife and I got into a a bit of a heated argument last night. My team has a game at 8:30. Temps on Saturday at that time will probably be ~25F-~28F. I explained that we will bundle up and play some soccer. Hats/Earbands, Under Armour, Pants, and Gloves. Maybe even a sweatshirt under the jersey. She was all in a huff and puff about our poor little boy and the rest of the boys on the team. I have no sympathy and explained that kids have played in worse and this is about toughening the kids up. We play and get some warmth quickly after the game. She said she did not want to sit in the cold. I told her she did not have to come (that was the wrong response).

Image



We held practice on Saturday morning, 21 degrees at 8:30. I didn't even consider cancelling, and we had 11 of 14 show up, and the 3 who missed weren't weather related. A couple girls complained at first, but were fine as soon as we started moving. The field was just aerated and frozen, so the pitch was terribly bumpy. Hilarious when a couple girls thought the entire field was completely covered in frozen dog turds.

Fuck it, I wasn't going to vent this, but it's too insane. 2 girls on my team have older brothers on the U-13 boys team that just won the State Cup. The boys volunteered to help coach for the practice. One is a stud goalie, and he wanted to teach goalie drills. Great, right? How could anyone have a problem? My wife just joked that my daughter will suddenly want to be a goalie, because the goalie brother is a good looking kid. The girls were all excited, because what 8 year old girl wouldn't be excited for 12 year old boys coaching them?

Sure enough, within a minute of sending the e-mail announcing the boys are volunteering, a mother sends a text asking if the boys are really coaching. The other coach responds saying we have all 4 adult coaches with the boys, they are just helping out. The mother responds, "Then we aren't going." Coach responds saying, fine, see you at the game on Sunday. He became concerned that maybe the boys are bad kids or something, so he calls the mother since she also has a boy their age. Nope, they are great kids, but one of the boys' mother (let's call her Nancy) will post this on Facebook, bragging about how great her son is, and she refuses to let the other mother use her daughter as a pawn so Nancy can brag about her son. Holy fuck. Meanwhile, complaining mother is the most obnoxious "you won't believe what my kids did/said" FB poster of all time. Nancy, otoh, posted a link to the local online newspaper who did a story about her daughter setting up a lemonade stand to raise money for the town's volunteer rescue squad and an article about her son's team winning the State Cup. FFS, I was proud of Nancy's daughter when I read that article. But, the other mother is so fucking insecure, she took offense to someone else being a good parent. Not sure if I mentioned in my previous bitching above, both these women went to HS together in the town we live in.

So Nancy is the mother with all of the griping I mentioned before, because her son played for 6 years, and she has never seen blah, blah blah. After all of the above nonsense, I learned Nancy pissed off some parents this week. Our last game is next week, and 2 mothers took it upon themselves to plan an end of season party, and were collecting donations for a gift for the coaches. Nancy texted the group that it's not how things are done. End of the year parties are only done in the Spring, not in the Fall. And coaches gifts aren't given until the end of the Spring season. Not sure if Nancy is upset because they are out of town and missing the party, or if she just won't stand for anything to be done differently that her son's team does things. Last night I got an e-mail from e-vite, notifying me of changes to the party e-vite. The name changed from "End of Season Party," to "Fall Party." I'm assuming it was trolling, because the mother who sent the evite is hilarious and sarcastic, and I love it. I am so ready to quit and put my daughter on an academy team.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Good. Lord.

I would diagnose that women's true issue with the Fall Party being she's not the center of attention.

Is this a travel team? Because if a parent of a kid on my team used that as an actual excuse, she'd be off the team. I mean, not retroactively, but if the scenario you laid out was brought to us... We're having a very frank "is this the right fit" conversation.

fuckballs. people are insane.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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wlu_lax6 wrote:3 words --Big A$$ Trophy (continues to remind me that the size of the trophy is inversely proportional to the relative value on winning it)
3 more words---Super Excited Kids
7 more words---Glad the Regular Season did Not Matter


That's a great way to end the season. There are two trophies our kids have liked the most. One was a giant 5lb chocolate bar that the kids got at a tournament in Hershey. They carved it up right there on the field and ate it on the way home. The second was a voucher for each player for $20 at soccer.com.

Our little team ended up winning one game out of four over the weekend, but all games were close. Weather was better than we expected. With no wind and not having a frozen field it was bearable.

Now it's time for futsal. Unfortunately both of our leagues play games that are 50-100 miles away.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

testuser2 wrote:Now it's time for futsal. Unfortunately both of our leagues play games that are 50-100 miles away.


Man I am trying to get an indoor team organized in Springfield VA (like 20 minutes on the beltway) and I have parents asking if I can find a closer place to play. Hard to explain to parents that indoor facilities are generally in the warehouse districts and not in fancy-schmancy neighborhoods.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Had a great teaching moment today. We win this rec-level all-star tournament. They give us the trophies and half of them are broken as they take the newspaper off them and 2 others broke as the wind knocked them over. Got to explain that a trophy is only a symbol of the team work and effort they put forward. Followed by one kid realizing that he could turn the broken part into a necklace. The parents got the Flav-A-Flav reference.

Best move. Had the kids line up to get trophies, hand it to them and made them give it to another of their teammates and say what they did to help the team win. Kid who raced to line up first ended up with the last trophy. There is a lesson there.

Yup Humble Brag this mother...2 weekends, 2 championship trophies.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Nonlinear FC wrote:Good. Lord.

I would diagnose that women's true issue with the Fall Party being she's not the center of attention.

Is this a travel team? Because if a parent of a kid on my team used that as an actual excuse, she'd be off the team. I mean, not retroactively, but if the scenario you laid out was brought to us... We're having a very frank "is this the right fit" conversation.

fuckballs. people are insane.


We had the party tonight at a restaurant with private rooms. Room next door was another travel soccer team from our town. I guess Nancy is wrong about not doing parties in the Fall.

This is travel, and we do have tryouts, but they have a selection committee that holds tryouts. Not sure if they do this every year, but they took applications for coaches, do an interview process, and name the coaches after tryout results are done. In some ways it's great, as we can't be blamed for who gets cut. The club did ask for a written assessment of each player. This is our first year of travel, but we coached a "festival" team last year, which was like pre-travel, so it was mostly the same kids. I don't know how much authority we have to boot a parent for attitude, but my co-coach did talk a mother out of having her kid play. She tried out, and we didn't have enough for 2 teams, and we would have had to cut one. This girl very clearly has no interest in playing, and groans when we put her in last year. The mother ultimately admitted she was only signing up for her own social reasons, not the daughter, so they dropped out.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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To change this thread up, I'm going to post about the best coaching experience of my short career. We played a tourney at a place we've been trying to get enough girls to for months. (SoFive Soccer, right next to the Meadowlands for you Jersey guys). Very cool place, they have 8 fields, and a second floor viewing area complete with bar and food. They also have color, high def cameras on every field, so you can watch the games later, and splice film clips. We are debating how to best use the clips to teach the girls. I think video clips are the best way to demonstrate position mistakes, I just don't know if we can get 14 8yo girls to pay attention. Or when is the better question.


The field is small, with hard hockey-like boards, so the game is fast as fuck. We signed up several weeks ago, and one-by-one, our team all got sick. After my daughter, our 2-5 best players were all out, and we didn't have any of our goalies, either. We ended up bringing in a girl who is one of the youngest on the 2010 team (we are 2009) just to have a sub. So one sub, and no breaks between games. And as the father of our worst player said, we did it playing down a player whenever his daughter was on the field. (He coached his older daughter, who is really good, so he is very aware of her shortcomings). My wife was pissed at me for taking the team to slaughter, but we fucking won the tournament, baby! Oh yeah, and we had no subs for the final, because a girl performed a perfect hockey hip check on one of our tiny girls and knocked her out of the game. Never seen anything like that. The ref was in shock and kind of stammering. The other coach just yelled that they were playing down a player (they issue blue cards, basically a hockey two-minute minor), and the coach pulled the player with no sub before the ref even did anything.

Our first game, we played SABA NYC, who are a large academy program in Brooklyn and Queens. They are affiliated with Celtic, the Scottish powerhouse. They compete with the National Team feeder leagues. The father mentioned above told us we made a mistake coming when he saw them on the schedule. About 5 minutes in, they were passing circles around us, and I was horrified... until the coach ran on the field, realizing they put the wrong team out, they were 2 years older than us. I didn't really notice they were so much bigger, until the correct aged team came out. We beat them 5-1.

Game two we tied another academy (Ironbound). I looked up their program and saw the U-9 coach is the head coach for Rutgers Newark's NCAA women's team, and she played for the Portuguese National Team, and on Portugal's U-19 team that made it to the QFs in the 2009 UEFA Championships.

Game 3 we played a town travel team (Fairlawn), and won 5-1. We played Ironbound again in the final, and beat them 2-0. Like my coaching partner said, we needed this to reenergize after all of the bullshit.


I want to test to see if I can post game clips:


http://www.i-players.com/index2.php?pag ... &b=2117126
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Congrats man. We've been to a birthday party there, and it's a pretty nice facility. Though we have friends in town who are stuck going there every Monday night for winter ball, which has got to suck.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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rass wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:04 pm Congrats man. We've been to a birthday party there, and it's a pretty nice facility. Though we have friends in town who are stuck going there every Monday night for winter ball, which has got to suck.
I want to play in an adult league, but that is a hike for a late weeknight game. Only places I've found are in Somerville, Carlstadt or Bridgewater; all around 30 minutes if no traffic. Wish there was something closer.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The Sybian wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:16 pm I want to play in an adult league, but that is a hike for a late weeknight game. Only places I've found are in Somerville, Carlstadt or Bridgewater; all around 30 minutes if no traffic. Wish there was something closer.
That's a great tournament for your daughters team. Some success goes along way.

30 minutes? My 06 son has a league that play on friday nights in Northumberland(1.5 Hrs) and the 09 kid plays doubleheaders at Spooky Nook in Lancaster(2 hrs) once a month.

I'm glad you bumped this thread. I almost forgot about what happened to one the best player in the club. He's an 05. He had been training with the Union academy in Philly 2 days a week during the fall, but they declined bringing him back again. The reason was that they had 3 nights of practices and his dad would only commit him to being there twice a week. By their own admission the Union loved him. Nice/coachable kid that no other 05 kid on the team could handle 1on1 because of footskills and speed. So for now he's back to playing center mid on our 03 team.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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testuser2 wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:34 pm
The Sybian wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:16 pm I want to play in an adult league, but that is a hike for a late weeknight game. Only places I've found are in Somerville, Carlstadt or Bridgewater; all around 30 minutes if no traffic. Wish there was something closer.
That's a great tournament for your daughters team. Some success goes along way.

30 minutes? My 06 son has a league that play on friday nights in Northumberland(1.5 Hrs) and the 09 kid plays doubleheaders at Spooky Nook in Lancaster(2 hrs) once a month.

I'm glad you bumped this thread. I almost forgot about what happened to one the best player in the club. He's an 05. He had been training with the Union academy in Philly 2 days a week during the fall, but they declined bringing him back again. The reason was that they had 3 nights of practices and his dad would only commit him to being there twice a week. By their own admission the Union loved him. Nice/coachable kid that no other 05 kid on the team could handle 1on1 because of footskills and speed. So for now he's back to playing center mid on our 03 team.
I'm saying I'm not driving that far for me to play in a league. One league, games start as late as midnight, so I'd be getting home at 1:30 am on Monday nights. Getting to the Meadowlands during rush hour could be anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours, so that's not happening.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The Sybian wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:44 pm I'm saying I'm not driving that far for me to play in a league. One league, games start as late as midnight, so I'd be getting home at 1:30 am on Monday nights. Getting to the Meadowlands during rush hour could be anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours, so that's not happening.
ohhh.... that sucks. impossible to plan with that kind of traffic. My kids keep wanting me to play again, but I can't do the adult leagues anymore. Too many college students and I'm way out of shape.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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testuser2 wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:48 pm
The Sybian wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 3:44 pm I'm saying I'm not driving that far for me to play in a league. One league, games start as late as midnight, so I'd be getting home at 1:30 am on Monday nights. Getting to the Meadowlands during rush hour could be anywhere between 30 minutes and 3 hours, so that's not happening.
ohhh.... that sucks. impossible to plan with that kind of traffic. My kids keep wanting me to play again, but I can't do the adult leagues anymore. Too many college students and I'm way out of shape.
There is a pickup game in town, but it's at the same time as my son's track practices. I saw a friday morning game in town, so I pulled in. Nobody younger than 60s, and they barely moved. I don't think I'd be appreciated there, but I could make a good hidden camera show. Try my hardest and run circles around elderly men, and celebrate like a nut. Could be fun.

3 hours is extreme, but I used to work near there, and it once took me 4.5 hours to get to work. It's a shitshow in that area, really close to NYC, and several busy highways converge.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Both of the kids teams are in a league for the spring. I'm doing the scheduling for one of the teams and I'm finding that teams don't want to make the trip, but they don't seem to care much about us having a long drive. The farthest away game is in NJ. Probably 3.5 hours away.

It sounds like several of the league members are pushing to make us use a field in lancaster for all of our home games(1.5 hours away), but still travel to their fields for home games. We already picked a field that's 45 min closer for all of them, but they it's not good enough. One team wanted us to come down for a 6pm game on a tuesday. It's maddening.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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i stopped playing and managing my old club a few years ago -- it was an over 30s but i was overmatched in terms of fitness..
so now... we rent an indoor facility in town ... 20 guys.. saturday mornings 730a... $15 a game if not one of the regulars...

and playing over 40s and sometimes guest player on a masters team (o50s that allows 3 guys over 45) - pretty good pace of play -- but its down in 8a sunday mornings -- good thing is outside the league play in spring/fall, they play year around weather allowing -- and take trips to caribbean, florida, etc for tournaments -- saint lucia in november for a week.. that kind of stuff..look into that -- all sorts of leagues play o40s at competitive levels

my own update ..
currently club president -- lots of fun.. at least after the last meeting i was invited out for beers and wasn't beat up in the alley.. so got that going (making lots of changes, not all popular with the crowd that usually runs these things...but parents appreciate it adn its good for the kids)

the boy is an 06.. i asst coach that team - was on an 05, but due to shenanigans from the 04 coach last season, not enough 05s this year... been playing all over this winter.. tournaments in west orange and sofive... as well as red bull clinics, etc.. was invited to train with cedar stars .. then asked him to join now for spring.. we declined as have local commitment (and i'll have to step down as president) for spring.. so will see what happens.. he'll play cedar stars summer select (already tried out and on team) and middle school team in fall (but coach there takes 7th graders but only plays 8th graders.. but next year's crop of 7th graders is WAY better than this years.. so that'll be fun)
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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testuser2 wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:38 am Both of the kids teams are in a league for the spring. I'm doing the scheduling for one of the teams and I'm finding that teams don't want to make the trip, but they don't seem to care much about us having a long drive. The farthest away game is in NJ. Probably 3.5 hours away.

It sounds like several of the league members are pushing to make us use a field in lancaster for all of our home games(1.5 hours away), but still travel to their fields for home games. We already picked a field that's 45 min closer for all of them, but they it's not good enough. One team wanted us to come down for a 6pm game on a tuesday. It's maddening.
What level league is that? That is some crazy travel for league games.

I have about a month to decide if I have my daughter try out for an academy. No idea how to even decide which would be a better fit. To recap, my daughter is a 2009 (U-9). Our biggest issue with the town travel team is we have 14 players for 7v7, which is the max roster. We have tryouts done by a committee, so the coaches officially have no say (we provide detailed assessments of all returning players with ratings and notes for numerous categories). We had to take all 14 players. The boys our age had 32-34 kids try out, so they made 3 teams, separated by talent levels. If we get 20 to try out, we can make 2 teams, and I will be thrilled, and stay with travel for another year. Right now, we think we have 18 interested, but who knows if they all show.

My wife feels like my daughter's progress is being help up, because there is only one other girl on the team capable of doing higher level drills and creating passing play on the field. She is pushing for an academy, but my daughter gets anxiety in situations where she doesn't know anyone. My wife talked to a friend who has kids in one of the local academes (STA), and found out they traveled to Virginia and Dallas for tournaments last year. My wife is suddenly against academies for this year. Any advice or knowledge about academy programs is appreciated. One friend told me she is too young, and I should wait, but another told me I should have done it last year, and she will fall behind and find it more difficult to displace a kid who has been playing at the academy.

For a deep dig if anyone really cares, my daughter has an interesting psychological makeup. She is the most outgoing, fun-loving kid, and plays sports with the boys and is as rough and as good as any of them, despite being on the smaller side for a girl her age. When she is comfortable, she is extremely confident, always skipping water breaks to challenge her coaches one-on-one or ask them questions, but she has major separation anxiety when it comes to dropping her off at school or camp, or practices where she doesn't know other kids. She wanted to try out for the older travel team last year, but her friend wasn't there, and she melted down and cried, and refused to try out. At new camps or soccer clinics, it's always a battle to get her on the field, and a coach will basically have to hold her hand and walk her on the field before she is willing to participate, and there is usually crying and panic involved. But 5 minutes in, she is the happiest, most confident kid there. She gets frustrated with her teammates at practices and games, because they can't do higher level drills, and they just don't see the game on the same level. Not even close. It's beyond talent, she is playing through balls and asking for give and go passes, while half of them are in bunch-ball mentality. The most interesting conversation, I told her we have some new girls trying out, and she was really worried one might be better than her. I told her that would be great, so she could improve and be challenged. She said she hopes one is better than our second best player, but not better than her. She said her teammates look up to her, and if there was a player better than her, they wouldn't look up to her.

TL/DR: Is it better to build her confidence as the star player on a town travel team, or try out for an academy where she will play with kids on her level, get much more advanced training, and play against top level competition?
-Sidenote, she did some clinics with a guy who coaches at the PDA Academy, and won the National Championships with his U-16 girls. All of the girls in the clinic play for PDA, which is the #1 ranked team in NJ, and there were boys from travel and academies. My daughter held her own. She definitely wasn't the best, but she was easily in the top half if not top 25%.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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I need to fire off a bunch of emails tonight because the league insists on starting play on 3/11, but no one who plays on grass (including our club) will play that early. Every fucking spring.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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my two cents..

leave her in travel another year at least. academies (red bulls, cedar stars, pda) other high level programs (NJ Elite) and clubs (copa, jersey knigths,valencia, etc.) -- are all for-profit business... so of course they want your kids as quickly as possible. reality.. if she's good enough, she'll get a tryout and she'll play.

get her on to the rbs clinics. touches, touches, touches that's what they need at that age.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:23 pm my two cents..

leave her in travel another year at least. academies (red bulls, cedar stars, pda) other high level programs (NJ Elite) and clubs (copa, jersey knigths,valencia, etc.) -- are all for-profit business... so of course they want your kids as quickly as possible. reality.. if she's good enough, she'll get a tryout and she'll play.

get her on to the rbs clinics. touches, touches, touches that's what they need at that age.
Is RBS Red Bull? My friend sent his daughter, and thought it was a waste. I've had my daughter going to various clinics, they are usually once a week for six weeks. There are tons of them around. The PDA coach I mentioned was hired by my town's travel club as a "training consultant" for the parent coaches, so I am assuming he will continue to run clinics through his company (Far Post Soccer) in my town. He is an absolute machine, and despite holding grueling sessions, my daughter likes him. His theory is to drill skills while they are physically tired, so they aren't thinking so much about what they are doing, and just doing it. He says if they learn it while pushing themselves, it's easier to acquire the skills. Plus, it's great conditioning.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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My daughter had her first game and I spent the entire time yelling at her that she doesn't have to stay exactly where she is and only play the ball if they come to her. It was adorable.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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yeah.. rbs is red bull --

we've had good experiences with them -- have tried out for their 8 week sessions as well and made it twice - these are really good, all require a tryout- and all lead to their academy teams

- their clinics can be hit or miss -- usually depends on kids level as they tend to teach down --

there is definitely a shortage of high level play for girls in the area -- I've a couple of friends with 2005/07 girls who have struggled to find good competition outside the EDP teams -- all did play travel early on but are now on PDA or NJ Elite teams.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:40 pm My daughter had her first game and I spent the entire time yelling at her that she doesn't have to stay exactly where she is and only play the ball if they come to her. It was adorable.
ah... parents coaching from their sideline... now that's adorable. '-)
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:50 pm
Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:40 pm My daughter had her first game and I spent the entire time yelling at her that she doesn't have to stay exactly where she is and only play the ball if they come to her. It was adorable.
ah... parents coaching from their sideline... now that's adorable. '-)
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:05 pm
elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:50 pm
Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:40 pm My daughter had her first game and I spent the entire time yelling at her that she doesn't have to stay exactly where she is and only play the ball if they come to her. It was adorable.
ah... parents coaching from their sideline... now that's adorable. '-)
Assistant coach, MFer!!!!
Still, pull her off and talk to her. Don't bench her, literally "hey, hon, you're going right back in, but I need you to move and find the ball, don't let it find you..." Next whistle, put her back in.

If she can't get her shit together after that, you bench her for the rest of the game and when you get home you kick her ass in 1v1 basketball Great Santini style.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by brian »

Nonlinear FC wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:33 pm
Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:05 pm
elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:50 pm
Giff wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:40 pm My daughter had her first game and I spent the entire time yelling at her that she doesn't have to stay exactly where she is and only play the ball if they come to her. It was adorable.
ah... parents coaching from their sideline... now that's adorable. '-)
Assistant coach, MFer!!!!
Still, pull her off and talk to her. Don't bench her, literally "hey, hon, you're going right back in, but I need you to move and find the ball, don't let it find you..." Next whistle, put her back in.

If she can't get her shit together after that, you bench her for the rest of the game and when you get home you kick her ass in 1v1 basketball Great Santini style.
And sent to bed without dinner. Obvs.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco »

rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:15 pm I need to fire off a bunch of emails tonight because the league insists on starting play on 3/11, but no one who plays on grass (including our club) will play that early. Every fucking spring.
Mnyjsa?
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco »

Sub

Who is the guy running the BH program? is it Mick?
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Shes just spreading the field and holding her runs.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:30 pm
rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:15 pm I need to fire off a bunch of emails tonight because the league insists on starting play on 3/11, but no one who plays on grass (including our club) will play that early. Every fucking spring.
Mnyjsa?
Yeah...

New website is worse than the old one (so far).
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco »

website ... has caused me all sorts of pain the last month
flighting got all messed up
scheduling has been useless
lots of teams with no contacts

as much as i like our rvp.... i can't believe the answers we're getting
at one point i was told that our teams were mis-flighted because many teams hadn't registered -- out of 15 teams, four of ours are in the wrong flight --

and at the league meeting, sean, the league pres basically threw the board under the bus for the shitty site rollout, AND said he knew that most fields don't open until april 1 so we'd have to all work it out.. despite that the league starts on 10th and schedules were finally up TODAY.

asshats.
complete and utter asshats.

makes me want to walk away or run for the board. or i'll have my kid move to csa and don't have to deal with this mess anymore. just be a parent on the sideline and write checks.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:52 pm
elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:30 pm
rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:15 pm I need to fire off a bunch of emails tonight because the league insists on starting play on 3/11, but no one who plays on grass (including our club) will play that early. Every fucking spring.
Mnyjsa?
Yeah...

New website is worse than the old one (so far).
What is the new website? I can't find it anywhere, and every club and NJ Soccer website links to the old one. I had a meeting tonight with the guy responsible for the website. Great guy, apparently not a good website designer.

We got lucky, first weekend we are at Franklin Township on turf, and they lined the turf field on Snyder Ave for 2 7v7 fields. Hopefully we don't have to postpone too many games.

Flaco, you know Mick? The guy is a force of nature.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

https://mnjweb.azurewebsites.net/

Franklin has a pretty nice facility. Just porta-potties, though. At least as of last fall.

Older kid is due to play in BH on 3/18. The woman managing that team was unsure whether you guys would be playing yet or not at that point. I’ll let you know the details when I get them if you want.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

rass wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:41 am https://mnjweb.azurewebsites.net/

Franklin has a pretty nice facility. Just porta-potties, though. At least as of last fall.

Older kid is due to play in BH on 3/18. The woman managing that team was unsure whether you guys would be playing yet or not at that point. I’ll let you know the details when I get them if you want.
Definitely let me know, my daughter likes to watch older kids play. We are in Milburn that day, time not set. I'll need pictures and a full review of the porta-potties.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

That was less a urinal review and more a warning. Little boys piss all over everything.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco »

The Sybian wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:17 pm
rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:52 pm
elflaco wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:30 pm
rass wrote: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:15 pm I need to fire off a bunch of emails tonight because the league insists on starting play on 3/11, but no one who plays on grass (including our club) will play that early. Every fucking spring.
Mnyjsa?
Yeah...

New website is worse than the old one (so far).
What is the new website? I can't find it anywhere, and every club and NJ Soccer website links to the old one. I had a meeting tonight with the guy responsible for the website. Great guy, apparently not a good website designer.

We got lucky, first weekend we are at Franklin Township on turf, and they lined the turf field on Snyder Ave for 2 7v7 fields. Hopefully we don't have to postpone too many games.

Flaco, you know Mick? The guy is a force of nature.
you met Joe, the website guy? how come/where?

Franklin.. good field. bad for parents. bleachers are at one end of field - or you could stand behind the fence.

Mick -- don't know him, but know he is from PDA -- she's in the right place if he's involved -- lmk when you come play up by us.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

So nonlinear, or whoever else... Super Y?

It sounds like our travel club is joining the league, and my oldest (U12) daughter's team is one of four planning on playing this summer. I expect them to get their doors blown off (as is the case just about every time they play one of the big NJ academies at tournaments) but a worthwhile experience anyway? The club officials are pretty excited, but I guess this a feather in their cap and a selling point for convincing kids to stay with the club.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

My co-coach was MUCH more into it than I was. To my slightly more jaded point of view, it's a bit of money grab for the few weeks that aren't already covered with other regional leagues. If you guys also enter state cup, you get to a point where your girls literally have no down time (like, maybe you have a few weeks in December.)

That's what it comes down to, really. If you look at the calendar and the girls aren't getting any kind of break, think hard about that. I hate to do the "back in my day" bullshit, but it applies here. I was able to play 2 sports at a pretty high level and not feel completely overwhelmed. My daughter tried to play 2 sports and it was ridiculous, because now even at a below elite/travel level, we have them running around all year long.

If your kid is truly elite (like, a very good shot at d1), that's probably appropriate. For everyone else, we are just feeding into the business of travel youth sports.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

Thanks. Like I said, I figured they would be playing over their heads, and that backs that up.

I think this is just a summer league, 10 games. Our club is going to get the kids two days of practice a week with a trainer for those 10 weeks, too. It will probably come out $-wise ($300 per kid) about the same as what we paid the last couple of summers to do a bunch of tourneys (not counting the extra travel expenses, I guess).
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

rass wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:47 am So nonlinear, or whoever else... Super Y?

It sounds like our travel club is joining the league, and my oldest (U12) daughter's team is one of four planning on playing this summer. I expect them to get their doors blown off (as is the case just about every time they play one of the big NJ academies at tournaments) but a worthwhile experience anyway? The club officials are pretty excited, but I guess this a feather in their cap and a selling point for convincing kids to stay with the club.
Fuck, searching into this uncovered yet another layer of youth soccer I wasn't aware of... There is so much to wrap my head around! Is this a short off-season league?
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

Yes, it is meant to fill in the dreaded summer months of inactivity.
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