More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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elflaco2
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco2 »

yep. officially the state went to phase 4 last monday -- but seems most clubs pushed it a week.

the HS is holding unofficial captains' practices 2x a week -- no scrimmages yet.. lots of parents looking on the last two weeks.

non c19 related.. the HS (one public HS in town) has 3 teams.. Varsity, JV, Freshman. Basically everyone plays which is ridiculous. but only seniors play in varsity.. cause they deserve to. they're seniors (no bs.. that is the real answer i got).. and freshman only play freshman team.
there's almost a full team of 9th graders who play club soccer who because of their birthyear wont' play club soccer until november.. they are stuck on the frosh team with about 20 others (last year that team had 33 kids.. but only 18 jerseys) i'm sure i'll be ranting on this later in the rant thread.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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I talked the trainer into having the players bring an extra jersey to use instead of pinnies. The team also scheduled a scrimmage for Sunday after verifying that 9+ players would be available.

After all of that, we talked to my kid about the scrimmage and she told us that not only was she not comfortable with that, she wasn't comfortable with the amount contact last week and does not currently want to go to practice either.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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rass wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:41 pm I talked the trainer into having the players bring an extra jersey to use instead of pinnies. The team also scheduled a scrimmage for Sunday after verifying that 9+ players would be available.

After all of that, we talked to my kid about the scrimmage and she told us that not only was she not comfortable with that, she wasn't comfortable with the amount contact last week and does not currently want to go to practice either.
Oh man, I feel for the kid. Your oldest doesn't play anymore, right?

Full contact practice last night. I think I'm OK with it, but still have the nagging feeling we will look back and realize this was stupid. After 30 minutes of full-field scrimmage, my daughter seems like a new kid. Haven't seen her this happy in months, and didn't realize she hasn't been fully herself since lockdown. She is a very social kid, but doesn't have many close friends, so hasn't been talking to too many kids.

It seems kind of silly after 1:30 of full contact practice, they have to put on masks and walk out single file even though they were the last practice of the day.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Last two posts what this is all about. Kid plays lots of sports but something about soccer teaches great lessons. Baseball teaches you to fail on an island in crucial situations and hoops teaches humility cause the level is so high but soccer teaches togetherness. Those kids work for each other out there. Of course dad said fuck the togetherness and you're going to play at a bigger club. Still they called and invited him to a kick around cause it's family. No one ever calls for baseball or hoops unless you can do something for them.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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My former coaching partner is still coaching the same town travel team, and had an unexpected dilemma arise. For added context, his daughter double carded at a for-profit club last year, and the coaches at that club all left and formed their own club. He scheduled a scrimmage for his travel team with the coach is daughter played for the previous year. After the game, a player on the travel team posted a video on TiKTok saying "We despise #12" and put a hashtag with the name of the club. The coach of the other team forwarded it to him. Didn't think travel soccer coaches needed to provide social media training to 11 year old girls, but this is the world we live in.

It's even funnier given the girl who made the post. She will literally stand in place and turn her head and watch a player dribble around her because she can't be bothered to pretend to make an effort at times. And when she does try, she's been described as looking like a new born giraffe trying to stand up for the first time. She's made fun of teammates who were trying for making mistakes in the past, so I have no guilt in typing that. I'm amazed when the worst player who puts out the least effort is the one trash talking.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Top 4 teams in the age group had joint practices. Seems like evaluation time for next year.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The club held a meeting last night to discuss plans moving forward and next year. I was a little concerned as the club is holding tryouts in May, when other clubs seem to be holding tryouts in April. Typical, you get notified very quickly after tryouts and have a week to make a $1,500 non-refundable down payment to hold your spot. I was worried about having to decide on offers before her current clubs tryouts, but they said they will notify every player where they stand in April, so they can decide on offers from other clubs. They will tell you if you are definite A, bubble A/B definite B or need to tryout to make B. Totally appreciate that.

Bigger issue, they have a sister team in South Jersey they submitted an application to Join ECNL. This team is ranked #1 in the nation, and they are just insanely talented. They play a year up in the time flight of EDP, and went undefeated, scoring 59 and conceding 6 goals. If they don't get their application to ECNL approved on time, they are considering combining the South and North teams. If that's the case, I can't imagine more than a couple girls on the North A-team making it, and certainly not my daughter. Even if it's just North, I think it's an outside shot she makes the A-team. She could play there now, but they have several practice squad girls trying out next year, and I don't think she will beat them out. Not even sure I want her on the A-team, as their league is Boston to Baltimore, with only one other NJ team. That is some crazy travel for 12 year old soccer games every week.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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As per Syb, travel/club season is supposed to start this weekend. The first game has been postponed until next Saturday because the opposing club (the locals like to think of themselves as Soccertown, NJ) couldn't get approval from the town to open their fields this early and asked us to host. Twice we gave them a game time on Sunday and twice they agreed, only to write back later and say the time didn't work.

The second game was scheduled for next Sunday and the opponent asked to reschedule to April because too many of the players are going away for spring break that weekend.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The Sybian wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:44 pm The club held a meeting last night to discuss plans moving forward and next year. I was a little concerned as the club is holding tryouts in May, when other clubs seem to be holding tryouts in April. Typical, you get notified very quickly after tryouts and have a week to make a $1,500 non-refundable down payment to hold your spot. I was worried about having to decide on offers before her current clubs tryouts, but they said they will notify every player where they stand in April, so they can decide on offers from other clubs. They will tell you if you are definite A, bubble A/B definite B or need to tryout to make B. Totally appreciate that.

Bigger issue, they have a sister team in South Jersey they submitted an application to Join ECNL. This team is ranked #1 in the nation, and they are just insanely talented. They play a year up in the time flight of EDP, and went undefeated, scoring 59 and conceding 6 goals. If they don't get their application to ECNL approved on time, they are considering combining the South and North teams. If that's the case, I can't imagine more than a couple girls on the North A-team making it, and certainly not my daughter. Even if it's just North, I think it's an outside shot she makes the A-team. She could play there now, but they have several practice squad girls trying out next year, and I don't think she will beat them out. Not even sure I want her on the A-team, as their league is Boston to Baltimore, with only one other NJ team. That is some crazy travel for 12 year old soccer games every week.
Did they accepted to ECNL? I saw some press release in my google news feed about teams getting accepted but did not see any NJ teams.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

HaulCitgo wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:29 pm Top 4 teams in the age group had joint practices. Seems like evaluation time for next year.
Nope. Midyear cuts. Ewwww. Rough at this age. Did get an opportunity to show against the MLS kids though. Mixed bag. Involved in both goals. Gave up way way too many. Added a couple bigger kids to his team though. Will let them move some of their best further upfield. First COVID stop of the year. Didnt even bother with a formal letter. Team snap says COVID positive. Practice and game cancelled this week. Got an attitude in british speak when we asked questions. Dad embarassed himself with drunken ramblings in response.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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wlu_lax6 wrote: Thu Mar 18, 2021 7:43 am
The Sybian wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:44 pm The club held a meeting last night to discuss plans moving forward and next year. I was a little concerned as the club is holding tryouts in May, when other clubs seem to be holding tryouts in April. Typical, you get notified very quickly after tryouts and have a week to make a $1,500 non-refundable down payment to hold your spot. I was worried about having to decide on offers before her current clubs tryouts, but they said they will notify every player where they stand in April, so they can decide on offers from other clubs. They will tell you if you are definite A, bubble A/B definite B or need to tryout to make B. Totally appreciate that.

Bigger issue, they have a sister team in South Jersey they submitted an application to Join ECNL. This team is ranked #1 in the nation, and they are just insanely talented. They play a year up in the time flight of EDP, and went undefeated, scoring 59 and conceding 6 goals. If they don't get their application to ECNL approved on time, they are considering combining the South and North teams. If that's the case, I can't imagine more than a couple girls on the North A-team making it, and certainly not my daughter. Even if it's just North, I think it's an outside shot she makes the A-team. She could play there now, but they have several practice squad girls trying out next year, and I don't think she will beat them out. Not even sure I want her on the A-team, as their league is Boston to Baltimore, with only one other NJ team. That is some crazy travel for 12 year old soccer games every week.
Did they accepted to ECNL? I saw some press release in my google news feed about teams getting accepted but did not see any NJ teams.
I don't know where they are in the application process. Talking to one parent last night, he thinks they have to file a special petition to have two teams from the same club in the league. They didn't give us much during the meeting, as they had a lot to get through and I don't think they know what they are going to do yet. The other team's field is 90 minutes South from our field without traffic, and I know some girls are driving an hour South to get to our field for games and practices, so I can't imagine they'd make the trek to the other team's field on a regular basis. Curious to see how this pans out, but I'm bringing my daughter to several other tryouts to have options. Father I talked to last night knows his daughter is bottom 2 or 3 on the B team, and he is really worried. We have 5 or 6 girls from affiliate travel teams that practice with the team, but aren't eligible to play. The idea is they easily integrate if they make the team next year, and at least 3 of them are much better than our bottom 3, so everyone should be worried, but I don't think some of the parents get that this is much different than travel team tryouts.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Two sundays ago, the day before the first training week of the season, the assistant coach for the u14 team in the travel club i run, sent an email to the parents.. telling them that in order for their kids to get match fit, he was requiring them to run 2 2-mile runs each week, and to email him the times.. he also offered up to be at the HS track to time them and invited parents to join up and lose their covid 15.

Issue#1 - This team REFUSES to schedule any winter activities.
Issue#2 - He's the assistant coach
Issue #3 - Running 4 miles a week isn't going to make any one player match fit

I got wind of the email... asked that all coaches join the monthly board meeting.. neither HC or AC showed up.. it was a topic of the closed meeting as by now the email has made the rounds in town.. board is not happy...HC said they had training.. except we cancelled training due to 'rain' (shouldn't have cancelled) and I can see the field lights from my deck and knew no one was on he pitch that night... the HC came to the pitch on friday night to pick up his check (for refs).. i asked him to share why such an email would go out, he defered and said i'd need to speak to the AC.
Due to my kid's club team training sessions.. couldn't meet them last week or early this week..

A week later (last saturday) he sends email with the names and times of the players.. email to all parents.. about 13 and 14 year olds.. ranking them. Didnd't include those that didn't run or ran too slow.

i receive 3 emails from parents.
This afternoon i receive text from board member whose kid is on the u14 team. Livid. more details.
i reach out to three parents who have either coached at club level or whose kids have played in some of the big name clubs (PDA, CSA, Copa, Cedar Stars) as to their experiences related to 'running' - their experience matches mine. Its not done as part of in-season training, and NO ONE STACK RANKS PLAYERS in this manner.
my kid's club team changes training time tonight - i reach out to u14 AC- ask to meet. he agrees. i let the board know. Three of them show up tonight to have a chat w the AC and the HC.

knowing that four of us together look as if we're ganging up.. i ask him to walk me through his process in asking kids do this and the emails.. i let him know that parents have reached out to us concerned about shaming and bullying and inappropriate information being shared, he tells me he has parents congratulating him for getting the kids out.. says of course it has to be the ones who suck who are complaining.... 45mins later he agrees it wasn't the best approach, heart may be in the right place but execution is lacking, he's given up but didn't want to walk way as its their last season, their game day trainer is no good (need to follow up on that one.. the 45mins we were there kids musta stood in line for 20).

last time i had to deal w this guy, he called me a chinese dictator and threatened legal action against the club. Today we bumped fists. I told the baord i was stepping down at end of season. last night half of them reached out to ask me to stay as no one wants to or can do the job. all comes down to who is willing to confront people. Fucking sheep. i have the same five friends i've had for years in town so i don't rate much what others say (another rant for another night in another thread.. @Giff may be interested as its work related)

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

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Youngest played her first outdoor game (other than a scrimmage a couple of weeks ago) since November 2019 over the weekend. While she was off, her team aged into full-field, 11v11, and longer halves, so it was a lot. She's definitely lost some game speed and the way she would get turned the wrong way every so often while playing defense in the first half made it obvious her feel for the game is off, too. She got subbed in at forward in the second half and was more effective and seemed more comfortable with the ball and making plays rather than trying to react to someone else. But she's got work to do.

Her team was down 0-1 but eventually made it 2-1. The coach saw something she didn't like from another defender as the game got down to the end and subbed my kid on with just a couple of minutes left. She claims the coach didn't mention the game situation, and when there was a throw-in deep in their zone she went rushing to grab the ball while the crowd is yelling "slow down slow down" at her. She got the throw down, MF passed it back to her, and then she... got pressured and tried an ill-advised and what ended up being way too weak a pass across the middle of the field. An opposing forward jumped on the ball, beat a defender in the box, and scored. Long whistle, game over, 2-2.

Saturday was the first time she's ever come off the field with tears in her eyes. The mask and sports goggles helped hide them.

In the quick post-game team talk, her coach told her she screwed up, which yes, she did. I asked if she understood what she did wrong, and she said yeah. She claimed she didn't know the game was almost over, and we talked about how she should pretty much never attempt that pass. She can give herself all of the shit she wants for that, but I'm hoping it's the end of it from her coach and teammates. If she's crying post-practice today I'll be pissed. I've been watching most of these girls play for years, some since 3rd grade, and I've seen them all fuck up plenty of times.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Monday was apparently fine.

The last away opponent finally got back to me and told me their field surface is grass. Rich fuckers couldn't spring for turf for a field named after hometown girl Tobin Heath?? They do have other turf fields, we just got lucky I guess. Only game out of 10 not on turf, so I have to go buy real cleats since she sized out since the last time she played.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by tennbengal »

Glad it went well at practice Rass. It is brutal to see that happen to your child - Q sobbed on the way home once from a U-10 game that hadn't gone well. All I could think of was the Parenthood (the movie version) scene with Steve Martin's kid in the bell tower shooting at people and screaming "you made me play first base" and Martin yelling up "nice shot, son"
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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rass wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:59 pm Monday was apparently fine.

The last away opponent finally got back to me and told me their field surface is grass. Rich fuckers couldn't spring for turf for a field named after hometown girl Tobin Heath?? They do have other turf fields, we just got lucky I guess. Only game out of 10 not on turf, so I have to go buy real cleats since she sized out since the last time she played.
Daughter's game was cancelled last week due to grass field. Academy team playing in one of the richest towns in NJ. Nothing is worse than Milburn. Second richest town in NJ (or at least they were), and they won't pay for 3 refs, and have the absolute worst fields ever. Last time we played them, the field sloped down from one goal to the other, and had a rolling hill where one sideline dropped off much lower. Almost no grass at all, and large tufts of weeds throughout the field. Shameful.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:38 am Nothing is worse than Milburn. Second richest town in NJ (or at least they were), and they won't pay for 3 refs, and have the absolute worst fields ever. Last time we played them, the field sloped down from one goal to the other, and had a rolling hill where one sideline dropped off much lower. Almost no grass at all, and large tufts of weeds throughout the field. Shameful.
Behind the HS? If so, absolutely. And if you're lucky to be there at the right time of year, your player will come home covered in goose shit.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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rass wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:41 am
The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:38 am Nothing is worse than Milburn. Second richest town in NJ (or at least they were), and they won't pay for 3 refs, and have the absolute worst fields ever. Last time we played them, the field sloped down from one goal to the other, and had a rolling hill where one sideline dropped off much lower. Almost no grass at all, and large tufts of weeds throughout the field. Shameful.
Behind the HS? If so, absolutely. And if you're lucky to be there at the right time of year, your player will come home covered in goose shit.
No, might have been behind an elementary school, can't remember. Also played behind the library, which was previously the shittiest field she played on.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Medwick Park in Carteret (may be turf now) -- when it was a grass field.. by the river.. that is the worst field.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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elflaco2 wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:28 am Medwick Park in Carteret (may be turf now) -- when it was a grass field.. by the river.. that is the worst field.
When I was a kid, one of the fields our club used from practices was called "the Flood Plain." It wasn't a park, just a large patch of land with a parking lot under the highway and next to an old river that constantly flooded. Needless to say, you could count on lots of cancelled practices in the Spring when you were assigned those fields.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:51 am
rass wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:41 am
The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:38 am Nothing is worse than Milburn. Second richest town in NJ (or at least they were), and they won't pay for 3 refs, and have the absolute worst fields ever. Last time we played them, the field sloped down from one goal to the other, and had a rolling hill where one sideline dropped off much lower. Almost no grass at all, and large tufts of weeds throughout the field. Shameful.
Behind the HS? If so, absolutely. And if you're lucky to be there at the right time of year, your player will come home covered in goose shit.
No, might have been behind an elementary school, can't remember. Also played behind the library, which was previously the shittiest field she played on.
I’ve coached a few lax games on that field. An abomination. The first time we played there I had a freshman team with 1 girl who had played before that season. Millburn is white af so they were dominating. During the second half the coach was openly and loudly emptying his bench in the second half saying “who wants to score a goal?!?” My girls heard him. Millburn Deli and Liv Breads are the only reason I don’t support the town’s elimination.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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serrano wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 7:24 pm
The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:51 am
rass wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:41 am
The Sybian wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:38 am Nothing is worse than Milburn. Second richest town in NJ (or at least they were), and they won't pay for 3 refs, and have the absolute worst fields ever. Last time we played them, the field sloped down from one goal to the other, and had a rolling hill where one sideline dropped off much lower. Almost no grass at all, and large tufts of weeds throughout the field. Shameful.
Behind the HS? If so, absolutely. And if you're lucky to be there at the right time of year, your player will come home covered in goose shit.
No, might have been behind an elementary school, can't remember. Also played behind the library, which was previously the shittiest field she played on.
I’ve coached a few lax games on that field. An abomination. The first time we played there I had a freshman team with 1 girl who had played before that season. Millburn is white af so they were dominating. During the second half the coach was openly and loudly emptying his bench in the second half saying “who wants to score a goal?!?” My girls heard him. Millburn Deli and Liv Breads are the only reason I don’t support the town’s elimination.
You're right, White people are the worst.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Tryout season has begun! Good times. My daughter is finally dealing with her anxiety and not fighting trying out for new teams. First tryout Monday, and she didn't fight it or hesitate walking in. Apparently she broke down crying about being nervous a few hours earlier to my wife. We convinced her to think of it as getting to play a few extra days a week for the next couple of weeks. Like a clinic, but free!

Got her signed up for 4 different teams, plus her own. Since her team is late tryouts, they promised to let us know where they stand early, so they can make decisions on other teams with earlier tryouts. What is really confusing me is all the different leagues! She tried out for STA last weekend. They will have 3 teams next year, A team plays in the GA, B Team in the USYS National League and C in EDP. Her team plays in ECNL, ECRL, and EDP. How the fuck do I compare?

Ultimately, my wife is against the travel involved in ECNL. The division has one other NJ team, 3 or 4 Maryland, 2 PA, one NY. GA seems to be mostly NJ and NY teams with one MA and one in Maine (Maine, FFS!). I think USYS is ultimately a higher level of EDP, but I'm really not sure. This is all so fucking complicated. I'd be happy letting my daughter choose the girls she likes playing with, but you can't tell from a two day tryout with 100 kids. If I was smart, I would have asked to bring her to a random practice to let her get a better sense. I'd love having her at a closer club, but there really aren't any close to us, which is shocking, as there are so many soccer towns in my area. Her current field is 30 minutes with no traffic, and it's been fine, but when people go back to commuting, I can see days where it takes well over an hour to get there. I need to take 4 highways, and they are all prone to traffic.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

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Fucking great, just got an email with an offer from the tryout on Monday... Supposed to decide and pay a non-refundable $750 to secure the spot within 48 hours. 5 weeks before her team's tryout, and 3 weeks before the club I was considering moving her too. I told her, and she doesn't have much of a sense of the team from the tryout, so no idea what we are going to do. Since they have another tryout session next week, I'm hoping I can delay my decision a bit.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by rass »

Yeah, couldn't hurt to push back a bit. I don't think I'm too jaded when I think $ comes before anything else at almost all of these "clubs" and "academies".
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Picked up a new player on my team this spring. Googled his dad. Rear Admiral.

Did lose the son of the National Fox News Anchor.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

rass wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 5:35 pm Yeah, couldn't hurt to push back a bit. I don't think I'm too jaded when I think $ comes before anything else at almost all of these "clubs" and "academies".
Talked to my friend whose daughter plays on Club 1, he told me there is no way they would put pressure on me and to speak to the coach and Director. Sure enough, they were both really friendly and cool. They invited my daughter to attend a practice this Thursday and meet the coach to see if she feels like it's a good fit before making a decision. At least that give me an extra week to delay. Of course, the practice is the same time as Club 3's tryout, but I'm just going to cancel Club 3. Too many options. Went to Club 2 tryout last night. They said they will send out emails this week inviting some players back to a second tryout next week, and if you don't hear back, assume they aren't interested. Just got an email offering her a spot, saying we have 48 hours to submit $750 dollars, and if you do not submit in that time, they will offer your spot to another kid. My wife initially asked me to delay them as well, but the tone of the email put me off, and I'm shocked, but my daughter said she prefers Club 1 anyways. Last night she said she had a ton of fun and really liked the girls on the team, so I was surprised, but happy to scratch them off the list.

Worst part, still no word from her current club. She wants to stay with them, but I wasn't thrilled with the experience. I don't think she has improved much, and for some reason lost her confidence early on. I don't think her current team is a good fit for her, as they are more defensive focused and ask her to track back more than trying to get forward. I think the coach sees she is a goal scorer on a team sorely lacking finishing, so she did get some significant time at striker, but still featuring in midfield. If she moves up, she will probably stay with current club, otherwise, she seems t be getting more excited about Club 1, despite knowing her friend there is moving in June.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Season going downhill. Biggest kids off playing school but for those in the bottom quarter of the age group there is no school yet. Team is worse than it started and practice tempo way off. Left the old team to play at the big club but between heel pains and no shows and covid breaks kinda makes you wonder why bother with spring. Could have played baseball. Dropped the summer league. Maybe basketball camp.

On the positive, kid played his best game of his life last week. Went the entire way at mid last two games and is learning those skills rapidly. Coach was out so DOC filled in. Said some nice things about his play and then coach mentioned in practice that he had nice things to say. So future is bright but present is not. 0-3 last week. 0-fer spring. Doesn't get any easier. No shot against the top half of the league and look to get demoted if spring standings count. Not sure if they do. They did find 3 wins in fall so clear there.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Cup weekends. Don't need to worry about next weekend. More a celebration of the season because they showed up last weekend and got 4 points from 3 games including a 3 hr trip to keep them up. Got an invite to an id camp for the first team. Was not up to pace mostly. Good experience. Wasn't intimidated. Smiles coming off. Week off then more practice invites pretryouts tryouts. Staying with his team but it's free and lots of soccer opportunities around town because clubs are hosting. Summer is here and it's post covid mostly. Don't think they'll have to worry about it 21-22. Losing half the teams in his division to ecnl regional league next year so hes pretty assured of being more competitive next year.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Yesterday the AR in front of my bench came upmyo me after I was putting my stuff in the car and called me a "hyperactive tornado of positivity".

Oh we are 5-0-0 this spring. Have a roster of 25 and 1/3 of a field to practice on.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Why 25? That's ugly. Nice job though. You going to take a paid gig when they offer?
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

HaulCitgo wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 12:29 pm Why 25? That's ugly. Nice job though. You going to take a paid gig when they offer?
Yeah U-16 rec and only 2 coaches. I had 20 in the fall but spring brought out lots of kids whose parents did not let them play early in COVID. So they took as many as they could and then wait listed a ton more. We could have easily had 3 and maybe 4. The rec teams in our club typically have a tough time in the spring because of Ramadan. A good number of kids signup but either miss games or try to play while fasting for a month, so the big roster can help...but this year none of my 25 kids have that issue.

As for paid gig...I don't have the pedigree to get a sniff. Even if I got my C license I would probably not be considered. Pretty much every coach in the club is an A or B license coach if not even more impressive. Most of the club coaches are former college coaches (and in one case an active NCAA head coach). We have had the Harkes as coaches of my club. My son's tryout tomorrow for travel is run by our age group director (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamil_Walker). He is really fun to watch run a training.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco2 »

yikes.
we tried to form a u17 and a u19 team.. didn't have the numbers, ended up with a u19 team.. at the last minute others checked in with us. Ended up with 24. League and state allow 22 on the roster, 18 on game day. Bit of a balancing act early on, then we lost two to fractures and with covid issues, haven't had to tell anyone not to play on sunday for the past month, bringing 15 to 18 each game. Unfortunately the lack of consistency is showing - haven't started the same 11 twice. Shame too as the HS team won the state (their group) in the fall, so i've several of the players, just cant' get them at the same time. and of course, none of the club players are available. really enjoying the coaching though, even if my knees kill me after walking that crap turf each week.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

I'm sure if I scrolled back 4 years or so in this thread, I have a post about travel soccer dying off when the kids get to the end of their junior year or so. They've seen whatever writing is on the wall (good or bad) by that point and asking them to train 2/3 days a week, play in all-weekend tournaments, etc etc loses its luster VERYQUICKLY.

If you recall, my buddy and I split our team into and EDP and a WAGS (local travel, if that makes sense) right when they were going into high school. That worked pretty OK FR and SO years, but sputtered badly heading into JR year. We got thru the fall and folded up the Local Travel team by spring. Just too painful trying to put a roster together with kids that knew where they rated for their high school team and none of them had aspirations of playing beyond that.

Game over. The EDP team was done after that season, too. The girls all played varsity in the fall and weren't really into just playing games on the weekend and getting smoked.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by wlu_lax6 »

I remember that.
Our club has ECLN for all ages up into U19, 2 travel (NCSL) teams per age group to U16 and at 2 rec teams at each of those age groups. The rec rosters grow for kids who give up travel and just want to play with their friends. At the older rec levels, usually 1 team is a show up and play and the other team takes there 1 night a week training seriously. Depends on the volunteer coaches view.

But I am seeing the behavior nonlinear mentions. Before COVID I could get a team put together for a tournament at the rec level without much effort. In fact I would have to run tryouts as we would have more than roster rules allowed. Now across 50+ U-16 players I could only get 7-10 to commit to a tournament on Father's day weekend.

Our high schools play in the Spring. The switch to ECLN has made the high school teams way harder to make (USDA prohibited playing high school and club). So the JV teams are cutting travel players (some rec kids may make it but hard). I heard from a dad whose kid I coached and is playing JV says high school is very route 1 (club focuses on a more passing style) and high school is way more physical.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by Nonlinear FC »

God damn Department of Ag, always sticking their nose where it doesn't belong!
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco2 »

got a call tonight, a parent at the u8(going to u9) tryouts complained (in passing) to a board member that their parent coach (we use full time trainers) was never around for training and had been seen before games doing beers in the parking lot before games.

like i have nothing better to do.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by HaulCitgo »

Apparently more than half the sons team got cut/moved on. Happened to see a team leader trying out elsewhere at daughters track practice. Was sad. Kid is on and no doubt team is improved technically but still. Perpetual tryouts ahead. Not sure this is the environment I should be looking for.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by The Sybian »

HaulCitgo wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 1:46 pm Apparently more than half the sons team got cut/moved on. Happened to see a team leader trying out elsewhere at daughters track practice. Was sad. Kid is on and no doubt team is improved technically but still. Perpetual tryouts ahead. Not sure this is the environment I should be looking for.
Feeling really good about my daughter's decision to move clubs for next year. I'm pretty confident she would have moved up if she went to tryouts, but her current team folded, and they just told the handful of kids who weren't moved up. Most tryout ended 4-6 weeks ago, so the parents are scrambling. I'm sure I detailed above, but they merged with a South Jersey team that was ranked #1 in the nation, basically gave the ECNL spot to that team. My daughter's club had an ECNL team and she played on a B team in EDP. They told us they were combining to make 3 teams, ECNL, ECRL, and EDP, and most parents assumed everyone would make a team. The fathers of two of the least talented girls were asking me if they were stupid not to tryout elsewhere, I told them I'd leave nothing to chance and told them I signed my daughter up for a couple tryouts. They both said they knew their girls weren't moving up, but they were happy with EDP.

Even if my daughter did make the ECRL team, it'd mean traveling up to 4 hours for one-off league games, to play the B team of teams in Maryland, PA, Eastern Long Island... The email to parents who made the team said they are rostering 18-22 girls, which is insane! So not only are you driving 8 hours to play a one hour game, but some kids aren't going to play more than 5-10 minutes, and I'm sure they can't dress that many players for a game, so some aren't even making the roster for games.
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Re: More Backroom Deals Than Tammany Hall - A Youth Soccer Tale

Post by elflaco2 »

Board Update!
Three hour board meeting last night, coaches had their say for the first 90mins (scheduled 60).
secondary players, club pass, tryouts, team make up, role of parent coach, trainers, min playing time. All topics that could hide mines.. but all good.
then it got fun
within 15 minutes of coaches leaving, a board member accused everyone who's kids are also playing EDP (Club) of not being committed to the program and should stop coaching and/or leave the board. She then said we were attacking her, wasn't going to stand for it, grabbed her things and stormed out. She later texted another board member to leave her alone she wasn't going to stand for a bunch of men attacking her. There were two other women in the room who were as puzzled as the rest of us.
The underlying issues? 1- we won't get rid of a parent coach she doesn't like. Yes, pushes the envelope, but what drives her crazy is that his daughters are club players and secondary with us, and that its her daughter's age group thus they compete for players and 2-we aren't moving fast enough to move kids up or down based on ability/performance.

so everyone calms down, we discuss, vote and move on (no one getting kicked out, will ask parents for feedback).
one guy gets a call (the ex-rec president) from her, he walks out, comes back and lectures the rest of us that we have the authority to do whatever we want without worrying about anything else, its black and white he says. i tell him i live in a world of gray, and in a small club (<1000 kids) and smallish town (<14000 people) i rather build consensus and work through change slowly(change management is key!) rather than make edicts... so no one gets kicked out.

then it gets fun. Another board member (also ex-rec) recently posted on FB something about the travel program being corrupt.. he gets called out on it in the room.. and that takes us back again to the underlying issue in joining the two clubs together.. the Rec folks HATE travel. They want everyone to play. i'm ok w that.. we have various levels of play/teams.. but they HATE competition, HATE tryouts (well, they do suck, but we can fix that) and because it affected their kids not making a team early on and being ostracized at school, will do what they can to destroy it (i got involved initially because my kid and his friends were put on the b team at u8, were made fun of and ostracized.. the fact that half that team is now club players and starting at the HS.. is the icing.. but i decided to fix it, not to kill it).. now we knew all this when we joined but thought we could work it out.. and what better way than to force us together to put forth a rec and travel programa as one.. the town isn't big enough for two clubs. Anyway, the guy apologized for using the language he did, walked back some of his comments and double down on others.

cut to an hour later, a couple of us are at the bar (outside on the sidewalk tables) and of course we close the bar.

where do we stand? i'm not leaving the board. i've spent 8years at this club, the last five on the board. they keep voting me in and we keep improving the club. the one that walked out? she can coach, not welcome back at the table though. the other two ex-rec guys.. we're having bourbon tonight to hash it out.
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