I'm told Sockers head administrator has resigned. Been at the club for 12 years. From what was said it sounds like the business structure is a mess. Owner came in and removed the President from the top and took his responsibilities but kept him in the company, found out it was too much day-to-day work, hired an outside GM with no soccer experience to manage day-to-day, new GM now caught in the middle of a family-business sh*tstorm. Let's hope all this doesn't impact the on-field. At least that's still working well it seems.
Are you referring to LM? Really liked her and LJ. Two very sweet ladies who made everyone feel welcome. They should just hire me. I'd love for BC and DR to work for me
It could be argued that from U15 and up things have never been better at Sockers on the girls' side in terms of winning. Not great, and not close to the boys, but solid considering the area's talent fragmentation. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of drama among players and parents. Lots of grumbling these days. When SK and TB were running the girls' program there was less aggressive recruiting, and less winning, but also less drama. Those guys, in the opinions of many, were also much better coaches -- more experienced and mature, more caring, and more honest -- than the current regime. It used to be that Sockers was a refuge for girls away from the never-ending drama that exists at other top clubs. No more. It's unfortunate that it's so rare to have harmony and winning success at the same time. The blame for this reality can be placed on all parties: clubs, coaches, parents, and players. It's part in parcel of the times we live in. Bigger than just youth soccer.
Agreed. The 04 team is alright and the 05 team is getting better. 03 and older girls are fantastic. But there is nothing in the closet to pull from in terms of the Pre-Academy teams. That is where they are no better then any community club and I would argue worse since most of their talent has always come from outside at u12/u13 ages. Seems like PR may have actually done more damage? I know he's big on customer service but maybe no one there simply knows how to run a soccer club. The arrogance needs to be unraveled at Sockers. They need an injection of humbleness and then start looking at how to fix the problems on the girls side. I completely agree with you on SK and TB. My oldest played for SK and I liked him a lot. Those two are now coaching the 05 team at Campton and we are joining them this winter because they know and understand where Sockers failed but also know where Sockers had successes - not releying only on a style of play but also doubling down on player development. When they were a powerhouse - when the girls played in the NISL and trained with boys up until u14 they won everything. In 2014 that all changed and the teams started getting bested by clubs who never had a shot at them years before. Bad coaches, expensive costs - greedy allocations all in turn for poor performance will lead to parents complaining, loss of players, politics and drama. Arrogance led them here. Now they need to right people to fix the problems. They have great resources and some really super coaches. Location is the best of all the DA/ECNL clubs... They just need someone that knows how to run a business and deal with parents and kids at the same time.
Bringing back SK and/or TB would be a good start on addressing your second point; better at dealing with parents and kids, and not arrogant in their approach. No idea if either would be interested in coming back, or willing to lobby for it. But at least one of their successors was lobbying endlessly to get ahead, I was told by a source close to the situation. Turnabout is fair play.
My observation, being at Olympic at least three times a week is that Girls numbers seem to be way up starting this past Fall. They have pulled two or three coaches from the mens side, two of the best IMO, and they are really coaching up PA girls from I'd say u14 and up. I'm jealous as I'd like my son to have more exposure to these two in particular! I see a lot of happy young women before practices... Parents and players should know any club this size is a competitive environment. Where I think the club falls short is that there is no attempt at team building, either on the competitive side OR the social side. I tell my son all the time, you're being evaluated every time you step on the field AND you're directly competing with teammates. This SHOULD be a huge positive in a club wjhere arguably you get to go toe to toe with some of the best players in the region. Every effort should be made to make this a positive environment that makes all players better. If I was in charge...lol, I'd task Tony Kees with creating and implementing a team building plan across the entire club. I've seen this guy work with a group for only a week and totally change the atmosphere and level of play! Maybe I should write a letter to the boss?!
I wish Fire Jr would be allowed to join those leagues. There is no TRUE Chicago club in those leagues. The fact I would have to drive from Chicago to a far Western or North suburb everyday at rush hour for my daughter which is pretty much a deal breaker for a lot of people. There needs to be DA/ECNL within the city limits. Logistically its very hard/expensive, but I wish it was possible. The reason Fire Jr teams aren't competing at the higher age brackets is because the best all leave to join teams in those leagues. My daughter has a great team there, with some very promising players, but without DA/ECNL access I doubt when they get older they will stick around.
To the point made earlier about the "safe haven", I did hear that too. Sockers ECNL was the place to go for players who really weren't mentally cut out for the Eclipse bullying lol. But it also made them really a second-rate ECNL outside of a few individual teams. While some may disagree personally I think to be a DA/ECNL you should be looking for the top players and create incredible internal competition, which in turn brings grumblings and drama that stems almost entirely from two things: playing time and position. For platforms that are purportedly designed for the TOP player this is normal. Do you think every player at Penn State is happy? Guaranteed not. If you're not ok with the possibility of another player coming in and potentially taking your spot, or you're not comfortable with internal competition I'm sorry but you're not really elite. If you're looking for that safe, drama free environment there's plenty of clubs out there just not at that level. Or at least clubs that are successful at that level.
I think every parent including myself have disagreed with a clubs method of operation. We're constantly saying to ourselves "why don't they just do things this way instead of that?". But what we never acknowledge is we all have a huge bias towards our own kids. Most of the time we don't even think about it but what we perceive is almost always through the experience of our kids. So our grumblings are often unique to what our kid is experiencing (or sometimes a small group of kids) but not always what others (whether majority or minority) are. There could be one parent that complains about communication but another that's totally fine with it. There could be one that's upset about team placement or playing time and another that's happy with it. The point is the coach has an almost impossible job of trying to appeal to 15, or sometimes significantly more, individual wants, needs, perceptions, biases, etc.. All of our "answers" as parents might only be the solution to our own issue but not everyones and sometimes might even work against others.
I'll agree with you that the city is so under-served. But so is almost every major metro area in the country. Costs of operation are just too high and logistics too complicated. It creates the vicious cycle of high costs of operation having to be put onto membership which then prices out thousands of inner city kids. I used to see tons of little latino, european, and african ballers playing in the CLASA or ethnic leagues. Mostly working-class families at best. They play on trash fields for parent coaches but they play everyday so at U8-12 or 13 they have super technical players at almost every position. Problem is in order to progress those players further they need resources. Educated coaches generally cost money. Equipment doesn't come free. Pretty soon they're priced out. That little baller is suddenly 17 and never been taught how to play the sport other than when the ball is at their feet. Any other country would have scouts snapping up those little kids at 12/13 and sponsoring them either thru a pro club or thru an agency. Sadly the economics of soccer in the US doesn't allow this to happen so you get "pay-to-play". Sorry I kinda took your post and totally bastardized it on a rant...short story: I don't disagree with your original post. Carry on
I think most of your points are spot-on, although I would contend there's plenty of space between "safe haven" and a club being run by bullying A-holes. However, the root of many of these problems is the pay-to-play model. The DAs are supposed to be the answer to making the U.S. more competitive in the men's game, and keeping the women at or near the top of an increasingly more competitive international women's game. But there's a problem when U.S. academies are not fully funded. If all DAs were free, parents and players would be less agitated about barley holding onto a spot, or being left behind amid emerging or newly acquired internal competition. Plus, Sockers (and Eclipse OB) are doing all they can to maximize profits by making pools as large as possible, collecting checks, then finalizing teams in Aug/Sept (FCU DA and Eclipse NB parents may never tolerant pools. Many of these parents demand to know what they are paying for before paying). While there are always players improving and declining, 80-90 percent of a roster can be locked down in May/June, and are in fact locked down in the minds of coaches. Profit motive is what drives keeping things muddled until Aug/Sept. Parents and players could do a better job of seeing the writing on the wall, or being more resilient in the face of competition, but running a family business is not conducive to running a truly word-class academy.
I don't think you're entirely wrong or right here but I see your point. Every successful academy in the world is motivated by money. Why does Ajax put so much into theirs? So when they develop a player they can promote them to the first team saving money on transfers and eventually sell them for profit. Agencies in South America sponsor costs for young talent so when they sell on they can get a return on their investment. Only in the US so heavily bottom-up funded. Sadly its a systemic problem. Now I would also say that in terms of investment some clubs in Chicago will give you more for your money. More in terms of hours on the field, higher quality facilities, more qualified coaches, etc.. In the end what is a good or bad investment of money for the family would come down to what it is they're looking for. Whats right for me might not be right for you and that's ok!
And when there is no professional team to promote a player to, as is the case with Sockers, it comes down to trying to grow in size to maximize profit, which leads to disingenuous behavior on the part of clubs and coaches. Too many so-called elite clubs in our area and too little talent to feed them. One girls academy and two boys academies would be enough for Chicago. The reason you have parents and players feeling entitled to "elite" spots is because past maybe the top 40 boys and top 20 girls in each birth year, the next 50 are all about the same. And these DAs (and ECNL) are plenty happy to have all 50 believe they are next boy/girl up for promotion. So then there's a scramble for a roster spot here, more playing time over there, or only being able to play your preferred position at still another place. A total mess.
I don't know if I am going that deep though. I am talking about responding to normal email, getting schedules out, keeping parents in the loop about simple shit. I'm not talking about the crazy parents who think their kids are going pro. This is basic business sense and if any business is looking at retention it is a must. Far too many coaches and clubs think that the parents to just pay and shut up. Fine - if that's what you want great. But as long as I a paying you better have it all right. And no one does really. So there has to be some give and take.
I think the girls game is getting worse and I think the numbers are also way down. At least that's what it seems too me in my area.
Again I see your perspective. They have however produced more professional players than any TWO other clubs in Chicagoland regardless of having a first-team. Last year they had players in MLS, USL C, USL 1, USL 2, Denmark...and those are just the ones I know of. There could even be more. Haven't been there in ages but you used to be able to go to Soccer City during the day in the winter time and find the who's who of Chicago pros, men and women, training with BH. Last time I was there a certain USMNT player was there but that was like 10 years ago lol. In regards to disingenuous behavior I can't speak for what you may have heard or experienced but as a club of their size I can't imagine all of them under the illusion of being a DA player or a pro. There has to be something there that keeps all those kids around. It may not be what you or I see as valuable but the numbers don't lie. Same could be said about FCU or the Fire Jrs affiliates. Anyway there isn't one club around that isn't concerned with increasing their income. Because our system is based mostly on membership dues the only way to do this is to grow the size of the club. Happens everywhere. I think you are spot-on about there being too many so-called elite players and clubs, and too many DA/ECNL. It would benefit the whole landscape to actually downsize. It is a total mess. But it's a total mess in every major soccer market too. It's funny I was talking to an old college buddy who lives in a smaller soccer city but they have a DA. He still coaches at a smaller club. We had a good talk about our different takes. While we have too many DA's in some opinions including mine, imagine if we had only one. Now that one has almost total control over the landscape. If they acted in a way that wasn't to our liking there's no other option. His point is very valid but I thought it basically summed up what is the truth about youth soccer: it's all relative. It's not an exact science and there's so many ways to do it. Whats right could be wrong, what's wrong could be right but it all depends on how its perceived or experienced.
This is so true. reality is almost all grumbling and full on drama from parents I’ve heard share personal experiences that were negative have been, in my humble opinion, crazy off base by those parents. Lovely people, well intentioned but full on blind when it comes to their kids and soccer(this applies to the super star kids and the not so super star kids parents). I have yet to hear negative comments, that I know the context of personally, that are anywhere near logical. It’s all emotion and I’m always left with two feelings: feeling sorry for the kids #1 who have parents pushing so hard and are so clueless (truly clueless) and the coaches that have to deal with this absurdity. That said I truly hope Sockers gets their act together in the back office. If LM is truly gone that is a massive red flag as to decision making from the top. What an asset they lost.
I think that our area doesn't have enough DA teams. I agree that at the curent state of soccer we can fill existing ones with good players. Coaching at young levels is just horrible in general. With how many kids play soccer at the ages of 6-12 we should have enough talent for 20 DA teams. Croatia is roughly the size of Chicago. Their teams don't travel abroad to play league games. Only difference is that every village there got their soccer club. Don't think there is no pay to play there either. There is a ton of academy soccer schools there also. If kid showes any talent he will be taken by the pro academy
USSF restricts DA teams to help MLS. Imagine how much T&C payments would help out in a completely open pyramid. No DA No ECNL No MRL Everyone treated equally by the USSF.
On several continents there is massive financial incentive to develop top talent. On another there is actually less than zero incentives. Until this core issue is resolved we will never be able to compete with the truly world class powers in the game.
Rosters being finalized in September at clubs like Sockers is actually very smart, best for the kids and has nothing to do with profit motive. You tryout in May at a club like Sockers that has a pool of three to five teams. Who benefits from firming up that roster two months prior to the next season? Only one group and it’s a group (ie FOMO parents) who does a lot of harm in youth soccer imo. A largely ignorant class of people who have very little knowledge of the game or how kids develop. They’re simply interested in their kids getting on a top team and if they want to know in May bc if their kid doesn’t make the top team they’re going to the next best club to be on that top team. Plays out like this year after year after year. Better to leave it open and finalize once you’ve had weeks, not one day, to see where a kid fits in. Two years in a row I’ve seen kids start in a first team only to be slotted down to lower teams. I’ve also seen kids start on 2nd/3rd teams climb their way up within weeks or a couple of months. This argument that it’s all about profit motive, at least in the case of Sockers, is so bunk. It’s absolutely positively the best thing you can do for the kids and the culture. And it’s the best way to evaluate new kids - not on one tryout but on weeks before the start of the season to try and place them in a spot that will do them the most good.