For Christ's sake, it's the off season. Aren't we allowed to have a little harmless fun at some brainless douchebag's expense?
With no discussions about a stadium roof, Stern John / Jeff Cunningham or Christmas gift yellow swag happening, it just does not feel like the off season yet... I look forward to later this week when the transfer window opens... Then the Jarosi starts getting real....
That's so Europe gets first dibs and we pickup the leftovers. Which at this time is realistic in MLS's world.
It's the off-season. We haven't had this much fun in the off-season, since, well, the Crew brought in a coach who used power point to lay out his plan to move the best of the Swedish first division to our squad along with a bunch of front office guys with funny titles and the B.S. Crew community was convinced it was going to usher in the long, long dark age of losing seasons... and we were wrong. When's Crewsmas again?
He might have a point about the crew youth business model that has really turned the club scene upside down in the last 4 or 5 years. Having the DA teams is a no-brainer and a good investment if you can get HG's signed who produce but have you seen the monster that is the rest of the "crew youth pyramid?' Crew East, West, Antartica, etc. If you have kids playing club soccer in Ohio South (or North) then you have to play the "yellow" teams all the time. Sometimes they are great and clobber you and sometimes not. But I've always thought it makes selling the crew to kids who don't play for their youth teams a more difficult proposition. I know I haven't taken my kids to a Crew game in years in part because they sort of feel that it's "those yellow teams' club." And there is a lot of ill will from rice bowls that got emptied when the youth teams went from being a rebranded Worthington United to what they are today. It's probably big money though for revenue and they need it pay for the DA I would bet. I know CUP was paying 30k a year to be a Crew affiliate. My question has always been though, how much does it alienate the rest of your customer base with school age kids? For most it's probably not a big deal. For some of the more crazed soccer families though it's very annoying. I've never been able to figure out if any other MLS clubs have established large soccer clubs beyond their DA's in their markets or is the Crew unique?
Part of the deal is that the Crew coming in opened up the youth soccer system in the area. And some folks lost a fair bit of power over the whole thing as a result. Which was predicted 15+ years ago when the Crew came on the scene and started offering clinics and the like (I recall the discussion at the time). Some folks did not like the competition. Some groups would not even permit the Crew to visit their fields and practices. @Bill Archer for one likely remembers this better than I, as I was still playing rec league in those days and had little to no involvement with the youth scene outside of helping the Crew with the occasional clinic as part of Crew Chief duties.
The biggest issue with the Crew Jr's program is not on the boys side, that's understandably a huge benefit to boys youth soccer and to the Crew organization in both money and talent. The only reason the Crew has girls in the Jr's program is money. Their fields are all crap, the coaching is, in my experience, all crap and they are used as a cash cow to fund the boys Academy. Why anyone would allow their daughters to play for the Crew Jr's when there are at least 3-4 really good girls programs in central Ohio is totally beyond my comprehension. I was invited to a Crew Jr's organizational meeting way back when I was involved with a local club. Bliss had a nice presentation on the way the boys side was being set up, but when I asked about the plans for the girls side he didn't have an answer. I thanked them for the tickets and food and walked out.
I have actually reffed a couple very good girls Crew Jr. teams, but they were at perhaps U10 level. They had very positive and encouraging coaches (Dave Merrick and Carella DiMaggio come to mind right away) and the parents were actually well behaved.
Since the topic of this thread is garbage anyway and it was mentioned, what are the good girls clubs for U10-12 in Columbus? My brother looks at the options every year and Crew Jrs. have come up before. She's been with the same club for 5-6 years now I think though.
How about we lock the Mike Jaroshit thread and start a new one on local youth soccer scene/crew jrs.? To answer the above questions. It depends on what you're looking for. Aside from some Crew team (non DA) OP and Classics Eagles have best programming and overall group of coaches in my opinion - both boys and girls sides. I have kids playing at various ages and genders so I have observed just about all of them. Of course there are bad coaches within all clubs but as a whole I think they have best in season/out of season programming & professional coaches. Yes there are a few teams/coaches within the various other clubs that are very good. Crew jr.s girls won a state cup (or two) recently. Very well coached and can agree good group of parents. Some will argue the costs of aformentioned clubs is high compared to some others which may be true, but again it's understanding the programming/coaching that goes with the price. Good news is there is probably a good fit for each individual player/family's needs in the area.
I tend to agree with this philosophy. That could well be because I'm hoping that somewhere on social media it will be reported that Mike Jarosi is playing on a Crew Jr. U10 girls team. I stand by the sentiment nevertheless.
The shirt means almost nothing, it's the coaching, and that's all luck. You can be at OP or Classics Eagles and get horrible coaching or play for Club Ohio and get great coaching. Barcelona has always had a competitive team in my daughter's age group as well. Some of the clubs move their coaches around between age groups, some allow a coach to follow the kids as they get older. It really is a crap shoot. A very expensive crap shoot. As for Crew Jr's girls teams winning State Cup, those are CUP Crew Jr's, right? They are out of Cincy.
Agreed OP and Classics Eagles do have some coaches that aren't the greatest. As I stated, there are good & bad coaches at all clubs. That is why I think overall programming i.e. off season training, access to directors/better coaches in training sessions is important when choosing a club. Quite honesly at the youth level training environment is the absolute most important thing. Parents focus far to much on if their child is on the A, B, or C team within a club, what league they are playing in andif they go undefeated in that league. The real focus needs to be on what the clubs philosophy is toward training and how much technical training do they get. Wins & Losses at U8,9,10,11 really mean nothing if you don't have the skills by the time you reach middle/highschool. Look at OP & Classics Eagles teams at the U13 & above and you start to see them playing at a much higher level technically and tactically - which enables them to play in higher leagues regionally/nationally. A couple Classics Eagles teams for example just won or made finals at the Disney Soccer showcase this past week. Best non- DA clubs in the country go there as do hundreds of college coaches. Their U18 boys are in the National League - highest Non-DA league in the country. Another example is the second level Classics Eagles team I believe won the President's Cup last yr.- basically a national championchip for 2nd tier teams/clubs. Same accolades can be found with various OP teams. Their U17 boys are in that league and made USYSA National Championchip finals last year. As discussed on another board they had Sabbi on their team but he is apparently playing for club out Chicago now- but they are still sitting in 2nd place in their division on NL. OP girls have very very good teams playing at very high levels too. So if your kids have aspirations of playing in college these clubs offer them great exposure - but it all starts with the overall enviroment they create at the younger levels. If your kids just want to play for fun or be certain they can play with their friends, then the smaller clubs might be the better choice. It's all needs/preference - again it's nice to have choices. As I stated I have multiple kids playing at various ages & ability levels so I see quite a bit to make my comparisons. As a parent I have to focus on each of their individiual wants and needs and try my best to get them in the environment that matches them and our overall family needs. It may or may not be with the OP, Classics Eagles, or another local club for whatever the reasoning. What I'm saying is I'm not trying to be the poster boy for those clubs, I am just offering my opinion. One of my children could end playing for Crew - who knows - but it will be because I think it is the most appropriate place for them to grow as a player and more importantly as a person. One last thing I'll add is the club landscape tends to shift every 5-10 yrs. 10 yrs. ago I would have probably said Blast and Club Ohio on the boys side and OP was only girls back then. To answer your question on Crew Girls - I'm nearly positive that 2 years ago the U12 Crew Jrs Gold (mostly Worthington based at the time) won State Cup @ u12 and may have also won it last yr (pretty certain they at least made finals).
I can't disagree with anything you said with this caveat. OP, and I would assume Classics Eagles is probably no different, stops looking for players from within at about U11. If you aren't on the top team by that age you never will be regardless of training or game performance. If you get demoted off that top team you will never make it back, either. That didn't happen to my daughter, we left OP for other reasons, but I have seen it happen to at least 5 kids in my daughter's age group. OP tried to keep those lower teams for simple revenue generation, not player development, and that shows in the quality of their training of those lower teams.