I seriously cannot keep up with the formation of new leagues in my region. A lot of it is being driven by people claiming their new league is "Elite." Seems hard to say that if every club in the region belongs to a different "elite" league or has actually earned its way up to NCSL or WAGS Division 1. Then there's the "block scheduling" notion. This seems like a joke to me. The sales pitch to parents: We schedule all of Club A's teams (U9 through U17 or whatever) against all of Club B's teams, so they can all travel together. And the U10 kids can stay and cheer for the U11 kids, knowing they'll move up to that level next year. Sounds good, right? The reality: The only way for these teams to compete with each other is to recruit like mad. If you're in NCSL or some other traditional league and not doing well, you move down a division. But if you're in an "elite" league with only one team per club and only one division for "block scheduling," that's not an option. If your U10s are getting crushed, you'd better make that team better. So the U10 kids can stay and watch the U11 kids, knowing that they're going to have to be really good to keep their places when they move up. I've seen cases in which an entire team has been lifted away from another club. (And yet I've seen one of these block scheduling leagues claim there's less pressure to win without promotion/relegation. Well, maybe on the coach. Not on the kids, who are looking over their shoulders the whole time.) And if your family has one kid on the "A" team in an elite league but another kid on a "B" team, then traveling together doesn't help you. In fact, you may be doubly screwed. The "Elite" league may send your team a great distance to play its other teams while your "B" team kid is playing closeby. So it's great for coaches. A paid coach with a big paycheck and big ego can coach the U12s and U14s in the same afternoon, all the while thinking of which players he's going to cut so his team is better. Are we going to reach a point at which every club is in a different league, and they all drive past each other on crowded suburban roads because they're no longer playing each other? Yeesh! I'll stay in House league, thanks.
That's ALMOST as frustrating as driving hours to out-of-state tournaments, and paying all the associated travel costs ... just to find yourself playing teams from clubs that were located within 30 minutes of you back home.
Yeah I don't completely get why the DC area clubs find it necessary to be in the Club Champions League (CCL) or this new Virginia Premier League. Why not just compete in the National Capital Soccer League (NCSL) against everyone else and the best teams work themselves up to Division 1? Not sure how going all over Virginia to play teams provides better competition than playing against the best teams in the DC area. But McLean just opted for CCL a year after losing their Development Academy slot. I am guessing there must be some prestige factor to being part of the smaller group of clubs that are in the CCL.
Well, the idea behind CCL was that teams wouldn't be worrying about results like they do in NCSL--without promotion and relegation, teams can theoretically use league play to test themselves against other teams and focus their competitive energies in State Cup play and tournaments.
But wouldn't they actually have MORE pressure to produce results? If a team goes 1-7 in CCL play, are the coaches and parents going to roll with it? Or are they going to go out and recruit players to improve the team? (Or, in some cases, take an entire team from another club?) I know a couple of CCL parents. They seem to like it, but they're under no illusions -- their kids are fighting for their spots on the roster at all times.
I'm presenting the theory--and FWIW, I am/was a CCL parent.* The first two years, it actually worked out like it was supposed to. The team went 0-7 but the coaches weren't sweating results because they just wanted to do well in State Cup and tourneys. Then there was an expansion, a merging with another team in the same age group, and a lot of aggressive recruiting. Things changed. There still wasn't pressure to do well in CCL--but there was a LOT of pressure to be on the CCL squad rather than the NCSL squad, since the CCL squad played in higher tournament divisions and was much more stacked than the NCSL squad for State Cup (they got all the decent forwards--more than they would ever need in a single game, frankly). So, again, theory is sound--but the club itself has to be "all-in" and once you split between the CCL and other leagues, competition within the age group is inevitable. IMHO, the idea is sound--league play really should be about competition not results, and the idea of not having different divisions so that there's no incentive to play to win rather than to develop players is a good one. But youth sports culture and the business realities of youth soccer clubs mitigate against it. Worth noting--CCL originally started as VCCL, created by clubs from Richmond, Roanoke, and the VA Beach area. Those clubs (RVA & VA Beach anyway; not sure about Roanoke) have their own complexes with multiple fields all in one location. The block scheduling made sense for them, because each club had around a dozen or more fields all at the same complex. All games for all age divisions could be held on the same day at the same location. The technical director(s) and coaching staff would all be in a central location to get the "big picture." Trying to recreate that in Northern VA was a mistake, IMHO. You know the situation in Fairfax--there's no way you could do that there. Games are scattered all over the county, so the idea that the Technical Director could be in one place to oversee all the games and coaches could oversee different age groups at the same time was not realistic. That was how the idea was sold, but for clubs around here the infrastructure simply didn't allow it. *Son almost certainly switching clubs.
Listening to you guys almost makes me homesick - I grew up in Northern Virginia. I wonder who my daughter would be playing for had I raised her down there, instead of New Jersey
Sure, I could see that. If soccer clubs were like high schools and players rarely changed clubs or got demoted from the A team to the B team, it would probably work. But you're right -- that's not reality. To me, it just seems like a tool to let the technical staff keep an eye on the top team in each age group. That's probably not as nice a sales pitch to parents. (Unless parents assume their kids will always be on the top team.) I wonder if it's backwards. Instead of playing league games over a sprawling geographic area in which one Loudoun parent may drive to Richmond for a CCL game while another drives to Bethesda for NCSL, why not have these "block scheduling" games as showcase tournaments? Play weekly league games in a geographically reasonable league, then take these elite A teams from each age group to a couple of sportsplexes over a couple of weekends so TDs and coaches can see how they've developed?
Don't they already do that? I know CCL tries to combine "league" games into tournament weekends whenever possible, and the new VA-only league that's starting this Fall plans to do so as well, so that you get all your long-distance travelling combined in one weekend.
Not sure about 100% house leagues, but don't drive a longer time than the total length of the game to face an opponent. Yep. My son's team plays a team on Thursday night. Saturday, drive to Burlington VT to play them again at 3:30 in game one. Oh, and then we will play them again NEXT Thursday.
Equally idiotic ..... Our countries National Program,,,,,,,9 hours to Regional Rhode Island ODP + plus ...half only play one game
No offense, but ODP these days has nothing to do with the National Program. Look at national team rosters. 95 percent now come from US Soccer Development Academy programs.
<< This F1 is for sale As everyone's likely aware, ODP is run through US Youth Soccer organization and according to their site "16 US Youth Soccer alumni on U.S. Men’s National Team’s final roster for 2014 FIFA World Cup. FRISCO, Texas (May 23, 2014)" (No Offense) Quite likely attending ODP tryouts could b kids who trained through academy programs ... I think there was a redbull kid at ODP Could be wrong. will ask kid. Yea fer sure ODP gets put down all over the place..... but for an over 47.5% of our (non-metro) geographical area not served by Academy Programs and quite often no clubs of any sort, this program provides an amazing and vital opportunity. Leveling the field and having a chance even if you've (been allowed to) played high school soccer, and in turn creates has a certain fairness quotient. There'd be a lot more accomplished talking about how to pull politics out of our selection process than arguing the merits and results of these two American organizations. BTW VT 97/98's just advanced further than any other Vermont team ever with their 2-0 w W.Virginia. (In Delaware, not Rhode Island) !! Regional callback selections last year (kid reported) saw men "huge monsters" unbelievably fast all with upper 90 no miss cannons, and unbelievable foot skills get picked. All were quick and fast all the way down the field. Serrated pins are the best to use for Referee Voo-Doo Dolls