Yes it is confusing. Lots of talk about Chicagoland soccer, which is great. Can someone start a separate Chicagoland Girls and Chicagoland Boys post?
FCU got some Sockers players as well. Not sure if any of these clubs have a retention person but it usually seems like a lack of communication - or just out-right poor communication, usually is what sends kids packing. Too many of these clubs have their noses in the air - completely de-value parents and think they have all the answers.
Sockers FC has emailed us asking to rate the past year (coaches, etc) after last season. Been in meetings with coaches where they’ve asked “anything we can do better, please reach out to any of us with any ideas, thoughts on what we can improve”. Not sure which big clubs you’re talking about (and you’ve alluded to Sockers being this way in the past- but per usual what you say and what I see are nearly in complete opposition when Sockers is brought up) As for 2006G Sockers 34 girls I’m told DA and DA2 groups. I heard ‘05 Sockers girls pool is huge this year. Unsure if Sockers is going to adopt push ups as a central component of training yet.... Here’s hoping.
Maybe after losing so many players (girls) over the last 3 seasons, they realized they should up their game? That would be the smart thing eh? "huge" Doubt it. But honestly I don't really care.
Sure, they gave us opportunity to provide feedback but as of yet have not communicated with parents identifying any key takeaways and how they are addressing potential areas of concern or improvement. the meetings must be at coaches discretion and not mandated by club... Haven't had a parents meeting since right after we first joined.
Yeah that's what they did when we were there. I think Ryan is on the kool aid a bit - everything is rosey-gold with Sockers Anyone who has been in the game long enough knows that no clubs are perfect and most could not give a sideways shit about what the parents think - Sockers especially! That's the attitude that got them in this place on the girls side to begin with. The audience here can figure it out for themselves I am sure.
Just took a look at the results from the Eclipse Challenge Cup. I did not look at the boys but they only had 2 age groups. On the girls side it looks like the only strong team they have is the 2003G. But with a 19-2 goal differential they only had 1 competitive game. The only other team to win their group was the 2008G but they even lost a game to North Shore United. Heard the ‘04 girls lost 8 players. 6 to Sockers and 2 to FCU. It showed in a 6-1 loss to SC Wave. Eclipse ‘06 girls came in 3rd to the only 2 teams from DA clubs. But I am not sure if these were even the DA teams.
I know Sockers are aggressively recruiting over the last 2 seasons - I'm sure that's helping but from what I was told, Eclipse is shooting themselves in the foot with many of the top coaches spending more and more time over at RS and less with Eclipse. I also wonder how much of this has to do with culture created by the 06/05 & 04 coach who has run a few players up to Eclipse North and one back to the Fox Valley/Naperville area.
OB is pooling ages and usually divides the girls up in two pretty even teams for that tourney. Not sure you can draw any conclusions from results.
Are you sure about this? The age groups with multiple OB teams have a team labeled 'ECNL East" in the top bracket and a team labelled "USYS East" in lower brackets (some in the 'c" bracket) if they divided the teams evenly would they put the team labeled ECNL East in 'A" bracket and team labeled USYS East in 'B" or "C" bracket?
I know parents from SLSG who absolutely dread going to Eclipse tournaments...they say the competition has dropped off a cliff on the girls side, but SLSG goes anyway to keep up relations with Eclipse
Did SLSG do well in that tournament? Be curious as that would tell me how honest these SLSG folks I know are being or if they're just talking smack...
Cincinnati United and Ohio Premier Green took 1st in the two brackets (only 8 teams this year). SLSG took 2nd, Eclipse East and North took 3rd in each bracket. The Challenge Cup had phenomenal competition last year. Sixteen teams in the 06 brackets...Nasa Tophat, Cincinnati, PDA, Kings Hammer. SLSG took 3rd in each of their brackets last year, so it's not like they are coming in and killing the competition.
Just looked it up and their older team didn't get scored on... Looks like the younger teams did pretty well too... Forget what year their daughters play...maybe it was that older group...which would align with what they said...
The SLSG MO ECNL teams did pretty well but by no means did they dominate as a club. I would say there is truth in the complaint that the tournament is not as strong as it used to be as the overall strength of Eclipse has significantly dropped in the last two years. Also,I believe in years past this tournament would get other ECNL "founder clubs' like PDA and Hawks. If other founder clubs are no longer coming and Eclipse is just not as strong, I could see SLSG MO complaining the tournament is weaker, however as a club they are not necessarily dominating the competition.
I'd buy that... It's so curious as to why Eclipse is beginning to fade on the girls end and the boys (Eclipse West mainly) are on the ascent...
RD/MN spending a lot of time with RS. And the 04/05/06 girls coach is sending players elsewhere. Although to be frank. IMO Eclipse on the girls side is a lot like Sockers on the boys side in that many good players go there because it's the club for those genders. Definately Eclipse is taking a big hit though via neglect. I don't think the North will have any issue getting the better of them. From what I know, the Eclipse friendlies were set up by JS for North teams. When that got out he was told he had to do the same for the South teams as well. Just one of a few examples IMO where OB is failing. If they do not correct the issues - programs like Sockers will grow from their mistakes.
If all the details that have been reported here are true, then yes, this for-profit club is failing to demonstrate any moral responsibility to provide a safe environment for everyone, and another scandal up north quietly disappears, poof. To be fair, however, FCU isn't in the business of raising our kids, that's on us. We, the paying public and have created this situation where we will let something like this slide so as to not disrupt little Jimmy or Mia's club soccer experience. If this happened in your kid's school, would you hesitate to march right into the principal's office and demand accountability? I bet not. How many of you would dare cross your DOC under the same circumstance? Be honest. I'll bet there weren't more than one or two calls BF or SM got.