07 ECRL daughter is doing well as a center back (she alternates between the left and right center-back positions, often switching sides at the half, in a 3-5-2) this spring. In the fall, she played quite a bit as the defensive midfielder until ankle tendinitis shelved her for a two-week stretch. She would like to play more at that defensive mid. spot (esp. after moving back to it a couple of weeks ago---in a tournament---because of an injury to a teammate), but this squad isn't hurting for midfielders. The team was tearing it up in the fall and headed into the Dec. break all alone at the top of the conference. Spring has been up and down (injuries, middle-school soccer participants, etc.), but ECRL regional playoffs are still a very legitimate possibility.
Sounds like a good start. Yea have a solid backline and goalkeeper is a huge benefit. Gives the team confidence to go forward.
Season is going just like last year. Small club problems- we don't have enough, can you drive 75 miles to help us out. Get there played with 1 sub, then the 1 sub had to leave at halftime. Just another bullet on my list of reasons, to start looking elsewhere.
Have done the small-club-problems (local club) thing w/my daughter; yes, got the t-shirt. What you've described could have been ripped out of the pages of our story from a couple of years back. Son (8) is going through the small-club pathway right now, so we'll see how long it lasts. He is more oriented towards playing with his friends than my daughter ever was, so I imagine that he'll want to hang in there for a good while. I know what to expect, but I hope to be surprised. If the familiar old problems show themselves again, I certainly won't be getting as emotionally worked up about it this time around---I'll simply go right to the top and calmly deliver my wall of gently annoying words. I shouldn't blast all small clubs (some are superb), but many of them appear to be living in the 80s or 90s. I have told our local club's DOC that the org. must get more creative/adaptive, that its collective imagination could stand a severe restart/reboot, and that it needs to take some bold chances. I do hear some good sounds coming out of his mouth, but I get the sense that most of them add up to empty marketing, and that the prolonged trudge towards oblivion continues. If the small clubs do not get leaner and meaner, many of them will soon---imo---be history. That mass disappearance would be a shame, but it fits right in with the relentless, progress-driven push to hollow out and remove local identities, institutions, and cultures. And these small clubs can't hide from the future forever.
My kids in a big club and it's bewildering to try to make sense of the structure and pathways. With an average kid the communication is very basic and no one is particularly looking out for you. It's a mass market product, with as little personality as can be gotten away with. We are off to the Myrtle Beach tournament this weekend, usually the highlight of the year. Twenty days of sunshine and 2 days of rain covering the weekend.... Many hopes for some good soccer. Overall a weird season with a lot of gaps and less than stellar games. Drama has been rearing its ugly head and next year is in doubt with team consolidations and a stressful tryout coming up. I've successfully sold the idea to tryout for another club if the current team disintegrates, which I'm pleased by. Either he'll be happy playing with his friends or if he can't do that, we can move to a better club.
My problem is seeing down the road. When the 14U team needs to use 12s, and the 12U is mainly 70% 11U, with a 9U as regular. Almost feel like I'm on the Titanic. Tryout season is coming!