Changing Landscapes - Chicagoland

Discussion in 'Youth & HS Soccer' started by VolklP19, Dec 28, 2016.

  1. Leftydad

    Leftydad Member

    Manchester United
    France
    Mar 20, 2021
    All i saw was the trick shot challenge after the fact. They need to get a major network to go ALL IN, if they really cared.
     
  2. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Been there, done that. You'll be glad you bit your tongue in the end.

    How old is your kid?
     
  3. Regista

    Regista Member

    Barcelona
    United States
    Feb 22, 2019
    Can someone give me the scoop on Soccers GA for girls. Age u15 and up

    # practices a week?
    High school allowed?
    Coaching acumen?
    04 I know Is very strong. 07 not so much

    why the disparity? Why behind FCU for example?
    any other insight would be appreciated.
     
  4. Leftydad

    Leftydad Member

    Manchester United
    France
    Mar 20, 2021
    How was everyone's Soccer weekend?

    Mine was a reality check,
    Strength in numbers for talent pools. To many clubs within an area that aren't in love with soccer, can be disappointing.
    U13- is too late to be"trying" something new for travel soccer.
     
  5. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    I don't agree with that. We left Sockers at u13 for a few reasons - one was that there was no individual development. We went to play for Daniel Hernandez at CSA and he gave my kid the 1v1 skill set that Sockers could not. Combined she knows how to read a field and play possession pasing but she now also knows how to barrel through a set of players while maintaining decent ball control.

    Now at Campton we are back in a more "Sockers" style of play but my kid is armed with the ability to play 1v1 on the field. This has also helped her enormously with high school play.
     
  6. Leftydad

    Leftydad Member

    Manchester United
    France
    Mar 20, 2021
    I meant something new as in- He likes Fifa 20 on PS4, lets sign up for travel soccer without ever playing. But it's only preseason, I might be overreacting.
     
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  7. Ryan7852

    Ryan7852 Member

    Barcelona
    United States
    Mar 24, 2019
    Easy. Go check out both clubs. See which one your daughter likes best.
    Also my understanding (from messages on this board re: this topic) is that the older sockers girls groups stronger than FCU. Your ‘07/‘04 (again what I’ve read on here)seems to translate to the teams as well. But I really don’t know so take it for what it’s worth (not a lot)

    Re: Volks comments: pick a club that teaches you the game. Go to extra training to pick up individual skills.
     
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  8. smontrose

    smontrose Member

    Real Madrid
    Italy
    Aug 30, 2017
    Illinois, NW Suburb
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    You could throw away the PS4 game and buy him a dirt bike. Will be much cheaper.
     
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  9. Fuegofan

    Fuegofan Member+

    Feb 17, 2001
    Chicago
    He's 10. Has only ever had one intense interest in his life. Likes all sports, though. And thankfully, I'm ok with being quiet during games. Recording video, on the other hand, is a pain that I do not enjoy.
     
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  10. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It ain't easy.

    And yeah--I hated recording his games. Sucked what little joy there was left in it for me on the sidelines.
     
  11. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That is annoying. And it's unfair to the other kids.

    Nobody would expect a theater department to give a kid who's never acted and has no real aptitude a leading role. Nobody would expect the band to feature a kid with no interest in playing an instrument as a soloist. That's what putting a kid who's not into a sport in travel is like. Rec league is like being 3rd chair trumpet, or part of the chorus in the school musical.
     
  12. Ryan7852

    Ryan7852 Member

    Barcelona
    United States
    Mar 24, 2019
    Public service announcement for all those with little kids that show promise in the sport as we start another season. (Written from boys perspective but fairly positive applies to girls as well)

    1. Love of playing with the ball is paramount - can’t be forced but can be introduced and encouraged.

    2. FOMO is the enemy. You will feel it, it’s powerful but resist it. This includes seeing 3yo with insane skills on Instagram (and comparing to your u12 kid)
    to kids leaving your club to greener pastures, private training sessions etc. Resist FOMO! It will be difficult.

    3. If your kid is truly talented they could show up at u14 and make a top team. This applies to kids who aren’t that talented but are obsessed and do the work.

    4. On the flip side your kid could be fabulously talented u-little to u14 and start to slowly blend in. This happens far more often than not. Be at peace with it. Or rather work at being at peace with it - forcing the issue does not help and makes it worse. See FOMO.

    5. If you don’t know this…know this…little kids dying to get your approval but it’s easy to think they’re really interested in the sport they’re playing. Easy to fool yourself.

    6. When considering going to another club you’ll get endless opinions. Especially if it’s a big club. If you care about getting your kid in the best environment then take the time to experience a few of them via “tryouts” which are essentially practices. If they offer one push for two. Extra training and more time for your kid to get a feel.

    7. The cardinal sin is judging a club you want to go to via the specific team record (Age group win/loss). If you only consider one point in all of this it’s this one. This one takes years of experience to figure this out but know a horrible record could be an indicator of a terrible team or a team that has a lot going for it but missing one piece. An awesome team could be an indicator of a great place for development but I’d say oftentimes it’s one or two pieces responsible for all those w’s and the environment could be toxic and worse. It may be nirvana. All I’m saying is you won’t know from win/loss in either scenario.

    8. In the end keep your kids in team sports which really means make it enjoyable for them. It’s less about ability than it is temperament and personality. Some kids thrive in competitive environments. Some don’t.

    9. If you’re super gung-ho parent join the club. But I’d recommend you listen to the above and if your kid has sky high potential then put it upon yourself to learn as much as you can about the game, about the process, the leagues, etc etc etc. So much BS out there. BS to get money from you or BS from disgruntled parents who left a club for xyz reason. Always be super skeptical of what you hear from someone who has left a club - it’s usually heavily colored in emotion and in my experience almost 100% inaccurate to the real reasons they left (and those reasons oftentimes are legit - was time to leave etc).
    10. Where it starts to where it ends (in my personal case and almost all of the people I know along this same youth sports journey) have been wrong almost every year on multiple things they thought or presumed would happen. It never goes how you think it’s going to go. For good sometimes. And for bad at times. You’re not figuring out the path at u10 so let it go. Even at the higher age levels it changes year to year.


    I say this for your kids not you the parent-but you want the best for your kids so ultimately it is for you.

    I’ve spent so much money on this sport. Writing that hurts a little bit but I don’t regret a penny. Well worth it. The experiences for him, experiences between us, etc. No way I get a $ ROI on this expense. No way I would do it any differently as the return on experience is the value for me.

    Can’t wait for another season to start. And all the ups and downs that will come with it. Good luck and know this advice is super easy to write and listen to but extremely difficult to put in practice.
     
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  13. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    That's a good list from Ryan. Where were you when my son was a U10 and moving from rec to travel (like I would have listened ...)?

    With only a couple of years of this left for us unless my son does land at a college somewhere, I'd add one: Having helped oversee one mid-size club, been just a parent at a second, and having heard lots of anecdotes from parents I know well with kids at maybe another half dozen clubs, they all seem flawed in at least one way significant or another. The best two coaches my son every played for were at a club that struggled in a number of other areas (communication, player feedback, responsiveness, coach turnover, and on and on). But amid all those frustrations for his parents, he's never learned more from any coach than he did from those two over those four years.

    Just my opinion, but you're better off accepting some flaws in exchange for what's important to your player rather than continuing to shop looking for a perfect experience (see FOMO, above).
     
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  14. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is true. Grass always greener, yada yada. I moved my son a couple times because I was worried about him getting left behind/overlooked, and in the end the joke was on me--by HS, he was pursuing his passion for the sport on his own outside the club system entirely, and club soccer became a total afterthought for him.

    Also, now that he's an adult and has a bit of perspective, he and I have talked about those years; the bottom line is that it wasn't always as bad as I would have thought, was also almost never as good as I hoped, and at least one season I thought was a nightmare was actually, for him, not so bad.

    We DID agree on what the worst season was, OTOH. We bonded over that one. ;)
     
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  15. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    That's a very nice PSA, Ryan - I agree with pretty much all of it.

    I've known a few families that have chased the better team based on prior performance and records. In nearly all cases, they ended up leaving the new club within a season of joining them. In one case, the kid left our club to go to another one that they thought was "more successful", only to watch from the bench as we killed their team in state cup. They were back the next season with us. This was more the dad's doing than anything else. Heck, even if the team they went to won the state cup that year, it wouldn't have meant much to the kid who was playing less than 10 minutes a game anyways.
     
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  16. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    Looking at State Cup line ups and I am see many of the left over Sockers 05 girls that my kid grew up with at FCU. Do they even have a full 05PA team that plays league games? After seeing some of these players I looked on IWSL and NISL - no 05 team there. I know they have not had a 04PA team in years.
     
  17. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    This is a high school soccer question, but it's specific to Illinois so dropping it in this thread (feel free to move it if need be).

    Refs at a local game last night that was in a long-term delay due to lightning and a storm said that IHSA doesn't give them the authority to call a game, only the authority to delay it any time there's lightning. They said only the coaches, by agreement, can postpone a game.

    Anyone know if that's true?
     
  18. Center Half 76

    Center Half 76 New Member

    Oct 5, 2010
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    https://www.ihsa.org/documents/sob/2020-21/state association adoptions.pdf

    6. Regular Season and State Series Contests:
    In the event a game is suspended due to conditions that make it impossible to play, the head referee shall declare it an official game if one complete half or more of the game has been played.
    If less than one half of the game has been played, the game may be continued from the point of interruption to the next available playing time;
    i.e., a delay may be called, or a game suspended until rescheduled
     
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  19. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    Thanks. I think the refs at this game might be leaning on the ambiguity there -- it doesn't specify that the decision to suspend a game is made by the officials. I don't think they were eager to get between the two coaches on this one.
     
  20. smontrose

    smontrose Member

    Real Madrid
    Italy
    Aug 30, 2017
    Illinois, NW Suburb
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This one has been bugging me for 3 weeks...
    Been watching 2 to 3 games of D1 college each weekend, so far ACC and big10.
    Everyone on this board talks D1 like there is a magical divider between it and everyone else...
    I saw D1 BucknellU play an ACC team...maybe Pitt, and get thrashed. Bucknell appeared like they had no plan, players looked liked they never played with each other and lastly they did not look, as a team, very technically gifted...
    Next, my overall opinion of college soccer is not improving...
    I watched Wisconsin play this weekend...lots of guys with great pedigrees from sockers, FCU, and other academies. By and large not impressed...talked to my son who frequently practiced against academy, played with and against in fall h.s. alternative a few seasons ago.... His opinion...for the most part,take alot if these guys outside their protected bubble with unfamiliar teammates...like the rest of us, and...not nearly as impressive....
    Back to tv college soccer ...I see lots of basic mistakes...
    One thing I have reconciled in my mind is to not try to gauge speed watching tv...
    Besides that, any tips?
    Any of you who have seen a good sample of men's college soccer in person have any observations?
    Obviously to some degree I'm trying to use college soccer as a yardstick for my kid(2004)...

    Hope everyone's enjoying Fall season!
     
  21. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    I'm no expert, but I do watch some men's college soccer, a little in person and a little more on TV. To my eye it has improved over the past 10-12 years, but it's also possible that in the process of watching a bunch of soccer over that period, everything from rec for little kids to the best leagues, my standards have slipped.

    I watched a half of an Indiana-Akron game a week or two ago that I thought was pretty good -- good mix of technical skill, playing the game in a way that I like, athleticism and ability. But that's two highly ranked teams, and the big crowd and the atmosphere it generated helped, too. I've also watched some stuff that's just hard on the eyes because it's disjointed -- lots of bad passes and players trying to play faster than they appear capable of. Maybe your son's critique fits there.

    FWIW, I don't see any sort of "magical divider" between D1 and the rest. There are a couple of D1 programs within an easy drive of me that, at least right now, play poor soccer (they both have some history of success not too many years back). I don't know if that comes down to lack of talent or poor coaching (there's a consistently strong community college nearby that I think would give at least one of those two teams more of a game than it would want). And I've known of a handful good players who have opted for D2 or 3 programs over D1 offers because their academic aims weren't realistic for someone playing in a D1 program.

    Bottom line, I do think higher-ranked teams are likely to be better to watch, though as a sick, sick person I enjoy the fact that ESPN+ has a crazy load of obscure schools on. And if you can watch in person, for me it greatly improves the experience. That applies to MLS games for me, too. I watch a number on TV, but being in the stadium adds a lot.
     
  22. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    One more thought re college soccer: I wonder if some of what smontrose is talking about still comes down to coaches defaulting to speed/strength/athleticism at the over skill and soccer IQ. I'd guess that still happens, but to what extent I have no idea.
     
  23. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    Just thinking - have not seen Ryan in quite some time. Only one post? How is that even possible? Had had many posts in that threas alone.

    upload_2021-9-21_7-59-30.png
     
  24. smontrose

    smontrose Member

    Real Madrid
    Italy
    Aug 30, 2017
    Illinois, NW Suburb
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Oh man, Indiana in town tonight to play northwestern...might have to do it
     
  25. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    It's on BTN, too. Hoping I can catch a little after my son's game. The last time I saw Northwestern they were just OK and played pretty scrappy soccer to stay on the field with a good Big Ten team (I think it was Wisconsin), but that's been a few seasons ago.
     

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