How to look for a new club

I am wondering if anyone has good experiences with any soccer clubs in the West Ventura County or surrounding areas? My daughter is finishing her 3rd year with her current club and we want to shop around due to uncertainty with what is going to happen with her team. She is a goalkeeper, which I feel makes it a bit more difficult to know how to approach how to have her try out or check out a club. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
Hi, Our DD changed teams a couple of years ago and this is how we approached it...identify the clubs/teams you are interested in based what you are interested in/looking for, Level, League, Location, Competition, Keeper Training Offered, etc.

You can find the coaches contact info and reach out to find out what their situation is...do they need a keeper, do they like what they have and are good, are they looking to add a second, etc. and usually the coach will offer to have you come out and train regardless as a lot of clubs have multiple teams per age group and the needs are different with each team and it never hurts to take a look at a player who shows interest. Don’t wait for tryouts, there is a lot of movement going on right now with kids trying out, looking at other clubs, etc.

Best of luck in the search!
 
So much ground to cover here but first I'd prefer to know how old she is to contribute my .02 based on our experience because the dynamics are so different between olders and youngers. Even more so for GKs.
 
Don't know anything about clubs in your area. I can share what we did when my DD was looking for a new club (2x). 1st time she moved as she felt the club did not value her and she wanted a club that was committed to playing possession style soccer. After having watched some local teams she decided to look deeper into a local club that seemed to fit the bill. She practiced with the team once a week starting at the end of league and up through tryouts. She became comfortable with the coach and the girls well before moving. The coach offered her a spot before tryouts, although we stayed with her old club until they finished National Cup (ironically her new team knocked out her old team in National Cup). 2nd move (current team), she attended the club's optional camps and their Finishing Fridays sessions when she could and then tryouts. Both teams she was looking at joining had existing keepers, so I wanted them to have a large body of work to judge her on. The last team an offer was made after tryouts.

I believe most decisions are made well ahead of tryouts (for top teams). If you elect to look around and/or attend other clubs "kick arounds" your current club/coach will know immediately (some clubs/coaches tend to be vindictive if they think a kid is leaving so you need to be careful). I recommend knowing what the other clubs have, and are looking for as respects to keepers before making a decision to look around. If your kid is talented and there are enough clubs in your area your kid will be fine. If the answer is no on either you could run into some problems. Good luck.
 
Don't know anything about clubs in your area. I can share what we did when my DD was looking for a new club (2x). 1st time she moved as she felt the club did not value her and she wanted a club that was committed to playing possession style soccer. After having watched some local teams she decided to look deeper into a local club that seemed to fit the bill. She practiced with the team once a week starting at the end of league and up through tryouts. She became comfortable with the coach and the girls well before moving. The coach offered her a spot before tryouts, although we stayed with her old club until they finished National Cup (ironically her new team knocked out her old team in National Cup). 2nd move (current team), she attended the club's optional camps and their Finishing Fridays sessions when she could and then tryouts. Both teams she was looking at joining had existing keepers, so I wanted them to have a large body of work to judge her on. The last team an offer was made after tryouts.

I believe most decisions are made well ahead of tryouts (for top teams). If you elect to look around and/or attend other clubs "kick arounds" your current club/coach will know immediately (some clubs/coaches tend to be vindictive if they think a kid is leaving so you need to be careful). I recommend knowing what the other clubs have, and are looking for as respects to keepers before making a decision to look around. If your kid is talented and there are enough clubs in your area your kid will be fine. If the answer is no on either you could run into some problems. Good luck.
Thanks for sharing this. For the last 2 years my daughter has gone to the cattle calls and ultimately she got picked by a team last year based on her performance in a scrimmage and ended up playing up 2 years. Even though she loves the challenge and doesn't care about the social aspect, I do and wanted to find her a team in her age bracket that will still meet her challenge requirement. This year, she is again being selected not based on the performance in the cattle call but previous real life experience seeing her play. She does not do well in cattle calls. Your advice seems like what we need to do going forward and hope I don't need it for a couple of years. I hate trying to find a team that meets 75% of our requirements with the most important part being training my daughter to be the whole Keeper on the field. It shouldn't be so hard but it is.
 
The typical cattle call is a bunch of short sided games with keepers taking "futsal" like shots from 10 feet out. Most "intelligent" coaches are not looking at keepers based on their performance in the short sided games, unless its footwork and vocalization. My son (also plays 2 years up) earned his spot by working and attending keeper training with the club.
 
The typical cattle call is a bunch of short sided games with keepers taking "futsal" like shots from 10 feet out. Most "intelligent" coaches are not looking at keepers based on their performance in the short sided games, unless its footwork and vocalization. My son (also plays 2 years up) earned his spot by working and attending keeper training with the club.
Yep and they are demoralizing as you get discarded to the OTHER field. My daughter plays very well under game pressure but that acceptance pressure is different for her at the age of 12. My daughter noted every time she did something good no one was watching her. She can't help but focus on them at this age. She recently told me it was a waste of time. LOL I agree.
 
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She is a 2008
So she's roughly 10yrs old +/- At this age I personally would be looking for a team where she can play 50% in goal and 50% on the field. She's still young enough to be getting experience at different positions so that in a few years if she decides to commit 100% to GK she will be a better player for it. The time/training spent on the field will make her that much better in between the posts. It will give her more perspective from both points of view that she will be able to use to her benefit.

As far as what's in your area I don't know other than the two big names that pop up..Eagles and RSC. Last season's record won't matter much unless the majority of the team is still intact. Players shift every year so take that for what it's worth as far as where the team is that you are looking at.

That being said..look for the team/coach at this age where she's going to develop and have fun. Don't get so hung up on the jersey name or level of play vs what she's learning. A team that's so good that she's not getting much action won't help her one bit. A team that's so bad that she's basically a target for the entire game will only bring her down. You want her to be challenged but not so much that she loses the passion back there because she's constantly getting beat up. Try to find the happy medium. A coach chasing the win vs development won't be of much help. Contact coaches/teams you are interested in. Try to attend a session or two as a casual observer to see how they interact and train the team and what they are doing with the GK vs what the coach acts like when he/she knows you are there and the training sessions are completely different now that you are there and the coach is trying to recruit you if they like what they see and want you. But don't be so quick to jump into bed with the first team you check out after being with your current team for as long as you have. It will all feel different and your kid will feel like an outsider checking out the new club. Tell her to go out there..have fun..train hard..and do her thing. Make sure she knows to play HER GAME when she's out there with a new team. Don't try to tailor her game to the new team. If she's very vocal like my kid..don't change it because it's the first session with a new club/team. Set the tone so they know who they have back there. Tell her it's still just soccer. Nothing changes but the players on the field. It's still played the same. Take the time if you have it to check out a few teams to find a place she likes..not just a team willing and looking to fill a GK spot.

What do the other field players look like as far as skill and how do they interact with one another. Does the coach tell you there are cliques or are they one big bunch of nice and goofy girls with some decent skill that work hard and like to have fun. How do they treat your kid from Day 1.

Is the team looking to carry 2 GKs. Do they each play 50% regardless of performance. This is true development and the mark of a good coach not chasing the win. If you'll be the only keeper it won't matter but does go back to my previous statement of still playing the field and gaining a lot of valuable experience.

Does the club have keeper training. If not where will you go for it/how much will you pay/is the club willing to adjust your fees to account for the extra money you are paying out of pocket.

We moved our GK down to F2 this past year from F1 to play for a coach our trainer recommended us to play for. Coach was starting a new team...asked our GK trainer for a GK..he recommended us. We went to check it out and it was well worth it. The team struggled as many new teams do. But the development my kid has gotten this past year has been some of the best ever. Coach truly promotes playing possession soccer and building out of the back..starting with the GK. A player on the team that left another big club playing F1 to play for this team at F2 knowing who the coach was going to be was all-in simply because they knew who their kid would be playing for.

Hope I didn't overwhelm you. It's different being the GK vs the field player because teams have so many players to move around to fill the gaps as needed. You can't just stick anyone in goal and hope to get the same results from a fill-in GK vs an experienced one. At the end of the day look for what fits your kid best. Ask her what she thinks about Club A vs Club B. Take her input and tell her what you see as well from your perspective to make a choice that you both agree looks like the best fit. At least for now. By the end of the season you could find yourself shopping again for various reasons not under your control. Coaches leave. Teams dissolve. So many factors. Keep trying to just enjoy the ride because it'll be over before you know it. Good luck!!
 
Hope I didn't overwhelm you. It's different being the GK vs the field player because teams have so many players to move around to fill the gaps as needed. You can't just stick anyone in goal and hope to get the same results from a fill-in GK vs an experienced one. At the end of the day look for what fits your kid best. Ask her what she thinks about Club A vs Club B. Take her input and tell her what you see as well from your perspective to make a choice that you both agree looks like the best fit. At least for now. By the end of the season you could find yourself shopping again for various reasons not under your control. Coaches leave. Teams dissolve. So many factors. Keep trying to just enjoy the ride because it'll be over before you know it. Good luck!!

This is really great advice. But for the 08 girls in Ventura area with the exception of the big clubs like the Eagles and RSC they are pretty much throwing in various players in goal and seeing what sticks....as with many areas, particularly outside of the tentpole clubs, there's a shortage of girl keepers at that age and she will likely be placed alone if she's a dedicated goalkeeper (it's different with the boys). For a 50/50 situation to work the team would have to be fortunate enough to have 2 dedicated keepers, and at roughly the same level of proficiency...if there's a disparity one will resent having to share the time and the other will resent being compared to the more advanced keeper.

I'll ditto your you don't want them on a really good team. My son had the experience where his team tore through the bracket and while he had several earned shutouts in the bronze level, when the team went up to silver in League Cup he wasn't ready for it because he hadn't been challenged as much on the bronze level day in day out. Didn't help that winning was everything to the coach, who otherwise was really fantastic and knew his stuff and how to get things out of his players.

I've basically come down after being knocked around a lot to just 2 red lines; 1) the coaches should let the kid (assuming his/her goalkicks are o.k.) take the goalkicks....if the coach is having a big legged defender take them it's a huge red flag, and 2) the club shouldn't object to outside keeper training....with the exception of the very highest top flight clubs (like possibly a RSC or Eagles), club keeper training is usually subpar:...the keepers in the group may be different ages, different abilities, maybe too many, maybe too few, have different needs, have different weaknesses. The main benefit of a club keeper trainer is to evaluate the keeper and serve as an advocate/liason with the head coach....if that relationship doesn't exist, and the keeper trainer doesn't show up to games or isn't listened to, then the club keeper trainer is just a glorified camp and you'd be better off with private training if you can afford it. One test on whether the club keeper trainer knows his stuff and has a seat at the table is if the coach is conducting the ol' let's warm up by shooting on the keeper routine.

As the OP is West VC, RSC (and maybe the Eagles) might be too far. She's probably looking at Ventura Fusion Xolos or a Santa Barbara club but unfortunately I don't know the girl teams in that area.
 
This is really great advice. But for the 08 girls in Ventura area with the exception of the big clubs like the Eagles and RSC they are pretty much throwing in various players in goal and seeing what sticks....as with many areas, particularly outside of the tentpole clubs, there's a shortage of girl keepers at that age and she will likely be placed alone if she's a dedicated goalkeeper (it's different with the boys). For a 50/50 situation to work the team would have to be fortunate enough to have 2 dedicated keepers, and at roughly the same level of proficiency...if there's a disparity one will resent having to share the time and the other will resent being compared to the more advanced keeper.

I'll ditto your you don't want them on a really good team. My son had the experience where his team tore through the bracket and while he had several earned shutouts in the bronze level, when the team went up to silver in League Cup he wasn't ready for it because he hadn't been challenged as much on the bronze level day in day out. Didn't help that winning was everything to the coach, who otherwise was really fantastic and knew his stuff and how to get things out of his players.

I've basically come down after being knocked around a lot to just 2 red lines; 1) the coaches should let the kid (assuming his/her goalkicks are o.k.) take the goalkicks....if the coach is having a big legged defender take them it's a huge red flag, and 2) the club shouldn't object to outside keeper training....with the exception of the very highest top flight clubs (like possibly a RSC or Eagles), club keeper training is usually subpar:...the keepers in the group may be different ages, different abilities, maybe too many, maybe too few, have different needs, have different weaknesses. The main benefit of a club keeper trainer is to evaluate the keeper and serve as an advocate/liason with the head coach....if that relationship doesn't exist, and the keeper trainer doesn't show up to games or isn't listened to, then the club keeper trainer is just a glorified camp and you'd be better off with private training if you can afford it. One test on whether the club keeper trainer knows his stuff and has a seat at the table is if the coach is conducting the ol' let's warm up by shooting on the keeper routine.

As the OP is West VC, RSC (and maybe the Eagles) might be too far. She's probably looking at Ventura Fusion Xolos or a Santa Barbara club but unfortunately I don't know the girl teams in that area.
Thanks so much for the reply.
 
You all have given us alot to think about! We appreciate the guidance and experiences that everyone has shared with us. It’s good to know that even if we pick the wrong team, it won’t be a the type of error that we may look back on and regret. Of course, we would love to join a club with all the good points you have all made and be able to have the balance of skill development and some wins to keep the confidence!
 
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