99's forum is dead!!!

MakeAPlay said:
What exactly is the SWAP style?
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Possession at the highest level is what we are trying to accomplish, players moving on and off the ball to create space and cause confusion. players making runs knowing they aren't the 1st choice but to drag a defense with them to create that wide open shot. Mastering the basics like that 1st touch because nothing works if you can even receive a ball correctly. Honestly there is a lot that goes into it and I'm no coach I am just telling you what I see. We get a lot of parents after games saying WTH is SWAP lol where are you guys from ? Your team is fun to watch. We still have a lot of work to do but all the work is paying off.
 
rdzl said:
Possession at the highest level is what we are trying to accomplish, players moving on and off the ball to create space and cause confusion. players making runs knowing they aren't the 1st choice but to drag a defense with them to create that wide open shot. Mastering the basics like that 1st touch because nothing works if you can even receive a ball correctly. Honestly there is a lot that goes into it and I'm no coach I am just telling you what I see. We get a lot of parents after games saying WTH is SWAP lol where are you guys from ? Your team is fun to watch. We still have a lot of work to do but all the work is paying off.
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Thanks for the info. What kind of college interest is this team receiving?
 
MakeAPlay said:
Thanks for the info. What kind of college interest is this team receiving?
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Well thats been the struggle and thats what I have mentioned in earlier post. Being a 1 plus year old team and not being able to get into these big showcases has hurt us. Our girls got some offers from D2/D3 schools and some are still being patient. Our team is 99/00 so the youngers have a little more time to make their decisions, not to mention a lot of these girls are getting into schools without soccer.
 
soccerobserver said:
Funny thing RD, I told my daughter the same thing...this might be her best overall soccer experience w coaching and gelling with her teammates...college might actually be a let down from what she has been experiencing so far in her club...our core has been together since U12...a lot of what I have seen in college looks like kick and run...bombs away...
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If a U17 club team is the best overall soccer experience that your daughter will ever experience then I have to ask what college teams she is looking at? No club teams that I have seen have the speed of play or passing of a top college team. Even the ones that are fairly direct it just isn't close and one of the reasons that freshmen often have a hard time getting much playing time initially.
 
rdzl said:
Well thats been the struggle and thats what I have mentioned in earlier post. Being a 1 plus year old team and not being able to get into these big showcases has hurt us. Our girls got some offers from D2/D3 schools and some are still being patient. Our team is 99/00 so the youngers have a little more time to make their decisions, not to mention a lot of these girls are getting into schools without soccer.
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There are still opportunities out there. I know that my players school just got 2 additional players for their 2017 class and are working on another international player for the same class. If they play good possession soccer and have good individual skills they will come to see them play. The schools that my player was interested in including the one that she currently attends came to see practice and league games (not to mention ODP games). Showcases are great for volume of potential suitors but once the player has narrowed the list and informed the schools that they are on the short list they will come out to see a talented player.
 
MakeAPlay said:
If a U17 club team is the best overall soccer experience that your daughter will ever experience then I have to ask what college teams she is looking at? No club teams that I have seen have the speed of play or passing of a top college team. Even the ones that are fairly direct it just isn't close and one of the reasons that freshmen often have a hard time getting much playing time initially.[/QUOTE

Just local Cal State schools, a couple of larger ones. This team plays with good pace and excellent passing but I can see what your saying at the college level being different.
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rdzl said:
Just local Cal State schools, a couple of larger ones. This team plays with good pace and excellent passing but I can see what your saying at the college level being different.
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Winter college ID camps are coming up and can be a way for a standout player to get noticed. Have your players email coaches at schools they are interested in. Have them ask about ID camps, and how many are invited to attend. Around 50 attendees or less is a good number. In our experience, camps with 100 or more players are just money makers that are run by the college players and very limited attention from the coaches. UCI fit into the latter category this past winter. The Pepperdine camp was a great camp if for nothing else than the information the coach and staff imparted about the recruiting process after the camp.
 
MakeAPlay said:
If a U17 club team is the best overall soccer experience that your daughter will ever experience then I have to ask what college teams she is looking at? No club teams that I have seen have the speed of play or passing of a top college team. Even the ones that are fairly direct it just isn't close and one of the reasons that freshmen often have a hard time getting much playing time initially.
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MAKE I hear you and I agree somewhat , however, I should have been clearer...we have stayed with our original team, my daughter loves her teammates and families, our coach is a great teacher and the girls love the road trips together. Going from bronze to premier with one team has been a great journey for our team. The kids are having a lot of fun and have bonded through their experiences from middle school days to the end of high school. College soccer will be a new and different journey.

Then there is the pure soccer viewpoint. I have watched games in the Ivy League and in D3 schools. Have you seen those? What do you think of the soccer at those levels? I seem to see kick and run highlighted by a star forward out-running or overpowering the opposing defenders. I am not meaning to denigrate what I have seen. I just think it is different from what she has experienced so far and I think she will do well either way. I am interested in your view. I am not comparing the club experience to top D1 soccer programs.
 
soccerobserver said:
MAKE I hear you and I agree somewhat , however, I should have been clearer...we have stayed with our original team, my daughter loves her teammates and families, our coach is a great teacher and the girls love the road trips together. Going from bronze to premier with one team has been a great journey for our team. The kids are having a lot of fun and have bonded through their experiences from middle school days to the end of high school. College soccer will be a new and different journey.

Then there is the pure soccer viewpoint. I have watched games in the Ivy League and in D3 schools. Have you seen those? What do you think of the soccer at those levels? I seem to see kick and run highlighted by a star forward out-running or overpowering the opposing defenders. I am not meaning to denigrate what I have seen. I just think it is different from what she has experienced so far and I think she will do well either way. I am interested in your view. I am not comparing the club experience to top D1 soccer programs.
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I agree that most of the D3's play kick and run. The only Ivy League team that I have seen play over the last several years is Harvard and they have a U23 WNT player at striker that they try to get the ball to any way that they can and it looks ugly at times. I try to paint a picture with the narrowest strokes that I can so I try my best to not use the terms "all" or "none" and prefer the term "most." What I have seen is that most teams in college play fairly direct. They may try to play possession but against equal or better competition it breaks down into direct play fairly quickly. Off hand I can only think of a hand full of teams (6-10 or so) that play consistent possession and even they have their direct moments should the gameplan or time on the clock dictate it.

Regarding the team bonding and chemistry. That is a huge part of girl's/women's soccer even past high school and any smart coach really looks at how a girl "fits" into their program. Just like anything it can be fairly cliquey but a good coach finds ways to bring the team together. I know that my player does quite a few things with some of the upperclassmen although the 3 people on the team that she spends the most time with are all freshmen along with her and her recruiting class has been in constant communication with each other since her sophomore year of high school. So take heart your player will not only find the right fit but also a group of young women that she will likely be lifetime friends with and build similar non-playing and playing experiences with. My suggestion is pick the school first, coach second, players third and then whatever else is important to her after that.

Good luck to your daughter.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I agree that most of the D3's play kick and run. The only Ivy League team that I have seen play over the last several years is Harvard and they have a U23 WNT player at striker that they try to get the ball to any way that they can and it looks ugly at times. I try to paint a picture with the narrowest strokes that I can so I try my best to not use the terms "all" or "none" and prefer the term "most." What I have seen is that most teams in college play fairly direct. They may try to play possession but against equal or better competition it breaks down into direct play fairly quickly. Off hand I can only think of a hand full of teams (6-10 or so) that play consistent possession and even they have their direct moments should the gameplan or time on the clock dictate it.

Regarding the team bonding and chemistry. That is a huge part of girl's/women's soccer even past high school and any smart coach really looks at how a girl "fits" into their program. Just like anything it can be fairly cliquey but a good coach finds ways to bring the team together. I know that my player does quite a few things with some of the upperclassmen although the 3 people on the team that she spends the most time with are all freshmen along with her and her recruiting class has been in constant communication with each other since her sophomore year of high school. So take heart your player will not only find the right fit but also a group of young women that she will likely be lifetime friends with and build similar non-playing and playing experiences with. My suggestion is pick the school first, coach second, players third and then whatever else is important to her after that.

Good luck to your daughter.
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Regarding our SWAP team / program that's what our coach kind of did. He not only chose players but he chose the parents as well. Before we were even asked to join this team last year coach had kept inviting us for sessions to see how the players interacted as well as the parents. Who was really dedicated and who wasn't. Our team has no cliques no drama, just a bunch of players with the same goals. Thanks for all the info truly helpful.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I agree that most of the D3's play kick and run. The only Ivy League team that I have seen play over the last several years is Harvard and they have a U23 WNT player at striker that they try to get the ball to any way that they can and it looks ugly at times. I try to paint a picture with the narrowest strokes that I can so I try my best to not use the terms "all" or "none" and prefer the term "most." What I have seen is that most teams in college play fairly direct. They may try to play possession but against equal or better competition it breaks down into direct play fairly quickly. Off hand I can only think of a hand full of teams (6-10 or so) that play consistent possession and even they have their direct moments should the gameplan or time on the clock dictate it.

Regarding the team bonding and chemistry. That is a huge part of girl's/women's soccer even past high school and any smart coach really looks at how a girl "fits" into their program. Just like anything it can be fairly cliquey but a good coach finds ways to bring the team together. I know that my player does quite a few things with some of the upperclassmen although the 3 people on the team that she spends the most time with are all freshmen along with her and her recruiting class has been in constant communication with each other since her sophomore year of high school. So take heart your player will not only find the right fit but also a group of young women that she will likely be lifetime friends with and build similar non-playing and playing experiences with. My suggestion is pick the school first, coach second, players third and then whatever else is important to her after that.

Good luck to your daughter.
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Thanks MAKE, my daughter committed in June. We have been through the process already. I found it tough to figure out who the good coaches are in a lot of the colleges we looked at. I found myself wondering: how many of these coaches looked great bc of studette athletes rampaging all over the competition and, conversely, how many excellent coaches abilities were masked by their inability to recruit?

I watched the D3 Final between Williams College and Wash St. Louis and other matches as well. I have seen that Johns Hopkins plays beautiful soccer. We shall see how the college soccer compares to SoCal Club soccer. When Gregg Popovich was a basketball coach at Pomona-Pitzer I don't think anyone though of him as the elite basketball coach guru that he is today. I found it to be someone difficult to assess the coaches of college soccer in the universe of schools my daughter considered.
 
soccerobserver said:
Thanks MAKE, my daughter committed in June. We have been through the process already. I found it tough to figure out who the good coaches are in a lot of the colleges we looked at. I found myself wondering: how many of these coaches looked great bc of studette athletes rampaging all over the competition and, conversely, how many excellent coaches abilities were masked by their inability to recruit?

I watched the D3 Final between Williams College and Wash St. Louis and other matches as well. I have seen that Johns Hopkins plays beautiful soccer. We shall see how the college soccer compares to SoCal Club soccer. When Gregg Popovich was a basketball coach at Pomona-Pitzer I don't think anyone though of him as the elite basketball coach guru that he is today. I found it to be someone difficult to assess the coaches of college soccer in the universe of schools my daughter considered.
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Congrats to your daughter. It is a long road and very relieving for the girls to commit. I will say though that committing is only the start of the second phase of the process especially if the player actually wants to play as a freshman. The demands of the college game at any level are many and with all of the additional "adult" responsibilities that our daughter's must shoulder when they matriculate they need to prepare for prior to them being dropped off for school in the spring/summer/fall. I recommend strength training and beep test training prior to departure and summer school if your player's school offer it. Those that see the commitment as the beginning and that put in the work now benefit later. Those that see the commitment as the goal end up being disappointed when they aren't getting to play.

Again good luck to your daughter through the rest of her journey.
 
soccerobserver said:
Thanks MAKE, my daughter committed in June. We have been through the process already. I found it tough to figure out who the good coaches are in a lot of the colleges we looked at. I found myself wondering: how many of these coaches looked great bc of studette athletes rampaging all over the competition and, conversely, how many excellent coaches abilities were masked by their inability to recruit?

I watched the D3 Final between Williams College and Wash St. Louis and other matches as well. I have seen that Johns Hopkins plays beautiful soccer. We shall see how the college soccer compares to SoCal Club soccer. When Gregg Popovich was a basketball coach at Pomona-Pitzer I don't think anyone though of him as the elite basketball coach guru that he is today. I found it to be someone difficult to assess the coaches of college soccer in the universe of schools my daughter considered.
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First and foremost....Congrats to your dd S/O!!! It is an awesome opportunity for any of our DDs to play at the collegiate level....again Congrats!!

Second, Your 100% on point w/your D3 & Ivy comment. Ive also watched bundle of ivy & D3 level soccer both games and camps, the level of play pales in comparison to the concentration of talent & competition that all of our girls in the SW (Ecnl & top non Ecnl) play with and against, every weekend.
 
Zerodenero said:
First and foremost....Congrats to your dd S/O!!! It is an awesome opportunity for any of our DDs to play at the collegiate level....again Congrats!!

Second, Your 100% on point w/your D3 & Ivy comment. Ive also watched bundle of ivy & D3 level soccer both games and camps, the level of play pales in comparison to the concentration of talent & competition that all of our girls in the SW (Ecnl & top non Ecnl) play with and against, every weekend.
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Tried to edit but couldn't (what up DOM?)...

Make added a very good point in that the commit is really the the start of the 2nd phase as her DD clearly understood this concept (she's killing it as a true freshman). It's amazing to see how many committed players play/game drop after they commit. Almost as if they've "made it" when that is so far from the truth. Our girls have to come correct in that they're mentally/physically ready for the physical/academic load (depending the school). For my DD & I, we've been having great conversations about this very topic in that this is phase 1 of the big plan. Nothing is guaranteed and in no way, no how can she or any committed recruit coming into college think otherwise (if they want to be successful).

I can rant all day about this stuff but I'll stop and get back to work.

Congrats again soccer-o, congrats!!
 
soccerobserver said:
So SWAP got a favorable draw for the playoff ...best wishes to all involved.
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Yeah, I guess winning our division helped with that seeding. If we win we got Beach Academy very next match haha, We played them in the summer and lost in pk's. Hey but thanks for the support, hopefully we will have a good showing.
 
soccerobserver said:
So it would make sense that maybe it was one of these teams that scouted y'all...
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yeah most likely STRIKERS, like I said on that other thread GOOD thing we played bad haha. I swear probably the worst 1st half I have ever seen from this group. 2nd half we had 4 un answered goals against westside breakers.
 
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