Proof is in the pudding Veritas. The best young talent did that very thing your talking about. I was also approached about joining an all boys team like the great Olivia Moultrie and Allyssa Thompson. I read a quote from AT and she said it was the best decision she made. I'm not sure if she did one or two years but it helped her 100%. Plus, she didn't have to deal with all the control freaks. She was faster then even some of the boys. She is a rare talent and I say that with great respect. She has it all. Some tried to say she was too small and all that and I told everyone on here she would be on the National Team and go Pro and skip college, just like Trinity did. Shaw out Texas did the same thing. You can see the best of the best are going pro now. Way up, their making more than $50K a year. My dd was a big fat "no way, are you crazy? Get that idea out of your head dad." She 100% wanted to play with the girls and make friends and play together. To each his own and I would never "force" your dd to play with boys. Boys are also nicer to each other. No offense, girls can be very mean to other girls and play those girly games. Last peace of advice for those looking to navigate through this swamp. YOU CANNOT DEVELOP SPEED. Any coach that sells you, "I can make you fast" is full of poop. Quickness and speed is God given. Also, if a coach says, "I can make you taller with my development skilz" their full of crap as well. A good coach will teach you haw to mentally prepare with all the God has given you, can teach you how to strike a ball better, can help you collect, jungle and pass even. They can teach you all the x and o of the sport. I truly wish EVERYONE success in this grand ole game of soccer. I love the sport and love to compete. My guess is some of the top top goats will look to the AT's and OM and maybe go that route as well. I see nothing wrong with it and deep down, I wish my kid gave it a try to see what coulda and would a happened. However, it's best to listen to what your daughter wants and not what daddy wants.
G2010 - How’s the 2022 season going?
- Thread starter TeamDadJokes
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GOLD
It would be nice if the letter leagues were more transparent and communicated clearly which clubs are being added and cut each season. Problem is tryouts occur prior to the end of the season. But rosters don't lock for a couple months, so you can always plan some backup options. At least SoCal Soccer League released the NPL list this year. http://www.socalsoccerleague.org/programming/socal-npl
I wish I had a Goat @crush we are simply at a top team because we started with a top team from the toddler days. She was one of those players that was big and strong. She's become more technical over time but no speed like AT. I wish she could play with the boys crush, I really do.. We would jump ships on a heart beat.
When my dd was in Texas to try and win the Natty, we all went to SMU (great campus by the way) to listen to the head coach from North Carolina share his war stories. He also brought up the great Mia Hamm. He said she started dating a soccer player on the boys team and they trained together and he said that made the difference and got her to the next level. No joke. He said he would be driving in his car by campus and see this girl running on her own and training to get better and it was Mia. Her BF told her it's how he does it. The rest is history. You put in the work and great things can happen. Lastly, you don't have to be super fast to make it Pro bro if your dd is big, strong and talented and has the IQ, talent and ganas. Trust me, I know some slower players that have all the other talents. TB told me no girl has all four areas that make a soccer player. You don't see AT going into jump balls with her head trying to out jump these tall players. I always told my little one to stay out of those messes and stay outside looking for the rebound and then take off with the ball after the big girls fight for it.
I stand corrected.As a stats guy I got to say, huh the what now? They'd ask what the heck are you talking about more like....Girls DA didn't begin until late 2017 and the ECNL was a girls only league until that same date.... by the end of GDA's inaugural season it was the classic dead man walking as Slammers left back for ECNL and thereafter it started bleeding clubs who saw the writing on the wall.....my oldest played DA her only eligible year but the league only lasted 2 1/2 seasons and the way they quietly folded it during Covid says it all about the fed... and left her "fed" up
When it comes to Surf Cup, different tiers is great and all for the kiddos but unless you win the top bracket coaches calling themselves Surf Cup champs makes me laugh increasingly hard as we get down to the 5th bracket it's like pure comedy...no disrespect to the kiddos intended but lots towards the adults chest thumping
The players I knew about playing DA back in the day were boys. I assumed girls DA started at the same time as the boys. It did not.
DA in general started in 2007 with just boys
DA started the girls program in 2017
DA folded in 2020
There is hope, we’ll stick it out I guess. Call me crazy for staying in a top team for so long but that’s all we know and she is attached to her friends. Some may wonder why we doing this for a Starbucks salary? It’s not just about the salary but about discipline and will power she’s picked up because of being in a top team. This will help her in the long run and it’s worth every penny I spend. She does not see the parent drama. Never has and never will as we do not discuss that with her. She’s accustomed to the sometimes harsh criticism and she takes it well and works to improve daily. We don’t mention that toxic part to her and I recommend to others not to either, leave the parents to deal with that. That’s all the stress I have to deal with. She’s always been a starter though so I can’t speak for any bench players on a top team and any issues they may face.
Eating crow like a pro bro, love it. I will stand corrected with any of my "so-called" embellishment war stories. I try to do my best to speak from my 11+ years of youth soccer experience and would never mislead or lie on here. I do write with satire sometimes but never purposely embellish from my belly of my soul to trick the parents on here. That would be loserville where I come from.
New word I learned today: Embellishment. I will confess I have never been accused of that before but I'm always open to stand corrected by my brethren on here.
Embellishment= make (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true. Pictures are worth a thousand words you guys.
RedDevil24
SILVER
Ironically without G2010 (to date)
I know your situation Veritas. My daughter was on it last year. She was attached to her team, but this year, we need a few changes for her better development and the destroy and recruit process with ecnl kind of helped us out. She loved playing with her team, but it's nice to see her have to work with new girls and learn a new system.
Here is a thought though. Should our kids tolerate bad behavior from coaches? As we the parents write the checks for this process, do you think a 12 year old girl should learn to obey all of the coaches commands without having a voice? If a coach called my daughter a loser while he missed games and training and never really improved my daughter's position and game skills, would she be gaining mental strength for being submissive to this piss poor behavior? Would you the parent be mentally strong for tolerating that behavior from a coach by encouraging your child to suck it up?
I'm all for discipline and proper criticism, but one might argue that the ones that get the carrot are the ones that tolerate and abide by the poor behavior of coaches. I guess I'd rather try to make a lesser known coach's team better and play with parents that equally prefer more emphasis on coaching and good environment compared to cutthroat recruiting especially if it ends up with my daughter losing play time and eventually a spot while I sat by and tolerated a coach that treated my child like cattle. I have confidence in my child though and the back up fact that in the end, the trophy is $50k a year or half a scholarship she can get with great grades and very few will get it!
Not saying this is your scenario, but this isn't too far from home for my kid. My kid is not afraid to say no. My kid will find another path to play and play even harder. My opinion is that this is mental toughness. Being submissive to the coach and encouraging more of the same bad behavior from parents and the coach is not making our kids mentally tough. It's making them cattle and weak imo. We give these clubs and coaches too much power imo. The beauty is there are other options. I'm really curious though. Is encouraging poor behavior from a coach a sign of mental strength?
I try to be as honest as possible + have no issues correcting when the correction is based on facts.
What I dont like is when people get it stuck in their head that theres only one way to play competitive soccer in Socal. I've seen too many parents make themselves + their kids crazy thinking that if they're not playing in ABC letter league or on XYZ team that the world will end.
We're fortunate to have several different options. The best players will get noticed + drift up to the top. Parents money and influence will only carry players so far.
I read somewhere that 70% of soccer players quit by 13, 80% by 15. Life is too short to not have fun + soccer is a GAME not a profession for children.
I think their is great divide in this country Carlsbad. The haves & have nots. Soccer is a beautiful and fun sport/game/match that so many kids loved to play and all should be welcomed. I played all sports bro. Let me embellish a little if you don't mine. I was really good baseball player. Before I hit middle school, I was the best and made all-stars. LBLL champs bruh. Damn curve ball ruined it for me. Yes, I could have played full time to master the change up and sliders to go pro, but I also liked to play other sports and do other things. I was incredible soccer player and played GK and forward. I was real good basketball player, all league first team in league Sr year. Tennis, I was talented but that is too individual and I liked team sports. Volleyball, too small but lights out on the beach game. Too bad they had no beach volleyball in college or I would have gotten a full ride. Surfing probably was my best chance at pro, but I surfed for Jah and the love of the ocean and couldn't imagine stealing waves from my bros just to win a surf contest. My best pal went pro surfer because he was a full time surfer and dedicated his youth to be a pro and he did it. If football was just flag, I think I could have been a pro flag football player. It's too bad soccer is so serious in this country. That was my big pet peeve in 2017 with the GDA. My gosh, they wanted the girls to only play their league, take tough love like a man, get yelled at and fat shamed and not be allowed to play other sports unless you got permission from the boss. Sports should be for fun, a time to grow, learning how to play with others and learn how to share. Also, learn how to win and lose together. When you turn 16, go for it. We took fun away from sport for the kids and it's way too serious. Check out my sports pics brother. I don't want anyone to think I'm lying about how good I was in all sports.
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I don't think there is enough Flight 1 G10 teams in SOCAL League to create an NPL division without diluting the Flight 1 Division into an glorified extension of Flight 2. The over abundance of letter leagues has syphoned off too many teams, and the declining number of players within younger age groups has left a gap in the level of play. Hopefully I am wrong, and they are waiting until June to see who applies for NPL. If you look at the number of Girls NPL teams from each year group, you will see a trend heavily declining numbers from G05 to G09. You would expect that trend to look the opposite as players soccer leave as they get older.
How much is it these days to play soccer at this age? I bet cost, inflation and just the time commitment to play soccer is just too much for the middle class, if we even have a middle class. Plus, I know many people who have moved out of the State. I like AYSO Select. Is that around anymore or is it only club or bust? My son was approached to tryout for Select but didn't make the final cut. He just played AYSO and some middle school co-ed.
ECNL is 4k to 5k club fees, but there are occasional extras and hotels, gas, time, extra trainings probably add another 5k to 8k a year. You are 100% correct about the divide. 60% of Adult Americans have less than $1k of savings for an emergency in America. I know a lot of people who put their kids in club soccer and don't own homes. Housing is very expensive, but to me that's your first investment to raise a family. I would never put my kids in club soccer if I didn't own a home. There is tremendous wealth disparity in America and there will be a reckoning in a few years as inflation is driving up interest rates which will eventually force deleveraging of debt. We have over 82 trillion dollars of total debt in America. I am kind of wondering how big of a hit is coming to club soccer when this massive crash hits in a few years???? There will be decent employment I think as the workforce is small compared to demand as most of the wealth is in the hands of older generations, but people will be working very hard and saving very little. Working poor will be the majority.
All I know is there is a demand for a better system and you have an immediate market here. The latin leagues are not a bad start actually for cheaper decent competition, but you have to know how to navigate through them. One of my biggest fears is something happens to my baby girl in her teens or twentys and I look back at how much she missed out on life, because she was sooooo wrapped up in soccer for that massive eventual reward of $50k per year which may even rob some of what they could have been if they stuck to education and learned computer programming, medicine, or pharmaceutical sales, etc. Gotta go before I slap myself in the face again for letting myself encourage her down this drama club rabbit hole!
Should our kids tolerate bad behavior from coaches? As we the parents write the checks for this process, do you think a 12 year old girl should learn to obey all of the coaches commands without having a voice?
Great question: I relly took the time to gather my thoughts and give you my best argument and pov...
Your question poses a pertinent issue: Should our children endure inappropriate behavior from their soccer coaches? While your argument is indeed compelling, I would assert a resounding NO as the answer. Even though we, as parents, are the ones financially supporting these coaches, the fear of our child being sidelined or replaced often dissuades us from raising objections to such behavior.
This fear is heightened by the fact that we aren't powerful entities like individual car buyers in the market, where a single customer can influence the seller's behavior. The situation is complicated further by the queue of eager substitutes ready to fill any vacancy that arises on the team, making our position precarious.
This leaves us with a challenging decision: Do we turn a blind eye to the coach's behavior, or do we risk our child being cut from the team?
One could argue that a child's value to the team might grant the parents more sway over the coach, but this is a double-edged sword, particularly for those whose children may not be in the spotlight. Speaking up could potentially backfire if other parents choose to remain silent.
To effect any substantial change, a concerted effort is required from a majority of the parents. However, the competitive nature of the sport extends to the parents and children alike, often hampering any collective action.
In an ideal world, we would prefer Docs who not only possess excellent developmental skills but also boast exceptional communication skills. However, with less than a handful of so called top team choices available in Southern California, we're often left to select from a pool that is less than ideal. Thus, we often find ourselves forced to choose the lesser of several evils among Docs.
If a coach called my daughter a loser while he missed games and training and never really improved my daughter's position and game skills, would she be gaining mental strength for being submissive to this piss poor behavior? Would you the parent be mentally strong for tolerating that behavior from a coach by encouraging your child to suck it up?
This indeed is a thought-provoking issue. While the scenario is admittedly more extreme, my answer is an emphatic NO. If a coach lacks the ability to build up a player's morale, especially after criticism, they fail to fulfill a crucial part of their role.
While I acknowledge the potential value in 'tough love', there should always be boundaries. We have been fortunate not to experience such extreme cases of baseless insults like being called a 'loser', but it is plausible such situations exist.
The degree of tolerance for such behavior varies from family to family. The key here is to evaluate the situation as a family, weighing the pros and cons, and assessing whether the coach's methods align with your values. If the benefits still outweigh the negatives, then perhaps endurance could be considered. However, this is a deeply personal decision and one that may differ for every family and player.
Nope, don't really care. I do appreciate that some are starting to see that XYZ league isnt the only end of the rainbow.
What you want is a club that's close to your house, has a good coach, the club backs the coach, + the team is winning / having fun.
All the rest will work itself out over time.
I dont even hate the club hoppers. As long as it's the kid pressing to play at a higher level or with a different team. (Not the parents pushing for it.)
Great honest answer! I agree, but most parents will tolerate it and call it tough love. We're all in this mouse trap and I just noticed some very unsavory behavior, arrogance, and lack of professionalism this year. I like you love tough love and am all for pressure, expectations, and responsibility, but hypocrisy and arrogance while seeing some girls not improve much makes me steer clear of some coaches.
I love Rabbit holes way up. 99.99% of our dd playing high level ECNL or GAL, will not go pro to get that $50K a year. The parents are in this to win a few bucks for a partial scholarship. No full rides, it's a myth. The truth is acceptance, door opener, and maybe 50% off into a great college, if your lucky and have a 4.6 and 1400 SAT. I do marketing. Many clubs and coaches plaster their Insta and FB with, "we have over x amount of scholarships" or "Our club is #1 with scholarships." For a sucker like me, I thought that meant a full ride. Not even close. After a parent pays $75K over 5-6 years chasing the dream of college for their kid, their dd gets 25% offer to Chico State or 75% offer to Nazarene Christian College of the Dunes in AZ. Pops is in debt SHFH wondering how he got scammed. DD ends up falling in love with a boy Fr year in college and quits altogether. My buddy dd is now on her second college and third coach after a few nightmares. I'm not here to mention names but the first coach, who loved her play, resigned right before season. The new guy made Prime Time seem like a Saint. She struggled all year and never played and was never on road trips. She transferred to a new college and that coach got fired and a new one came. She is a good player and great kid but all this is taking a toll. I know a few success stories but not many. Latin leagues are awesome. My wife's side did the Latin Leagues and we actually played co-ed leagues with Grandpa. Gramps was a ref for club and HS for over 30 years. I would see girls playing that could play soccer real good. This was in El Monte. Most families worked their asses off and did not have $10K-$15K a year extra spend towards soccer. I have a war story about "Fully Funded GDA" that was actually fully full of shit. It was a big lie to chase the top goats and get them over to their goat pin. You see, we have Judas Goats in our mist. I'm trying to change this so poor kids can play and maybe my grand kids can have a chance. My son told me no way will he ever allow his kids to play soccer and he thinks I spent too much on my dd dream and he's right. Lastly, Veritas makes great points about talking to coach who calls his players losers. That's nothing. I tried to keep my big mouth shut but I just felt someone needed to take a stand against harsh abuse and manipulation and control. I got punished and so did my dd. I have no regrets.
So, did you lose the $50k per year pro soccer opportunity for your daughter? I am weighing these things out now. I feel like I am putting a lot of resources into my daughter making next years ecnl team for close to nothing!???