DPL-Pilot Teams
- Thread starter SimpleSoccer
- Start date
Lambchop
GOLD
Sorry, was referring to "clubs "in different "conferences". Primarily back east.
Keep dreaming....
Despite the end game being different than boys, I am not sure why they did not follow the boys DA model and call it a day. I guess job security?
Hired Gun
SILVER ELITE
Many top coaches have made this comment as well regarding cost...Remember this is a business, Slammers is a fine oil machine (business). More training days for DA teams - which means less teams for most coaches DA coaches, the need for A Licensed coaches = more needed money, US Soccer demands/requirements on proper practice and game fields. Along with "Soccer's" List it all adds up. On top of this some clubs partially or completely fund teams -- no cost there?? I don't hear too much ECNL funding... And the clubs that are not funded may partially fund some of the best players to compete in the recruitment process...
JoeZ
SILVER
Thanks for sharing this. It’s disappointing. Those running this DA program are hurting the players who want to play HS and it’s ridiculous. What’s their point in trying to kill HS soccer. Bad enough to force a kid to not play HS if they want to be looked at for a national team spot, now the bastards want to block them from even being able to play at all on a DA team, especially when ECNL is not an option any longer .Wish this came out earlier as we would move to a club that was all-in ECNL. Not blaming the club for going DPL, it’s the people who created and run this GDA who have created chaos and block opportunity for our players. DA leadership is pathetic. I applaud the club’s who have gone all in ECNL to protect their players from the GDA madness.
meatsweats
SILVER ELITE
Have to say, the DA '02 team at Surf Cup was a definite contender and very skilled, fast and full of heart. So we shall see... Another interesting year!
Well if they leave the DA and combine some of the existing teams ECNL/DA teams to form one ECNL team, I would imagine they would be just fine.
Nobody needs protection. You choose to play where you play if the coach will have you. That’s DA, ecnl and anything else.
And again to show how unimportant HS is, you had even more kids this year willing to skip it to play DA or Pilot. Nobody is heartbroken about missing out on HS.
I think the not missing out on HS soccer has a lot to do with the level of play on that HS soccer team. Girls that are very talented but goes to a school that plays lower level competition and with less talented teammates would not benefit from playing HS soccer (other than just wanting to play with friends). My DD's HS team was a mixture of waivered DA, ECNL and tier 1 players that played in a league against teams that also had high quality club players playing HS. When we played JSerra in CIF playoffs we were playing girls from the 01 & 02 Blues Baker teams. Memories of our run during the playoffs will last a lifetime for those who played and the DA girls who didn't play all wished they could have. So while I agree that HS is unimportant to some, I know for a fact there are several girls that were heartbroken on missing out on HS soccer.
There’s no question it can be fun. I have had a kid play HS. Fun. Competition was crappy.
Now in your case, the HS experience is different than most. Your experience was a rarity in HS soccer. SM and JSerra are just two of the small list of schools where there is tremendous collective talent.
That’s not the norm. Again, I haven’t heard any bitching any moaning on my Kid’s DA team about it, and I have friends at nearly every Socal DA club, and I’ve asked them about it. I understand there may be players that stayed or went to ecnl because of HS. But Some of them may have already had great exposure and didn’t need the access to college coaches and tools that DA provides. And that’s not to say DA doesn’t have its issues. It does. US soccer is a head scratcher.
It always comes down to families and kids making the right choices for them. You want to play HS, play it. You want to play DA, you know the rules.
Do we bitch about our jobs because we don’t get to work from home, but our competitors allow their employees to work from home?
Every family has a choice and we all sign up for what we want.
Now in your case, the HS experience is different than most. Your experience was a rarity in HS soccer. SM and JSerra are just two of the small list of schools where there is tremendous collective talent.
That’s not the norm. Again, I haven’t heard any bitching any moaning on my Kid’s DA team about it, and I have friends at nearly every Socal DA club, and I’ve asked them about it. I understand there may be players that stayed or went to ecnl because of HS. But Some of them may have already had great exposure and didn’t need the access to college coaches and tools that DA provides. And that’s not to say DA doesn’t have its issues. It does. US soccer is a head scratcher.
It always comes down to families and kids making the right choices for them. You want to play HS, play it. You want to play DA, you know the rules.
Do we bitch about our jobs because we don’t get to work from home, but our competitors allow their employees to work from home?
Every family has a choice and we all sign up for what we want.
Is that the parents speaking or the kids? I bet you’d get different responses from the kids if they were truly allowed to give their opinion.
Subconsciously or not, we as parents have ALL pushed our soccer philosophy/agendas on our kids from the very start. When you start clubhoping at U-7, who’s driving that bus? Now our kids have been so brainwashed that they will repeat our family philosophy/agenda verbatim.
We ALL have different values and direct our kids accordingly, but if you truly get an honest answer from our kids, they just may be different than ours.
This is spot on. How do youngers know which league or level they are playing in? Parents tell them. When a kid is playing AYSO it is very rare that the kid approaches the parents and says I want to leave my friends and tryout for a club team. And if that kid did approach the parent it was because someone else (an adult or another kid) told them that AYSO was not quality soccer. You're 1000% correct that parents subconsciously/consciously or through verbal/non-verbal communication influences a kid's opinion about teams or level of play and that opinion only grows stronger as the kid gets older.
Simisoccerfan
PREMIER
Personally I like HS. Big crowds, newspaper articles, rivalries, winning league but if you ask my daughter she is looking forward to not playing HS and plans to enjoy the winter DA break by going snowboarding which she has not been able to do much due to HS soccer.
JoeZ
SILVER
Josep, your statements about jobs and choices are not making sense. Whether or not your dd or your friends of opportunity had the courage to voice their preferences about HS it is bad for any player to be relegated regardless of their talents and skills by having to choose a lesser league because some people decided to rewrite the rules. If it’s about choices then let the kids make the choice rather than some group of questionable people.
Not everyone agrees to be boxed in and have their choices narrowed for them. Before my kid made her decision to play HS I too drank the koolaid that DA was it and no HS was fine. But I like others listened to my kid and let HER make the choice. Most players did not like the choice being forced on them. Some HS teams are bad, some are good and some great. Same as some DA, DPL and ECNL teams.
Seems it’s un-American to tell a teenage kid they can’t play their sport in HS.
younothat
PREMIER
Every year is different in youth soccer and its fun to see the games, good to have the banter but is more interesting when the league games start and tournaments are played vs taking about this or that league unitl the horse is dead and buried so many times.
Out Daughter is a 4 year HS player in multiple sports and still manged a excellent GPA while playing ECNL mostly and working a job. She would tell you she won't trade that for anything but she is very organized. . Helped she started driving while a Sophomore, don't think she could have done so much without being able to get around easily and nice to see her get accepted to several colleges on academics and the scholarships for civic and other things she has received.
Teach your kids to drive as soon as they can, this opens up a world of opportunities for them IMO and teaches responsibility and time management that is valuable down the line
Out Daughter is a 4 year HS player in multiple sports and still manged a excellent GPA while playing ECNL mostly and working a job. She would tell you she won't trade that for anything but she is very organized. . Helped she started driving while a Sophomore, don't think she could have done so much without being able to get around easily and nice to see her get accepted to several colleges on academics and the scholarships for civic and other things she has received.
Teach your kids to drive as soon as they can, this opens up a world of opportunities for them IMO and teaches responsibility and time management that is valuable down the line
Gokicksomegrass
SILVER
At ease, Sarge. The war is over. All reports indicate that the horse is indeed dead. Repeat. The horse is dead.
