Summary of Tryouts

You are living in a fantasy land if you think the DA is going to radically change things.

Around 2-3% of the girls in the DA will ever get called into an actual USYNT camp. So the rest of the girls (and their parents) are going to measure the success of their development on what? Pass connection percentage? Strings of passes? Possession %? Juggling achievements? It will not be how they play against outside competition, since they are prohibited from doing so. They will measure it based on performance in the DA, the only measure they have. A losing DA team that is sending 1 girl to regional camp every year, and is maybe getting one (1) girl on the actual YNT every few years, is going to be viewed as a success and be a huge draw? Not likely, since US Soccer is awarding DA status to so many clubs. Winning will be important (they keep standings and hold championships at the end of the season), and coaches will do what it takes to win, even in the DA.

I agree, US Soccer should focus on coach education and improvement, a path they started down with Claudio Reyna's curriculum and standards, which unfortunately where put on the shelf in 2011 only weeks after they were released, as Klinsmann was hired and assumed the technical director role as well. I still think that was a better path and strategy to start with than DA. It needs to come first in order to make the DA actually have the impact everyone wants.
I agree and it's why the benchmark measurement for success on the girls side will remain which clubs get their players committed to the best universities. May it be Power 5, Ivy or top mid major schools.
 
I understand your point of view from the outside looking in. He is a Circus clown and a big time Cheer leader of himself. The guy has an excuse and story for everything, he builds himself up to the point that he honestly buys into and believes his own BS story. But as you can see from where he started with Albion 4 years ago to where he is today even the Big Blue machine had enough of his crap and demoted him to (4) B teams! Go look @ Albions girls record of actual wins and loses over the past 3-4 years it is an average SDDA flight 1 club that forces their players and teams into flight 1 level tournaments and leagues on the girls side anyway. They figure its best to finish mid pack in Coast flight 1 then 2nd or 3rd in SDDA flight 1 and honestly they are correct in the marketing side of things because that is what makes the coaches and club the most amount of money. And yes they might have one or two semi solid teams on the girls side out of the 25-28 girls teams but Kooi and Ernie Romero are the leading force behind the past 3-4 years of average and below! The same coaches will create the same results no matter how many fancy names you give the teams, no matter how you shuffle the SAME coaches with new titles its all the same year in and year out. But Kooi has been pushed to the bottom of the Albion pecking order, he has been stripped of all fancy titles and coaching jobs. His bigger than life ego got deflated and now he is a mid level coach at a mid level club. But HEY>>>he still looks really good in his color matching long sleeve jackets with the collar flipped up with color matching shoes and a gallon of cheap 1980's cologne! Oh don't forget his cute little back pack and his cool guy tooth pick hanging out of his blow hole along with his "Brother this and "Brother" that ALL topped off with a macho 1/2 manly hug and a fist bump hahaha this guy is classic DB.

Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.

Six to ten years ago, the K brothers at Arsenal produced some of the best Socal teams in their age groups. Lots of successful college players, and they started with them at young ages.

From your post, sounds like San Diego's soccer coach version of Ron Burgundy.
 
I understand your point of view from the outside looking in. He is a Circus clown and a big time Cheer leader of himself. The guy has an excuse and story for everything, he builds himself up to the point that he honestly buys into and believes his own BS story. But as you can see from where he started with Albion 4 years ago to where he is today even the Big Blue machine had enough of his crap and demoted him to (4) B teams! Go look @ Albions girls record of actual wins and loses over the past 3-4 years it is an average SDDA flight 1 club that forces their players and teams into flight 1 level tournaments and leagues on the girls side anyway. They figure its best to finish mid pack in Coast flight 1 then 2nd or 3rd in SDDA flight 1 and honestly they are correct in the marketing side of things because that is what makes the coaches and club the most amount of money. And yes they might have one or two semi solid teams on the girls side out of the 25-28 girls teams but Kooi and Ernie Romero are the leading force behind the past 3-4 years of average and below! The same coaches will create the same results no matter how many fancy names you give the teams, no matter how you shuffle the SAME coaches with new titles its all the same year in and year out. But Kooi has been pushed to the bottom of the Albion pecking order, he has been stripped of all fancy titles and coaching jobs. His bigger than life ego got deflated and now he is a mid level coach at a mid level club. But HEY>>>he still looks really good in his color matching long sleeve jackets with the collar flipped up with color matching shoes and a gallon of cheap 1980's cologne! Oh don't forget his cute little back pack and his cool guy tooth pick hanging out of his blow hole along with his "Brother this and "Brother" that ALL topped off with a macho 1/2 manly hug and a fist bump hahaha this guy is classic DB.

....

Intense
 
I understand your point of view from the outside looking in. He is a Circus clown and a big time Cheer leader of himself. The guy has an excuse and story for everything, he builds himself up to the point that he honestly buys into and believes his own BS story. But as you can see from where he started with Albion 4 years ago to where he is today even the Big Blue machine had enough of his crap and demoted him to (4) B teams! Go look @ Albions girls record of actual wins and loses over the past 3-4 years it is an average SDDA flight 1 club that forces their players and teams into flight 1 level tournaments and leagues on the girls side anyway. They figure its best to finish mid pack in Coast flight 1 then 2nd or 3rd in SDDA flight 1 and honestly they are correct in the marketing side of things because that is what makes the coaches and club the most amount of money. And yes they might have one or two semi solid teams on the girls side out of the 25-28 girls teams but Kooi and Ernie Romero are the leading force behind the past 3-4 years of average and below! The same coaches will create the same results no matter how many fancy names you give the teams, no matter how you shuffle the SAME coaches with new titles its all the same year in and year out. But Kooi has been pushed to the bottom of the Albion pecking order, he has been stripped of all fancy titles and coaching jobs. His bigger than life ego got deflated and now he is a mid level coach at a mid level club. But HEY>>>he still looks really good in his color matching long sleeve jackets with the collar flipped up with color matching shoes and a gallon of cheap 1980's cologne! Oh don't forget his cute little back pack and his cool guy tooth pick hanging out of his blow hole along with his "Brother this and "Brother" that ALL topped off with a macho 1/2 manly hug and a fist bump hahaha this guy is classic DB.
Or maybe just maybe he hasn't been able to duplicate the same success when like when he was at Arsenal, because Albion didn't have ECNL status and most of the SD County impact players played on a Surf ECNL team.
 
Or maybe just maybe he hasn't been able to duplicate the same success when like when he was at Arsenal, because Albion didn't have ECNL status and most of the SD County impact players played on a Surf ECNL team.

They left Arsenal in the second year of ECNL. Their Arsenal teams were formed before ECNL. But they did have a lot of talent to draw from, and this was before the current Legends club existed as well.
 
They left Arsenal in the second year of ECNL. Their Arsenal teams were formed before ECNL. But they did have a lot of talent to draw from, and this was before the current Legends club existed as well.
Exactly, Arsenal was the big dog in the IE prior to ECNL and the Kooiman's got all of the talent back in the day. A coach has to have some talent to be successful.
 
Or maybe just maybe he hasn't been able to duplicate the same success when like when he was at Arsenal, because Albion didn't have ECNL status and most of the SD County impact players played on a Surf ECNL team.
Well you are making a good point that if he is not handed talent on a Silver platter he can not create a successful team, agreed. Bottom line is go look at his past 4 years of below average with Albion SC and look at his decline to a B & C level employee around Albion SC. Albion SC wont even give this guy a 3rd string USDA back up coach title. It is pretty obvious he has been exposed as a 2-bit hack and is in a rapid decline.
 
Well you are making a good point that if he is not handed talent on a Silver platter he can not create a successful team, agreed. Bottom line is go look at his past 4 years of below average with Albion SC and look at his decline to a B & C level employee around Albion SC. Albion SC wont even give this guy a 3rd string USDA back up coach title. It is pretty obvious he has been exposed as a 2-bit hack and is in a rapid decline.
You're missing the point. Surf as a club attracts better talent than Albion in San Diego. If Surf coaches where given the same Albion teams. I doubt they would have had better results.
 
You're missing the point. Surf as a club attracts better talent than Albion in San Diego. If Surf coaches where given the same Albion teams. I doubt they would have had better results.
Well I hope Surf has a better staff then some B team coach like Kooi has proven to be.
I watched a top rated and proven coach like Roy Lassiter hand a talent loaded team over to a Albion coach Tony Scheri a couple years back and Tony did his best to run that team into the ground in weeks, then the parents got together and ran his ass off the team! Albion then gave the team to a guy named Ernie Romero who was way more into following the parents rules and guidelines on coaching their team as he was told to by the parents he then took that team on a roller coaster of failures spotted with some wins to end up making a really good team an OK team. So i don't think it is all in the players as much as it is in the coaches finding the best in their players. A great coach can get a good team to play great.
 
Well I hope Surf has a better staff then some B team coach like Kooi has proven to be.
I watched a top rated and proven coach like Roy Lassiter hand a talent loaded team over to a Albion coach Tony Scheri a couple years back and Tony did his best to run that team into the ground in weeks, then the parents got together and ran his ass off the team! Albion then gave the team to a guy named Ernie Romero who was way more into following the parents rules and guidelines on coaching their team as he was told to by the parents he then took that team on a roller coaster of failures spotted with some wins to end up making a really good team an OK team. So i don't think it is all in the players as much as it is in the coaches finding the best in their players. A great coach can get a good team to play great.
Sure a great coach can get a less talented team to overachieve, but that is an exception. Mark Few the Gonzaga B-Ball HC comes to mind.

There is a reason why in every professional sport, the GM/Owner are trying to draft, sign or trade for the very best players. Talent wins with a good coach. GoldenState has proven it doesn't matter if Kerr, Walton or Brown are coaching them. They still win.
 
I caught the last 15mins or so of Albion vs one of the Slammers teams at Cerritos Cup on Day 2. Game is still 0-0 at that point. Albion coach walking the sideline yelling, etc. Sounded like an idiot. Albion finally scores. He's all happy. Doesn't last long. Back to ranting and raving to the girls and the refs. At one point one of the girls on his bench says something..he returns with something about being quiet and if he wanted to hear anything he'd buy a parrot or something like that. What a jackass.
I've never met RB but I've heard/read some of the horror stories of how he treats his players. I don't care how great you are..or think you are. There's no way in hell I'm going let my kid get talked to like that by any coach. I bet these guys don't talk like that to grown men/dads.
 
I understand your point of view from the outside looking in. He is a Circus clown and a big time Cheer leader of himself. The guy has an excuse and story for everything, he builds himself up to the point that he honestly buys into and believes his own BS story. But as you can see from where he started with Albion 4 years ago to where he is today even the Big Blue machine had enough of his crap and demoted him to (4) B teams! Go look @ Albions girls record of actual wins and loses over the past 3-4 years it is an average SDDA flight 1 club that forces their players and teams into flight 1 level tournaments and leagues on the girls side anyway. They figure its best to finish mid pack in Coast flight 1 then 2nd or 3rd in SDDA flight 1 and honestly they are correct in the marketing side of things because that is what makes the coaches and club the most amount of money. And yes they might have one or two semi solid teams on the girls side out of the 25-28 girls teams but Kooi and Ernie Romero are the leading force behind the past 3-4 years of average and below! The same coaches will create the same results no matter how many fancy names you give the teams, no matter how you shuffle the SAME coaches with new titles its all the same year in and year out. But Kooi has been pushed to the bottom of the Albion pecking order, he has been stripped of all fancy titles and coaching jobs. His bigger than life ego got deflated and now he is a mid level coach at a mid level club. But HEY>>>he still looks really good in his color matching long sleeve jackets with the collar flipped up with color matching shoes and a gallon of cheap 1980's cologne! Oh don't forget his cute little back pack and his cool guy tooth pick hanging out of his blow hole along with his "Brother this and "Brother" that ALL topped off with a macho 1/2 manly hug and a fist bump hahaha this guy is classic DB.

Tell us how you really feel. :D
 
I caught the last 15mins or so of Albion vs one of the Slammers teams at Cerritos Cup on Day 2. Game is still 0-0 at that point. Albion coach walking the sideline yelling, etc. Sounded like an idiot. Albion finally scores. He's all happy. Doesn't last long. Back to ranting and raving to the girls and the refs. At one point one of the girls on his bench says something..he returns with something about being quiet and if he wanted to hear anything he'd buy a parrot or something like that. What a jackass.
I've never met RB but I've heard/read some of the horror stories of how he treats his players. I don't care how great you are..or think you are. There's no way in hell I'm going let my kid get talked to like that by any coach. I bet these guys don't talk like that to grown men/dads.

Who is RB?
 
Maybe I'm weird but we are talking about women's soccer isn't men's soccer. Unless a women is on the full WNT pro soccer is a dillitante sport and not really a career. My player could play pro but is more concerned with grades and grad school. Women's soccer is a generation away from being a true path. Let's rehash this in 20 years.

I think its sad that a player has absolute pro potential can't get totally excited about it as a real career like a male counterpart.
 
I agree and it's why the benchmark measurement for success on the girls side will remain which clubs get their players committed to the best universities. May it be Power 5, Ivy or top mid major schools.

@NoGoal interesting point you make about college commits. I wonder if ECNL or DA will drill that "benchmark" down even further by addressing things like % of athletic $ given (Ivy's and D3 aside), academic commits, etc? A club can skew how "successful they are by simply listing their commits. Not taking anything away from any player but I wonder about the "strength" of a scholarship players if used as a benchmark for club success. Is a 10% athletic scholarship with no academic $ a success as measured against a 70% athletic with 20% academic scholarship? It seems the clubs simply list player xyz and the school they will attend without any further measure. I know of clubs that list players attending P5, Ivy and high mid-major as commits but the dollars that go with the commit are not impressive. Again not taking anything away from this players - great that they earned something - but just curious of the value that can be placed on the "commit as benchmark" measure?
 
@NoGoal interesting point you make about college commits. I wonder if ECNL or DA will drill that "benchmark" down even further by addressing things like % of athletic $ given (Ivy's and D3 aside), academic commits, etc? A club can skew how "successful they are by simply listing their commits. Not taking anything away from any player but I wonder about the "strength" of a scholarship players if used as a benchmark for club success. Is a 10% athletic scholarship with no academic $ a success as measured against a 70% athletic with 20% academic scholarship? It seems the clubs simply list player xyz and the school they will attend without any further measure. I know of clubs that list players attending P5, Ivy and high mid-major as commits but the dollars that go with the commit are not impressive. Again not taking anything away from this players - great that they earned something - but just curious of the value that can be placed on the "commit as benchmark" measure?

I appreciate you pointing out that not all "commits" are equal, but I think it is unwise to look at scholarship $. Do we start analyzing the % of girls who play 4 years in college, playing time, amount who transfer, weigh academic prestige versus $ given, or calcualte the future value of the degree? And how do we really know the true magnitude of the scholarship, the impetus behind any grants, the amount and structure of financial aide, or account for those players who do not need signficant $ and make that clear to the higher ranked schools in order to be more attractive to them? The nuances go on. Discounting the Ivy because they do not offer athletic $, when they are generally among the hardest colleges to gain entry to, and have the largest fiancial aide programs based on need, is problematic.

I think using soccer to get into college ("commits") remains the best measure of a club's contribution to that goal. But it is only one measure, and only relevant to players U14 and older.
 
I love this thread! So insightful and interesting.
Just beginning this journey but honestly when people talk about commits and clubs list commits I look at some of these colleges and say "uh yuck". Sorry but they can throw all the soccer money they want at you but a degree from Podunk University wont help. I find it amusing when people discount the D3 or Ivies. A degree from a solid D3 will help you much more than Kansas State Unless you choose to continue your life In Kansas then by all means.
People are chasing money but the fact is a lot of these schools aren't exactly impressive that I am seeing on the websites.
Sorry I am the first to say it but ..
 
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