Surf Select ID Camp

Highlander said:
That would get old really quick! One of my favorite parts about Spain is the food and wine! Tapas is so good there!

Sounds like you had a great time overall though...very cool!
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The food in Spain is freaking amazing, affordable and everyone is so chill. No one brings you your check, you just ask for it. No tip is expected either. They just love to cook and have siesta. Soccer is King here and then food :)
 
Your Mom said:
Going to revive an old thread as the Surf Select process for 2023 is on the horizon and I'd like to offer a little PSA. (Here's the TLDR--I would recommend doing it at least once if you can swing it.)

We did the trip to Spain. As pointed out, everything in club soccer is a money grab and this is no different. That said, it was an experience I would recommend. On the plus side, the tournament itself was very well run, included top teams (at least at our younger age group) and gave us a good taste of European soccer culture and the accommodations were decent. The kids got the opportunity to play against outstanding European academy teams and got to connect with teammates from around the country. Parents/fans from Valencia, FC Barcelona, AC Bilbou, etc. brought the flags, horns, drums etc. and really made it a fun environment. Everything was taken care of (which is both a good thing and bad). It was good in that there was nothing to plan or think about. They did a decent job of giving us a taste of Spain through the non-soccer experiences which included a day trip to Barcelona, a Womens Champions League Game at Camp Nou, a Vineyard Tour and Wine Tasting, and a day trip to Tarragona, a nearby city with 2000 year old Roman ruins. Yes, very touristy, but you probably would have just put your fat American ass in a pair of Crocs and a fanny pack and loaded into a site-seeing tour bus if you went on your own anyway.

The biggest downside is that your meals are all cafeteria food. It was actually pretty decent for caf food, but caf food is like fish and visitors (they all stink after 3 days) and the monotony of the food offerings can get to you. Most of us just took a day or two away from the caf and got dinner at a local restaurant to get a break from the cafeteria food. The scheduling was also constantly in flux, which was a pain. I'm pretty sure that's also an unavoidable consequence of the logistics of coordinating buses, cafeteria time, game schedules, field time, and site-seeing experiences for a few thousand people in one place. One other thing that is probably unavoidable is if you didn't like the accommodations, you didn't have much choice. You could choose from little bungalo-type huts or apartments. They were clean but basic. We actually found them quite adequate, but if you're looking for luxury, this isn't it. And if you expect a luxe American hotel mattress like you had at the Four Season in Aspen, you're going to find the twin bed with the tiny little mattress (just a piece of foam?) a little lacking.

All in all, we're glad we went. I viewed as a possibly once in a lifetime experience and we aren't guaranteed to make the team every year. Yes, we have plenty of good competition near us and don't need to travel all the way to Europe to find it, but this was about the opportunity to experience something different. It's similar to making the decision to take a vacation in Europe when you could just go to Mexico or Napa or Tahoe or Palm Springs or where ever you SoCal folks go for short trips. It's a chance to see and do some things you and your kid probably wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.

As pointed out, it is a CHOICE and each family can evaluate whether the uniqueness of the experience justifies the cost to them. At least one player at the tournament was the only player from her affiliated club. The family lacked the funds to go, but their community held fundraisers for the family to go. If you think this is some kind of pathway to college, I doubt there was a college scout there. If you think it is a pathway into a Euro academy, well I suppose a kid could open the eyes of an opposing coach, but if the kid is that talented, I'm sure there are better ways to do that than dropping a few grand on a lottery ticket.

If you end up doing the full boat--regional tryout, then a regional tournament, then the national team tryout in SD, then an international tournament--it could be a pretty large financial and time commitment especially if you have to travel to the tryouts and have extra travel and hotel costs for that. For us, it was worth doing at least once. We can always re-evaluate year to year if we have the opportunity to do so. One parent on my child's team plans to do it every other year (assuming his kid makes the team) and that might not be a bad idea.

One other comment: Many of the parents of Select kids actually believe their kids are among the top 25 or 30 or so players at their age level in all of Surf Nation (assuming two teams per age group). While the talent is very good on these teams, to think these are the best 25 or 30 is misguided. There are now 47 Surf affiliates. Using rough numbers, let's call it 50 affiliates for easy math. If you assume there are 15 kids on the top team at each age for 50 affiliates (9v9 will have fewer, 11v11 more), that would be 750 kids competing for call it 25 spots. I personally know a few from our club who chose not to go because of the commitment of time and money. There also seemed to be a concentration of players from some clubs and no representation from other clubs. I'm wondering if it is not marketed equally at all 47 affiliates, or if some affiliates are just that much stronger or what. I also heard SD Surf doesn't participate and sends its own teams to the Select Tournaments. And it seems there are some affiliates who may have a handshake deal or a wink that they will be able to send a number of kids. If I had to guess, I would say we're talking more like 25 of the top 100 players from each age group for the Select teams.
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Dear Mom and Dad - we already spend so much time of our family life and travel doing soccer stuff (and you spend so much of your money on soccer stuff). If we are fortunate enough to have the time and money to take a big family trip next year, can you please show the foresight, intelligence, and open mindedness to expose me to something other than kicking a ball around? I understand soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and I love playing the game, but I also know that there is so much more to this World and life than futbol. Just because Mr. and Mrs. A down the street are crazy soccer parents who do nothing but sleep, eat, travel, and talk, about the "beautiful game", doesn't mean we have to too, right? Love, your DS/DD
 
This Spain soccer trip story made me sad. I am in this same youth soccer "pay to play" trap but this is just above and beyond. Clubs selling this as "top player" camp is just cynical borderline scamming parents.
I am also sad because this means US will never develop real talents. Yes, some rich kids can be talented but statistically impossible.
I wonder how many Americans realize that Maradona, Zidane, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe ......... would have ended their career at AYSO All-Star if they were born in USA?
 
aong cangkol said:
This Spain soccer trip story made me sad. I am in this same youth soccer "pay to play" trap but this is just above and beyond. Clubs selling this as "top player" camp is just cynical borderline scamming parents.
I am also sad because this means US will never develop real talents. Yes, some rich kids can be talented but statistically impossible.
I wonder how many Americans realize that Maradona, Zidane, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe ......... would have ended their career at AYSO All-Star if they were born in USA?
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I'm not a fan of pay to play for the olders. For youngers traveling to and playing in localish tournaments is great for both players and parents.

Reguarding soccer top talent being missed in America specifically because of pay to play I dont think this is true. The real reason America doesnt produce elite players is that in the US those type of players are playing football, basketball, or baseball. If soccer was more popular in America talent would find a way to the field.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
Reguarding soccer top talent being missed in America specifically because of pay to play I dont think this is true. The real reason America doesnt produce elite players is that in the US those type of players are playing football, basketball, or baseball. If soccer was more popular in America talent would find a way to the field.
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There are many variables in play. Yes, US soccer would have gathered more talents if we do not have football/basketball/baseball/ice hockey.
However, it is not that simple. They are different sports with different skillsets.
Lebron, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, even Michael Jordan. None of them can be an elite soccer player, even if they were born in England.
Maybe a good case is Ohtani, he is a talented athlete but not for soccer. A good system like in Japan discovered a child's potential and properly train/direct him to maximize his talent.
There are exceptions, of course. Van Dijk would have been a football player in USA but even CR7 with his leaping ability is too short for NBA.
 
aong cangkol said:
There are many variables in play. Yes, US soccer would have gathered more talents if we do not have football/basketball/baseball/ice hockey.
However, it is not that simple. They are different sports with different skillsets.
Lebron, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, even Michael Jordan. None of them can be an elite soccer player, even if they were born in England.
Maybe a good case is Ohtani, he is a talented athlete but not for soccer. A good system like in Japan discovered a child's potential and properly train/direct him to maximize his talent.
There are exceptions, of course. Van Dijk would have been a football player in USA but even CR7 with his leaping ability is too short for NBA.
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10.4% of kids played soccer in 2008. Dropped to 6.2% in 2020. Just beats out Tennis and Golf.

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socalkdg said:
10.4% of kids played soccer in 2008. Dropped to 6.2% in 2020. Just beats out Tennis and Golf.

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Soccer is like a country club in the States. It's way too expensive to play travel ball and it's 99% about getting your kid into college. Renaldo's mother was a cook and a cleaner. The family was so poor his mother, Dolores Aveiro, considered terminating her pregnancy and tried a homemade recipe, she revealed in her book Mother Courage. Thank God that homemade recipe didn't work. I got emotional when he was crying in the tunnel. Dude can ball and he has 4 kiddos. I like this guy!

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His family today :)
 
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aong cangkol said:
There are many variables in play. Yes, US soccer would have gathered more talents if we do not have football/basketball/baseball/ice hockey.
However, it is not that simple. They are different sports with different skillsets.
Lebron, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, even Michael Jordan. None of them can be an elite soccer player, even if they were born in England.
Maybe a good case is Ohtani, he is a talented athlete but not for soccer. A good system like in Japan discovered a child's potential and properly train/direct him to maximize his talent.
There are exceptions, of course. Van Dijk would have been a football player in USA but even CR7 with his leaping ability is too short for NBA.
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Maybe but when you see the kids of professional athletes play sports youll quickly realise that they'd good at whatever sport they play.

Trinity Rodman is freaky fast + talented. When she played for Blues she was Super Freaky Fast + talented. It was easy to see that she would likely play pro soccer. It was also easy to see that she could play several sports professionally (if she wanted to)
 
Eagle33 said:
goats don't need to try out, but all other mortals do
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been there done that. We, peasants, have been to all the tryouts and even made teams we never tried out for. "congratulations thanks for coming out to our tryouts, and want to congratulate your DD on making the team" Huh?!SMH.
 
aong cangkol said:
There are many variables in play. Yes, US soccer would have gathered more talents if we do not have football/basketball/baseball/ice hockey.
However, it is not that simple. They are different sports with different skillsets.
Lebron, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, even Michael Jordan. None of them can be an elite soccer player, even if they were born in England.
Maybe a good case is Ohtani, he is a talented athlete but not for soccer. A good system like in Japan discovered a child's potential and properly train/direct him to maximize his talent.
There are exceptions, of course. Van Dijk would have been a football player in USA but even CR7 with his leaping ability is too short for NBA.
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I think you’re missing the point. Oakland, CA is similar to Bahia, Brazil. The distinction is that folks in Oakland don’t know about soccer except for recent immigrants. When soccer becomes known to “native Oaklanders”, Oakland will produce just as many stars as Brazil. GUARANTEED!

There are several great athletes that aren’t built for the NFL or NBA that would be great soccer players in Oakland.
 
Dirtnap said:
been there done that. We, peasants, have been to all the tryouts and even made teams we never tried out for. "congratulations thanks for coming out to our tryouts, and want to congratulate your DD on making the team" Huh?!SMH.
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We just got an email like this from a club that constantly ranked lowest in ECNL standing.
 
MacDre said:
When soccer becomes known to “native Oaklanders”, Oakland will produce just as many stars as Brazil. GUARANTEED!
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Yes, but it has to be more than just being known. People have to know about soccer, play all the time when young, and want to keep playing as they get older. This gets hard when all your friends play basketball or football in high school. Even my son who is very soccer focused has said he wished he could play football in high school. A couple of his friends have stopped soccer altogether to move to football / basketball.
 
focomoso said:
Yes, but it has to be more than just being known. People have to know about soccer, play all the time when young, and want to keep playing as they get older. This gets hard when all your friends play basketball or football in high school. Even my son who is very soccer focused has said he wished he could play football in high school. A couple of his friends have stopped soccer altogether to move to football / basketball.
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I get what you’re saying. However, I sincerely feel that most of the kids I’m referencing in Oakland will be in academies working their way to the first team by High School. Once those kids in Oakland realize they can make Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Mbappe money in Europe…it’s a wrap Fam!
 
Tennis and golf are social distancing sports. So the pandemic probably has something to do with their 2022 numbers. Tennis is one of the hardest sports to learn, very few kids stick to it.
 
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