Tudela LA FC G05 white
- Thread starter JE1212Y
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The U17 (06) team got all their wins taken away also.
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SILVER ELITE
That team is actually the Tudela White 2007 team playing up in the 2006 bracket. They absolutely dominated the 2007 NPL last year, and recently were given access to participate in GA events. Not a good look for the club or the GA if they continue to give them a special exemption to participate. Can't help but question thier exceptional record from 2020 and 2021 now.
We believe we know who started and is trying to spread this rumor. It's so absurd it's almost not worth responding, but I feel obligated to say something in defense of the club.
Our 05s and 07s both went undefeated and won their SOCAL Discovery NPL divisions (the 07s played up as 06s.) Neither team used college or non-league players (but the girls are flattered--thanks.) Both qualified for the playoff this weekend, however neither team was going to be available to play in Colorado next July. Our 05s will have graduated high school; some will have jobs, some will be traveling, and some will be preparing for their college preseasons. We have a small team, so losing even a couple of players makes it impractical for us to compete. Our 07s will be in a GA showcase next summer, and it's a financial burden for those families to do two travel events back-to-back.
We could have just played this weekend, maybe/probably gone through, then pulled out of nationals early next year. But, in an effort to be respectful to the league (and to the other teams in our divisions) we informed Michelle Chesters that we would rather give the second place teams the opportunity to take our spots. Michelle's response was to inform us that we had violated the terms of our commitment to NPL and that she would forfeit all of our games. Shortly after, we saw both of our teams' records flipped. I could post the emails but will refrain for now.
I appreciate that Michelle has a duty to protect her league. For two years, that has been our interest as well. We've done two hour drives to beat teams 11-0 on crap fields with one ref with no complaint. We let SOCAL use our highlights on their socials and have tried to represent the league as well as we could. When our girls went through college recruiting at schools like Notre Dame, Princeton, and TCU, playing in Discovery NPL was something they had to overcome. They had to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA. But, again, we protected SOCAL.
But we also have a duty to our families—many of whom have very limited financial means—to provide the best possible platform for our players who want to play in college and beyond. Despite its best intentions (and sales pitch) SOCAL Discovery NPL is not a college scout magnet. If our 07s can only take one trip next summer, we have to choose the one that will feature the highest level of competition and exposure. Anything less would be sacrificing our players’ dreams out of loyalty to a league that forfeited some of our games this year when LAUSD canceled all its permits--without giving us a chance to reschedule them.
As I've said here before, we're a small club doing our best to do youth soccer better. We're not perfect, but we try to do things the right way. That's why we reached out to Michelle before this weekend, rather than wait until afterwards. Although I guess we could have just gone to Silverlakes and told the girls to tank the game on Saturday. Would that have been a better message?
Ultimately, our club is fine. We have some extraordinary girls who develop into incredible soccer players. Again, nice to know we can be accused of cheating by teams who lose to us when our Notre Dame and Princeton recruits aren't even playing. So the people who have been punished by this are the girls, who worked hard, played fair, and went undefeated--and don't understand why their records now say the opposite.
But youth soccer is all about the kids, right?
(@Dominic, if I can prove that this is all bullshit, can we remove this ridiculous, borderline libelous thread?)
Our 05s and 07s both went undefeated and won their SOCAL Discovery NPL divisions (the 07s played up as 06s.) Neither team used college or non-league players (but the girls are flattered--thanks.) Both qualified for the playoff this weekend, however neither team was going to be available to play in Colorado next July. Our 05s will have graduated high school; some will have jobs, some will be traveling, and some will be preparing for their college preseasons. We have a small team, so losing even a couple of players makes it impractical for us to compete. Our 07s will be in a GA showcase next summer, and it's a financial burden for those families to do two travel events back-to-back.
We could have just played this weekend, maybe/probably gone through, then pulled out of nationals early next year. But, in an effort to be respectful to the league (and to the other teams in our divisions) we informed Michelle Chesters that we would rather give the second place teams the opportunity to take our spots. Michelle's response was to inform us that we had violated the terms of our commitment to NPL and that she would forfeit all of our games. Shortly after, we saw both of our teams' records flipped. I could post the emails but will refrain for now.
I appreciate that Michelle has a duty to protect her league. For two years, that has been our interest as well. We've done two hour drives to beat teams 11-0 on crap fields with one ref with no complaint. We let SOCAL use our highlights on their socials and have tried to represent the league as well as we could. When our girls went through college recruiting at schools like Notre Dame, Princeton, and TCU, playing in Discovery NPL was something they had to overcome. They had to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA. But, again, we protected SOCAL.
But we also have a duty to our families—many of whom have very limited financial means—to provide the best possible platform for our players who want to play in college and beyond. Despite its best intentions (and sales pitch) SOCAL Discovery NPL is not a college scout magnet. If our 07s can only take one trip next summer, we have to choose the one that will feature the highest level of competition and exposure. Anything less would be sacrificing our players’ dreams out of loyalty to a league that forfeited some of our games this year when LAUSD canceled all its permits--without giving us a chance to reschedule them.
As I've said here before, we're a small club doing our best to do youth soccer better. We're not perfect, but we try to do things the right way. That's why we reached out to Michelle before this weekend, rather than wait until afterwards. Although I guess we could have just gone to Silverlakes and told the girls to tank the game on Saturday. Would that have been a better message?
Ultimately, our club is fine. We have some extraordinary girls who develop into incredible soccer players. Again, nice to know we can be accused of cheating by teams who lose to us when our Notre Dame and Princeton recruits aren't even playing. So the people who have been punished by this are the girls, who worked hard, played fair, and went undefeated--and don't understand why their records now say the opposite.
But youth soccer is all about the kids, right?
(@Dominic, if I can prove that this is all bullshit, can we remove this ridiculous, borderline libelous thread?)
KJR,
I've seen a lot of your videos on different social media platforms and I truly believe you and your club are playing on a field that really is stacked against you. I was interested when I saw this message earlier in the day and tried to find more information online. I am glad you took the time to clear things up on here. There are a lot of trolls and anonymous posters who love to take down a team. I salute you and your club I hope for a better outcome for your girls.
Keep doing what you do,"Haters going to Hate" (I so hate trying to share slang words that as a 52 year old man I have no business using but I think it's pretty appropriate.)
KJR gives a good explanation, and I don't believe anybody at Tudela cheated. But let's be clear. When Tudela signed its teams up for the Discovery League, it knew what commitment was expected. It knew that there were travel requirements which could be costly. It knew that some of its players were older or aging out, and perhaps could not conveniently attend all events. It knew it had smaller rosters, which put it at risk for being unable to compete in some events. And it knew the consequences of refusing to participate.
KJR's comments - largely devoted to maligning the Discovery League - do not address the Club's own failure to take steps to increase its participation at mandatory events. For example, the Club could have increased its rosters for its Discovery League teams at any time before or during the gaming season. And it has about 7 months to find players for the mandatory summer tournament. The Club has a lot of tryout players. Its teams regularly play many of their players up from lower-aged teams. The Club could easily have increased participation by taking additional try-out players and adding them to the roster. Or, it could have added some of their younger players to the NPL rosters.
I sympathize with Tudela's situation. The Club desires to play in the ECNL but cannot gain access, so it is stuck in the Discovery League, which it disdains. But if you are going to play in a league, you need to follow the rules and accept the consequences when you don't.
Here, Tudela gained associate status with the GA at some point after it put teams in the Discovery League. Now it is favoring a GA tournament over a Discovery League tournament. I get it; Tudela believes the GA tournament will give it greater exposure. Still, Tudela made a conscious choice to turn its back on a prior commitment.
KJR's comments - largely devoted to maligning the Discovery League - do not address the Club's own failure to take steps to increase its participation at mandatory events. For example, the Club could have increased its rosters for its Discovery League teams at any time before or during the gaming season. And it has about 7 months to find players for the mandatory summer tournament. The Club has a lot of tryout players. Its teams regularly play many of their players up from lower-aged teams. The Club could easily have increased participation by taking additional try-out players and adding them to the roster. Or, it could have added some of their younger players to the NPL rosters.
I sympathize with Tudela's situation. The Club desires to play in the ECNL but cannot gain access, so it is stuck in the Discovery League, which it disdains. But if you are going to play in a league, you need to follow the rules and accept the consequences when you don't.
Here, Tudela gained associate status with the GA at some point after it put teams in the Discovery League. Now it is favoring a GA tournament over a Discovery League tournament. I get it; Tudela believes the GA tournament will give it greater exposure. Still, Tudela made a conscious choice to turn its back on a prior commitment.
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Thank you for this, and as someone your age may I just add: "word up."
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Being able to survive as a small club is very hard to do nowadays. It's just a matter of time before every club has a Surf, Legends, or Slammers crest on their jersey. My daughter was part of a "small club" called SoCal Academy a few years back and us along with Tudela were considered to be a top Non-ECNL and Non-DA clubs out there in Southern California during that time. Then our nice small club got gobbled up by the Surf franchise to become part of LA Surf, which destroyed our once great small club. Now, at least for my daughter's old team, everyone is spread out over different clubs. What could of been, no one will ever know.
I do applaud them for surviving as a small club in a land of giants.
Don't give into the mega clubs.
I'm sure this was a very difficult decision for them to make.
Go luck to your players moving on to play college.
I do applaud them for surviving as a small club in a land of giants.
Don't give into the mega clubs.
I'm sure this was a very difficult decision for them to make.
Go luck to your players moving on to play college.
I think, ultimately, the blame is with youth soccer: the fragmented, siloed landscape where teams (and kids) are given or withheld opportunities based on where they live/who they know/how much money they have. We're navigating the best way we can for our kids, and sometimes that bumps up against one of the silos.
We absolutely knew what commitment was expected from Discovery. If we won the division, we'd qualify for a playoff. So should we have put our girls in Flight 1 and beaten everyone 10-0 (doing nothing for our own development and making a lot of teams mad) because we might win? Okay, so we choose Discovery and we do win. Now it's a financial and family decision. Last year, the 05s qualified for Colorado but also had the opportunity to play in PDA's ECNL event in New Jersey. We could only afford one; we picked the one with sidelines full of coaches and several of our girls got college offers that weekend. (And when I contacted NPL to tell them we were declining the invitation to play, their response was, almost literally, "No worries. We get it.") As a small club going through its first recruitment experience, that was 100% the right decision. Our 07s, on the other hand, stretched their time and budgets almost to a breaking point to go to Colorado and played in front of no one. So where should the 07s, now beginning their own recruiting cycle, spend their time next summer?
I'm glad you think it's easy to just "increase participation at mandatory events." We already had 07s playing up with the 05s for some games this year when our 05s had college commitments (one of those 07s was probably the "college player" who so intimidated the original posters here. She's a 9th grader.) Two issues we've run into: one, if you just add people to your team who can't play your style, you're diluting your style. Why should we pad our roster with girls who shouldn't be on it for the privilege of spending thousands of dollars to go to an event where we won't look or play like ourselves? And second: do you know a lot of high school seniors whose parents want to spend that money so their daughter can guest with girls they don't know for five days in an event no college coach will attend?
Re: the GA. When we moved from Coast (after winning State Cup two years in a row and not losing any games) to SOCAL, it was to improve the competition for our girls. We appreciate the growing pains of a new league and lived through them with no complaint. We also appreciate that SOCAL made adjustments after the first season to improve the league. We don't disdain it; and it's been very good for most of our teams. But we were recommended to the GA, who invited our 05s and 07s to guest in their spring showcase this year. We did well, and those teams were offered event status. If anyone here would have turned that down then you shouldn't be running a club.
Again, our duty is ultimately to our kids. I personally like Michelle; but playing in her league doesn't mean our interests always align. And she had the option to say, "Look, I'm disappointed but I get it. Please pay a fine for skipping the playoff and I'll let the second place team know they can go." Instead she humiliated our girls, taking their achievement away and opening them up to, frankly, the bullshit on this thread. That is the only part of this I disdain.
You guys had a terrific team, great families, great coach (who Jacob likes a lot.) Yes, absolutely: you should have been able to stay together as we did. Thanks for the well wishes and all the best to yours, too.
Code
SILVER ELITE
If this is the reality of what happened, and I do believe this is probably true, I appologize for my hasty assumption that your teams were caught cheating based on rumors without hearing the otherside of the story first. Your club and team made the right, and honorable decision to let the second place teams countinue on in your place. Also the right decision for your girls to participate in confliciting GA/ECNL events. In no way should your teams face any negative reprucusions from SOCAL. Keeping teams that perform like yours in the NPL should be SOCAL's number 1 priority, if they truly want to compete with the ECNL/GA for top talent teams. I agree, the thread should be removed.
Soccer Dad & Ref
SILVER ELITE
Were your girls really humiliated by them changing the scores afterward? It's only us crazy ass parents checking the scoring sites daily. They will remember their wins and that they were told they won the league. What happened afterward is paperwork.
And I don't think what you did is wrong whatsoever. You were promised a league that would attract the attention of scouts. That side of the agreement was broken, so you needed to break your side. Seems fair.
I applaud your club and its mission. Don't let a few anonymous posters here spoil your day.
And I don't think what you did is wrong whatsoever. You were promised a league that would attract the attention of scouts. That side of the agreement was broken, so you needed to break your side. Seems fair.
I applaud your club and its mission. Don't let a few anonymous posters here spoil your day.
Thank you -- that is really appreciated.
Soccer Dad & Ref
SILVER ELITE
I think if the title can't be changed, then it could be removed. But I'm loving the truth that is coming out
I can’t really fault anyone for changing leagues. Just about every single club down there was willing to ditch cal south when the time was right.
It would be worse if Tudela kept the NPL commitment by finding replacements. To read the posts, there is a second place team which deserves the slot. You can’t just pass them over.
Thanks for that. And while I agree with you, I tried the "No one can take away what you accomplished" thing... didn't go over well
I think for the girls who are finishing their club careers, it stings that their legacy has been questioned. My kid is the last of the original group who met up with Jacob in Pan Pacific Park as 8-year-olds; she's proud of what we've/they've accomplished and it bums her out that the record doesn't reflect it anymore. Or that, on or off this board, people may whisper that "something shady" happened. There's also a potential effect from the rankings hit the teams will take. Not a big issue for our girls, but if the 07s enter an event that doesn't know our club (or if a college coach who doesn't know us looks them up) it's now a thing that needs to be explained. Not the biggest issue (and I think it's affecting our parents more than the girls!) but it's more collateral damage from what, to me, was an overly-punitive reaction by SOCAL.
I would go the other way on this. From the Discovery League's perspective, I would drop Tudela's teams because KJR, who is Tudela's social media voice, suggests it is a crappy league which Tudela is only using until it is accepted into a better platform, and that its event-status with the GA constitutes that better platform.
Likewise, if I were Tudela, I would drop out of the Discovery League, because it views it as a third-class league behind the ECNL and the GA. Despite KJR's protests, Tudela does disdain the league, and that can be verified by his own comments:
- they beat teams 11-0 on crap fields;
- they have to prove their quality despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA;
- its not a college scout magnet;
- they owe a duty to their players to find a better platform.
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
It is customary when a team drops that all of the results are set to 0-1 so that the remainder of teams records are trued up. I'm surprised that this sounds like this is the second year in a row that this happened? Perhaps some honest communication between the league and club prior to the start of the current season could have helped address this situation. I do believe that Tudela is a good club overall...probably sounds like GA for all their U13 and older teams would be a better fit.