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Post by soccerdaddy on Apr 13, 2018 14:30:12 GMT -5
I never played soccer as a youth but remember being invited to a game or two with my boys club (Brookhaven) over to Windsor Pkwy YMCA soccer fields. I was in the 3rd/4th grade around 1982/83 ish. I played youth football and then at NYO Chastian Park Baseball and Basketball. No Soccer at all around Atlanta that I knew of? I wish I played as a kid.
Today, Futbol is my passion and so happy my children enjoy it as well. Unfortunately, I have to figure out this route to playing competitive youth soccer here in GA.
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Post by oraclesfriend on Apr 13, 2018 20:48:07 GMT -5
I never played soccer as a youth but remember being invited to a game or two with my boys club (Brookhaven) over to Windsor Pkwy YMCA soccer fields. I was in the 3rd/4th grade around 1982/83 ish. I played youth football and then at NYO Chastian Park Baseball and Basketball. No Soccer at all around Atlanta that I knew of? I wish I played as a kid. Today, Futbol is my passion and so happy my children enjoy it as well. Unfortunately, I have to figure out this route to playing competitive youth soccer here in GA. I am not sure playing as a youth would have helped you navigate the youth soccer landscape here. I have to agree about the lack of options to play soccer in the 80's depending on where you lived and how things were publicised. I played recreational and then travel soccer in Guilford, CT in the early 80's. Back then you did not play travel unless you were invited. They didn't try out, you got selected instead. I moved to Boca Raton, Florida in 1983 after soccer season ended. The next year my parents signed me up for rec soccer (we knew of no clubs...everything was city run as far as we knew). I played for SABR (Soccer Association of Boca Raton). To our surprise they did not have any girls teams in my age group. I had to play on one of two (that is all they had) U14 girls teams when I had just turned 11. We played against boys and got hammered. I later played multiple sports in high school, including soccer. I did find a club team late in high school in Boca but I don't even know who ran it. Now Boca United is a huge well respected club. When we started our kids in sports here we were surprised that soccer was a club sport, not usually run by city park and rec (we had kids pretty late and both of us grew up with very organized park and rec sports, club sports was a rarity). We were even more surprised to see how the clubs were run. It took us a few years and quite a bit of research to figure out the soccer landscape here. We have had assistance from a friend we call the soccer "oracle." She is the one who has helped us a lot.
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Post by soccerdaddy on Apr 14, 2018 5:54:52 GMT -5
Thanks for the story 😃
I don’t think my parents would’ve kept us in club soccer as busy and committed you have to be for Academy and Select. You can’t do multiple sports until winter for Basketball or Wrestling.
Today, we are so ingrained into Soccer with our Children that it’s impossible without help to get all 3 to practice and games. Three games today, 2 at a local club for U5 and U8 Pre-Academy. The older one is at a club that has DA boys. We have a U5 game at 9 AM, a pre-academy game at 3 and finally a DA game at 4 PM. Sunday, we have a DA game at 11:15, pre-academy @1:30 and finally an indoor game (non club) at 5PM. My Children love it but the back and forth drives us mad with the multiple schedules. It’s fun being there and watching them grow. Totally worth it. Fun times!
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Post by oraclesfriend on Apr 14, 2018 6:26:05 GMT -5
I loved soccer as a child. I love it even more as a parent. My parents and I were clueless about higher level options though. I played for fun and when I got selected for travel, that was an honor and I was so excited. I have no idea how my parents managed it with 3 kids, but it was less hectic back then. I don't know how you manage with 3 now. My husband and I struggle to get two to everything now. One is academy and one is select. We have a friend who has 4 kids playing! Three at one club and one at another that is in the other direction! It is CRAZY! We love it, though. Good luck this weekend in ALL of your games...As long as none of your kids are playing mine;)
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Post by Soccerhouse on Apr 14, 2018 11:52:01 GMT -5
I think we started competing for state cups around 6th or 7th grade if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong. So probably around u12ish. We had ~2 "travel" teams in the city for each age group. Age groups were birth years at that time. if you didn't make those 2 teams, you played rec. We rarely had open tryouts, and usually used player identification through the year. Parents for the most part ran the teams and hired the coaches. Coaches were not nearly as good as todays, but we typically always had 2 coaches - a head coach, and often a college kid to help out.
Regionals was every other year vs every year. State cup meant everything and was all that mattered. Top kids all played ODP and regional teams. We still traveled the south east for tourneys and went to Canada once or twice.
We were nasty -- mean, played hard and physical but not nearly as technical as kids today -- but played with more cockiness and attitude in my opinion. We were big, but not as big as the kids today. I was one of the few kids that actually worked out and took egg white protein back in the day. Most soccer players were not lifting weights like football players etc.
I played with some studs even by today's standards. Our entire team played high school soccer and nobody once complained about it. It was the standard, and there was nothing cooler than being a freshman or sophomore on varsity and hanging with the Seniors that drove 280z's and sweet 300z's and preludes --- listening to NWA and Public enemy on bus rides etc. Legendary bus rides to away games.
Oh yea, we all had soccer mullets also!
Also - by my junior and senior year, we had kids driving from an hour and half to play on the team. They would typically make 1 or 2 practices a week etc.
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Post by soccerdaddy on Apr 14, 2018 23:42:06 GMT -5
Soccerhouse, would you let your children listen to that “NWA” or Public Enemy 😜 I too loved to listen to them both. Rap back in the day had meaning and drive which pumped people up! Loved Eazy E’s stuff to. Today, I can’t hardly understand today’s rappers/artist and where are they going in their songs. Seems like a lot of jibber jabber with sounds 😎 oh well at least it’s not 2 Live Crew, (Bad bad bad, not good for any children). My Dad about had a heart attack when he heard that.
Surprised that players traveled hours to play. That’s dedication back then and now it’s normal. 6 players on our team meet at Woodstock Outlets and take turns driving to Marietta for 4 days per week DA practice. We drive minivans and suburbans once every week and a half.
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Post by youthsoccerdad on Apr 15, 2018 14:17:52 GMT -5
Atlanta native. Started rec in 1985 in Cobb. Won rec league. Moved to Canterbury. Won state a few times between Classic 1 and 2. Quest bought Canterbury and we left to go on our own.
Random things I remember.
- There was a team called the Brookwood steamers who played up an age group. Those kids were fantastic. - Graham Tutt - Going to whatever tournament your parents decided. - Promotion / Relegation between Classic 1 and 2. - A professional indoor soccer league that played out of the omni. - Phone tree's, to let you know what was up. Somehow still more effective than all the tech solutions they have now. - Getting badges from tournaments, they were special. - No promise of playing time, at a much earlier age than today. - Top kids from our team quitting because they lost their umph over time. - Stone mountain had really good club teams back in the late 80's. - Large crowds at soccer games once you got past a couple rounds at state.
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Post by Keeper on Apr 15, 2018 20:11:26 GMT -5
Atlanta native. Started rec in 1985 in Cobb. Won rec league. Moved to Canterbury. Won state a few times between Classic 1 and 2. Quest bought Canterbury and we left to go on our own. Random things I remember. - There was a team called the Brookwood steamers who played up an age group. Those kids were fantastic. - Graham Tutt - Going to whatever tournament your parents decided. - Promotion / Relegation between Classic 1 and 2. - A professional indoor soccer league that played out of the omni. - Phone tree's, to let you know what was up. Somehow still more effective than all the tech solutions they have now. - Getting badges from tournaments, they were special. - No promise of playing time, at a much earlier age than today. - Top kids from our team quitting because they lost their umph over time. - Stone mountain had really good club teams back in the late 80's. - Large crowds at soccer games once you got past a couple rounds at state. Those Brookwood Steamers teams probably had Josh Wolff or Jason Moore on them. Plus the other dozen or so players they put in the old USNT pool.
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Post by soccerlegacy on Apr 16, 2018 11:31:18 GMT -5
Atlanta native. Started rec in 1985 in Cobb. Won rec league. Moved to Canterbury. Won state a few times between Classic 1 and 2. Quest bought Canterbury and we left to go on our own. Random things I remember. - There was a team called the Brookwood steamers who played up an age group. Those kids were fantastic. - Graham Tutt - Going to whatever tournament your parents decided. - Promotion / Relegation between Classic 1 and 2. - A professional indoor soccer league that played out of the omni. - Phone tree's, to let you know what was up. Somehow still more effective than all the tech solutions they have now. - Getting badges from tournaments, they were special. - No promise of playing time, at a much earlier age than today. - Top kids from our team quitting because they lost their umph over time. - Stone mountain had really good club teams back in the late 80's. - Large crowds at soccer games once you got past a couple rounds at state. You must have been just a few years behind me, but I grew up with similar memories: -I played for Graham Tutt on his indoor team which played out of his indoor facility way up in North Cobb off of Hwy 41. (Actually, we won regional over in Lilburn at Mike Balson's indoor facility and went on to the National tournament in California)
-I played for the first club team that started in Cobb County called Cobb Union. Before that there were just rec all-star teams. Cobb Union eventually became NASA out of the Metro North location. -The Liverpool Reds (out of where RYSA now is) was our biggest rival and were really good, although Concorde was right with the two of us. -For out-of-town tournaments there were sometimes host families you would stay with or they would have someone stay with you. That wouldn't seem to "fly" in today's times. Anyone else know of what I'm talking about?
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