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Post by spectator on Nov 17, 2013 20:43:00 GMT -5
Better question - does Top Hat want or need ECNL?
My guess is no. Their elite teams can go toe to toe with any team out there. The U14 girls team is amazing to watch.
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Post by spectator on Nov 15, 2013 10:40:24 GMT -5
Do some U14 teams move to that league in the spring? How many and how are they determined? Do U15 and older teams just play in that league in the fall? Are they determined by State Cup? RPL (Regional Premier League) is set up to give the top teams from states the opportunity to play other top teams. Typically each state gets at least two teams to submit although in the East Region, Georgia and Florida usually submit four teams because SC and NC only submit two. It's always an even number because two teams will travel together over a weekend to play two other teams - one on Saturday and one on Sunday. A team must earn and keep their RPL spot - it's not club based like ECNL. The winner of State Cup automatically gets an RPL berth the next year. The other teams must finish with a strong record or good placement in State Cup to keep their spots - so the RPL picture can change year over year. From U15 up, RPL teams only play each other and do not participate in Classic 1 or Athena A regular play in Fall. They do play State Cup in Spring. At U14, the fall placement in Classic 1 or Athena A determines who will be the Georgia RPL teams. Top two finishers are guaranteed RPL - if Georgia gets the four spots then the third and fourth finishers will also be GA RPL teams. In Spring at U14, the 2-4 RPL teams move out of Classic/Athena and more teams will move up to fill those spots. At Athena, where there are Athena A-F teams in Fall, by Spring it looks like there's enough movement to consolodate it to only Athena A-E so more than four teams will move up in the lower brackets. Typically there is no relegation downward from Fall to Spring. Hope this helped.
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Post by spectator on Nov 14, 2013 12:03:20 GMT -5
Hard to not vote for your current club if you are happy there. Otherwise, why not tryout at the "best" club for your family. I realize there are circumstances which make it difficult to join a club (cost, distance, etc) but there are many products to choose from if the current situation isn't ideal. We are very happy at our current club - but my vote was for which club I think is the "best" for girls based on performance and reputation nationally. My answer explained that and mentioned shortfalls with my choice. Overall "Best" is subjective based on age, gender, level, and cost/quality of concession stand coffee (kidding). We love where we are now - but we also know our kid will never be on an elite level national team. She loves the game, her coach and her teammates and an A/B level team is where she should be. That makes our club "best" for us!
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Post by spectator on Nov 13, 2013 15:35:01 GMT -5
As far as Girls teams go - Top Hat has a national reputation and produces some of the best teams in GA and the Southeast. No, we don't play there - geographically challenged to get all the way down to those fields - but since my child has played U9 Academy through now at U14 - Top Hat teams have consistently been at the top of the age group year over year.
Now at many older ages, what Top Hat does lack is depth. Too much emphasis on that Elite level team and not enough bringing up the second and third teams to A levels. In that regard, you have a couple of different tactics:
1 - multiple locations to pool talent. UFA, Concorde and SSA are spread out enough that they can have multiple top level teams in an age group. But at some ages, the disparity is pretty wide.
2 - depth of the club. NASA has 2 teams in Athena A or a team in every level across multiple age groups in Girls. It's a large club so there's a deeper talent pool.
As for the rest - Augusta - for girls - is coming on strong. The U14 team just moved up to Athena A this Fall and performed well. I see other Augusta teams - for girls - also achieving higher levels. Others I'd put in that bracket are AFC and Norcross. At least on the girls side, I've seen teams doing very well and some depth to that.
Can't speak to boys programs but Concorde and Rush have the reputation of being strong programs at that gender.
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Post by spectator on Nov 11, 2013 14:47:45 GMT -5
I believe the politically correct terms are either "A rebuilding year" or "Achievement Challenged"
Pick one!
But yeah - disappointing year that was hyped with so much promise. Injuries killed them early on - can't explain Ryan's spiral downward right now though.
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Post by spectator on Nov 11, 2013 14:45:19 GMT -5
Typically Florida teams give Georgia teams the best competition -which is why so many GA teams go south for the Disney Showcase and other Florida tournaments. We played a Creeks Krush team in a tournament last year - can't remember if it was NIKE Cup or Concorde - but they were a strong team at U13 last year. (And yes, GA prevailed on that one too )
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Post by spectator on Nov 11, 2013 13:46:29 GMT -5
At U13, I wonder if they left A a little smaller than B so they'd be able to move more teams up in the spring than they move down. At this point DSC will move down and probably Chiefs too. In B, AFC should move up but the next few teams will be really tight. I think there are possibly three who deserve to move up. At the beginning of the season I thought there was a possibility of Roswell moving from C to A but they've slipped the last couple weeks and have probably lost that chance. It looks like last year at U13, three were moved down to B and two were moved up. Last year in Athena Bottom two in A dropped to B Winner of BC East and Winner of BC West moved up to A Bottom two in both BC East and West dropped to D Everyone else in BC split to form Athena B and Athena C Repeat process with DE groupings where bottom two fall to F and top two in F moved to E This year you've got a different set up with the set A and B but I imagine it'll flow like this: Bottom 2 A go to B Top 2 B go to A Bottom 2 B drop to C In the CD grouping #1 in CD East and #1 in CD West move to B Bottom 2 in CD East and West drop to E I can't see a scenario where one of the overachievers in the CD groups vaults all the way to A but you're talking GA Soccer - who knows?
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Post by spectator on Nov 11, 2013 11:33:16 GMT -5
The braves are moving to 285 and 75 - right in the path of one of the worst commutes in the ciity. Stupid move
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Post by spectator on Nov 10, 2013 10:38:13 GMT -5
Sorry - thought fan was referring to Athena A. I saw the CS there
Sadly - not surprising at the other levels to see scores run way up in the fall. Coaches who feel slighted by placement will not let up to drive that point home through goal differentials. It does all shake out by Spring and Fall U14 - your performance - not some delussional DOC - will get you placed.
jack - our team fell from B/C to D last year and then had a great spring. The girls won games and developed their skills by playing competitive games where they weren't in panic mode trying not to get creamed. Also, between U13 and U14 - some clubs will fold completely and girls will move around so even if you get placed in D in Spring, you can still get moved to C by Fall depending on your performance and the makeup of the team after tryouts - meaning if some B or C level players from other clubs join your club, you could end right back up where you were this fall.
U13 is a strange year - it is much more of an adjustment than just the size of the field. And the strangest thing of all to me still is this 'soccer math' where wins, losses and ties count and depending on the makeup of those, you move up, down or stay where you are. One coach said you only need three or four ties to stay in your bracket - I'm seeing that is the case in many other brackets, too.
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Post by spectator on Nov 10, 2013 9:32:54 GMT -5
I see a 15-0 score in your bracket yesterday jack4343. I hate when teams run up the score that high. Did they not think the other team was demoralized enough when it was 5-0 or 8-0?? Looks like you had a close one. Most likely that was a typo when the team manager put it in - I see a CS on one game (contested score). If the two teams' scores don't match when the managers put them in, you get that error. Although there was a game in U14 Athena A last week that was 11-0 so who knows?
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Post by spectator on Nov 6, 2013 14:37:47 GMT -5
Look into the LDGA camps. www.ldgacamps.com/This is outstanding for goalie training. Their website says they will have a winter mini-camp in January.
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Post by spectator on Nov 6, 2013 10:47:21 GMT -5
None. Our coach had too many conflicts with the older teams schedule so we are doing two out of state pre season tournaments in spring. It's going to be weird having no soccer from Thanksgiving on! I am a little jealous of the time off near Thanksgiving! With my kids playing in two different post-season tourneys, we've got a while to go. it's the first time in six years so I'm going to enjoy it now while I can. The team parents voted against Disney due to too many family conflicts. I'm actually not upset by that - it's going to be nice to have a normal Thanksgiving for a change!
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Post by spectator on Nov 5, 2013 21:25:22 GMT -5
None. Our coach had too many conflicts with the older teams schedule so we are doing two out of state pre season tournaments in spring. It's going to be weird having no soccer from Thanksgiving on!
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Post by spectator on Nov 3, 2013 20:14:22 GMT -5
I'll see your indignant mom of U15 boys and raise you an overprotective daddy of U14 girls. It's a contact sport, dad - princess is gonna get bounced around a bit. Shoulders are legal - deal with it! No nominations here -just a hotheaded game rules ignorant daddy on our team yesterday. The coach had a little heart to heart with him via email apparently - dude was practically sedate today! PS - I now have a roll of duct tape in my car - don't make me use it next weekend!
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Post by spectator on Nov 3, 2013 20:08:38 GMT -5
I have threatened to use the Long Island accent and yell to my kid 'You OK? Thumbs up if you're OK!?" or "Got your slices?" every time I get the teen attitude from the child. So far it's the best motivator for best behavior I've used! LOL
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Post by spectator on Nov 3, 2013 10:08:06 GMT -5
Can someone explain the specific (if any) penalties for red and yellow cards - to the team not the individual player? A team in our bracket has six yellow cards - will any points be deducted from their final standings for that? Yellow cards have 0 points but it seems to me if a team starts racking them up consistently throughout a season, there should be some repercussions.
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Post by spectator on Nov 3, 2013 10:05:40 GMT -5
True but hilarious - jack4343!
Have yall seen this one:
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Post by spectator on Nov 2, 2013 17:32:18 GMT -5
LEARN THE RULES!!!
Idiot (not psycho so no nomination for that) parents yelling for hand balls and fouls and offsides - and wrong every time! Seriously - shut up or I will break out the duct tape.
Sadly this was a clueless dad on our team. Manager finally told him to stop yelling. Dude does not know this game at all!
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Post by spectator on Oct 30, 2013 7:49:57 GMT -5
Oh my gosh -that's two in the past month! My prayers and sympathies to the family.
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Post by spectator on Oct 29, 2013 19:56:42 GMT -5
Depends on the size of the club and the number of coaches:
At U8-U10 - if you have 30+ kids - you need at least 3 if not 4 coaches if you want them all practicing together. Any less and it's unmanagable at that age group. Ideally - whatever number of teams you have - you have that many coaches.
Pooling the players that way - each week's roster could change - eventually and for tournaments, it'd shake out to have an A - B - C level team that was pretty static but it's good for development for as many coaches to see the players before it gets to Select/Athena.
Only one club we've played with had set rosters at Academy - no movement at all - ever and it ended up hurting them big time at Athena due to the cliques and expectations that cupcake would always be on the top team. There was talent on the second and third teams that was never given a chance to develop or move up and most of them left. That club is down to one team in the age group now.
At Academy, if parents squawk to have set rosters with limited movement week to week - they will not develop a strong Classic/Athena program later on - it's too short sighted at the younger ages to create those set teams
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Post by spectator on Oct 27, 2013 20:26:09 GMT -5
Wasn't there but I heard a parent at a RSC SSA U19 B game mouthed off to a red carded player. Anyone have details on that? Yesterday at Grimes Bridge? That's pretty low and may spare you from winning your own Award
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Post by spectator on Oct 27, 2013 15:18:52 GMT -5
I agree with your point rifle - last time I witnessed this until yesterday was U12 against a weaker team. Yesterday was a surprise considering the club and being their second team. Which is why I asked the question - it was odd seeing that again yesterday
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Post by spectator on Oct 27, 2013 10:50:26 GMT -5
Ran into this situation yesterday in our game:
Opposing player goes down and every player on their team immediately took a knee. Our coach has instructed our team's players to stand or move to the center of the field to allow the injured player to receive attention.
Other team's parents and coach went ballistic yelling at our team to take a knee and parents called our players rude and disrespectful.
Just curious - what does your team do?
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Post by spectator on Oct 23, 2013 12:50:42 GMT -5
As for the lack of field awareness/spatial strategy, I constantly see kids at u12/u13, and older bunching up on the ball or in the center of the field all the time, and I always wonder if it is because they practice the "short field" close-quarters drills and never practice playing the entire field. For us it's lack of field space - multiple teams practicing at the same time on the same field. If you're lucky enough to have only two teams, you can scrimmage but most of the practices are half field or even quarter field - great for ball handling and touches but not for spacing.
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Post by spectator on Oct 23, 2013 11:24:40 GMT -5
What is this 'Infected' badge under our user name now?
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Post by spectator on Oct 23, 2013 11:23:09 GMT -5
Jumping off this topic - the way we as parents behave colors how our kids behave. I don't know how it is in the schools where all of you are, but here in my area, online bullying is rampant and scary. Kids are being told to kill themselves on social media sites and that is being attributed to a 12 year old Florida girl's suicide recently. Even scarier - how clueless the parents are to this happening by or to their own kids.
Just make sure you know where your kids are online - and monitor it. I cannot stress this enough - it's not on the family computer - monitor their smart phone use as well!
So while we talk (or jest as I did) about calling out parental behavior, it does need to be addressed because their kids may be the ones continuing that cycle with their peers online. Maybe if you get the opportunity to speak with a psycho parent face to face, reminding them of the 'little eyes' watching them, just might get them to wake up and stop the pattern!
One can hope.
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Post by spectator on Oct 22, 2013 19:59:02 GMT -5
Any suggestions to control the worst of the behavior? Perhaps if a parent is particularly unruly the referee should be able to give the player a yellow or red. A roll of duct tape and a cattle prod would tame the most unruly parent. But video and public shaming are probably the better way to go
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Post by spectator on Oct 22, 2013 11:08:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses. She is definitely taking the class and wants to work with younger kids. We will see how it goes.
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Post by spectator on Oct 21, 2013 16:54:19 GMT -5
bpgbeieio - no worries.
trouble with the written word - you cannot read sarcasm and you can inject emotions that aren't there. We can agree to give each other the benefit of the doubt that we're not typing snark - deal?
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Post by spectator on Oct 20, 2013 20:27:36 GMT -5
Wow!
I nominate this for psycho of the week!!!
You are right - what a horrible example to the kids!
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