Youth Soccer/Academy/league system in GA is confusing

Table tracking with promotion and relegation starts at U13.

Before that it's more random, depends on what clubs you can schedule. They run in herds, some refusing to play others due to feuds.. Because people.

And many will tell you it doesn't matter what the scores are for academy. That's generally the story from clubs who don't win much, or those who pool players rather than pigeon holing young kids on a dedicated team.

I can see the benefit of that at the academy level, and I think it generally stays close to that dynamic (at least before U11/U12).  At Athena/Classic level, you go where the best coaches and training are available if you can drive there. At U12, we switched from a team that was 5 minutes away to a team that was 35 minutes away because it was a higher level team with better players and a better coach.  My daughter now plays on a U13 team (at a different club) with girls from Macon, Birmingham, South Fulton, DeKalb, Douglas, Gwinnett, North Fulton, etc.  The girls get along great and have bonded pretty well considering.  I really could not care less about the club.  It's about the coach, team and level of play for my kid.

It doesn't matter what the scores are for academy

Pooled academy is great because players at those young ages develop so rapidly that a player who looked bad at tryouts might be a top player as little as two months later.  Sticking that kid on the 'bottom team' hurts their development.

I will always argue for development first, and having a league style of play at the youngest ages puts way too much value on a team and too little on the players.

I say relax, and don't worry about the clubs or teams or even any players other than your own little group.  Winning and promotion and all of that other stuff can come later, and it will.

Pooled academy means the players at one age group and gender all practice together (within practical limits... obviously some clubs are much larger) with almost no distinction made between "top" and "bottom" players.  Kids are not judged at age 8 whether or not they will ultimately be successful and are given the same chance to develop as all of their peers.  That's what the Academy system was designed to be.

What actually happens at most clubs is the kids (of all ages) are assigned to a team with one coach and there they stay for one year.  With a pool they get would picked for a team every week, and sometimes they go up and sometimes they go down.  It provides incentive, rewards, and consequences.  They also get access to multiple coaches within the same season, each one of which may have a lot to offer the kids.

Of course kids can develop in a league style of play, but once you introduce a league with recorded results, everybody becomes focused (even more than they already are) on winning at the cost of development.

You see it already happening in most big clubs -- win, win, win.  Jump to 11v11 2 years early so our "elite players" (10 year old kids) can get a jump on the competition.  Forget the curriculum, forget the different rates at which players develop.  Focus on winning.

It's bad enough already, and in my opinion adding official recorded results for kids that young would completely blow any remaining sanity in our system away.

But that's just my opinion

Some number of kids usually 20-40 make the academy team. From there they practice as a group, with players broken out by skill level.The academy promotes movement between teams sending kids up and down as they improve or devolve as soccer players through the course of the season. This gives mobility within the club. Kids will generally be on different teams throughout the year. There are many ways how this can work. You can usually see a pooled team if the jersey numbers are all over the place. Here are some examples of how a pooled academy can work.

1. Some clubs might take the top player or players one week and put them with the weakest kids. Or one weak kid with the best kids.
2. Some clubs might put all the strong kids on one team to play the top team of another club.
3. Some clubs might be purposeful and scorecard kids, putting them in different positions throughout the year.
4. Some clubs might keep kids in relatively the same position -others might mix up positions.
5. Clubs might rotate kids evenly, others keep the best players in the game.

Here are the benefits -

- Access to multiple coaches
- Ability to move teams throughout the season
- Larger practice squad
- Bigger talent pool for clubs
- Kids get more opportunities, don't slip through the cracks

Here are the downsides -

- Minimal movement for players on the outlier between teams (e.g. top five kids don't move, bottom five kids don't move)
- Access to multiple coaches
- Coaches less informed about the players and their needs
- Kids don't feel comfortable, unable to find a rhythm

Pooled versus set teams provide an equal opportunity for player development. It has a lot more to do with the coaches and training.

some clubs pool not because its a philosophy but because of it being a business decision. they can hire fewer coaches. they can have 1 coach, coach 20 kids at a time vs 2 coaches with 2 separate teams.

My sons pool has 2 coaches (15 boys), one is considered a trainer and one a coach. Theyre both at every practice and one of them is always at games sometimes both, it helps a lot when coaches have multiple teams and they have conflicts. Its better for them to have someone theyre used to than having another coach who doesn't really know them step in at a game.

A Little History of Academy

In Georgia, select play used to go all the way down to U10, complete with standings and promotion and relegation. There was a lot of heartache allowing it to happen and many long, miserable meetings where different groups tried to prevent it from happening, start it up or keep it going. In those days, U10's played 9v9. U11's and U12's played 11v11. U9's were unheard of. U8's were the strict domain of recreation play.

A couple of clubs independently decided that they did not like the U10 select structure. One in particular pulled their U10's out of select and decided to just play friendlies and tournaments. The following year a group of top clubs joined them. The emphasis was on development. It was a small group of clubs who inter scheduled with each other, shared developmental objectives and would not pay against the others, except in tournaments. At about this time, small sided soccer was suggested by US Youth Soccer with the reduction in number of players and goal sizes we now know. The smaller numbers suited the Academy clubs and the concept of pool training worked well for them.

I don't think this initial period of bliss lasted very long before the clubs who were not part of that inner circle complained. Eventually, Georgia Soccer introduced Academy across the board because that's what the clubs wanted. The problem is that the program works well for a few like minded clubs to work together. As a statewide program it just doesn't work. By the sheer nature of it, it would be impossible for the state to take over the scheduling. It just wouldn't work.

A few years ago there was an attempt to revive select play for the U11's and U12's. This was pushed by some of the smaller clubs that were having trouble finding games for their academy teams. The program was approved by the electorate, but after two years it was folded because there were never enough teams entered to make viable divisions.

Thus we now have the monster that we have. The development aspect is still there to some extent, but the win, win, win attitude is getting very prevalent. Things like cutting back on pool training so the best players can develop more quickly without the lesser players "holding them back". Playing 8v8 at U10 so they'll be ready to "compete" at U11 and the same kind of thinking putting U12's back at 11v11. Georgia Soccer has taken a back seat with all of this, but you must remember that ultimately, Georgia Soccer is the combined voice of the clubs. If the majority of the clubs (or should I say, the majority of the weighted votes) voted to totally outlaw the Academy approach and force us all back to a more structured, team by team system it would happen. However, I can assure you that it won't. The clubs are in control with the Academy system. They won't give that control back to the state.

Academy Soccer is about development and teaching the game, the teamwork and field positioning. Frankly, I don't think teams should even start to be ranked before U12 - ranking a U9 team on Soccer in College is ridiculous -these are 8 year olds! But there are coaches and team managers that will put in every win and even manipulate the system to get their 8 year old's team ranked higher than the next one. It's stupid!

My kid played Academy at two clubs with separate schools of thought about how teams should be set. One was a pooled environment - you got your roster days before the game and that was that. For the most part, the teams were consistent due to the level of the players but every kid got a chance to play with each team, coach and every other player on the team. I agree with the benefits listed above on this process. A player is less likely to slip through the cracks at U13 when coaches have had the opportunity to see them all. THAT IS ONLY IF YOU STAY AT THAT CLUB FOR ATHENA/CLASSIC.

We also played at a club where the Academy teams were locked, loaded and never ever ever altered - even practiced separately with different coaches. That was a disaster. When girls were needed to be pulled up when we went to 11v11, they didn't know the other players well and the coach didn't know them. In this scenario - when you lose players as they get older, you're more likely to lose an entire team or only have one in the age group.

My two cents - if you're at an Academy program with set teams, don't try out there for Classic/Athena unless your kid is already on that top team every time. Develop the skills that will be transferable to any club.

As for scheduling of Academy games - there needs to be a happy medium here. Your problem is when you have a large club with 3 or more Academy teams per age group and they need to schedule games for all of them. The club scheduler is less likely to schedule games with multiple clubs to get all their games in so they'll go to another large club with 3 or more Academy teams in the age group and just schedule them. Smaller clubs with only 1 or 2 teams get shafted. And yes, some pissyness exists with some of the 'Elite' Clubs not wanting to play 'down' with a smaller club or YMCA Academy program. No way will those large clubs give the state control over who they have to play but there are quite a few small Academy programs in metro Atlanta that need someone to intervene to let their players have games.

Did you say you're at Concorde Fire? They have a strong boys team for the U9, so you're good where you're at. Now as far as the fields? CF doesn't have the best fields, whenever we play them its always at a back of some school...and when it rains they close their fields very quickly. We use county fields which are very well maintained.

Pooling doesn't always work...our club pools, my daughters team didn't pool, the difference in level between the 1st team and the 2nd team was HUGE so pooling wouldn't have worked. Even within the team there was the top and the bottom and a huge gap in between, those players to this day have not caught up and most of them are on the 2nd team now or left the club.

On the other hand, my sons team pools...Do I like it? I don't know, I was so used to the way it was with my daughter so its an adjustment but its not a bad thing either. Boys are different than girls and they develop differently..theres kids that did good at tryouts and now cant keep up and viceversa, pooling will allow the boys to be leveled as the season progresses.

No clue what your club does with regard to pooling or set teams.  I'm not now nor have we ever been at CF.

Yes he is on concorde fire u9 boys top team. Please if anyone has some info or experience on what to expect or how good they are, please share. Maybe I'm being too critical, but they cancel very quickly as you said, and I think the team misses out on practices they could use for a top team. How do you come to the conclusion that they have a strong u9 boys team this season? What club are you? I'm at CF, because its the closest and the convenience is good, however if I had my to pick from the U8/U9 teams I have seen in my boys shot academy years, Alianza is a very strong team, which is why I started a thread asking about info on the club, but it seems not so many people on here know about then. They have a discipline structure and style of play. that mixed with some technical skill and aggressive team. I like the coach we have now and heard many good things about him, but like I said, cancellation of practice is a problem.

As far as cancellations, we only cancel if lighting... We have turf fields in addition to our regular fields, so if it rains then we go into special schedule where everyone shares the turf fields

Oh wow nice, I remember playing you all at nasa tournament. you do have a good team. I think you all won the tournament. I did notice the parents attitude, ie Alianza, that's definitely something to think about