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Post by soccerteamdad on Oct 21, 2014 5:13:10 GMT -5
I'm semi-new to Academy soccer. My son played with a small club last year and moved to one of the top clubs this year. I have been frustrated by the lack of games and by a huge gap in his schedule - he hasn't had a game since September. His team had 5 games in September, 3 of which were during one weekend. We have 3 remaining games and a tournament (for which I have to pay extra). We also played one game without enough players because we only had nine on the team at the beginning of the season and we had some injuries.
Is this unusual? My son played every weekend last year -- if we didn't have another team to play against, the club organized inter-club play. Am I expecting too much? Was the team my son played on last year unusual? I have friends with boys on other U12 teams with our club who seemed to play every weekend during October. I told the coach to put his name on the list of boys who are interested in subbing for other teams, but he has not been called.
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Post by Keeper on Oct 21, 2014 6:53:48 GMT -5
That is unusual in my view. I coach u9 academy and I don't think our academy program has had a Saturday off since Labor Day and have had multiple Sunday games too. I know u12s are harder to schedule depending on level of team. (See threads about u12s moving to 11v11). Not sure if this is a club or Ga Soccer rule, but I thought you had to be guaranteed 10 games per season, unless there's multiple rainouts.
This will be interesting to see what the senior staff on the forums says with them being more in the know about things.
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Post by jack4343 on Oct 21, 2014 7:51:28 GMT -5
I agree with our GFC representative. That is unusual for academy. However, the u12 11v11 dynamic might be the culprit. Some clubs move all u12 teams to 11v11 while some move only the higher level teams to 11v11 which I can guess would cause problems with scheduling as usually friendlies are scheduled between whole clubs and if their 2nd level team doesn't play 11v11 and yours does then it equals no game for your team. Coaches that have switched to 11v11 for their team are very reluctant (and rightfully so) to play some games at 8v8 as it would negate some of their coaching I would think. However, having said that, I had a daughter that was on a 3rd level team in u12 and they played 8v8 and I don't remember any scheduling difficulties off the top of my head so it might be a bit of laziness on your DOC as well. It might take some extra work to make sure all the teams have teams compete weekly. As far as inter-squad games, I would guess that would be organized by individual coaches but I don't know for certain.
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Post by soccerteamdad on Oct 21, 2014 8:02:53 GMT -5
My son's team plays 8v8, but I found out last night while watching the top two U12 teams play that they are playing 11v11. He is playing on one of the lower teams.
What's a DOC?
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 8:15:30 GMT -5
My son's team plays 8v8, but I found out last night while watching the top two U12 teams play that they are playing 11v11. He is playing on one of the lower teams. What's a DOC? DOC is your club director Your situation seems unusual, especially since you say you play for a big club? We play for a big club too and we have many academy teams in lower levels and as far as I know they still get to play every weekend, sometimes twice in 1 weekend. As far as tournaments, yes its normal to a pre and a post season tournament...and that's extra $$. Im assuming you don't feel comfortable sharing what club you play at? Either way you should be playing almost every weekend, have you asked the coach or asked other parents? |
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Post by Soccerhouse on Oct 21, 2014 8:20:33 GMT -5
agree. there are lots of arguments about how much kids should be playing, but in general the majority of clubs in this city play ~
one pre season tourney
one post season tourney
at least 1 game a weekend starting the weekend after labor day to ~ Nov 15/16ish. teams might have one weekend off, for a holiday etc.
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Post by spectator on Oct 21, 2014 9:57:35 GMT -5
That is unusual for a large club not to have games - it's far more common with smaller clubs Academy teams. Example - from U9-U11, we were with a small club - only enough girls for two teams in the age group, Because Academy games are not scheduled by the state but by the individual clubs, larger clubs tend to schedule with larger clubs - where if they have 3-4 Academy teams, all can get games. Where if you have a club with only 1-2 in the age group, it's harder (aka - more work) for the club schedulers to get games in for all the teams.
Also depends on the age - if this is a younger age group, sometimes there's issue of field space - or more recently- referees - there is a severe shortage of referees right now and some younger Academy games are being cancelled or not scheduled at all. Call your director of coaching (DOC) at your club and talk about your concerns. You mentioned U12 and that two teams are already forming 11v11 teams. There's your issue- the club is more concerned with scheduling the 11v11 games than the 8v8 - as are most large clubs around here. I'm 110% against throwing 11 year olds on the big field just to get some kind of edge going into U13. Players that age still need small sided games for skills. If your son is still playing 8v8 that's not necessarily a bad thing - unless your club is only focusing on the 11v11 teams in which case you and other parents do need to speak up and call the DOC
Should you be disappointed - can't answer that - what were your expectations for this level and age of player?
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Post by soccerteamdad on Oct 21, 2014 10:29:09 GMT -5
My expectation was that after paying a lot of money and moving to a large, well-respected club, that my son would receive excellent coaching and plenty of opportunities to play games. I'm not a great judge of good coaching, but he certainly had not had many opportunities to play games. He likes practice fine, but really....boys want to play games.
I have already conversed with the coach (multiple times) and the Director. They both minimized my concerns and told me that at the end of the season, our team will have played plenty of games. I don't know the other parents, since we have had so few games. I do know of one other who is concerned.
My primary concern is the Spring season. How can I ensure that it's not a repeat of the Fall? Should I go ahead and ask for a refund? Do clubs do that? Or can I ask that my son be moved to another team? The club has MANY U12 teams, so I can't believe the level of play is that much different between the 5th and 6th team (for example).
I do think that the club is much more concerned with their top 11v11 teams (obviously) and has not devoted the same resources to the lower teams.
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 10:37:22 GMT -5
My expectation was that after paying a lot of money and moving to a large, well-respected club, that my son would receive excellent coaching and plenty of opportunities to play games. I'm not a great judge of good coaching, but he certainly had not had many opportunities to play games. He likes practice fine, but really....boys want to play games. I have already conversed with the coach (multiple times) and the Director. They both minimized my concerns and told me that at the end of the season, our team will have played plenty of games. I don't know the other parents, since we have had so few games. I do know of one other who is concerned. My primary concern is the Spring season. How can I ensure that it's not a repeat of the Fall? Should I go ahead and ask for a refund? Do clubs do that? Or can I ask that my son be moved to another team? The club has MANY U12 teams, so I can't believe the level of play is that much different between the 5th and 6th team (for example). I do think that the club is much more concerned with their top 11v11 teams (obviously) and has not devoted the same resources to the lower teams. something doesn't sound right! I don't care what level team your kid is on, theres not excuse for your last game to have been last month!!! They wont issue you a refund, in fact if you want to leave and go to another club u will have to pay for the whole year to get a release and then you will have to pay the new club their fees. I don't know what club youre with but I have never heard this from any of the big clubs before, all teams get games, even if intersquad. Not sure if theres a rule on how many games you will play per season because this has never been an issue for my kids, but now you have me wondering... |
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Post by Soccerhouse on Oct 21, 2014 10:41:00 GMT -5
how many games have you played total again?
a total of 5?
well, spring is tough around these parts. spring breaks, easter break, and then the never ending rain........
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 10:46:44 GMT -5
how many games have you played total again? a total of 5? well, spring is tough around these parts. spring breaks, easter break, and then the never ending rain........ he said 5 ...three of which was a tournament...so his team has had 2 scheduled games??? season ends in less than a month?? Im dissatisfied for him!!! |
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Post by Soccerhouse on Oct 21, 2014 10:50:02 GMT -5
yikes. yeah that's tough.
to put it in perspective, my 2 in u9-u12 academy -- have played 15 and 16 games
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 11:11:03 GMT -5
yikes. yeah that's tough. to put it in perspective, my 2 in u9-u12 academy -- have played 15 and 16 games My son who is in Academy has played 12 regular season games plus 3 tournament games. Something is not right!! My daughter is Select so she has her 13 guaranteed games...there has to be some rule for Academy? |
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Post by 4theloveofsoccer on Oct 21, 2014 11:12:10 GMT -5
I agree with SoccerMom, I would be dissatisfied and something does not sound right/does not add up. I have 2 boys in the Academy and both have played plenty of games so far. I would say we have played at least 8 regular season games this season, with another 7-8 games to play until the season ends. We also have played a preseason tournament and will play a post season tournament. That's more than 20 games for the kids to play, which includes regular season games and tournament games.
On another note, we are lucky this season to not have any rain to cancel games. Last year plenty of games were not played due to weather.
As many has stated you may want to talk to your DOC and the scheduler for your club.
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 11:17:46 GMT -5
I agree with SoccerMom, I would be dissatisfied and something does not sound right/does not add up. I have 2 boys in the Academy and both have played plenty of games so far. I would say we have played at least 8 regular season games this season, with another 7-8 games to play until the season ends. We also have played a preseason tournament and will play a post season tournament. That's more than 20 games for the kids to play, which includes regular season games and tournament games. On another note, we are lucky this season to not have any rain to cancel games. Last year plenty of games were not played due to weather. As many has stated you may want to talk to your DOC and the scheduler for your club. Same here...we still have another 4 or 5 games, plus 2 post season tournaments. Our clubs target is to schedule at least 10 games per team in season plus a pre and a post season tournament for each team...as teams get older they do more tournaments than that. And yes the rain has been kind! no rainouts for us yet...knock on wood! And you def need to talk to someone at that club...something is not right! im so upset for you...I could even make the call for you lol |
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Post by soccerteamdad on Oct 21, 2014 11:55:14 GMT -5
Let's see...to be accurate. Our fist game was cancelled due to lightning, rescheduled, and cancelled again (by the other team). Then we had a string of three weekends where we played 5 games, and had one cancellation. We took the first three weeks of October off (1 game scheduled and cancelled) Now we have three more regular games on the calendar and one tournament (which, of course, costs extra).
I think we initially had 8 or 9 games on the calendar, which I thought was light, given rain outs, cancellations, etc. Our team parent disagreed and said that was reasonable.
Thanks for all the information regarding what other teams are doing. I will complain again.
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Post by soccerdad on Oct 21, 2014 12:07:59 GMT -5
We have kind of the opposite problem. Maybe too many games for a u10 girl. I'd say including tournaments, my daughter has probably played 20 or maybe even 25 games already this fall. She loves it, and wants to play every time she is asked, but I sometimes worry that it is too much and don't want her to get burned out. She's actually a u9 age wise, so she plays sometimes with the 9s and 10s on the same day and even with the 11s a few times.
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Post by SoccerMom on Oct 21, 2014 12:23:26 GMT -5
We have kind of the opposite problem. Maybe too many games for a u10 girl. I'd say including tournaments, my daughter has probably played 20 or maybe even 25 games already this fall. She loves it, and wants to play every time she is asked, but I sometimes worry that it is too much and don't want her to get burned out. She's actually a u9 age wise, so she plays sometimes with the 9s and 10s on the same day and even with the 11s a few times. shes 8? shes fine...plenty of energy! My daughter did the same at that age... as long as shes having fun, let her. As she gets older she wont get as many opportunities to play with other teams |
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Post by lovethegame on Oct 21, 2014 17:46:11 GMT -5
My daughter is long past Academy, but she played at least one game a weekend from early September to late November and then again from early February to May. If there was weather they didn't typically reschedule, but we played most weekends. Plus, we played at least two tournaments each season, so four per year. I wouldn't be happy if I were you. If these kids are practicing two to three times per week, they need to be playing games on the weekend. Practice can get mundane if there are no games to utilize what's learned in practice. Just my opinion, but I do wonder if the other parents on the team are okay with so few games. I would imagine many feel the same way you do.
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