Unsatisfied with offer-thoughts of rejecting? Options?

A fair warning before you do anything: If your current club gets wind of what you’re doing they might make your decision for you. So be 100% sure that your player can play at a higher level before leaving and keep it quiet as long as possible. If you go the training session route your player needs to be better or just as good as half of the current team for most coaches to make that commitment. They may take your player if they are in the bottom half of talent, but then they’re fighting for playing time constantly and that’s never a fun situation. Have those talks with the coaches. Ask them how much of an impact they see your kid making to avoid a really sucky season. Anyway, I’d say explain the situation to coaches, usually through email, and hope they can give you training sessions to supplement for tryouts. Most coaches at higher levels at big clubs had most of their team set before tryouts. So if there’s a smaller club with the same level you’re looking for then I’d try there first. Also, sometimes clubs will have supplemental tryouts because they weren’t able to fill out their rosters completely. Be on the lookout for those posts coming soon. If a summer league team has an opening at a club you’re interested in, explore that possibility. Coaches can make recommendations once they see your kid play.

Sit it out this year, get a 2nd mortgage on the house, build a field behind it and pay for private training for the next year... come back fresh and ready to go in 2025!  (seriously though, some people are willing to go to these extremes!) 

No seriously though. The options are quite limited after tryouts. The only suggestions I would have is maybe look for a club that has a coach you really like and will develop your kid. Call them up to see if they are interested. Some coaches will be sitting with a less-than-full roster like, 15, 16, 17 kids. If they see a player that can actually help they will sometimes be willing to extend their roster by 1. Also, some may not be willing to do this right now, but come the start of the new soccer season, when they actually get to see their teams on a daily basis, they may realize they need just a little more... so there could be a spot or two somewhere (this is scenario will be very limited and leaves your kid with a chance of not having a team at all, VERY risky). Finally, you could accept the offer, have your kid ball-out, and show them he is deserving of playing-in as a designated player for the team above him. Also not likely, unless they were totally off on the clubs assessment of your kid because of only 3 days of tryouts. It not an ideal situation to be in, to say the least, but just network all the clubs and see if they are willing to do one-off tryouts or "supplemental" tryouts, and invite to come sit in on a practice with them. 

Good luck! 

To basically sum up my reasoning. There was a lot of shifting down between all of the teams in my child’s age group. My child was also training with the team above him for about a month in addition to his normal training days. We were also paying for training on the side. The comments we had received over the last few months about him were nothing but positive/great.

He was offered a spot on the team below him. When my husband asked the coach who called us how the tryout/evaluation process went because during the 3 days…he was not with this coach at all…the coaches response was “I’m not going to lie to you and say I saw your child, I did not see him at all.” With all of this being said, we travel far to this club, pay out of county fees and will now have 1 less day of training (2 instead of 3). I am really trying to see the positives but it is very hard.

Tough tough position to be in. This sucks and I'm sorry it's happened. Tryouts reveal everyone's true colors. I'd say stick to looking for other options but maybe don't burn a bridge until you need to. As you've experienced coaches can promise you the world and then things can change at the last minute. I was thinking another option would be to get with a private coach who has connections in club soccer. It's a great way to network and provides a little discretion. BTW all the things I've recommended are things my family has done when in sticky situations like this so hopefully something pans out! Soccer shouldn't be this stressful!!

Wait a year to move. It gives you time to figure out where you want to go and how to make it happen. Go into it with an open mind too. You might realize your son is on the correct team.

It sounds weird that he was training with the team above and then moved to the team below. I would try to ask for an explanation because it must be confusing to both your son and you. Were there a lot of new players at tryouts? Does your son play a position that was not needed on the higher teams? That's the only explanations I can think of.

I would contact other clubs and see if he can get a spot, if not accept the lower team and work hard to move up either during the season or next. (And tryout somewhere else)

We reached out to other teams and attended ID camps on other teams as well. Even when he joined his own team's ID camp and obviously performed well, he was never approached by next season's coach, while he was approached by 3 other teams' coach from outside club. It was an easy decision for us.

From what I’m being told there were multiple people dropped from each level. With that being said he has I think 6-7 of his teammates from previous team on his new team.

It’s basically a tryout before the official “tryouts”. They’re generally not held for Academy age groups, just Select (U13 and up). It’s a good way to explore other clubs. If a club is interested, typically an invitation to practice with the current team will follow. If your kid goes to multiple practices and they like him/her, often an offer is made before tryouts to secure them before they go back to their old club or another club, depending on the level of the team in question.

What did you decide to do? We are facing the same problem

He has a tryout with another club closer to home tonight. It’s definitely a smaller club but depending on if they offer him a spot we may take this option for a year and continue training and go elsewhere next year. This is closer to home, cheaper and does not have added out of county costs.

Thats what we did and it turned out great! Local small club. Huge savings. ended up using that extra money saving to do privates and other camps.