Your Daughter's Journey

S

stoppagetime

BRONZE
Thought it might be interesting to see how many different journeys your daughters have taken to get to this point...the end of their club soccer playing days and maybe the beginning of their collegiate or professional careers? To keep things consistent for comparison, please list in this format, in reverse chronological order:

YEAR : CLUB : LEVEL (A, B, C team etc or Flight 1, Premier, etc)

Please go back as far as your memory allows...I have a Ulittle so if you can get back to those years, it would be most interesting for me. I know each journey is different, but maybe some trends will emerge.

Thanks in advance for participating!
 
Let's see.

U10 West Coast FC United (B team) Silver (prior to the creation of the SCDSL Silver Elite was the highest level at U10).

U11 West Coast FC United (B team) Bronze (they were relegated to bronze)

U12 Strikers FC (A team) Silver

U13 Strikers FC Silver Elite ( Won Silver elite South and lost in the final 4 of National Cup in pk's)

U14 Strikers FC ECNL 6th place Southwest conference

U15 Strikers FC ECNL 5th place Southwest conference Champions League qualifier

U16 Strikers FC ECNL 4th place Southwest conference Champions League qualifier

U17 Strikers FC ECNL 5th place Southwest conference North American League qualifier

U18 Surf ECNL

Currently plays at a top 10 P5 conference school beginning her sophomore year. She has been a starter since the first practice of her as freshman year and made the conference all freshman team and the national best XI freshmen.

Played high school soccer all 4 years and was named first team all league all 4 years, was league MVP as a senior as well as first team all county, all CIF and county athlete of the year.

My player started as a B team player but worked hard at every opportunity throughout her career and eventually passed all of her peers in the region. It doesn't matter where a player starts off what matters is how clearly they can see their goals and how hard they are willing to work to achieve them.

My player never played for the top team in her age group as a club player. For those that want it badly enough the sky is the limit. Good luck to you and your player.
 
MakeAPlay said:
Let's see.

U10 West Coast FC United (B team) Silver (prior to the creation of the SCDSL Silver Elite was the highest level at U10).

U11 West Coast FC United (B team) Bronze (they were relegated to bronze)

U12 Strikers FC (A team) Silver

U13 Strikers FC Silver Elite ( Won Silver elite South and lost in the final 4 of National Cup in pk's)

U14 Strikers FC ECNL 6th place Southwest conference

U15 Strikers FC ECNL 5th place Southwest conference Champions League qualifier

U16 Strikers FC ECNL 4th place Southwest conference Champions League qualifier

U17 Strikers FC ECNL 5th place Southwest conference North American League qualifier

U18 Surf ECNL

Currently plays at a top 10 P5 conference school beginning her sophomore year. She has been a starter since the first practice of her as freshman year and made the conference all freshman team and the national best XI freshmen.

Played high school soccer all 4 years and was named first team all league all 4 years, was league MVP as a senior as well as first team all county, all CIF and county athlete of the year.

My player started as a B team player but worked hard at every opportunity throughout her career and eventually passed all of her peers in the region. It doesn't matter where a player starts off what matters is how clearly they can see their goals and how hard they are willing to work to achieve them.

My player never played for the top team in her age group as a club player. For those that want it badly enough the sky is the limit. Good luck to you and your player.
Click to expand...

Thanks MakeAPlay. Congratulations to your player!
One question: Any idea (or guess) as to how many teammates from those U12-U13 teams are still playing? in general, do you know what happened to the top players from those teams, the ones your daughter passed? Anything to learn from why they were passed up?
 
stoppagetime said:
Thanks MakeAPlay. Congratulations to your player!
One question: Any idea (or guess) as to how many teammates from those U12-U13 teams are still playing? in general, do you know what happened to the top players from those teams, the ones your daughter passed? Anything to learn from why they were passed up?
Click to expand...

Okay I looked up the numbers and 10 players from her U13 team that lost in the semifinals of National Cup are still playing in college. Not a bad number from a roster of 17. Regarding the players that my daughter passed up I was referring to all of the players in Region IV. Most of those top players are still playing soccer either as sophomores or freshmen this year with varying degrees of success so far.

If I was to say why she passed them 3 things stand out. First she works extremely hard. I have yet to see anyone outwork my player on or off the pitch. Plenty of players have talent. She understood with her pedigree that there were very high expectations placed upon her not only by us but by her peers. Instead of using that as an excuse to cut corners she used it to push her. Also since she didn't get picked for the "A" team her second year of club from that point on she always played with a chip on her shoulder. Most players in her orbit have been getting accolades since they stepped on the pitch and therefore don't have the urgency that she has.

The second reason that she passed up her peers was that we focused on her personal soccer development not her teams development. While this may sound pretty simple, most parents miss this piece of it. We didn't care if she played on the best team, as long as she played AGAINST the best teams. In addition, we made sure she played every field position on the pitch (because a players best position at 10 might not be their best position at 18) and didn't get pigeon holed into a role as a pre-teen. Although it would have been easy to put her in the position to "score goals" (and she scored more than her share) we had a coach that was willing to do what might not have been the optimum thing for wins and losses for his team but was the optimum thing for my player and that is changing her position prior to high school.

Finally I have to attribute some of the reason that she passed her peers had to do with her DNA. We knew that she was going to have the physical tools to be a D1 athlete. She checks all of the physical boxes (even though she was average height until 14) with height, speed, strength. From age 11 thru 15 we were very focused on her technical skills and her field awareness because we knew that her body would catch up eventually.
 
U19--Albion OC
U17--Albion OC
U16--FC Man United (same team and coach from Legends)
U15--Legends Gold
U14--BYSC
U13--Tustin United (same team as Albion OC)
U12--NCP
U11--NCP
U10--Chelsea

Played Varsity Soccer all 4 years of high school

She had several offers to play in college ranging from D1 through NAIA. She decided that D2 was the right spot for her.

Tore her ACL and Meniscus during high school this year and will redshirt her freshman year of college.

As for kids from her teams that will be playing in college--

From u10-12, I don't think any of the girls will be playing in college except for my girl.

The U14 BYSC had many girls move to different clubs that will be playing in college, not sure of the numbers though and I believe several of the girls that aged out with BYSC will be playing, many at UNLV. I want to say that around 75-80% of the girls from u15-16 team are/will be playing in college and finally, the u17-19 Albion team is 21/22 girls will be playing in college.

Unlike the ECNL teams of our time and the soon to be DA teams, we did not have many of the luxuries as a CSL premier and gold teams. It took a lot of work to get the girls into the right spots to be seen by college coaches, however, because of the girls and their coaches and team managers and of course parents, they were able to get into Vegas, Surf Cup, Surf Thanksgiving, Blues Cup and Nov Nights where they not only competed, but they really proved themselves on the field.

As rewarding as the whole process was, if I had to start again today, at a bare minimum, it would be to play for an ECNL team as early as possible (I still like high school so the DA thing wouldn't be on my radar).
 
U9 GFC/Legends Bronze
U10 Barcelona Gold
U11 Legends Silver Elite
U12 Slammers Silver Elite
U13 SoCal Blues B team- Silver Elite
U14 SoCal Blues B team- SCDSL- National Cup Champions
U15 SoCal Blues B team/SC Blues ECNL team
U16 Eagles ECNL
U17 Eagles ECNL
U18 SoCal Blues-Composite team and LA Premier WPSL

Played HS Freshmen, Junior and Sr year. She loved HS soccer the most over playing club. She stated it's more fun playing HS Soccer, because her friends and classmates watched play and cheered her own.


My DD left Eagles after a coaching change and returned to her old coach at SC Blues for her final season after recovering from an knee injury.

Note: The best 2 clubs who developed my DD the most were SoCal Blues and Eagles. Playing for the B team allowed her the freedom to be creative in the midfield which enhanced her skills as a smaller player (5'2"). Eagles prepared her for the faster speed of play, defending, and being more physical for the college game.

The most memorable team my DD was on was her U14 SoCal Blues B team that won National Cup. It's SoCal Blues only B team to ever do so. That U14 B team roster eventually ended up having the following girls play college soccer.
1. UCLA
2. U of Washington
3. Boise St
4. Kansas St
5. Gordan College
6. Brandies U

If I go back to U9 of a roster of 12-13 players.
1. LMU
2. U of San Diego
3. U of Washington

What is ironic about the U9 team is the 3 most technical players ended up playing D1 soccer! Yet, back then the Legends DOC stated D1 coaches preferred recruiting the Big, Fast, Strong athletes over technical players....Ha!
 
My youngest player:

U9 LH Eclipse blue (bronze?)
U10 LH Eclipse blue SCDSL Flight 2
U11 LH Eclipse blue SCDSL Flight 2
U12 LH Eclipse blue SCDSL Flight 1
U13 Strikers South Coast Flight 1
U14 CDA Slammers Flight 1
U15 Strikers EGSL(<----before I knew what a joke that league was)
U16 Pats Academy (U17 age group)
U17 Pats Academy II (U18 Age group)

There has been lots of craziness in the club soccer scene since this one has been playing...and so has played at a few different places due to coaching turnover, etc. She is midway through the recruiting process. She's played HS for 2 years but not sure about next year due to Academy craziness.

My player that just graduated:

U9 NHB FC, team advanced to silver
U10 CFC (Silver) remnants from NHB team
U11 LH Eclipse White Silver Elite
U12 LH Eclipse White Gold
U13 LH Eclipse White Gold
U14 LH Eclipse White SCDSL Flight 1
U15 LH Eclipse White SCDSL Flight 1
U16 Strikers ECNL <----When LH Eclipse became Strikers OC and took over ECNL program
U17 Pats Academy/WPSL and DP for U18 Surf ECNL
U18 Pats Academy/WPSL

In her case, we picked the coaches, not the teams. She had been recruited by two big name clubs but passed in order to stick with the coaches she liked and knew. Had two years of bad coaching, but fixed that quickly each time.
She played varsity at her HS all 4 years.
She made the 1999 CalSouth ODP team 2 years in a row and also made region IV team for 3 years in row. She's been invited to several YNT camps but has only been rostered in 1 international match so far.
She started being recruited as freshman but made her decision as a sophomore. I attribute this to her appearances in ODP events and also being a GK
She has two teammates that she played with since U-little that are also playing D1 this fall. All three girls have uncommon work ethic.

My older player played at a local club until U16 when she decided to step it up and play for Eclipse Gold.
U17 LH Eclipse Premier
U18 LH Eclipse Premier
She was recruited her senior year at Surf Thanksgiving by a D1 school in the WCC. She ended up earning a very fine private education with soccer and has yet to peak in her soccer career. I attribute her late start in the recruiting process to lack of knowledge of the club soccer/recruiting scene and also being somewhat of a late bloomer. She did, however end up playing pro in Europe.
 
Common denominator so far....no player has played for 1 club team. We did what was best for our DDs development!
 
@MAP, you did hit upon this a bit, but do you think the top players at u13-14 remained the top players through high school and now college? Im just wondering if it's necessary to be identified in some way by a certain age as a top player to even have a shot at D1.
 
NoGoal said:
U9 GFC/Legends Bronze
U10 Barcelona Gold
U11 Legends Silver Elite
U12 Slammers Silver Elite
U13 SoCal Blues B team- Silver Elite
U14 SoCal Blues B team- SCDSL- National Cup Champions
U15 SoCal Blues B team/SC Blues ECNL team
U16 Eagles ECNL
U17 Eagles ECNL
U18 SoCal Blues-Composite team and LA Premier WPSL

Played HS Freshmen, Junior and Sr year. She loved HS soccer the most over playing club. She stated it's more fun playing HS Soccer, because her friends and classmates watched play and cheered her own.


My DD left Eagles after a coaching change and returned to her old coach at SC Blues for her final season after recovering from an knee injury.

Note: The best 2 clubs who developed my DD the most were SoCal Blues and Eagles. Playing for the B team allowed her the freedom to be creative in the midfield which enhanced her skills as a smaller player (5'2"). Eagles prepared her for the faster speed of play, defending, and being more physical for the college game.

The most memorable team my DD was on was her U14 SoCal Blues B team that won National Cup. It's SoCal Blues only B team to ever do so. That U14 B team roster eventually ended up having the following girls play college soccer.
1. UCLA
2. U of Washington
3. Boise St
4. Kansas St
5. Gordan College
6. Brandies U

If I go back to U9 of a roster of 12-13 players.
1. LMU
2. U of San Diego
3. U of Washington

What is ironic about the U9 team is the 3 most technical players ended up playing D1 soccer! Yet, back then the Legends DOC stated D1 coaches preferred recruiting the Big, Fast, Strong athletes over technical players....Ha!
Click to expand...

I like this! Especially as the parent of a technical player.
 
Single Club example

Oldest Child - Daughter
U8-U17 played for Carlsbad Lightning/Carlsbad Elite on A team all years. Played midfield and defense and was recruited to play in College but broke her leg her Junior year and has never played soccer again. The break happened against Legends in the National Cup semi-final and was a cheap shot as she picked up the ball to throw it in the player that she had just bodied off of the ball slid into her with cleats up beyond the touch line and snapped her left leg. This past year Dr. Chao of San Diego did some rework on it and she is now able to run again. She will be a senior and have her teaching degree, credential and student teaching all finished by May next year.

Her team from U9-10 has 6 players from a roster of 12 playing or played D1 sports mostly soccer, with the U17-18 team having 12 playing D1 soccer/ lacrosse

Second Child - Son and twin
Played soccer for three years at Carlsbad Lightning, quit playing when they wanted him to be the full time GK. Played baseball and now plays High School football, he is being recruited to play football in college but no D1 offers yet.

Third Child - Daughter and twin
U8-U19 plays for LA Galaxy San Diego formerly Carlsbad United, formerly Carlsbad Elite, formerly Carlsbad Lightning and is currently playing on their WPSL team. Played on the A team every year. Will play for Colorado in 2018. Has always played with both feet and has an incredibly hard shot and is easily one of the best in the air. She has played EVERY position but has mostly played the 6 and the 8.
Last years team has ALL except two players playing D1 soccer either this year or next. One exception is a young lady that accepted an academic scholarship to Cal next year. The current DA team has two players that have not yet committed to play soccer in college next year. From her U9 team there are also 6 of the 13 players playing D1 sports this year or next.

She loves playing for her High School and is hoping that she can work that into this years schedule. She would need to miss the HS preseason and one or two DA games unless they are rescheduled.

State Cup 2009
HS Semi Final

KayleighSurfCupU10.jpeg KayleighLegendsU15.jpg
 
MakeAPlay said:
Okay I looked up the numbers and 10 players from her U13 team that lost in the semifinals of National Cup are still playing in college. Not a bad number from a roster of 17. Regarding the players that my daughter passed up I was referring to all of the players in Region IV. Most of those top players are still playing soccer either as sophomores or freshmen this year with varying degrees of success so far.

If I was to say why she passed them 3 things stand out. First she works extremely hard. I have yet to see anyone outwork my player on or off the pitch. Plenty of players have talent. She understood with her pedigree that there were very high expectations placed upon her not only by us but by her peers. Instead of using that as an excuse to cut corners she used it to push her. Also since she didn't get picked for the "A" team her second year of club from that point on she always played with a chip on her shoulder. Most players in her orbit have been getting accolades since they stepped on the pitch and therefore don't have the urgency that she has.

The second reason that she passed up her peers was that we focused on her personal soccer development not her teams development. While this may sound pretty simple, most parents miss this piece of it. We didn't care if she played on the best team, as long as she played AGAINST the best teams. In addition, we made sure she played every field position on the pitch (because a players best position at 10 might not be their best position at 18) and didn't get pigeon holed into a role as a pre-teen. Although it would have been easy to put her in the position to "score goals" (and she scored more than her share) we had a coach that was willing to do what might not have been the optimum thing for wins and losses for his team but was the optimum thing for my player and that is changing her position prior to high school.

Finally I have to attribute some of the reason that she passed her peers had to do with her DNA. We knew that she was going to have the physical tools to be a D1 athlete. She checks all of the physical boxes (even though she was average height until 14) with height, speed, strength. From age 11 thru 15 we were very focused on her technical skills and her field awareness because we knew that her body would catch up eventually.
Click to expand...

Thanks again sharing so much detail. We've tried to engrain in our kids to be the most improved player on their team every year and usually that's through the things they can control, like effort, being coachable and working on the fundamentals. Hopefully that will help them find success in sports and life.
 
Bdobyns said:
U19--Albion OC
U17--Albion OC
U16--FC Man United (same team and coach from Legends)
U15--Legends Gold
U14--BYSC
U13--Tustin United (same team as Albion OC)
U12--NCP
U11--NCP
U10--Chelsea

Played Varsity Soccer all 4 years of high school

She had several offers to play in college ranging from D1 through NAIA. She decided that D2 was the right spot for her.

Tore her ACL and Meniscus during high school this year and will redshirt her freshman year of college.

As for kids from her teams that will be playing in college--

From u10-12, I don't think any of the girls will be playing in college except for my girl.

The U14 BYSC had many girls move to different clubs that will be playing in college, not sure of the numbers though and I believe several of the girls that aged out with BYSC will be playing, many at UNLV. I want to say that around 75-80% of the girls from u15-16 team are/will be playing in college and finally, the u17-19 Albion team is 21/22 girls will be playing in college.

Unlike the ECNL teams of our time and the soon to be DA teams, we did not have many of the luxuries as a CSL premier and gold teams. It took a lot of work to get the girls into the right spots to be seen by college coaches, however, because of the girls and their coaches and team managers and of course parents, they were able to get into Vegas, Surf Cup, Surf Thanksgiving, Blues Cup and Nov Nights where they not only competed, but they really proved themselves on the field.

As rewarding as the whole process was, if I had to start again today, at a bare minimum, it would be to play for an ECNL team as early as possible (I still like high school so the DA thing wouldn't be on my radar).
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your daughter's journey. Major injuries seem to be a recurring theme, which is obviously part of sports, but still worrisome.
One question: At what age did it get serious? From a fun thing to be doing to an all-consuming pursuit?
 
NoGoal said:
U9 GFC/Legends Bronze
U10 Barcelona Gold
U11 Legends Silver Elite
U12 Slammers Silver Elite
U13 SoCal Blues B team- Silver Elite
U14 SoCal Blues B team- SCDSL- National Cup Champions
U15 SoCal Blues B team/SC Blues ECNL team
U16 Eagles ECNL
U17 Eagles ECNL
U18 SoCal Blues-Composite team and LA Premier WPSL

Played HS Freshmen, Junior and Sr year. She loved HS soccer the most over playing club. She stated it's more fun playing HS Soccer, because her friends and classmates watched play and cheered her own.


My DD left Eagles after a coaching change and returned to her old coach at SC Blues for her final season after recovering from an knee injury.

Note: The best 2 clubs who developed my DD the most were SoCal Blues and Eagles. Playing for the B team allowed her the freedom to be creative in the midfield which enhanced her skills as a smaller player (5'2"). Eagles prepared her for the faster speed of play, defending, and being more physical for the college game.

The most memorable team my DD was on was her U14 SoCal Blues B team that won National Cup. It's SoCal Blues only B team to ever do so. That U14 B team roster eventually ended up having the following girls play college soccer.
1. UCLA
2. U of Washington
3. Boise St
4. Kansas St
5. Gordan College
6. Brandies U

If I go back to U9 of a roster of 12-13 players.
1. LMU
2. U of San Diego
3. U of Washington

What is ironic about the U9 team is the 3 most technical players ended up playing D1 soccer! Yet, back then the Legends DOC stated D1 coaches preferred recruiting the Big, Fast, Strong athletes over technical players....Ha!
Click to expand...

Thanks NoGoal for participating...congratulations to you and your DD. She's obviously played with some great players over the years. When I see your journey, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the miles your family must have spent on road. Regardless of your starting point, considering clubs as far apart as San Juan Capistrano and Camarillo is incredible...and makes me feel a twinge of guilt that we told our DD that despite their interest, San Juan Capistrano was just too far for us this year.
 
stoppagetime said:
Thanks NoGoal for participating...congratulations to you and your DD. She's obviously played with some great players over the years. When I see your journey, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the miles your family must have spent on road. Regardless of your starting point, considering clubs as far apart as San Juan Capistrano and Camarillo is incredible...and makes me feel a twinge of guilt that we told our DD that despite their interest, San Juan Capistrano was just too far for us this year.
Click to expand...

One of my players had teammates that commuted from Indio to Irvine! :eek: NoGoal is somewhat centrally located so everything is equally far LOL!!
 
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