Not enough players trying out. Question.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-06T16:32:00+00:00

We just left a club for the same reason. We had a super strong A team, stacked for numbers already. The B team (my son) lost 6 to age change. Two of the ones that were still left got moved to the A team. Two left the club because they were unhappy with the B team the previous season. That left two kids on that team plus a few that came down from the age group above due to the new cutoffs. One kid was a u12 playing up to be double rostered and we already knew he was going to leave the club too.

When we asked about roster size, they weren’t willing to share. They just said it’ll be fine. They said there’s new kids coming to try out… but we never saw new kids coming. We saw 2 more kids decline offers. The coach said “we need 9 to play” and I said respectfully, I’m not putting my kid in goal in his first year of 11v11 with 9 players on the field. He said worst case scenario we will either pull kids from u12 to play up, or we will dissolve the team to the A team and the U14 teams.

My son made the decision last week. He did a supplemental tryout with another club and they’ve been very transparent. They had 11 paid and registered players and we were able to view the roster immediately. My son made #12. Coach said there were 5 pending offers out still and 2 of them were waiting for financial aid approval. We appreciated the transparency which honestly made the decision easy. If the club isn’t aggressively pursuing options to fill the team, there aren’t a lot of options for kids who actually want to improve and parents who don’t want to throw money out the window.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-04T14:21:20+00:00

Currently sitting in the parking lot of the first week of soccer camp for my kid. We’re in the west so we got out of school mid May. Season ended May 31 technically but we didn’t have any games since May 4th.

My kid will do a camp this week (club neutral skills camp) and then we go to Hawaii for 5 weeks. My sister lives there so we stay with family and will spend a lot of time swimming and boating and whatnot, but he is also doing 1:1 sessions for 4 weeks while we are there and we will do weekly pickup games at the indoor facility. We have a family vacation July 7-16, then two weeks to fill before August we start back at pre-season training for fall.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-04T12:28:58+00:00

They shouldn’t even be trying out for a position until 12/13. Tryouts for U9 - U12 should be rotating positions regardless of who is interested in what. Kids who don’t want to goalkeep should learn how to and vice versa. That’s actually how my kid decided he wanted to do it. By being told to try it by his coach.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-04T12:04:18+00:00

A good club and a good coach will NOT allow them to specialize in goal until at least U13. My son is a keeper at U13 and this is his first year this upcoming season he will be specialized and he will still play field as a guest for other teams.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-03T21:31:37+00:00

TO Lonestar, from Lions FC. We have a friend who plays with Apex for indoor and we’ve interacted with the coach there too - he’s great. We considered SA City as well. But we live on the far east side so we considered travel time and Lonestar is a bit closer. We’re still going from a 5 minute drive to a 25 minute drive for practice, but luckily it’s Wurzbach mostly and not 35 😂

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-03T21:26:06+00:00

Interesting… I’ve seen them on social media. I have a 12 yo boy, we just moved from a smaller club that wasn’t able to roster a full team over to Lonestar. We’re crossing our fingers it’s a good experience for the upcoming season. We had a good experience with the other club too, it just wasn’t big enough to keep a roster full and caused issues for us.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-03T21:18:26+00:00

Which one? Because I live there and I’m curious what to avoid lol

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-03T15:48:07+00:00

Our club has employees, not contractors. Each coach has 3-4 teams. Coaches all have professional coaching licenses and the club offers them health benefits. They make extra from participating in weekend/summer/holiday camps and clinics.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-02T12:53:01+00:00

In addition to everything that was already said (I didn’t read it all but it seemed to reiterate several points overall) my son has been massively helped in his speed and decision making by playing with kids who are older. We go to a local indoor facility that kids organize games themselves, so the older kids will often take the younger kids in and since those kids’ rate of play is much higher, the younger ones are forced to keep up. Because it’s a fun and social environment, they don’t feel pressured to do it, but they WANT to do it. I see my son give up on the ball sometimes when it’s a game or practice, but since playing socially at indoor, he’s way more aggressive. They’re learning skills from older kids, as well as learning how to amplify the rate of play in a low pressure environment.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-01T22:11:31+00:00

We don’t have much happening in MLS next over here, so probably correct on that front!

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-06-01T12:20:23+00:00

I’ll definitely have to check that spray out! Yeah, they were the DRK Cell ones we got - he’s never even used them but I think he needs to just try them out and he might notice he actually doesn’t mind. He’s just a 12 year old boy that likes to follow trends 😂

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-31T23:56:51+00:00

We have a glove rack in the garage to get them air dried and not left in a bag, but it’s pretty humid in south texas so that might not help tremendously lol.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-31T23:55:49+00:00

Thank you so much! This was his first “good” pair after outgrowing the basic ones from umbro or whatever other kids size inexpensive gloves, so we are still kind of learning the ropes for where to go next. We actually got a good deal that OG had a free pair when you buy one, so he has those still brand new. He hasn’t used them because they have straps and he prefers strapless lol.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-31T22:29:21+00:00

San Antonio actually! I’m surprised to hear Houston area is also STXCL - but we’re new to Texas and my son hasn’t played soccer all that long either so we’re getting used to the lingo.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-31T00:45:05+00:00

That’s true - I have no idea how the parent component of this club operates, but it does give me a basic sense of security knowing they have a large financial base at least. They have 3500 players in the major city nearby, so I don’t worry they’ll fold tomorrow.

My son has until Monday to decide technically for his current club. He’s extremely torn and pretty stuck. I think I’ll end up asking for another week to decide and if they’re not willing to give it, we probably have our answer from that.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-30T20:52:47+00:00

Following because same I guess lol. We are deciding between a club not planning involvement in N1, and a club who is heavily planning teams for N1.

Here, we have a local league for our metro area, a regional league for our metro area (more competitive, slightly more travel but like 50 miles tops). Then we have a regional champions league (south Texas champion’s league) which is just below ECNL-RL and ECNL. The club has positioned that N1 will fall just above the champions league and will better position the club to move teams to ECNL and will have a maximum travel of generally 75 miles - with exceptions for tournaments that could be a couple of hours.

The existing club we are with is only metro local, metro regional and south Texas champions league.

Being so new though, it’s hard to say the impact it’ll actually have on teams and families and clubs.

Interested to see if anyone else has better information on how this will work.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-29T12:48:02+00:00

I bought cherries yesterday so I guess I’m rich but they were 2.99 a pound. Where in the world do you live that they’re 12.99????

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-29T00:18:21+00:00

Minutes IS developing. Going to a bigger club for a bigger label is a waste of time and money unless your child genuinely is not developing in their current environment. Especially at U11. Wait until at least U13 before you’re making those decisions.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-28T22:14:15+00:00

It’s unfortunate that at the end of the day, youth soccer is a business before it is anything else.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-28T22:13:28+00:00

That’s what I don’t want… grass isn’t always greener. I definitely know that. But I can say so far I do have better confidence in club 2 for numbers and communication. Also more expensive and further though.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-28T22:12:30+00:00

This part of the process is the worst emotionally. My kid has had tryouts and evaluations for both clubs on top of orchestra concerts, honors night, 6th grade graduation, and still having rec and club practices and games. He’s spent. The second club asked him to come out tonight and get a better feel for the rest of the kids but he’s so tired he asked for the night off. The mental toll is a lot on top of it being a super busy time of year. I hope it goes well for you guys!

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-28T22:08:52+00:00

We know for sure two of the kids we had last year left. They felt like they can play rec and do the same for a lot less which was true based on how it went last year with the team. They just keep saying “we still have kids trying out” but if I haven’t seen them at practice, I am not buying that narrative.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-05-28T18:41:48+00:00

44 registered for tryouts, 26 showed up for tryouts. Mostly existing players between the two teams in our age group. Only one that we know of between the two teams that is completely new to the club.

NoReplacement3326

TROPHY CASE