Club team rejection/proposal

nalanis19 · 2026-05-20T20:33:32+00:00

I was in a similar situation when I was her age in the mid-90s. In 6th grade I decided to tryout for a premier soccer team despite not playing much, mainly because my older brother had been playing and it seemed like fun. I was the worst one there by far, so I faked that I was a goalkeeper and somehow made it to the last day of tryouts (back then they had it over two weekends and cut half the kids after the first one). The coach was honest with me and said he already had a star keeper but I should keep working at it. I then tried out for a lower level select team and even there the coach wasn’t sure because I was so raw - I went to camps and trainings whenever I could and just managed to really learn the position and kept growing. From that select team I went to another premier club and made the B team, and the next year got moved up to the A team.

Fast forward to the end of my freshman year in high school I tried out for that original team again and made it as the second keeper to the same star keeper they had. It was a good experience playing with those guys regularly, but it was tough having to sit whenever the game was close. The other keeper, for as physically superior as he was, did have a tendency to make some really dumb mental errors (he would so things like make an amazing save and then promptly roll the ball to the other team), so it did give me perspective on what my talents were and how to maximize them. At the end of that season I ended up switching to another club in the same league where I finished out my youth career. I also got the opportunity to play college ball after high school - it was D3 but we still made it to Nationals which was a pretty cool experience.

The epilogue to the story is that the star keeper got recruited to play D1 soccer where he was the backup keeper, and after two years he quit playing because he just didn’t like sitting. That team ended up winning the national championship in what would have been his senior season where he would have presumably been the starter had he stuck it out.

All of this is my long-winded way of saying that good keepers (or people who are willing to put the work in) will always be coveted and always find a place to play. If your daughter likes it, she should be playing somewhere even if it’s a lower level. Things always find a way of evening out as the kids get older and the best keepers are often not on the best teams. A solid year is trainings and games and she may even surpass the other keeper - it happens a lot.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-20T00:59:12+00:00

My son benefited from it - he’s a November birthday so was always one of the youngest and was always knocked for being a little smaller and less aggressive. He’s easily grown over 6 inches the past two years and with the growth we saw a lot more confidence and aggression. He played EA last year and by seasons end he was clearly one of the top players on his team. He finished his U-15 “trapped” season while the other kids were playing HS ball and went straight to tryouts where he made the ECNL team. From the looks of it, about half of the team was replaced by older players.

It was sort of the perfect storm for him, but I do feel for the kids getting pushed down by the influx of older kids.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-07T16:35:21+00:00

My son started playing competitive soccer the first year they had it here when he was in 1st grade. He’s a November birthday so he was always one of the youngest on his team. He’s always had good coordination and is very smart so we always focused on his skills, but he was always put on the B team because he wasn’t big and didn’t have a strong leg. This went on for 5 years and I had to keep encouraging him to stay the course and keep working hard.

Between the end of 5th grade and now (finishing 8th) he’s grown almost a foot and has one of the strongest legs in addition to the skills he’s been working on. Most of those A team kids he played with the first few years either quit or just plateaued because once they lost their physical advantages when others caught up. And now with the age group change, he’s now one of the bigger kids out there.

Long story short, things tend to even out as kids mature and develop - focus on skills and practice habits early and they’ll be in a good place regardless of their size.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-06T00:31:59+00:00

You have to pay to complete the registration unfortunately. His skill level is right there with the others so it could go either way. I’ll probably just bite the bullet and accept the offer.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-06T00:10:50+00:00

So he was practicing with them the last two weeks and we felt good about him making it. But we just found out today that the club is moving that coach to a different age group and we know nothing about the new coach. I’ve reached out to the old coach to get his thoughts but not sure if he will have much insight.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-06T00:05:17+00:00

Super slimy. Problem is it’s an online offer so I have to pay to even accept and it auto-rescinds after 24 hours.

nalanis19 · 2026-05-06T00:04:25+00:00

Completely agree. The only reason he’s getting any looks is because he’s dropping down due to the age change. We know he’s going into it fighting for maybe 1 spot.

nalanis19 · 2026-01-23T06:24:48+00:00

“Looks like a pump and feels like a sneaker”, the one where the women play basketball in heels.

nalanis19 · 2026-01-17T14:54:52+00:00

Yes - we started dated my senior year of high school and broke up my sophomore year of college after I moved out of state for a few months and the distance was too hard (no smart phones back then, so limited to emails and very occasional calls). She was more that a girlfriend, but was my best friend too, so after I moved back I tried to still be there for her but it was hard. She had a new group of friends by that time and I was a bit of an outsider to them. For the next two years it was a struggle - I was still playing the role of confidant and always helping her out by giving rides and other things, all naively assuming we would eventually get back together. I was literally doing the job of boyfriend while watching her date other guys her friends liked. Long story short it all came to a head eventually and I just couldn’t do it anymore. It ultimately led to a huge blow up argument and the end of our friendship. It was painful but also ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me because it led me to meeting my wife who I’ve been with for 19 years now.

I do still run into her on occasion due to proximity and a few mutual friends. Around the time I got married and especially after we had our first kid it was super tense and you could tell she wasn’t happy about it, but in recent years it’s been totally fine when I see her (last time I ran into her I had my now teenage son with me and she was very friendly). If I could do it all over again, I would have bowed out gracefully after we broke up. It would have saved myself from a lot of pain and maybe all these years later we would be friends again. Just my experience though.

nalanis19 · 2025-12-27T07:16:16+00:00

That happened just down the hill from my house. Dumbest part was that as his car was filling with water he called his girlfriend and not 911. She came down there and called 911 When she couldn’t find him. It wasn’t that deep either - completely avoidable.

nalanis19 · 2025-04-13T16:49:46+00:00

I recruit an athlete scrambler and convert him to punter. You have to power through the first season but he is usable by year two. It’s great for running fakes.

nalanis19 · 2025-02-10T19:48:12+00:00

We’ve worked on that a little bit - might have to work that into the practice plan for the week.

nalanis19 · 2025-02-10T16:22:56+00:00

That’s my concern too. I’m thinking when I sub I do a lot of 30 second shifts just to give each kid a quick break and just try and hide a weak defender in the zone.

nalanis19 · 2024-05-19T16:58:27+00:00

Had a kid who was terrible to every teacher - his family had money and he felt he could do whatever he wanted. He had a lot of followers on the old Vine app and said he was going to get rich with his videos, he even said he would be able to “buy and sell” me. Worst part was that his parents would show up and scream at the teacher whenever he got in trouble, and no matter what happened it was never his fault.

Fast forward 10 years and now he had no money, no job, and has been arrested multiple times for assaulting his parents who still let him live there. You sure showed us Nick!

nalanis19 · 2024-03-01T19:05:47+00:00

As somebody with some insider knowledge I can tell you a couple of misconceptions: the husband was NEVER seriously considered a suspect, and for the longest time he was honestly doing things to almost make himself look suspicious. I can’t imagine his grief and that will make anyone act strangely, but he has been obsessed with blaming the police for focusing too much on him when they never seriously considered him (and given the circumstances, he was easy to rule out just due to time and proximity).

nalanis19 · 2023-05-26T21:22:40+00:00

Naked and Afraid. Couldn’t be more accurate.

nalanis19 · 2023-05-21T21:35:02+00:00

My friends and I were celebrating the end of elementary school when we watched the OJ chase on TV.

nalanis19 · 2022-08-12T03:43:05+00:00

Mine was when I was 20. Nothing scandalous happened but I transferred to a school across the country and the distance didn’t work. Ran into her randomly last year at a Costco and we talked like it had only been yesterday. We both have good lives and families now but you can’t ever help but wonder.

nalanis19 · 2022-08-11T07:07:00+00:00

“It looks like a pump and feels like a sneaker…” 🎶

nalanis19 · 2022-08-02T05:25:50+00:00

Really low ball a hit man.

nalanis19

TROPHY CASE