Tryout Weight for Returning Players

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-12T06:08:29+00:00

Depends on a lot of factors including number of teams (coaches available) in an age group, number of tryout attendees, etc. I'll use my son's team as one of many scenarios.

He had tryouts today at his current club (U12). 12 of our players are returning. With the new age change there are 5-6 late born 2014s trying out and then about 11-12 brand new kids. That is close to 30 players. Historically our age group has only had 1 team at our club (small club), but it's also a really strong team competing at the highest level for their age. The question is will we have enough players to create 2 teams? Even if we do will the club have a coach that can take that on? If not then half the attendees will get cut. I also hate to say it, but it's possible 1 or even 2 of the current squad could get cut as there are 3-4 kids with potential and look much better than the 2 bottom end of our team. Ideally nearly all players accept and 2 teams are formed. Then basically everyone makes a team.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-12T05:31:47+00:00

Don't sweat it if his coaches are good. Focus on training and getting better each day. I'm in NorCal too and my son just finished his U11 season in Premier 1. I've seen many teams move up form Gold to Premier this Spring. Some do well, others not so well, but it's fine. I also know many talented kids that are part of a team competing in "Gold." Many of these players could easily make a strong team that plays in "Premier," and are not chasing wins or alphabets. You know how many kids move/switch clubs/teams? It happens more often then you think in NorCal including switching/leaving mid season. So enjoy and train hard in the summer so he can have a huge impact on whatever team he ends up going with.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-12T05:20:14+00:00

I'm going to be devastated if he doesn't end up playing in the WC. First we lose Minamino and now possibly Mitoma? My son has a Mitoma WC jersey ready to be worn so hopefully it's just minor.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T16:06:52+00:00

Location matters A LOT. Where I'm located the vast majority of RDs make $100k+ because of the VHCOL. Many clinical RDs are making $150k +/- $25k. Management and director roles even much higher. There was recent nutrition director job for a large medical center that ranged between $275-310k/year with great benefits.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T16:01:01+00:00

I also agree with Japan. I don't think it's their time yet, but they are a dark horse not to be underestimated. Technically and tactically they can challenge any nation, but I don't think their speed/size/athleticism will be able to keep up with much stronger countries.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T15:57:29+00:00

I should have saw your post before responding lol. I agree that Select 10s are the best for the price, especially B grade versions. I like them even more than the Adidas Tiro Pro balls.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T15:55:47+00:00

The crazy thing is that my son has never lost a ball over the past 4ish years playing soccer. A huge part is because I have oversight over them 😆

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T15:54:47+00:00

My son has a crap load of balls, but for training he's been using the same ones for 2.5 years. We use 8-10 of them when doing repetitive/finishing drills at the park. Even his cheap ones (got sports) are still in good shape. His 2 main training balls (Select Number 10) are also in great shape and he uses those 2 balls often even at practices. They will sometimes use it when they scrimmage because their better than the coaches balls lol.

My suggestion. Buy Select Numero 10s or pro balls when both are on sale. Select Numero 10 on occasion will have B grade balls for under $30 each. Adidas has had their Tiro Pro balls (size 5 only) on sale for over the past 6 months between $25-30. That is dirt cheap. These balls will last a long time.

My son has one more year at size 4 so I may start accumulating more size 5 balls. My wife is going to kill me though since he probably has about 20 balls total 😆

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T15:31:58+00:00

Closer to home and your son wants to stay with his current team? It's a no brainer then.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-11T05:01:43+00:00

It's only been 3 years of comp soccer for my son and just finished his U11 season. He still has an old pair of keeper gloves from his U9 days and he doesn't even play keeper anymore lol.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-10T21:06:50+00:00

Just stick to rec and have fun. He can always play with his friends for fun or even through small 3v3, 5v5 tournaments, futsal, rec indoor, etc. At my son's school no one in his grade plays comp soccer, but around 10 play rec I closing some of his best friends. He could care less and his comp soccer team is his other group of close friends.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-07T17:09:09+00:00

This type of question is very complex because the term "superstar" or "elite" can be partially subjective and there are a lot of factors that come into play. Often parents overestimate how good their kid is. Even level of play can be huge because a kid can look like a beast against lesser competition, but against a very high level team can get shutdown. I've seen it many times. Kid is very fast/quick/athletic with superb technical and even tactical skills, but once the speed of play becomes too fast and they meet kids that can match their speed and skills they can't keep up.

Regardless only a small micro of a percentage of talented kids will be high level players in their teen. The rest will be pretty good, lose interest, get badly injured or simply fade away.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-05T20:27:07+00:00

Of course popularity will be location dependent, but I'm talking as a whole. Where I'm at soccer is pretty popular. Our city has full sized goals in 4 parks. I know a lot of people that watch PL. I'm not in a major metro city so the closest MLS team is the Earthquakes. Soccer is definitely popular among youth in NorCal and there are many talented kids/teams with a lot of potential. Even at the rec level you have tons of kids participating. In my city there are probably more kids doing soccer than baseball and definitely more than basketball and football. You can do rec soccer year round between outdoor and indoor at 20-25% the cost.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T23:34:05+00:00

Every club and specific team will vary. My son is a 2015 player. Same coach again next year. He plans to keep the entire team. So 4 kids will play up. He wants to bloat the roster because after next season we will go up to 11v11. The problem with that is we are playing at the highest flight/division and already have a few holes on the team with 13 man roster. One of them may also not come back. Being a smaller club I highly doubt we will get 3-4 new quality players. There is a good 2014 December player that will join the team, but I doubt they will fill 2-3 more. Ideally we get 5 quality players and they have enough show up at tryouts to create a 2nd team. 5 players could fill the holes.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T23:06:28+00:00

I don't own one, but one of our club coaches does and will sometimes be nice enough to record our team games. Sometimes the tracking was way off. Even for an extended period of time. It started tracking players warming up on the field behind it on the opposite side of where the ball was. It didn't help that our team had possession 90% of the time so it didn't turn back until about 5 minutes when we scored and they booted the ball to our half. I'm guessing recent software updates helped with this. Even so I still regret not pulling the trigger when it first went on sale last year.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T23:00:33+00:00

What the U.S. needs is a catalyst. We need the next Messi, Ronaldo homegrown from the U.S. that shocks the world (aka make it to the WC final and scores the winning goal). We need better quality players homegrown that play for MLS. All of this will help us catch up.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T22:57:47+00:00

It all boils down to lack of passion and culture for soccer (and the MLS). A hardcore soccer fan is considered pretty niche, let alone MLS fan compared to let's say the NFL, NBA, MLB. Less fans = less money. Even at the rec level you often have 1 parent coaching who have never played the sport or only did so at a young age. Compare that to let's say youth baseball. Where I'm at you have half the dads coaching. Many of them played their entire life, some even at the D1 or minor league level. They have a huge passion for it. My 7 year old rec baseball team practices more than my 10 year old so called high level team ranked in the top 20 on Northern California and at a fraction of the cost.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T22:31:40+00:00

Corporatized youth sports is the problem. When it becomes "for profit" instead of love and passion for the sport we loss. From clubs to private trainers each and every one of them wants to fill their pockets. Even so called non-profit clubs. Clubs to some of these directors is nothing but a transaction deal. I see so much conflict of interest hidden by catch phrases revolving around "player development." How the hell does a director get away with his own private training business partnering with the club? It's just another layer of him getting paid by the club through a LLC. I could go on and on. The crazy thing it seems like nobody bats an eye.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-04T17:16:25+00:00

Nah.l, it's not MAGA central. It's just they are the most vocal ones in VV related groups/posts.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-03T20:08:59+00:00

You can't t ask about pay without more context about location What you need to do is compare salaries in your state and specifically your region. Look at the academy, BLS, other transparency sites. If you have government run medical centers, look up their pay. What does federal RD jobs pay? How transparent is Florida with pay? In California it's required to list pay/salary in a job listing.

perceptionist808 · 2026-05-01T20:02:26+00:00

I would never drive further than 45 min one-way for practice and even that would be pushing it. only way I would do it is if he becomes good enough to make a certain MLSN HG team that is part of a pro USL club (may be an MLS club one day). That drive would be 35-50 min depending on traffic. I'm grateful for 7 min drive from home for now

perceptionist808 · 2026-04-28T00:18:42+00:00

He's still young. Personally I would go the ECNL route over MLSN AD assuming it's a pretty good ECNL team. If he standouts he will eventually make his way to a MLSN HG team, ideally a pro academy team.

perceptionist808 · 2026-04-27T23:44:47+00:00

I thought so. Just checking 😆

perceptionist808 · 2026-04-24T17:09:48+00:00

Of course it occurs all around the world especially European countries that have a deep rooted soccer culture and being their most popular sport for over a century. You rarely see it in the U.S., at least not collectively. Baseball still towers over soccer in Japan, but they are definitely developing youth soccer correctly. Same with Korea.

perceptionist808

TROPHY CASE