Sent this email to the parent group today. Disappointment coming for some I’m sure.
Sigh…
“This will likely be lengthy…and weirdly formatted because I pasted this in from Pages...and full of over-used commas adn other typos because I can only re-read something so many times...
First of all, I just wanted to express my thanks to the parent group this year. The trust you placed in me to attempt to guide the team through this COIVID-challenged year was appreciated, and the support you continue to show week in and week out for me, for your daughter, and for the team as a whole is second to none.
Shout out to Allanna for her help as manager, and for her work handling all the stuff behind the scenes that I never want to. And a big thank you to Coach Payton for her assistance on the field again this year. You’re a big kid at heart, and the girls LOVED having you around.
This has been the most rewarding year of coaching that I’ve experienced to date. The girls have been fantastic to work with, and the collective development that I’ve witnessed has been one-of-a-kind. I’ve tried my best to teach them techniques and tactics that will help them all succeed in this game for years to come. More importantly, I’ve tried to do this while instilling and reinforcing positive character traits that will help them succeed off the field. I hope they all end the year understanding how far they’ve each come individually, both as soccer players and as young women, and I hope they will all look back on the season with fond memories.
In regards to tryouts (I’m speaking for me, not for the club)…
We’ve had a year of mostly laughs, but are a few days away from some tears.
This is never an easy time for many families. We have been spoiled these last few years as we’ve had no need to displace anyone from this roster, rather only having had to add to it. I have rarely seen this situation occur at the younger age groups, and never have I seen it happen 2 years in a row like it did.
As I told all of you and your daughters in our eval meetings, I have no idea what to exactly expect at tryouts when it comes to final numbers, the skill level of incoming players, etc. but I do know what to semi-kinda expect based on experience - probably close to 30+ non-MTA players (some of them very, very good), all coming to fight for ECNL rosters spots.
Success breeds success, and the club’s participation in arguably the most competitive youth girls league in the world will attracts talent to this club. Our team has been successful when it comes to a win-loss record, and the girls have been playing some really good soccer - and this also will attract talent to this team.
Also, being the first ECNL year, we will likely see large numbers (if not the largest number) of non-MTA tryout registrants at this age group which in turn will likely translate to the a large roster turnover percentage (if not the largest). This is not guaranteed. I’m just looking at the math.
I know it can seem a bit unfair. It was your girls who contributed to this team’s success, and it seems just that your girls are the ones who should benefit from that work. This unfairness can be more pronounced if players are displaced by old teammates from past clubs. “Why the heck did we move to MTA x-years ago when so-and-so stayed put and now makes the team?” It’s happened many times in the past, and will happen many times in the future. Players develop at different rates, especially at the 11- to 14-yr-old girls age groups. More on this below.
We’re a competitive team in a competitive youth soccer club, and roster changes are inevitable. I’ve tried my best to prep the girls and have reminded them constantly that when you are at the so-called “top”, you need to work harder than everyone else to stay there. But no matter how hard a player may work, or how dedicated or determined they may be, better players may come in. And that’s OK. Setbacks can be the foundations of future successes.
The reality of the situation is that our girls have been in a tryout all year. The official tryouts are more to match up current players against new interest. Your daughter isn’t all of a sudden going to play way differently in 2 x 90-min tryouts than she has been playing in the last few months. I have my own views of each of the girl’s current ability, as well as views of their potential based on my knowledge and experience, and those views have been passed on to the club. For me, tryouts will be matching up what I know about the girls against the ability and potential I see in non-MTA players who are coming to play in the ECNL.
With that said, the final roster decision is a collective decision among the evaluators and next year’s coach, taking into consideration the previous season’s player evaluations from the previous season’s coach.
I’m the first to admit that I’m the best at what I do :) and also the first to admit that I have flaws. It’s hard not to see players in the perspective boxes that I’ve put them in, so tryouts will be important for that reason - giving the girls opportunities to show themselves in front of evaluators who don’t know them, and for those evaluators to pick up on things that I might be missing.
I’ve prepped the girls on to how to best show their talents at tryouts in front of neutral evaluators, trying to give them all the tools needed to stay playing on the team that I believe they all love.
I’ve also prepped the girls about this and will say it here again - girls’ bodies change so much at these age groups. Slight and small today might be an athletic beast in 2-3 years. Quick and fast now might be not fast enough down the road. NPL next year doesn’t equate to NPL for life. If your daughter is not offered an ECNL spot for next year but has that goal in mind for future years, the best environment to be in is in this club. In recent history, there was an 06 girl who made the ECNL roster at U13, then didn’t make it as a U14. She remained in the club and played with the NPL team for her U14 year. Last fall, she made the ECNL team at U15.
My commitment to you - I’m happy to chat after day 1 of tryouts and let you know where I think your daughter stands based on what I observed that day and picked up on from the other evaluators. I will be painfully transparent to you as the worst thing in my opinion at this point is for someone to get completely blindsided by a tryout result.
I will also do my best to help any player not offered an ECNL roster spot to find a home. Though I hope the choice will be to remain with MTA and join the NPL team, if that’s not of interest to your family I would understand. I have insight I can provide to other clubs in the area if you are open to it.
As you might imagine, it takes some work to put the NPL team together. All current MTA players who are not offered an ECNL roster spot will 100% have an NPL roster spot for next year. This is the club’s commitment to its players. The rest of that NPL roster will be filled by 1) other players who came to the ECNL tryouts and who were not offered ECNL roster spots, and 2) players attending the NPL tryouts who didn’t come to the ECNL tryouts. The club will be in direct contact with every non-MTA player who comes to the ECNL tryouts about the NPL opportunity,
As you may or may not know, all the MTA NPL teams qualified for the NPL Finals, and are all in Colorado as we speak (https://www.usclubsoccer.org/npl-finals). I honestly feel that this is a very solid development opportunity for girls who aren’t offered ECNL spots this year.
Current players who were not offered ECNL roster spots should plan on attending the NPL tryouts, even though they already have a place on that team. This will help numbers at the NPL tryouts and allow evaluators to better gauge non-MTA talent in order to form the most competitive team they can.
In terms of the club’s announcement of the 09 ECNL team, I’m not sure how this is going to work. They club wanted us to register for the TCSL League Cup, and whether we won or lost last night we were going to have a game on July 24. When I saw this a month ago, I tried my best to get us pulled from the event, knowing that our tryouts for next year would be over and next year’s team would have already been announced before that date. I even offered to help TCSL find a replacement team and begged our 08 NPL team to take our place, with no luck. We made one more attempt yesterday to figure something out, and we’re waiting to hear back from the league.
I see three scenarios - 1) we play the final early, 2) the ECNL team is not announced until after the NPL tryouts, or 3) nothing changes, the ECNL roster is announced 48 hours after tryouts, and we finish out the year training for week after that and playing in the League Cup Final.
If your daughter is not selected for the ECNL roster, there is a chance that some (or all) may want to just be done for the year. I would completely understand that and respect any decision made. If that somehow leaves us short for the final, don’t sweat it. If turnover is great, and we end up not having enough interest to even field a team for the final, don’t worry about it. Honestly. I’m telling you right now, in advance, you’re not leaving the team hanging and there will be absolutely zero ill-will from me. If we need to fill the roster with 2010s, we’ll do it. If we can’t fill the roster, we’ll forfeit. The game is meaningless to me when measured up against the girls’ feelings. All I ask is that you mark availability in BYGA so plans can be made.
In closing, I’ll say this…soccer coaching is a fickle business. I remember way back in my blogging days (those days have restarted!) I wrote a posts about tryouts and interactions with girls’ families entitled People Usually Love Me…Until They Don’t and Best Friends Until We’re Not. There are bound to be disappointed players/families when all is said and done, and for that I’m sorry. Regardless of tryout outcome, know that you and your daughter have made this year very, very special for me. For that, I thank you.”
