Tryouts and the Paradox of Elite Coaching
Tryouts. Horrible and exciting at the same time. But usually horrible…but exciting!
But horrible.
This team been spoiled the last two tryout cycles (2019 and 2020). In 2018, the team started with 10 players as a U10 team. At the U11 tryouts in July of 2019, we kept all 10 girls and added 3 new players from outside the club. At the U12 tryouts in July of 2019, we lost Bella (who was a 2010 and returned to play at her age group) and added 6 players to finalize the roster of 18.
In all my years of coaching I have never seen a team keep it’s full roster intact from the previous year, let alone have it happen 2 years in a row. This is a benefit as the closer the players (and families) are off of the field, the higher the performance on the field. This is also a nightmare as bonds are built deeper than normal, leading to deeper disappointment when it has to end.
And this year it was bound to end for some.
As the only ECNL club in the state for the time being, MTA attracts top talent at the ECNL age groups. The U13 year usually sees the most interest from outside the club, resulting in larger tryout numbers. It’s really just math. The more talented players that come in, the more the chance that some of that talent will be better than players on our current roster.
I feel a deep loyalty to the players and families who have made a commitment to be part of this team. But that loyalty gets “split”, in a sense.
For the players on our current roster at the bottom 1/2 of the skill/athleticism/potential scale, I feel a loyalty to prepare them as best as I can for the tryout experience.
And I’ve been preparing them for the last 11 months. Every single thing I do for this team is with the end goal of making the players better.
But leading into tryouts, I try to give everyone tips and tricks about how to show well at tryouts in front of evaluators who don’t know you - to give them an advantage over players who are coming in new to the club.
On the other hand, for those players in the top 1/2 of the skill/athleticism/potential scale, I feel a duty to work to surround them with more talent.
With new talent.
And I’m always on the lookout for new talent. This is just the way I am. This is why the club was formed in the first place. To identify talented athletes and soccer players and bring them together in an environment that will allow them to development further.
This is not saying that a talented player can’t develop outside of a magnet club like MTA. But, my overriding belief is that high-potential players develop to the absolute best of their abilities when the are 1) surrounded by like-minded, similarly passionate/dedicated/athletic/skilled players, and 2) under the guidance of a qualified, experienced coach who knows how to teach the game.
The games are fun to play, but the development happens in the training sessions. And no one is going to convince me that a high-potential athlete is in a better development environment when she’s surrounded by far less-skilled, less-dedicated, and less-athletic players.
I spent nearly 2 months watching players outside of the club. Recruiting rules (don’t get me started) are so, so dumb. More on this later.
But rules are rules, no matter how I feel about them. And as one of our directors hammered (rightly so) into my head, all our actions as coaches reflect on the club as a whole.
Suffice it to say that I could only talk to player/families who had expressed interest in our club first. So I could reach out to players who had already registered for our tryouts, or who came to our ECNL Discovery Day in June, for their summer schedules.
And the battle rages in my head.
Why am I putting effort into something that is going to factor into displacing players on the team I’m currently responsible for? I shouldn’t be doing this. It’s not my job.
Wait.
I should be here because it’s best for the kids on the current roster who will benefit from new talent.
It is my job.
Wait…
Why did I drive all around the metro area and spend countless hours sitting in my little red folding chair watching U12 (and sometimes U13) games?
Because…
I know how tryouts go.
I know it’s not easy to show what you can do in 2 x 90-min training sessions.
I know tryouts and be stressful. Stress leads to tension, and tension leads to poor performance.
I want to see kids in their comfortable environments. To see how they play, to see how they deal with mistakes, to see how they deal with teammates.
I want to do my best to surround our current talent with the best new talent possible.
I want to make sure that if I’m going to displace a player off this roster, a player who I most assuredly care about, I don’t want a doubt in my mind about what the new player can bring that the current player cannot provide.
Families are going to be disappointed. Frustrated. Angry.
But kids are resilient. They’ll bounce back from any setbacks, and hopefully grow from the experience.
If the kid stays angry, holds a grudge, or has any long-lasting negative effects from a tryout decision, in my opinion and from past experience, this comes down to what they’re hearing from sour parents who somehow feel slighted because of a decision that didn’t favor their kid.
It is what it is…
