Any good news the share here? How did tryouts go? Did your team get better or join a better team?

We picked up 5-6 girls from other ECNL clubs. Problem is that we only had 3-4 spots open. So some poor girl is either going to get the 19-20th spot on the roster or asked to play down with ECRL. Youth soccer gonna youth soccer.

We did get better though.

planoaggie123 said:

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We went to "try-outs" (loose term) for FC Dallas, Solar and Renegades and are going to go with Renegades starting July 1.

U8 currently (2015).

Son liked the coaches and players there vs the others and its a plus for us (parents) because it has the best location and facility for watching.

This is just academy....so practices (2 or 3 times per week) and games...kids guaranteed at least 50% playing time.

Will update as we progress.

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I took my son (2017) out to try Renegades this evening. He's coming from rec (ASA) coached by me. He learned more in that 1 hour than he has in 4 years with my herding cats style of coaching. Coach Luna seems great. We'll bring him out for another practice on Thursday. We might also try Texas Spurs just to get a flavor of what else there is, because this is our first experience with club. But I was really impressed with Renegades/Luna.

Maverick06 said:

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Any good news the share here? How did tryouts go? Did your team get better or join a better team?

We picked up 5-6 girls from other ECNL clubs. Problem is that we only had 3-4 spots open. So some poor girl is either going to get the 19-20th spot on the roster or asked to play down with ECRL. Youth soccer gonna youth soccer.

We did get better though.

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That's interesting and eye-opening. In Houston, you're basically ECNL until you quit because the clubs rarely ever demote a kid. Maybe that is one indication why Dallas is superior to Houston soccer.

Curious how it worked with going to the Renegades practice. I had looked into the Saturday morning open practice they had a couple of weeks ago, but we would have stacked that right up to a rec soccer game followed by a baseball game...just felt like too much. I'm not sure how committed our son would be right now, but I am curious how he would respond to some coaching that isn't me (similar to what you mentioned). I'm mostly curious how you got it scheduled....did you just reach out to the club to setup a practice? Did you request Coach Luna specifically, or did that just happen? (I don't know that coach, you just mentioned them.)

We have 6 ECNL clubs vs 2 for the Houston area so the pool is much larger. I would say as the girls get older that occurrence happens less frequently. But we're in year 3 and were able to pick up 5 girls so it does happen. Now the 3-5 girls that got demoted might go try out for another ECNL team but there's only so many spots.

Maverick06 said:

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We have 6 ECNL clubs vs 2 for the Houston area so the pool is much larger. I would say as the girls get older that occurrence happens less frequently. But we're in year 3 and were able to pick up 5 girls so it does happen. Now the 3-5 girls that got demoted might go try out for another ECNL team but there's only so many spots.

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I'd figure that would mean more ECNL-type girls in Houston aren't on ECNL teams, which should encourage some changeover. I could be misreading the situation though.

thriller03 said:

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Curious how it worked with going to the Renegades practice. I had looked into the Saturday morning open practice they had a couple of weeks ago, but we would have stacked that right up to a rec soccer game followed by a baseball game...just felt like too much. I'm not sure how committed our son would be right now, but I am curious how he would respond to some coaching that isn't me (similar to what you mentioned). I'm mostly curious how you got it scheduled....did you just reach out to the club to setup a practice? Did you request Coach Luna specifically, or did that just happen? (I don't know that coach, you just mentioned them.)

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I got connected to the club through a friend that has a son on an older team w/Renegades. They gave me the practice days/times for 2017s and said come on out to a practice to give it a shot. I can try to get you connected. What year is your son?

Sorry for the lag. End of school, end of baseball season, and VBS this week has been a crazy rush.

He is 2017 as well. I didn't consider initially that you might be playing with the Frisco/McKinney outfit. Are you with the north group or the Richardson group? We are in Sachse and would be looking at the Richardson group if we went that route.

I actually noticed that Richardson has an open practice this Saturday I am considering. Have you been to one of those with your son? How do the open practices compare to a club practice in terms of drills, etc? (We will see about Saturday...first Saturday in a while without soccer or baseball, so may be a week off.)

my son got an offer from the top team at a pretty large club and we accepted. we are kind of shocked, we first practiced with the club's 3rd team which would still be a big step up from his current team. he did great, then got invited to practice with the first team and looked like he belonged. he's extremely excited.

i know the rankings at gotsoccer and in the soccer rankings app aren't perfect, but he is moving from a team that is ranked ~200 in the state to one that is in the top 10-15 in both. these kids are seriously incredible, there are multiple times per practice where they're doing things that an 11-12 year old should not be able to do with a soccer ball. and the coaches are fantastic. i can't wait for the season to start.