Stricker, Sawyer, and Solar

by Uncleof05AP 11/27/2017, 9:36 am

Other than what I read on the thread concerning the Bobby Rhine Tournament, I know nothing about Stricker, Sawyer, and Castro's team. Based on that thread, it seems clear that all three teams are exceptional. I am also assuming that Stricker and Sawyer's teams have some very good players. Thus, I began to wonder why Castro's DA team was not stronger. My boys are still young, but you often read on this site that the "best of the best" play DA. That would not seem to be the case here. Is there a reason certain Stricker and Sawyer kids are not playing DA? Do they want to also play high school sports? Are their teams close knit and want to stay together? Does Castro not want them because they do not fit his style? Are Stricker and Sawyer just great coaches and nobody wants to leave them? I know there is probably more than one answer.

It is easy to get caught up in the whole DA thing, but based on Stricker and Sawyer's teams, it appears that DA might not be the only path to "success" (however that might be determined). Anyway, I thought it was interesting, and I think the discussion would be beneficial to those with younger players that are just looking to do the right thing for their children or nephews.

by Sprint 11/27/2017, 10:19 am

There is no right or wrong answer to your question and it all matters on what is one's definition of "Success". Does success mean winning CL D1, does it mean winning State Cup, does it mean playing US Soccer regional tournaments, does it mean playing in DA showcases, does it mean getting on the US National team, does it mean playing in college? Lots of different paths for these things.

You are right in that DA is not the only path to choose. If you want to play tournaments, CL, high school sports, US Soccer events, etc then probably no reason to ever look the way of DA.

If you want to play college, have a chance at making US National team and be scouted on a regular basis, DA is probably your best bet. Notice I didn't say "only" choice as kids definitely get to the college level without DA, its probably just a little harder. I doubt you will see any non-DA kids on US youth national team rosters, unless they are in European acacdemies. The recent 02YNT roster for the Nike Friendlies was all DA kids. But that only pertains to about 1% of kids anyway so probably not a reason to choose DA.

Have seen a lot of DA and CL soccer and the level of play and style in DA is better in my personal view. That is a personal opinion based upon a desire to see kids play a skilled possession style of soccer and not high tempo, physical, direct style soccer. That style is effective and works well to win games with the right roster, but I believe DA teams at least try to entertain the thought of playing out of the back and a style that takes more skill and less brawn. If that appeals to your kid, DA is probably a better choice.

The CL team has the benefit of the kids getting to play HS soccer and compete in other sports as well so that is a benefit.

by Dragon Nation 11/27/2017, 10:26 am

Excellent question. I would be curious to hear what others think. For my $.02 which is all it's worth, I think it depends on your kid's goals. For mine he wouldn't go DA because he pays high school sports, loves his coach & teammates on his CL team. Aside from that I don't know that he loves soccer so the idea of doing hours of soccer training daily doesn't appeal to him. He also doesn't like 1000hrs of practice just to play in 10 games a year...I'm exaggerating but you get the point. Our CL team plays 60+ games, in multiple leagues in front of numerous college coaches all while practicing 2x a week. So for him CL is the best of all worlds. I would think that's the same for the top CL teams. Now if you're on a middle of the road to bottom team then DA might be a better option because you probably won't get the exposure your kid needs to play college soccer without a lot of divine intervention. Again just my $02. Also don't take anything from Castro's team, they are extremely good! They are a clinic in possession & movement without the ball...it's a beautiful thing to see & scary if you on the defensive end of it. Stricker & Sawyer are much more direct offensively & high pressure on the defensive end.

by Number13 11/27/2017, 11:27 am

Yes, Castro's team is mostly made up of kids from last year's DA team. But these are just three CL teams. Who play very different styles. I saw FCD and Solar older DA coaches out watching the Solar teams play and they were not watching Castro's team. So lord knows who will be asked to play DA and where next year.

From what I can tell, Sawyer and Strickers team are largely sophomores. Castros team is largely freshmen. You can get a more successful team out of older athletic kids who train twice a week and don't love soccer then you can out of younger, perhaps less athletic, kids who train four times a week and do love soccer. Especially if group A shoots and group B doesn't. Very Happy

I think that for the individual kid they will likely improve more by practicing more soccer. My kid is fine with 1000hrs of practice just for practice's sake, but people are different. DA requires more practice. I'm not 100% convinced that 4 regular practices with the same coach are better than 2 with the same coach, 2 with a skills coach, and then playing pickup soccer in the park. But who knows. Your mileage may vary.

Why do any of this? Would hope its because its fun. Not some payoff in the future. But fun. Now. I would bet that, in the end, its hard to imagine a more fun year of youth soccer than the one that the Stricker kid's had last year.

by Dragon Nation 11/27/2017, 12:02 pm

Agreed Number 13

by Guest 11/27/2017, 12:14 pm

Number13 wrote:I'm not 100% convinced that 4 regular practices with the same coach are better than 2 with the same coach, 2 with a skills coach, and then playing pickup soccer in the park. But who knows. Your mileage may vary.

I'm 100% convinced that you have to have diversity in training. 2 with your coach and 2 with a skills coach seems to have worked best for my kid. But that's just me.

by Sho'Nuff 11/27/2017, 12:31 pm

ussoccerfan wrote:
Number13 wrote:I'm not 100% convinced that 4 regular practices with the same coach are better than 2 with the same coach, 2 with a skills coach, and then playing pickup soccer in the park. But who knows. Your mileage may vary.

I'm 100% convinced that you have to have diversity in training. 2 with your coach and 2 with a skills coach seems to have worked best for my kid. But that's just me.

I think all athletes should spend some time training by themselves, learning to self-coach.

by Soccer_Dad_NTX 11/27/2017, 1:34 pm

Success defined as:

US MNT: Go DA
US YNT: Go DA
Pro player abroad: Go DA
Pro player US: Go DA
Play in College: Odds better with DA, but CL works
Good future O30 player: Either Smile

by Forthegame4 11/30/2017, 3:02 am

Prior post is what is wrong with Soccer in the US. Here is my response

National team - go DA (which ended with the IS being eliminated in World Cup Qualifiers)

College - if you are doing this to get a scholarship, the better advice is to play Rec and save the club cost ($3,500-$5,500 if we include all expenses and are honest with ourselves). This would be roughly $50,000 over a 10 year period, nice college nest egg.

by Soccer_Dad_NTX 11/30/2017, 9:31 am

Forthegame4 - yeah, we would have done much better throughout the hex without any of the younger players who came through the DA like Pulisic. Great point.

Back to Stricker, Sawyer, and Solar... they've all achieved a lot already. Dallas has produced plenty of pros and even national team players. Will any come from these teams?

by mpcls55 12/3/2017, 7:32 am

Personally, all this time and money is spent with an end game of my son playing HS Soccer, which facilitates a need to keep grades up and a sense of belonging. We’ve played for 1 or more of the “said” coaches in the title of this post. It wasn’t until after a HS soccer game that i’d seen my son smile walking off the pitch. There has to be a balance, but who knows where that exists. This season we’d be happy if we had a practice once in a while. Or a coach with some passion rather than looking like an actor in a Low T commercial during the games.

by Dragon Nation 12/9/2017, 7:49 am

Just wanted to say as much as we all argue about which coaches, teams & styles are better 1 thing we can agree on is that the talent & competition in NTX week end & week out is 2nd to none. A lot of our NTX teams travel to tournaments & showcases around the country & play some of the best teams this country has to offer. More times than not, the boys from NTX come out on top. Dallas Texans South went to Nebraska last week & came out on top. FC Dallas Premiere won a tournament last week, out of the state. NTX teams routinely win the Colorado tournament. Sawyer, Castro & Ayses hand it to the out of state teams that come to NTX to play in our tournaments. Odyssey is killing all the teams they play in National Premiere League. Last year Stricker finished 2nd in National League, won SRPL, Regionals & the National Championship. Stricker & FCD Premiere are fighting it out in SRPL this year for the top 2 spots. Odyssey & Stricker are both in North Carolina this week playing in National League against some of the best teams in Carolina, OK, Cali, VA, WA, MO, AZ...etc. Apologies, I'm sure I've left out other NTX teams & many tournament wins but my point is we all may have different opinions about who & what style of play is better but regardless of who's coaching what team & what style, the coaches & players in NTX are killing it in the state & around the country! I can tell you that everywhere we go to play around this country people respect NTX soccer like no other. They hate to see NTX teams in their brackets but most often they use us as the measuring stick. Every time I'm asked where our team is from, I stick my chest out & proudly say "North Texas" & you should too. Good luck to all NTX teams

by SnookumsConCarne 12/9/2017, 8:41 pm

Dragon Nation wrote:Just wanted to say as much as we all argue about which coaches, teams & styles are better 1 thing we can agree on is that the talent & competition in NTX week end & week out is 2nd to none. A lot of our NTX teams travel to tournaments & showcases around the country & play some of the best teams this country has to offer. More times than not, the boys from NTX come out on top. Dallas Texans South went to Nebraska last week & came out on top. FC Dallas Premiere won a tournament last week, out of the state. NTX teams routinely win the Colorado tournament. Sawyer, Castro & Ayses hand it to the out of state teams that come to NTX to play in our tournaments. Odyssey is killing all the teams they play in National Premiere League. Last year Stricker finished 2nd in National League, won SRPL, Regionals & the National Championship. Stricker & FCD Premiere are fighting it out in SRPL this year for the top 2 spots. Odyssey & Stricker are both in North Carolina this week playing in National League against some of the best teams in Carolina, OK, Cali, VA, WA, MO, AZ...etc. Apologies, I'm sure I've left out other NTX teams & many tournament wins but my point is we all may have different opinions about who & what style of play is better but regardless of who's coaching what team & what style, the coaches & players in NTX are killing it in the state & around the country! I can tell you that everywhere we go to play around this country people respect NTX soccer like no other. They hate to see NTX teams in their brackets but most often they use us as the measuring stick. Every time I'm asked where our team is from, I stick my chest out & proudly say "North Texas" & you should too. Good luck to all NTX teams

Señor Dragon Nation: The Dallas “Dirty South” Texans went to Kansas, not Nebraska, last weekend.
Good luck to you guys in this weekend.
¡Ciao!

by Bandit 1/9/2018, 7:03 pm

Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

by Riquelme Rises 1/10/2018, 10:04 am

Bandit wrote:Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

Making fun of team? Real mature.

by SnookumsConCarne 1/12/2018, 11:55 am

Riquelme Rises wrote:
Bandit wrote:Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

Making fun of team? Real mature.

by SnookumsConCarne 1/12/2018, 12:05 pm

Bandit wrote:Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

Are you a current or former disgruntled Solar Sawyer parent?
You’ve posted only twice on this forum.
On both posts, you singled out and attacked this Sawyer team.
Why?

by Riquelme Rises 1/12/2018, 12:19 pm

SnookumsConCarne wrote:
Bandit wrote:Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

Are you a current or former disgruntled Solar Sawyer parent?
You’ve posted only twice on this forum.
On both posts, you singled out and attacked this Sawyer team.
Why?

Because his bb probably rode the bench there....or was turned away at a tryout.

by SnookumsConCarne 1/12/2018, 2:24 pm

Riquelme Rises wrote:
SnookumsConCarne wrote:
Bandit wrote:Well it looks like Sawyer played at Disney and definitively showed that they are NOT “ready to compete with all the top teams in the country”. Played 3 games in by far the easiest bracket (No state Cup Champions, Regional Qualifiers or National League teams). Lost by combined score of 8-2 in the 3 games. On the bright side, they did manage to beat the #57 team in Region 3 (#298 National Rank). Lol

Are you a current or former disgruntled Solar Sawyer parent?
You’ve posted only twice on this forum.
On both posts, you singled out and attacked this Sawyer team.
Why?

Well yes, that’s probably what it is.
It’s sad, really.
I’m going to miss all of these salty, spiteful parents and their internet jabs at other kids and the coaches.
These mofos crack me up.

Because his bb probably rode the bench there....or was turned away at a tryout.