Being An Independent Team - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

From time to time I hear of a team that either leaves or wants to leave a club and wonder what the major positive and negative aspects are.  

From the boards perspective what do you think?

Me personally I would suspect :

Positive
- The coach would get paid the same to slightly more
- No fundraisers or other club mandatory activities
- Less overall dues and fees for parents (not paying club overhead)

Negative
- Securing fields with lighting
- Not getting a say in some of the back end meetings within NTX
- In the older age groups not getting the opportunity to participate in some showcases (Politics again)
- Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired
- Harder collecting payments for the team

NOTE:  Bonus points for recognizing the movie in the title!!!

SoccerXXX wrote:From time to time I hear of a team that either leaves or wants to leave a club and wonder what the major positive and negative aspects are.  

From the boards perspective what do you think?

Me personally I would suspect :

Positive
- The coach would get paid the same to slightly more
- No fundraisers or other club mandatory activities
- Less overall dues and fees for parents (not paying club overhead)

Negative
- Securing fields with lighting
- Not getting a say in some of the back end meetings within NTX
- In the older age groups not getting the opportunity to participate in some showcases (Politics again)
- Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired
- Harder collecting payments for the team

NOTE:  Bonus points for recognizing the movie in the title!!!

WELL CLINT! the formula; more coach pay minus less dues minus fewer to no fundraisers equals "broke team". my experience has been, lower coaching pay, more fundraising and more training. i.e.; passionate coach giving his extra time (full attention with 3-4 practices per week) to his team.

soccerdadrandy wrote:....

WELL CLINT! the formula; more coach pay minus less dues minus fewer to no fundraisers equals "broke team". my experience has been, lower coaching pay, more fundraising and more training. i.e.; passionate coach giving his extra time (full attention with 3-4 practices per week) to his team.

Interesting on the cost.  I just did a REALLY basic calculation taking into account Coaching, League Fee's, Tournaments, Field Rental and came out to about 80% of the cost of "current" dues by the majority of the main clubs.  I was surprised by this!  You raise a great point I had not even thought about.

NOTE:  Pulled some of my base figure out of my backside to do the analysis.  Actual can vary

Finding a place to practice is the least of your worries.  That can be resolved with a 2 minute decision by the coach.

The biggest negative is recruiting and that cannot be understated.  As I read your list I was surprised to see "Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired" only at #4.  Anybody that's done this as an independent (or even with a smaller club) will echo that.  Forget the "caliber desired" part and just rejoice when you get any new kid to come out.

Recruiting, even for 1 or 2 spots, is very difficult for independents.  Once you make the decision to move you'll inevitably lose a few players that you don't want to lose (I'm not kidding) and you'll struggle badly to replace them quickly.  Often times you'll be forced to replace them with much less capable players because it's all that's available.

Negative:
- Recruiting
- Recruiting
- Recruiting

Would anybody on this forum that's tried the independent (or smaller club) route disagree with me?  I've done it twice and that's been my experience.

bigtex75081 wrote:Finding a place to practice is the least of your worries.  That can be resolved with a 2 minute decision by the coach.

The biggest negative is recruiting and that cannot be understated.  As I read your list I was surprised to see "Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired" only at #4.  Anybody that's done this as an independent (or even with a smaller club) will echo that.  Forget the "caliber desired" part and just rejoice when you get any new kid to come out.

Recruiting, even for 1 or 2 spots, is very difficult for independents.  Once you make the decision to move you'll inevitably lose a few players that you don't want to lose (I'm not kidding) and you'll struggle badly to replace them quickly.  Often times you'll be forced to replace them with much less capable players because it's all that's available.

Negative:
- Recruiting
- Recruiting
- Recruiting

Would anybody on this forum that's tried the independent (or smaller club) route disagree with me?  I've done it twice and that's been my experience.

I never had the problem in finding players, actually the opposite, kids just showed up through friends in school. Most of the time it was mouth to mouth "advertising".

Interesting remarks. I have never done this but was just thinking. Please don't think I had the forethought to rank order them. Can't say that I am that smart. Probably the only item that I believed was tough was the fields as I know that clubs lock up a lot of the fields and I just believed it would be hard to get a field with lights to practice. Is that a bad assumption.

Sounds like recruiting could go either way (Alternate views).

The German wrote:

bigtex75081 wrote:Finding a place to practice is the least of your worries.  That can be resolved with a 2 minute decision by the coach.

The biggest negative is recruiting and that cannot be understated.  As I read your list I was surprised to see "Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired" only at #4.  Anybody that's done this as an independent (or even with a smaller club) will echo that.  Forget the "caliber desired" part and just rejoice when you get any new kid to come out.

Recruiting, even for 1 or 2 spots, is very difficult for independents.  Once you make the decision to move you'll inevitably lose a few players that you don't want to lose (I'm not kidding) and you'll struggle badly to replace them quickly.  Often times you'll be forced to replace them with much less capable players because it's all that's available.

Negative:
- Recruiting
- Recruiting
- Recruiting

Would anybody on this forum that's tried the independent (or smaller club) route disagree with me?  I've done it twice and that's been my experience.

I never had the problem in finding players, actually the opposite, kids just showed up through friends in school. Most of the time it was mouth to mouth "advertising".

Were the friends from school the level you wanted for a competitive team?

If it's not recruiting for you then what was the biggest issue for independents?

Independents don't have other coaches in their club pulling teams apart under the guise of 'doing the right thing for the kid'. The German is right...recruiting is more of a big club thing...the independents generally are working with a coach volunteering his time and are willing to be flexible regarding practice location etc. It means more kids get to play...and get to play with their friends. In the suburbs this might not be good enough, but in the innercity, lots of kids do not get to play at all unless their is an independent team available...simply too expensive. In baseball and football (until very recently) we called this normal. Now all of the sudden kids don't get to play because you have to pay the coach...that is nuts.

SoccerXXX wrote:Interesting remarks.  I have never done this but was just thinking.  Please don't think I had the forethought to rank order them.  Can't say that I am that smart.  Probably the only item that I believed was tough was the fields as I know that clubs lock up a lot of the fields and I just believed it would be hard to get a field with lights to practice.  Is that a bad assumption.

Sounds like recruiting could go either way (Alternate views).

Lights aren't nearly as challenging as you may think.  You can always move the practice time earlier.  Or you can pay for an indoor facility.  Or "steal" light from an adjacent field.  Or practice on a rarely used tennis or basketball court in flat-soled shoes.  Or even a lit parking lot that doesn't get much traffic.  (Yes, I can honestly say I've used all of those.)

Ahh. Excellent ways around lights. I had not thought of a few of those.

bigtex75081 wrote:

The German wrote:

bigtex75081 wrote:Finding a place to practice is the least of your worries.  That can be resolved with a 2 minute decision by the coach.

The biggest negative is recruiting and that cannot be understated.  As I read your list I was surprised to see "Recruiting players of the caliber that is desired" only at #4.  Anybody that's done this as an independent (or even with a smaller club) will echo that.  Forget the "caliber desired" part and just rejoice when you get any new kid to come out.

Recruiting, even for 1 or 2 spots, is very difficult for independents.  Once you make the decision to move you'll inevitably lose a few players that you don't want to lose (I'm not kidding) and you'll struggle badly to replace them quickly.  Often times you'll be forced to replace them with much less capable players because it's all that's available.

Negative:
- Recruiting
- Recruiting
- Recruiting

Would anybody on this forum that's tried the independent (or smaller club) route disagree with me?  I've done it twice and that's been my experience.

I never had the problem in finding players, actually the opposite, kids just showed up through friends in school. Most of the time it was mouth to mouth "advertising".

Were the friends from school the level you wanted for a competitive team?

If it's not recruiting for you then what was the biggest issue for independents?

Mostly schools and of course you had a mixture of talent but that was only part of the recruiting process. For me it was more important to have the right family than just a good player.
Biggest issue was to find enough space during the rec season in McKinney.

Or you can rent the same lighted fields from the city just like every other team...

Rightback wrote:Or you can rent the same lighted fields from the city just like every other team...

not sure which fields you are talking about but it's first come first serve in McKinney.