Who Is A Classic League Player?

So in the years of seeing kids play soccer here in North Texas, I have seen parents come and say my kid's a Classic Level Player. Then when you see them in action, you think to yourself, really this kid? There are plenty of kids that play in Plano or Arlington that should be in Classic. And then there are kids in Classic that prob should be playing in Plano. Some coaches like technical ability, some just want the biggest and fastest kids. Some coaches just play kickball to those fast kids and its a speed race to the goal. Some build it up from the back and pass and move it well but don't build technical skills. Some its about the money and will fill up their roster to the max, pulling in kids who prob are better served playing in a lower division. Why are so many parents enamored to be in Classic when sometimes it may not be the best spot for their kid? Why are there kids who should be playing in Classic, playing in Plano or Arlington? Why don't the clubs have a better system in place to move kids around to the spot they should be at? The reality is there are a few kids in each age group that are really good and should be in a DA program or top team. But after that there are a a couple bigger groups where the kids are the same, its just the coach choosing them for whatever evaluation they have in their head (technical skills, speed, height, money, etc). Just random thoughts and a chance for a discussion to get going here.

All valid points. What goes through a Classic coach's mind in what to look for in a kid or team is all over the map even if the end goal is generally the same (staying/moving up to/in Classic). In addition to your points, at a higher level some Classic coaches want to take a solid core group of kids (quantity ~11-14) and try to keep them together and build a cohesive unit that gets better over time. Other coaches change out players every chance they get if they think they are getting a better player in return which they assume makes a team better over time. Other coaches believe more strongly in systems of play with individual kids interchangeable as long as they meet a minimum level of dedication and skill to stay out ahead of parents moving their kids around when unhappy with minutes. Etc.

Probably, when someone makes the subjective comment your kid should be playing Classic, he is probably just generally saying your kid is a very good player and could play at a higher level of competition than he currently is. It is my observation that when you talk about "Classic" in the general sense, it is more about the team and not necessarily individual players. To me (my sons have played both Plano and Classic), the teams are more consistently skilled top to bottom on the roster and play a little faster and rougher in Classic than APL or PPL. That does not mean an APL or PPL team cannot compete and beat a Classic team but doing it week over week it would be harder without the top to bottom roster consistency, player dedication, and parent dedication most classic teams possess.

ussoccerfan wrote:Why don't the clubs have a better system in place to move kids around to the spot they should be at?

except for the highest level, DA and maybe some D1 level teams, the clubs are a loosely organized collection of individual teams, franchisees, if you will, that independently compete for talent and against each other to maintain their existence.

there is no top-to-bottom development process to identity and promote/demote players... recruiting and cutting is the norm.

It's very simple. Classic doesn't accept "players", it only accepts "teams"! To be a classic league player you only need to be on a classic league team. Now, to be a classic 'level' player is a completely different issue...that actually requires skills of some kind.

Most clubs don't move players around in order to build better teams either because they don't have enough players for this (small club), they don't have enough control over their teams/coaches/parents, or they don't have any interest in doing this. Beyond that, nearpost95 said it all.

DA is the closest situation to what you are wanting, but even then a lot of top players opt out in order to play other sports or other reasons.

nearpost95 wrote: there is no top-to-bottom development process to identity and promote/demote players... recruiting and cutting is the norm.

This is so true. The reason is that for all clubs including FC Dallas, youth teams are a profit center not a cost center. Profits from the youth teams fund the DA programs or pay for fields, admin etc. The problem is that clubs dont get compensated from pro teams for development costs/profits like they do in Europe. In Europe youth programs have the best coaches because to the club its not only the future but if they develop the kids then they can get compensated by the buying club. Thats a large source of income for many pro clubs (ahem Ajax and Monaco for example).

In US at the youth/junior level there is no compensation so youth clubs have no incentive to truly develop, instead they have every incentive to just win baby to keep the youth ranks filled from parents who want to be relevant. That drives the issue. Its why the bigger clubs have tons of youth teams at all levels - to drive profits to fund the top levels.

In contrast to Europe where the youth teams are funded by the club profits from first team and in hopes the development can lead to either good homegrown players w/o huge transfer fees or selling the prospects to fund acquisitions.

As usual in soccer, america has it all backwards and until we get pro/rel and a decent compensation model the problem will persist.

I think everybody has made some really good points. One thing that I think is missed is that fact that coaches get paid by the amount of players they have on their team. If they have a full roster, that is more money they take home.

As nearpost95 said, the teams in all clubs are basically franchises. If that particular team is doing well, that coach is not going to send his players up to the higher level teams. He's going to covet those star players and try to advance his team. If a coach has a D1 team doing well, when tryouts come around, he'll have a flock of kids trying to get on his team. If he's really lucky, he will form a 2nd team.

Everybody hates FCD due to the fact they have so many teams. What most people miss is that a player can get on a team and play weather it's CL or PPL. Most smaller clubs won't field players for a PPL team because they want a CL level team. A CL level team draws more players. More players = more money.

Unfortunately, money is driving this business and a lot of really talented players are not getting the development they need.