How many teams will drop out before select?

Going into qualifying tournaments in just a few short months. I have heard that many teams will disband before qualifying .Was curious from those of you have been there -done that, how many teams you actually saw disband and where did they come from in your unofficial rankings? Does it seem to mostly be the middle of the pack the bottom of the pack teams? Just trying to get a feel for what's going to happen in August.

I believe BW touch on this subject before. He should have a better insight.

and FYI, you may want to try and get a better feel for whats going to happen before August, July, June, May. You may want to have a talk with the Coach before then..

Most of your top teams will stay together (I assume your are talking about the 04's), short of a coach leaving and the team imploding because of the new coach. You really don't see many teams imploding and vanishing (it can happen though), however what you will end up seeing are girls that are on teams 12-25 in the FBR start visiting other practices and deciding to take the last open roster spot on a top team. I'd highly recommend everyone trying out different practices. I also highly recommend everyone having multiple options because it's not uncommon for a coach to hold off until signing week to finalize their roster and tell some poor kid that they need to look elsewhere.

You will occasionally hear about players not showing up to the signing party and actually end up signing with a different club (which sucks). However for the most part its not quite as eventful as many think.

So if you are on a team that's in that 12 to 25 range expect your players commitments to be tested before signing day. You really need to be having a conversation with your coach in March and try to get a commitment from the coach about your DD. Sure it's not binding but not many are going to be that cold and heartless to cut you after they committed to you.

Currently for the '03s there are:
30 teams in Lake Highlands
36 teams in Plano
18 teams in Arlington

So there are 84 '03 teams registered with the well known leagues.

There were 89 teams listed in the June 25th '03 FBR (basically 1 week before signing day).

Many teams disband?   A gross over statement.   There are currently 30 U-11 teams in LH and 36 in PPL and I don't know about Arlington.  The very hardest part is losing players that you were not expecting to lose. If your team has an FBR ranking from 20-40 (FBR MEANS ABSOLUTELY ZERO, EXCEPT IT IS THE MOST ACCURATE MEASURING STICK AVAILABLE) and you have 1-4 players that are clearly better than the rest of your team, then you are ripe to lose those players to a club with a better FBR #.  Happens every year.  Causes a lot of hurt feelings.  After you get raided and after you barely miss qualifying for LH and after you realize that your kids team has been negatively impacted by the direct actions of an adult on some other team and after you realize that the negative impact will last for at least a year, after all of that.......you will really, really hate that other team.....for a long time. That's the hard part.   Or.......you just don't care....and it's all good.

PlanoBound wrote:Currently for the '03s there are:
30 teams in Lake Highlands
36 teams in Plano
18 teams in Arlington

So there are 84 '03 teams registered with the well known leagues.

There were 89 teams listed in the June 25th '03 FBR (basically 1 week before signing day).

A handful PPL and APL teams are from out of town and would not have been in the FBRs
All of the LHGCL 03 teams are local
Still it's a rather small number of teams that folded.
I can think of only one top20 team that didn't survive

If by chance your DD has a bad team experience and no where to sign on July 1st. Don't panic. It won't seem like it, but she will be in a good spot. To start with, you may be recruited right away. But the bottom line is that you will be a free agent who can train with anyone until you find that right fit. Some of the veterans can atest that it was fairly normal to wait until after July 1st to sign. Take the time to find a good fit.

soccersounder wrote:If by chance your DD has a bad team experience and no where to sign on July 1st. Don't panic. It won't seem like it, but she will be in a good spot. To start with, you may be recruited right away. But the bottom line is that you will be a free agent who can train with anyone until you find that right fit. Some of the veterans can atest that it was fairly normal to wait until after July 1st to sign. Take the time to find a good fit.

 
Probably the best advice that can be given. Unless you are 100% sure about how your daughter fits with both the coach and the team, be patient.

blackcleatsoccerfan wrote:Going into qualifying tournaments in just a few short months. I have heard that many teams will disband before qualifying .Was curious from those of you have been there -done that, how many teams you actually saw disband and where did they come from in your unofficial rankings? Does it seem to mostly be the middle of the pack the bottom of the pack teams? Just trying to get a feel for what's going to happen in August.

Not as many as you might think.

Overall, the total # of teams combined in LHGCL + PPL + APL at U11 will usually be within ~10% of the number of academy teams I was tracking in FBR at U10. Now, some of the teams that show up in PPL/APL at select will be "new" teams that I wasn't tracking in FBR, so overall, there may be closer to 15% attrition of the teams I'm currently tracking.

There will usually be less attrition in the top 30. Recent history would suggest that ~1-3 teams that are currently top 30 in FBR, will cease to exist between now and July. That's more like 5-10% of those teams.

Sound advice from all of you thanks

there will be more teams trying out for LH than you may think and teams you never heard of...i think the last 2 years of LH tryouts has been very large in amount of normal teams trying out.

Some teams WILL disband and fall apart because of movement and uneasiness...it's just par for course every year this time of year, mid-April through July.

Our family's experience having gone through this multiple times is that it really benefits you, your kid, and your team greatly if everyone (players, parents, and coaches) are open and honest about what they are doing this time of year and are tactful/respectful about the reasons they are doing it, whether leaving the team or staying. It's the secrets and not being forthright that breeds problems (and boy, does it ever). I am happy to say that we have been fortunate with this situation MOST of the time, but we have been burned, too, by folks we thought that we could trust. It's best to have an honestly policy, in my opinion, because as the years go on, the "soccer world" gets smaller and smaller and you don't want to burn your bridges, so to speak....

Pale Rider wrote:Many teams disband?   A gross over statement.   There are currently 30 U-11 teams in LH and 36 in PPL and I don't know about Arlington.  The very hardest part is losing players that you were not expecting to lose. If your team has an FBR ranking from 20-40 (FBR MEANS ABSOLUTELY ZERO, EXCEPT IT IS THE MOST ACCURATE MEASURING STICK AVAILABLE) and you have 1-4 players that are clearly better than the rest of your team, then you are ripe to lose those players to a club with a better FBR #.  Happens every year.  Causes a lot of hurt feelings.  After you get raided and after you barely miss qualifying for LH and after you realize that your kids team has been negatively impacted by the direct actions of an adult on some other team and after you realize that the negative impact will last for at least a year, after all of that.......you will really, really hate that other team.....for a long time. That's the hard part.   Or.......you just don't care....and it's all good.

As the truth is spoken, should be in all caps for the upcoming '04s.....

What does it look like if your team doesn't make?  Do you just not turn in the contract if you only end up with 10 girls?  Are the contracts void?

Back in the day it took 14 girls on a roster to enter QT. Did the 14th girl in some cases exist? You could give that spot a nickname of Casper if you know what I mean. The coach manager will try and not make it obvious that you only had 10 and scramble for free agents. My advice is not to sign a contract until you know you have 13 or 14 signing the day you sign. If they will not let you wait you better start looking elsewhere fast. If there are not at least 16 girls at your open session you should be on a back up plan. When you start short, the money is short all year long and it usually means a poor performance on the field. My 96 went through this first two years D3 the first and PPL second. 98 had strong team and 7/1 was non issue.

My 02 went though this 2 years ago, team scrambled for players, had a great group of girls who have talent but the team didn't have enough players. Sadly that team all went their separate ways signing elsewhere..Dont be in a rush to sign and forsure have a back up plan if things go bad..that statement above about being truthful about intentions was right on the money. This Soccer world is very small..

legitsoccermom wrote:My 02 went though this 2 years ago, team scrambled for players, had a great group of girls who have talent but the team didn't have enough players. Sadly that team all went their separate ways signing elsewhere..Dont be in a rush to sign and forsure have a back up plan if things go bad..that statement above about being truthful about intentions was right on the money. This Soccer world is very small..

Sound like a Texas Spirit parent. Had a chance to be a really good team.

Just_Curious??? wrote:

legitsoccermom wrote:My 02 went though this 2 years ago, team scrambled for players, had a great group of girls who have talent but the team didn't have enough players. Sadly that team all went their separate ways signing elsewhere..Dont be in a rush to sign and forsure have a back up plan if things go bad..that statement above about being truthful about intentions was right on the money. This Soccer world is very small..

Sound like a Texas Spirit parent.  Had a chance to be a really good team.

Oh those were the days...yes was a spirit parent..had some really good memories both on the pitch and on the sidelines...my dd got lucky and still plays with old teammates to this day on current team...