New Parents Guide to Select Soccer

If you are like most parents you have heard about “Select Sports” but have no idea how it works, what the details are, or where to even start. I was in the same boat like 5 years ago. I had to learn a lot by trial and error. And there were several seasons at the start that my kids were not able to get connected with a select team, even though we wanted to do that. (one team folded at the last minute, and another had 40-50 players tryout and there were a ton of cuts).  So this post is to help fill in the blanks and help you make an informed decision on select soccer and learn enough to go about it the right way.

If you are interested in pursuing select soccer for your player. Here are some lessons learned by having my boys do select.

The first thing to understand is the annual calendar for select soccer.

•  Timeline. Select soccer runs on a 12 month calendar. The first day to offer and sign a contract is July 1st. But to start this story we will start 1 month prior to “signing day”
  • Open Trainings (June 1-30). This is the most important period. Usually, the whole month of June is “open season” nobody has a contract and you can go “try on” teams and coaches. This is really critical. Make sure that the coach is one that your player likes. Make sure the team skills are appropriate to where your player is. Make sure the parents don’t seem too crazy. Make sure they don’t have so few players that the team will fold, make sure they don’t have so many players your player doesn’t have a decent chance of making the team. I can not stress enough how critical this time is to have a good experience in select soccer. Try lots of coaches out.
  • Tryouts (July 1-3). While you should have a good feel from the coach where your player stands if you have been to several open practices. They will still have an official “try out” set for usually 2 or 3 days starting with signing day. At the beginning of July. Usually the first day (signing day) they will have a 90 min tryout. This will usually include several people they have never seen before. At the end of the first day they hand out contracts/offers to the VAST majority of the players. If there are open slots, they will be filled in with whoever shows best the next two tryouts. You may also have your player asked to go try for a different team if they don’t make the cut. Or if the team in some instances may not have enough players and will fold, also forcing you to go look for another team after the bulk of other rosters have been filled on signing day. This is NO FUN. Make sure in June you get a good idea if the team will “make” and if your player is on track for the team BEFORE you spend cycles training with them and spending the signing day tryout with them. IF you get tripped up here, you can find yourself and player waiting a full year to get the next real chance to sign.
  • Signing Day (July 1st). The first day you can legally receive an offer, and sign a contract.
  • Seeding/Ranking Tournaments. After signing day, depending on the league they will need to qualify or rank to see what division they play in. Training for that will start right away and usually happens over multiple weekend in july/august. These ranking tournaments can be very stressful if you picked a high stress/drama parent group in June to train with. Some people really really put a lot of pressure on winning. and can turn that not only on their kid, but also the coach, other players, the referees, other parents. All tournaments usually cost about $40-50 bucks per player.
    SPECIAL NOTE: The qualifying tournament for classic league has been moved to memorial day weekend and the weekend after. That way if you are at the point you are considering joining a top tier competitive team (more on the tiers later) you will know when you are training in June is the team will be in the top tier or not.
  • Fall Season. This is the bulk of your games. Runs Augst — November like our season. Typically 10-12 games depending on league size. Usually saturday, But sometimes a Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday will sneak in there. Most select leagues play at russell creek in plano. Get friendly with 121N.
  • Fall/Winter Tournaments. After league play is over, The coach will probably pick a fall tournament to play in. This tournament is different in that they will allow players not on your roster. usually a max of 3 “guest players” of someone missed signing day or their team folded. this is how you find a team, and how they see if you will work. If a player was injured in the fall, or if the roster wasn’t totally full, the coach could bring on one of these players for the spring season. Also $40-50 per player.
  • Spring pre-season. Similar to the preseason ranking tournament, usually one weekend, 3 games of pool play fri/sat. If you win your pool there is a playoff bracket Sunday. But the goal here is to knock off the Nov/Dec/Jan rust and get ready to start league play strong. Also $40-50 per player.
  • Spring Season. Runs Feb through april. Also 10-12 games, mainly Saturday, mainly plano.
  • Post Season tournaments. Similar to the Winter tournaments. Also $40-50 per player. These help show how good the team is, and can really help sell new players on joining.
  • Summer training. Now we get to camps and such in may, and then move right into Open Training for the next season.
• Teams. There are a ton of teams (NTX list). Some of them have multiple teams in every age group. Other only have a handful of ages that even have a single team. GSSA has their own select team, the thunder and you can see they have some Girls teams (GSSA Select List) but in 2016 they did not have one for 04 or 05 girls. Boys they don’t have an 00, 01 or 03 team. BUT For the fall 17-18 they added a 05 girls team. So it may take a little leg work to find a team near you that has a select team in your age group.
• Coaches. Like any job, you have people that are really good at it, and you have others that are not. And like looking at resumes it can be difficult to tell which is which. And which coach may work for your player. Some things that you can find out easily is to see how many teams they have coached and what their record is. This is middle son Nate’s team: (FC Dallas Central White) they are ranked 32nd in all of North Texas, and you can see how they did in each of the tournaments and league play for the last 12 months. But that does not tell you how they coach. For example, does everyone get to play? Unlike rec soccer, you are not guaranteed any level of playing time. You could play 5 min at the end, or not play at all if it is an important game in an important tournament. OR you could get benched for talking back. It depends on the coach and the parents what approach they take. Jon, for example, is focused on player development and getting everyone playing time. He is also not focused on ranking and got soccer points and wins. that makes a difference. Also what you cannot tell from forms is style and if they connect with your player. Jon, as it turns out, is not a “yelly” coach. He is pretty mellow and that works GREAT for Nate. Some players may not respond to that. Only you and your player know what works. So I will go back and restate, finding a good fit in June open practices is the most important thing. All the titles, licenses, records and ranking won’t matter, if they cannot connect with your player and help them improve.
•  Team Manager vs. Coach. On most select teams, you will not normally be talking with the coach. That is very different and took me a while to get used to. Coaches may have 4 or 5 teams they are coaching. If you send them an email they may not know which parent for which kid you are, and which team it is you are talking about. Also, they are not normally great communicators. BUT they are not supposed to be the way most all select teams are set up. The team manager runs the team, and is the single point of contact for most questions. If you have found a team you want more information about, always reach out to the team manager first. (sample page for GSSC Thunder) Notice Stephanie the team manager and her number and email is listed right next to the coaches. There is a reason. They are who you need to communicate with.
•  Leagues. Where the team plays league wise is not totally important other than making sure the league level matches where your player is at development wise. There are several select leagues and they DO have a hierarchy. and the boys “pyramid” is different that the girls pyramid. Going from most competitive local to least. On the boys side Chamber Classic League –> Plano Premiere –> Arlington Premier. On the girls it is similar but the top league is Lake Highlands Girls Classic League –> Plano –> Arlington. And within each league, there are sometimes multiple divisions per age group. This seeding within divisions is tied to past performance in league and tournaments and the pre-season seeding tournaments I mentioned earlier. How does that map to recreational soccer? My current girl’s rec team as it is right now would be close to competitive in Arlington at the middle level or in Plano in a low-level division. Not dominant, but also probably not basement dwellers. We have several players that would be good enough to make any roster there. I do know what I am talking about here half of my old u12B mansfield roster plays select in plano or arlington. And half of my old u12-13G team is playing select in Arlington right now. I would not rank any rec team any higher than mid-level Arlington or low-level Plano. Once you get to the top level of classic league you have entire teams of players that are all elite, and usually big for their age and quite physical in the way they play. Very similar to college or high school style. Imagine a team filled with biggest rec player you have seen with the skills of your best forward and that they have a mean streak. That kind of gets you to how the top levels of select would look. I tell you this, so when you look at the team page (GSSC example) and look at the “where we play” section at the bottom of the page you can get an idea if that team would be a fit for your player.
•  Uniforms: In most cases, uniforms are extra to any cost they quote you. But the basic amount I would budget is $400 for the full kit. that will include two uniforms (shirt, shorts, socks) for games, two uniforms for training, a ball, a backpack, a jacket, pants all customized with your number.
•  Costs: I have already mentioned a few costs, tournaments ($40-50 per), Uniforms ($200-400 to start) but the actual team costs can range. FC Dallas and Liverpool full cost, no scholarships would be around $4000 per year. A team like GSSC might be more like $2000, and may cover uniforms and tournaments. Regardless of the base price, scholarships and whatnot can bring that down to half or more. but usually are need based on the parent’s income. The ONLY skills based scholarships are the FC Dallas Academy teams. Those are free, but very very competitive. and those Tryouts are once a year. (FC Dallas Academy page).
•  Tournaments & Travel: I mentioned the tournament costs. And we are VERY lucky to live in DFW and not San Angelo or something for away from the metroplex. We have plenty of tournaments that are 30min or less away most weekends in  tournament season. BUT if a select team wants to travel to an Austin/Las Vegas tournament you will need to budget hotel and travel costs when you are thinking about signing with a team.
•  Fact Sheets. To know ALL of the stuff I talked about above, a team manager is required to provide a fact sheet. That will cover all the material facts in a format that is mandated by north texas soccer. I wanted to make sure you knew what you were seeing first. but this one form should answer a TON of questions that are important to making a good decision. It also is more binding in a legal sense than anything a coach may say or promise or wish was true. it will tell you
  • coach and assistant coaches. and their license info (National A etc)
  • the team manager
  • cost per year for the team fee
  • additional costs for tournaments
  • IF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO PLAY SCHOOL SPORTS (not common except at the very top levels, but good to know)
  • Expected travel costs
  • Expected number of tournaments
  • What league they already have a “Bye” for (ie skip qualifying tournament)
•  Training Locations and Days/times: This is super important. Maybe the most important fact. At the end of the day you are pre-paying for a years worth of soccer training. 1 1/2 hours x 2 days a week. if you cannot make it to Frisco at 6p-7:30p for training every tuesday & thursday.. then you are wasting your money signing up for a team that practices at those times and locations. As a rule of thumb I would say, try to pick a team where you WILL make at least 75% of trainings, and where you could most months make 100% of trainings. Again this should be clear from the open training period I mentioned earlier. There are teams that practice in Southlake, there are teams that practice in Grapevine, there are teams that practice in Colleyville.
• Bottom line, be picky: There are teams that practice where you can make it. And if everything works out.. location, coach, team age, league & skills, players & parents, travel and costs. then and only then would I say sign up and have a good time. If part of the puzzle doesn’t fit, then keep looking. forcing a fit will not make you or your player happy.

there you have it, my combined learning from 5+ years of navigating what select soccer in north texas is all about. It can be challenging, rewarding and a great experience. It can also be a negative, unfun, hurtful and expensive machine if you get in the wrong place. So if you have considered that for your player, try to learn from what I have been through and feel free to ask questions.

OPTIONS:

So where does that leave you if you don’t want to go select, BUT do want to challenge your player more. I think there are several options short of going select that can offer a lot of value and cost less.

• Week long camps and training. Going to focused soccer camps can get you a TON of soccer time and practice in a very small time frame. That can cost a lot less too. So for example the FC Dallas overnight camp, was 3-4 days of soccer until 9p. you figure that is 24 hours of training.. or the equiv of 8 weeks of 1.5×2 training. and it is a lot more intense and effective.
• Train with a select team. Most select coaches you can train with, without joining the team for a small fee. Maybe 50-100 a month. you don’t dress or go to games, but maybe you fill in as a guest player for some tournaments. Since in my view the main thing you are buying is pre-paid training. this ends up being a pretty effective way to do things. My oldest son Trey did this with an FC Dallas 00 team for 6 months and then Signed with an 01 team for this past season.
• Pickup games & games with older players: This is a good thing to add to the mix. And I like the futsal version of this.