To Switch Or Not To Switch…..

Started to type out this post April 30.  Will see when I end up posting it…
(updated May 5 after this weekend’s events…and finalized on June 11th)
Switch or not?  That *is* the question…..with the departure of Coach Alex the question for us, the decision for us for Matthew, has become…..where to play soccer next year?  There are three choices, but, we can rule one out pretty quickly:

Detroit:  The top club teams, the academy teams, are based down there and there are five to ten kids in differing age groups who make the decision to make the trek down there for practice and games from mid-Michigan s is not the choice for Matthew right now; we still have arguments about going to practice!  I don’t think 90 minute drives each way make sense.  Would certainly mean the end of double-sporting….

I think Matthew could make one of the two academy teams.  Maybe sometime in the future.

( T ) or ( C ):  I’ll only use initials so that the search engines don’t drag someone here accidentally, but, anyone who actually gets here is not going to have much of a problem figuring out what I’m talking about.  There’s a lot of different things to consider, so, I’ll step through them one by one:  (6/11 update: should be pretty obvious by now by what I’ve written previously in other posts, but, Matthew will be switching clubs this summer and playing with ( C ).

1)  Coaching – Will probably be either Brett ( T ) or Stu ( C ): the ( C ) part is confirmed, the ( T ) part is not.  Brett coaches three different teams at the club currently and has run practices Matthew has been at in the past.  Has the minimal necessary licensing needed.  Stu coaches one team; has coached that team for a few years, and is the technical director for the club.  Has licensing above and beyond what is necessary.

For me, this is ( C ) by a landslide. 

(6/11 update….turns out it wasn’t Brett, it ended up being Jeff.  And it was just about the best choice ( T ) could have made because at least on this point, I think it is about even now.  Turns out that the decision didn’t turn on this part of the equation though)

2)  Club – ( T ) is not the best run of organizations even in its best moments; communication is poor and varies from coach to coach.  Definitely an air of favoritism in the air, and quite frankly the club owner has made it clear that he’ll do whatever he wants (many many people in the area have a negative view of him; we are friends, but I can see how that happens).  The best ‘guy’ in the club, the guy who ran everything, left a year ago and his departure shows.

( C ) by contrast, looks to be this well-run professional organization.  Just the difference in websites between the two says volumes. 

For me, this is ( C ) by a landslide

(6/11 update.  The ( T ) organization and my disgust with that part of this decision played large in our decision.  I realize I’ve never been able to move past the incident that led us to not play at Wixom for one of the winter sessions….that for 2.5 years I was happy in what may have been the misguided belief that the club was doing what was best for the kids regarding soccer.  But that incident, where the club decided we wouldn’t do that, and the only reason that makes any sense is that it was a financial move, well, that’s not what I’m looking for for Matthew.

The other part of it is that you don’t hear many complaints about ( C ) and how they run the ship, in fact, it is decidedly more positive and how they interact with the local soccer teams and clubs in volunteering their time and coaching is pretty neat.  They are about to take over the primary soccer complex in town from the city of Lansing; they are planning turf upgrades, etc.  

3)  Competition / Reputation – This has always been one of my bigger problems with ( C ); their teams just aren’t as good as ( T ) teams.  ( T ) qualified every age group for the State Cup knockout stages this spring (U-13 and above); ( C ) qualified none.  I realize a lot of this is that ( T ) is the incumbent and ( C ) is the challenger, but, it is important.

That’s reputation.  Until recently, I would tell you that even at Matthew’s age group, the ( C ) competition didn’t match up to who Matthew’s team is playing….they went to two lower tier tournaments in the fall.  But I’ve slowly come round on that thought; they play good teams in league play and in the winter, played teams we played and did as good if not better.

One of the snarky rumors of the Wixom-debacle is that we weren’t allowed / couldn’t play down there because we were lined up to play ( C ); and the powers-to-be were concerned that we would lose!

The latest piece-de-resistance is the brackets for the Memorial Day tournament that both Matthew’s team and ( C ) are playing in.  ( C ) requested, and were placed in, the top bracket.  I don’t know what ( T ) requested yet; I do know we are in the 2nd bracket. 

(5/5….turns out we moved up to the top bracket.  ( T ) will now play ( C ).  Guess a lot will be learned there!)

So, Reputation is a clear win for ( T ); Competition is even, if not a slight advantage for ( C ).

(6/11 – yeah, as chronicled here the game in the tournament was a pretty telling; they beat us 5-1 and our goal was pretty fluky.  But, the decision here really morphed….one of the things I ended up doing is figuring out what each team would look like next year; trying to predict out what a 11 v 11 roster would look like.  And what that did (I sat down with Matthew one night) was make me realize how ugly it might be with ( T )….moving up to 11 v 11 means adding more kids to the ‘A’ roster….Matthew is frustrated already that he makes play after play and his less-skilled teammates can’t convert or can’t even do the basic things to play successful soccer.  The prospect of continuing in that was hard to swallow….even with Matthew’s double-sporting he seems to be way more dedicated to this travel soccer team than any number of his teammates.)

4) Intangibles – Boy this is a mixed bag.  Matthew (and Suzanne and I!) have a whole lot of good friends on ( T ) and the thought of leaving them is distressing.  Some of those friends are asking the same switch or not to switch question as well, so, who know how this will end up.
There are some players (and parents) on the team that we’d be more than happy to wave goodbye too.  In some ways I’m sure that would mean that there are players and parents at ( C ) who would replace the current annoyances and complaints with different annoyances and complaints.
We’ll call this even right now.  I think it might be a slight lean towards ( C ) though.

(6/11 update.  It looks like Matthew may be the only person making a switch.  This is not particularly troublesome to Matthew, who I guess it matters the most to.  His friends at school play for ( C )…the kids from his school that play from ( T ) are friends, but, he is not particularly close to them and both have some personality traits that drive Matthew crazy.  So, there is that.

But Matthew has some very good friends from other communities on that team, coincidentally, Suzanne and I are very good friends with these parents.  We are definitely going on a cruise next year for spring break with some of them.  And it is sad that we won’t see them as much next year.  We will still see them, I am sure of that, because the friendships we have can survive the soccer-drama that is going on now.

At least that is what I hope).

5) DA – And last, but not least, the new feature in soccer around these parts.  The state is instituting a director’s academy; the top 16 teams as determined by application will play against each other and then participate in a year-end tournament.
During the Wixom-debacle, the owner of ( T ) quickly moved from discussing the debacle at the parent’s meeting to a preview of DA…noting that ( T ) would certainly be the only local club with teams in the DA.  ( T )’s reputation tends to support that notion.

( C ) also believes they have done enough in the recent years for inclusion.  Tournament brackets would seem to support that in our age group at least, one could make the call that ( C ) is better than ( T ).
We think being in DA is important for Matthew; he needs to play against the better kids to improve.  I think he does a good job of playing and dominating inferior teams (his 1 goal 2 assist performance last Sunday was a good example of that!).

(6/11 update:  Suzanne has very rightly told me I have completely flip-flopped on this item.  I do think it is important for Matthew to play against good teams.  What I have flopped on, or changed my opinion of so much, is that Matthew and what I believe his ( T ) team would look like next year is ill-equipped, no matter how much the training and coaching improves, to play at that level.  Given how badly the team has performed this year, it is akin to taking a Triple-A baseball team and throwing them into the major leagues.

( C ) did not make DA.  They believe, and Suzanne and I agree, that they belonged but were not accepted.  But the ( C ) team certainly seems equipped to play at that level…..and adding Matthew to that make a strong team stronger.  And in the end I guess it came down to being more comfortable with ( C )'s plan for next year and the year after, with or without DA, than what ( T ) is going to do.)

Things I need to write about later:
1)  The Whole DA saga
2)  Hindsight is 20/20, or, what I could have and should have done better during this process.
3) Scouting Reports