Cincinnati Failing With Male Soccer Players

[Rohbino]

33

[ftskls]

Nothing self serving there, huh?

[MOEdad30]

He's right to a point, that being that the majority of the boys coaches tend to be "daddy" coaches and promote their kids and their friends before anything else.
Cincinnati has one of the largest pools for soccer in american, and we still can't compete this starts at the lowest age group, not just the upper ones. IT's not going to change until parents quit thinking that every little johnny is going to be the next pele and weed out who needs to be playing a more developed soccer earlier on. And get the "daddy's" away from the teams.

Just my $0.02 worth, and the article is pretty right just a little bias.

[Hugesoccerfan]

Rohbino,

While I agree with the article, I will say this--as a soccer parent whose son is now playing in MRL as a U15, I have watched a growing trend over the last ten years in which Cincinnati boys clubs have ever increasingly done better since around 2001. There was a period a few years ago when only one team (one year I think it was an Arsenal boys team) from Cincy even made the state finals (and lost). Last year, we had two state cup winners and five finalists. While I agree that the boys are not at the same level as the girls, they are catching up quickly. I think it certainly has to do with not only so many top clubs but so many top good clubs fighting for spots on the the MRL Premier top division in their first few years. Some really good OH South teams don't even get in because the in state competition is so fierce. You don't know if you are part of the selection committee if CUP Red or OH Elite or Classic Hammer at an age group is better, not to mention Kolping, CSA, Thunder United, Metro, etc. If you live in Michigan, if you are in Vardar or on the Wolves, you go play in MRL Premier first year, period. It is a crapshoot in OH South if you do. That is why I think some of the club consolidation is a good thing. I also don't think the boys travel enough outside the area to play at an early age. I remember every time we had a tournament when my son was U11 or U12, you would see the Michigan Wolves there. We saw Vardar in a tournament when they were U13 locally (at Miami U) and they were terrible at the time. My son's Arsenal team won the tournament. Guess who is better now? Vardar was travelling all over at U12 and U13 getting better and better while my son was parent coached.

I do think that the CUP and other clubs consolidation for earlier age groups will help, but I also think that the kids have to be exposed to out of state competition at an earlier age to compete. The situation with the boys is getting much better though out of Cincinnati. This could be the first year where there are more state cup winners from Cincinnati on the boys side than Columbus.