DSM Metro Select Soccer

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Cyclone90

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My oldest daughter just turned 11 and has been playing Northwest Soccer U12 (Des Moines). Her coach has asked her and others if they'd like to try out for a West Des Moines select team. Northwest does not have girls select teams at U12.

Does anybody have experience with metro area select teams, pro and cons? We're also considering Johnston and Waukee too. I know this entails over a grand a season and travel regardless. Any feedback would be appreciated about the process and individual clubs.
 

wxman1

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I HIGHLY suggest her trying out. She will always be competing against the best in the region and depending on how far they travel in the nation. It also allows her to get to know some of the players from outside of her school and those that she has played with to this point.
 

Cyclone90

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I HIGHLY suggest her trying out. She will always be competing against the best in the region and depending on how far they travel in the nation. It also allows her to get to know some of the players from outside of her school and those that she has played with to this point.

We're leaning toward her doing it. I guess I'm more interested in the strengths and weaknesses of particular select clubs. I've heard some emphasize skill building vs. competitiveness while others are just the opposite.
 

StormnClone58

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We're leaning toward her doing it. I guess I'm more interested in the strengths and weaknesses of particular select clubs. I've heard some emphasize skill building vs. competitiveness while others are just the opposite.

most of the different clubs have sites nowadays ... been almost 8 years since i last played select and alot has changed since then so i cant help alot but they give youa layout of what to expect as far as commitment and so on ...
 

CyFever

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I can't speak for Des Moines, but around here it seems like to play even moderately competitively, you have to play for a club, which includes teams like the AYSO select team. It's expensive, but if your kids want to play even as far as high school, it's an absolute necessity.

My daughter (U11 next year) tried out for three different clubs in our part of PHX and ended up with two teams to decide on.

Sooooooooo different than when I was a kid in Iowa.
 

Three4Cy

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All the tryouts are for is to determine if your daughter is on the A, B, or C team and so on. Select soccer is all about the $$$$. If you are willing to pay, there is a spot for you daughter on the team. Most clubs charge between 650-1000 to play club + travel expenses. Depending on the club, you may go to two or three out of town/overnight tourneys and can plan on spending $300-500 for the weekend. Most clubs make the team members pay any entry fees + pay for the coaches hotel, in addition to their own expenses. You can plan on easily spending $2500 a year to play select soccer. All coaches at the select level must be licensed to coach.
Here are the clubs I know about:

Ankeny/Iowa Rush - The Rush is a national organization who took over a few years ago. This is a very political league, and have lots of turnover in players and coaches. The select teams typically practice 3 times a week. Games are played on the weekend, and they do a lot of travel. Plan on weekend trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Minneapolis and possibly Kansas City. My niece and nephew both play/played and they do a lot of travel. Example, my niece went to CR and played on two games on a Sunday at 1:00PM and 5:00PM, can make for a long day when you factor in a two hour drive. They have the best fields in the metro IMO. One note about Ankeny, their boys team that won the state tourney a few years ago, NEVER played select soccer in Ankeny. They played Recreational and stuck together as a team instead of being shuffled around each year which is very common in select.

Vision Soccer Academy (Waukee) - my kids play here. They travel some of the least of any of the metro clubs. They stress fundamentals in the 9-10 age group and really push them at 11 into select. VSA has the worst field location of anyone in the metro, in the middle of the country, on a gravel road, and always 10 times more windy than in town. As the kids get older, there is some grooming for the Waukee school district kids toward the high school level. Select teams practice 3 times a week.

West Des Moines - do a lot of travel to odd places. They have gone to Indianapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Champaign/Urbana for weekend tourneys. They play at Hidden Valley which is at Walnut Woods State Park. It used to be known that at U15, the Valley coach would come in and help select teams because he was basically setting them up for high school soccer. Don't know if that is the case, but was rumored by many.

Des Moines Menace/Soccer West/Grimes - just starting their girls select program this year. They've had boys select for several years. They play at 63rd and Grand in Des Moines. Several DSM Menace players are coaches. I have been told they lack technical skills, and believe this after my daughters team played their this past weekend, and the Menace team struggled to get the ball past the 1/2 line.

Johnston/Urbandale - they are combined for select. Don't know much else about the program.

All these programs play in the Iowa Premier Soccer League, so they can play all over the state as I mentioned.
 
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StormnClone58

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Jan 24, 2008
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West Des Moines
All the tryouts are for is to determine if your daughter is on the A, B, or C team and so on. Select soccer is all about the $$$$. If you are willing to pay, there is a spot for you daughter on the team. Most clubs charge between 650-1000 to play club + travel expenses. Depending on the club, you may go to two or three out of town/overnight tourneys and can plan on spending $300-500 for the weekend. Most clubs make the team members pay any entry fees + pay for the coaches hotel, in addition to their own expenses. You can plan on easily spending $2500 a year to play select soccer. All coaches at the select level must be licensed to coach.
Here are the clubs I know about:

Ankeny/Iowa Rush - The Rush is a national organization who took over a few years ago. This is a very political league, and have lots of turnover in players and coaches. The select teams typically practice 3 times a week. Games are played on the weekend, and they do a lot of travel. Plan on weekend trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Minneapolis and possibly Kansas City. My niece and nephew both play/played and they do a lot of travel. Example, my niece went to CR and played on two games on a Sunday at 1:00PM and 5:00PM, can make for a long day when you factor in a two hour drive. They have the best fields in the metro IMO. One note about Ankeny, their boys team that won the state tourney a few years ago, NEVER played select soccer in Ankeny. They played Recreational and stuck together as a team instead of being shuffled around each year which is very common in select.

Vision Soccer Academy (Waukee) - my kids play here. They travel some of the least of any of the metro clubs. They stress fundamentals in the 9-10 age group and really push them at 11 into select. VSA has the worst field location of anyone in the metro, in the middle of the country, on a gravel road, and always 10 times more windy than in town. As the kids get older, there is some grooming for the Waukee school district kids toward the high school level. Select teams practice 3 times a week.

West Des Moines - do a lot of travel to odd places. They have gone to Indianapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Champaign/Urbana for weekend tourneys. They play at Hidden Valley which is at Walnut Woods State Park. It used to be known that at U15, the Valley coach would come in and help select teams because he was basically setting them up for high school soccer. Don't know if that is the case, but was rumored by many.

Des Moines Menace/Soccer West/Grimes - just starting their girls select program this year. They've had boys select for several years. They play at 63rd and Grand in Des Moines. Several DSM Menace players are coaches. I have been told they lack technical skills, and believe this after my daughters team played their this past weekend, and the Menace team struggled to get the ball past the 1/2 line.

Johnston/Urbandale - they are combined for select. Don't know much else about the program.

All these programs play in the Iowa Premier Soccer League, so they can play all over the state as I mentioned.

after reading your post i can tell some has changed but also alot hasn't ... ankeny never had a program, their guys either played for an ames team or for dsm menace (cant remember thier name before taken over by menace, ISC? not sure) ... johnson/urbandale were separate and were fairly competitive ... if urby had a solid team they would play up an age group to get stiffer competition and then for tourney play thier age group and roll their competition ... personally i played for vision and while i can say i enjoyed it, it did seem like it was dying when i was ending there ... good to see it stayed alive ... some waukee " soccer politics" involved but not as bad as menace or wdm ... not sure what coaching is like with vision now but had most of the same professional coaching through my whole 6 years with vision ... lastly i can say we did attend about one tournement a month and repeat what was said in that you are responsible for coaches hotel, entry fees, and so on ...
 

Cyclone90

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Thanks for the info. Great information. We weren't really considering Ankeny, but this reinforces that notion. She'll likely either end up at Dowling or Johnston. Obviously JUSC would be on track for Johnston, but which direction would be best for Dowling?
 

soccercy

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Apr 20, 2006
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All the tryouts are for is to determine if your daughter is on the A, B, or C team and so on. Select soccer is all about the $$$$. If you are willing to pay, there is a spot for you daughter on the team. Most clubs charge between 650-1000 to play club + travel expenses. Depending on the club, you may go to two or three out of town/overnight tourneys and can plan on spending $300-500 for the weekend. Most clubs make the team members pay any entry fees + pay for the coaches hotel, in addition to their own expenses. You can plan on easily spending $2500 a year to play select soccer. All coaches at the select level must be licensed to coach.
Here are the clubs I know about:

Ankeny/Iowa Rush - The Rush is a national organization who took over a few years ago. This is a very political league, and have lots of turnover in players and coaches. The select teams typically practice 3 times a week. Games are played on the weekend, and they do a lot of travel. Plan on weekend trips to Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Minneapolis and possibly Kansas City. My niece and nephew both play/played and they do a lot of travel. Example, my niece went to CR and played on two games on a Sunday at 1:00PM and 5:00PM, can make for a long day when you factor in a two hour drive. They have the best fields in the metro IMO. One note about Ankeny, their boys team that won the state tourney a few years ago, NEVER played select soccer in Ankeny. They played Recreational and stuck together as a team instead of being shuffled around each year which is very common in select.

Vision Soccer Academy (Waukee) - my kids play here. They travel some of the least of any of the metro clubs. They stress fundamentals in the 9-10 age group and really push them at 11 into select. VSA has the worst field location of anyone in the metro, in the middle of the country, on a gravel road, and always 10 times more windy than in town. As the kids get older, there is some grooming for the Waukee school district kids toward the high school level. Select teams practice 3 times a week.

West Des Moines - do a lot of travel to odd places. They have gone to Indianapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Champaign/Urbana for weekend tourneys. They play at Hidden Valley which is at Walnut Woods State Park. It used to be known that at U15, the Valley coach would come in and help select teams because he was basically setting them up for high school soccer. Don't know if that is the case, but was rumored by many.

Des Moines Menace/Soccer West/Grimes - just starting their girls select program this year. They've had boys select for several years. They play at 63rd and Grand in Des Moines. Several DSM Menace players are coaches. I have been told they lack technical skills, and believe this after my daughters team played their this past weekend, and the Menace team struggled to get the ball past the 1/2 line.

Johnston/Urbandale - they are combined for select. Don't know much else about the program.

All these programs play in the Iowa Premier Soccer League, so they can play all over the state as I mentioned.

Valley's boys coach is actually affiliated with VSA in Waukee, not West Des Moines. And the Ankeny team that won state a couple years ago most definitely did not play rec ball, most of them played for WDM and Menace, there may have been a few, but the key players played select.
Soccer South hasn't been mentioned, as far as skill development goes they are probably the best in the area for the younger players. They don't generally field teams above U13 so don't get the notoriety, but have involvement with the Drake Men's coaches and players. So for development I would recommend them, they are also likely the best cost of the group and aren't going to travel to silly places for fifth graders. For the rest it really just depends on who the coach for their group is. Tryout for a couple figure out which you like and what works. Rush traditionally has been much stronger for girls programs and has sent many DI players, but a lot of those were when they were still just Ankeny select.
Menace does more collecting of players than developing, WDM goes both ways, some good development but just as much collecting of players.
 

Three4Cy

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Valley's boys coach is actually affiliated with VSA in Waukee, not West Des Moines. And the Ankeny team that won state a couple years ago most definitely did not play rec ball, most of them played for WDM and Menace, there may have been a few, but the key players played select.
Soccer South hasn't been mentioned, as far as skill development goes they are probably the best in the area for the younger players. They don't generally field teams above U13 so don't get the notoriety, but have involvement with the Drake Men's coaches and players. So for development I would recommend them, they are also likely the best cost of the group and aren't going to travel to silly places for fifth graders. For the rest it really just depends on who the coach for their group is. Tryout for a couple figure out which you like and what works. Rush traditionally has been much stronger for girls programs and has sent many DI players, but a lot of those were when they were still just Ankeny select.
Menace does more collecting of players than developing, WDM goes both ways, some good development but just as much collecting of players.

The OP has a daughter not a son.
 
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IceCyIce

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One poster mentioned it's about the money, as a club goes thats the only way to survive. One problem is that there are so many clubs the talent pool is watered down. Last year my then 13 year old daughter won the state cup with VSA. We switched this year to the Menace since it's located in Grimes. This year will be tough to get past the play in game with West Des Moines. If there was a A - B - C club with one goal in mind with actual tryouts with the best 15 going here and the next 15 here and so on we would have a team that could advance past the first round at regionals. Lots of egos in this sport.
 

Cyclone90

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We (she) ended up trying out for JUSC and West Des Moines. The Johnston/Urbandale tryouts had more girls surprisingly. The JUSC coaches we're pretty hands off with the parents and the tryouts were open for all the parents to watch, intently if they wished. WDM on the other hand separated the girls from the parents and didn't want them anywhere close. WDM also had a 40 minute presentation complete with PowerPoint on a big screen TV including a Q & A session. While this seemed somewhat patronizing it was the total opposite of the JUSC parent/coach interaction which resulted in about 6 total minutes of conversation while everybody was heading toward the parking lot.
 

TaDelt

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Didn't see this original post- but I will throw my 2 cents in.

I played for Urbandale growing up (born in 88). It was a very solid club with a lot of good coaches (Gary Eyles, Ozzie White, John Sheridan). Gary has sinced moved to Ames- very up and coming club (When I was in school at ISU, I obtained my D license and coached for 5 years in the club). Ozzie was with Ankeny last I had heard, and he may be back with JUSC.

The girls program at JUSC will be a good one with Matty Smith as the head pro. I enjoyed playing for Urbandale and there weren't a lot of politics. As far as preparing your daughter for high school soccer, possibly further, club is the way to go.

When I played, we went to multiple college search tourneys and this is where coaches notice players. Club soccer is a lot more competitive then HS (I have played both).

Good luck to your daughter in whatever clubs you guys pick, soccer is a great sport!