My daughter has been playing soccer since her humble beginnings with city league, where we discovered her talent, up through 2A, 3A, and now Premier. I had thought that she was playing at the highest level she currently can until I was informed, today, that there is a Premier II bracket which is better than Premier. Her team plays in Premier II.
Playing city league soccer is fun. The girls enjoy it, there is no pressure, and every girl on the team gets to play. 2A is somewhat similar. However, at the 3A level and Premier, competition heats up, coaching becomes more intense, and the best players get the most playing time.
Playing at the Premier level, my daughter had an excellent coach who went above and beyond in coaching, taking it upon himself to increase his expertise yearly -- even traveling to Germany to get a better coaching certification. He had always told me that when the team reached a point where his expertise was insufficient, he would find a better coach and fall back to a supporting role. That changing of the torch occurred roughly a year ago, and with it came serious soccer competition with real world coaching. The team my daughter plays for now has yearly tryouts with good girls being cut from the team in favor of better girls. After the first tryout a year ago, my daughter's team lost roughly half of the girls that she had been playing with for close to three years. In came new, better, girls as replacements. Also, with this came the philosophy of if you want to play, or play more minutes, you need to become better soccer player. The great girls played more minutes than the good girls. Now with Spring season starting, we look to tryouts in May.
Fortunately for my daughter, her coach has told her that she is probably in the top three for defense in the state.
Later,
Bill
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