Interesting debate here about placement on teams. I just told my daughter that life is full of unfairness, so she may as well get used to it now. But in the end, college coaches don't play FAF, legacy kids, kids with demanding parents, kids whose Mom or Dad is a coach, or kids who have been a YJ since the age of 7. They play the best. So be your best no matter what team CR deems you worthy of.
Looking at the college commits from year to year for YJ, it seems like they generally get it right. The Blue players go to the better college programs and the Gold players the next tier. Seems like the college coaches generally agree w the YJ assessment.
There are also Blue girls who do not go to top tier schools and Gold ones who go to Stony Brook (5th in Nation this year). Proves the point of many posters that some (NOT ALL!)Gold girls could easily be on a Blue team and nobody would even notice.
I also think that the unfairness with placements is more prevalent with the younger teams. As they get older, the placing is more accurate.
I'd calm your jets on the 5th in the nation crap w Stony Brook. They finished 11th in the polls, which is about right. Still excellent, but not 5th. I wonder how many Gold players are starters at SB as well. Bench players are not the same thing and my guess would be that the Gold players, with maybe an odd exception, were not major contributors to SB's success this year.
Of course the bottom end of one team and the top of the next in any organization will be very similar in terms of talent. That is obvious, but the cut needs to be made somewhere. The lower team's parents seem to miss the point, however, that there is a clear difference between player 10 on the top team and player 1 on second team.
Awesome! So not only do all Blue players go to Top 10 programs - and not subpar programs like Stony Brook (yuck, right? They were only 18-2 after all.) Blue players all start and contribute to the top programs like Maryland!!! Gold players are destined for second tier programs or the bench on any decent program. I'll go tell my 11 year old. Might as well break the bad news to her now.
No not your 11 year-old. But if it's your 14 year-old, you can go ahead and break the news if you must. All though I would advise against it. They likely have already figured it out for themselves and don't need to feel your crushing disappointment on top of that.
And nowhere does it say that ALL Blue players go to top ten programs. It's just that no Gold ones do. And 3rd and 4th team, not really a discussion is it? Which is really what this discussion is about. There are posts on here claiming that teams 2-4 have players that are interchangeable with the top team. Certainly true of team 2, not very likely past that. And yet delusional parents think it so. Does not mean one should "break the news" to their daughter. But it should mean that the parents have a realistic perspective and let their daughters have fun and play the game for the love of the game instead of for some fantasized outcome.
Do you think your daughter is going to play at Maryland? Is that her dream, or yours? If she is destined to, yes even a 11, it will be pretty obvious. She will be the fastest girl in the entire program. She will have amazing hand/eye coordination and you will have seen that since she was 2. She will see the field in away that most 11 year-olds will not. Her stick work, yes even at 11, will be head and shoulders above the other girls. Sorry to break it to you, but that's just the way it is.
Parents seem to not understand this. I wish they did. It would make youth sports a whole lot more fun for the kids, the parents and the coaches. Best of luck to your daughter. I hope she fulfills her dreams, whatever they may be ,and in the process doesn't disappoint her parent's dream of wearing a Maryland jacket and tailgaiting at the NCAA championships someday.
