The most successful girls teams from Tulsa

From my observation, the most successful teams from Tulsa over the years have had one thing in common, and it's not the coach or club they play for. The most accomplished teams have recruited the best players in their age group early and have played, gelled and developed together for many years prior to playing at the regional and national levels. There are many many examples of teams like this from TSC, blitz, WSA, and other clubs in Tulsa.

There are also just as many examples of teams and age groups in Tulsa that have have not funneled the best players to one team and have not built the strong synergies that come from playing years together. These teams might have very strong individual players but just do not do as well regionally as teams who have played together for years.

A good example of this is the '03 ECNL team. Because of the age group change, this team is made up of players from 4 different teams and although the individual players are very good, this team simply doesn't play as well together as teams that have played together for many years.

In my opinion, one of the most important factors in developing a strong regional/national team in a small market like Tulsa is to get the best players on the same team as early as possible and let them play together for as many years as possible before playing at the regional and national level. I believe the coach or club is much less important than getting the best players on the same team as early as possible and building strong team dynamics. By the same token, age groups that spread their best players among 3 or 4 teams and try to group them together late in the cycle simply do not fair as well as seasoned teams.

I'm sure some will find this contention controversial given the competitive climate between clubs in Tulsa, but I would argue that the proof is in our history. Our city's most successful teams have left a clear blueprint for others to follow.

In most respects I couldn't agree more. There is a huge gap from recreational soccer to academy. The talented kids from recreational should be approached early to form teams at the youngest age possible based on skill level.. The unfortunate problen is OSA rules do not allow clubs to approach players therefore it is the parents of the talented players that must approach other parents of talented players to form teams with the side help of a coach. This is not a transparent or helpful situation to have to place parents, coaches or clubs. It also is part of the issue wih coaches taking teams from club to club. This is only beneficial to coaches shoping teams and rarely to the players benefit. Too many kids fall through the cracks because parents cannot afford the added fees and travel time from work. Instead of helping here OSA throws a wrench in getting talent in the sport instead the talent migrates to other sports with better infrastructure and parent involvement such as basketball, softball...
Coaches make a huge impact especially at younger ages where proper technique is needed. Too many kids are in academy that cannot correctly pass or position this should have been the basis of rec. Academy should be an avenue for those serious about the game to improve their lacking skill levels and to nurture those talented few in their prospective age groups who can make an impact on the national/regional stage. This is especially true in The smaller markets like Tulsa. Talent improves talent, when its spread all over various teams who is it truely helping other than those coaches or clubs who refuse to let their best players go or combine early enough to help kids develop until to late to have made a difference.

TSC '04 Parker has taken girls from several different teams and turned them into state champ runner ups last year and is on the same track to do it again. I would say coaching is a huge part of development and the success of a team. I would think a team could gel fairly well in 6 months if the talent is truly there and the team is being developed/coached properly.

I think Parker is a very good coach but his team had 4 wins and 3 losses in OPL this season and didn't win a single game in their last 3 tournaments. As good of a coach as Parker is, he just had too many new players to be regionally competitive this season. That's my point and exactly the position we found ourselves in with the 03 ECNL team. Our individual players were strong and Ragland is a phenomenal coach, we just weren't as good as if we had played together for a year or two before starting ECNL.

By contrast, the bulk of 04 Griffin's girls played on his team last year and Kitterman's team before that and Edwards team before that. They don't have any particular super stars like you sometimes see in Texas, but they play so well together as a team that  they haven't had a single goal scored on them in OPL, beat the #1 team in the country and have a winning record against the best teams in TX. Although I think Griffin, Kitterman and Edwards are good coaches I don't think that's the reason for their success. More than coaching, I think this team is as good as they are because the best players in the age group came together at an early age and have played together for so long. The players have not only learned to play together very well but they have also pushed each other to become much better players than if they were playing with lower level teams. I don't think this team would be as good as they are if they came together this season for the first time. That's my point, the earlier the best players come together as a team team the better they do against regional and national teams once they reach ECNL.

918 you make a great point but does it really matter this season? I don't think anyone would disagree with this. The reason the ECNL team is the way it is, is because of the change to the pure age. Otherwise Beattie's team would have stayed together with maybe a couple additions to form the 03 ECNL team and the 04 griffin team would have stayed like it was and so on...

Sorry for being a Johnny Come lately to this post. I disagree with the original post with regards to the 03 ECNL team. You put a bunch of new girls together, with a new coach, in one of the toughest leagues in ECNL and make judgments on that is really harsh. It usually takes TSC ECNL teams a little while to get up to snuff after playing in the OPL. The speed is totally different. Also, you assume that if you got all the best girls together that TSC could still compete. Maybe about 1 team per 5 age groups will be able to compete and that may be a generous estimate. Look at the ECNL Texas league standings. TSC at bottom on almost all with the exception of the U19 team. I think the age thing definitely messed things up a little. Outside of some really good players moving in or driving in from out of town, Tulsa is what it is. If you are coming into the TSC ECNL you prolly need to throw the whole, "who's the best" mentality that's so popular on these forums out of the window. Just look at the NTX forum. Pre-ECNL it was blown up with all that non-sense. Now you don't hear anything from those teams. TSC have never won a national championship and have only played for 1 in the last zillion years. Their ECNL teams always finish near the bottom. My advice: Get your daughter in ECNL, don't depend on the coach to develop your kid cause it ain't gonna happen. TSC ECNL coaches are looking for hand off teams. Find a good private trainer. One that inspires your daughter to be better. Playing against ECNL competition will make her better, that's why playing in the ECNL is worth it.

Don't really post here much anymore, but would like to comment on this..(though there seems to be a lot going on these days that might liven up the board again to it's old glory days when the old 04 group would bring our "A" crazy game here! )
Current TSCH ECNL standings in the Texas League: (Ascending true age order U14-U18/19 "Composite"---scare quotes as I'm only including real ECNL not what everyone thinks as Composite...this age group was formed in true ECNL to capture old seniors in high school)....8th, 4th, 4th, 7th, 3rd, and 6th place out of 11 teams in each age group. Not bad. Certainly not "at bottom on almost all with exception of U19 age group", by any stretch of the imagination.
As far as the 03's go, the team of which I am knowledgeable, I agree with the original post in this thread that you had girls from 4 different teams thrown together and it has taken some time for them to learn how to play with each other. It seems to be improving nicely. Our competition in the Texas League, by contrast, were, for the most part, core teams from the old 04 age group in years past that typically were ranked in the top 25 (at least!) nationally...one of them finished out their pre-ECNL play #1. I know this because we used to play them on Kitterman/Griffin year in/year out and these teams, typical for Texas, were for the most part stacked with true age 03's...I see these same girls every weekend we play in ECNL against 'em! Obviously there are new additions to these teams and some that are now true age 04's, etc...But the core observation holds. So, hopefully, we'll continue to improve and do better going forward. Also, DA will probably help out TSCH indirectly quite a bit.
Just my observations...

TSCSOCCERDAD, whoever told you TSC always finishes at the bottom of the TX conference of ECNL was incorrect. The lowest our club has ever finished is 6th.

TSC is right in there and most teams are competing and not just getting hammered. Texas league is the hardest league in the country. 10th place in this league is like 1st or 2nd in others...