1. Tons of talent and really well attended 2. Love how they had stand-off area for parents so they don’t hover, I went for lunch and surprised how many stayed and watched 3. Evaluators didn’t have clip boards during drill and small group work, very odd 4. The scrimmages were not great Lacrosse, lots of me ball and running through 3-5 girls for a shot. Lots of very selfish play but that is reality and will prepare girls for college showcases
Overall I’d give it a solid B+ mostly due to incredible talent
Thought the stations were well run. Agree about me-ball in scrimmages but no worse than any other camp (or what the actually American select games will entail).
Only complain is that the initial groups were not distributed evenly. Two of the groups had a majority of the girls from "big clubs". Admittedly, my daughter benefited from this, but can see how hard it could be for a girl from a non-top club to be seen.
I'd say those comments are mostly spot on.
My daughter didn't make it. She didn't really expect to make it either. So no harm, no foul. She just wanted to go with friends and try to compete in that type of environment. So I guess it was good. She got a callback, which was positive for her. But that was super short and really limited action. Not sure what additional they learned from that. She also said every time she or a friend did something (they thought was) good, the coaches just weren't paying attention or even on the field. Such is life.
Personally, I'm not sure how you evaluate that many girls in that short of time. Hearing a couple kids who made it, (and moreso the girls that didn't), my guess is the evaluators weren't 100% paying attention. One girl who didn't make it was the best kid on my daughters MS team and plays for the top club in the state. Probably the best goalie around. She didn't even get a call back. So I don't know what they were watching. Congrats to all the girls who did make it. I hope it's a great experience.
Goalies and defenders really a crapshoot at these things. Maybe she saw tougher shots/shooters, maybe issue on clears that were catchers issue not hers? Defenders, if you don't get up shots, maybe they just work around you but not chance for CT, but based on what it sounds like, not much passing so hard to make defensive plays.
Kids need to realize making these teams doesn't mean you are top in your class and likewise, not making it, doesn't mean you aren't.
Great point about defenders. The biggest difference between All American and Am select is that AA tryouts are positional-- they have certain slots to fill per position. Am Select the criteria is just the best 20 field players. Look at some other region teams; some of them have only 1 or 2 defenders.
Will be interested to see the positional split when the rosters are posted.
