Whatever happened to that Prestonwood 96 team?

Many have asked how the Prestonwood 96 season went so I
thought I would write a quick recap.

For those of you who don’t remember, Prestonwood 96 was an
independent team. I volunteered my coaching
time and the overall costs to play were extremely low.
Overall, I thought the season was a success. I can say that with all honesty and a majority,
if not all, the parents would agree.

We played in Division II of Plano Premier and ended up finishing
7th in a field of 10. Some of
you might think this is bad, but continue reading before you pass judgment.
I ended up having 15 girls on the roster and I had a verity
of talent. I had 8 girls who
played club before and 7 girls who were coming from rec. When I started the season I didn’t think this
would be a big deal, however this ended up being a problem throughout the
season. The girls who were coming from
select were competitive and wanted to work hard at getting better. The girls coming from Rec. were not as
committed and this sometimes created some hard feelings within the team. It also presented a problem for me. Whenever I would run more difficult drills to
challenge the better players the Rec. level players often became frustrated. Watching a girls complete a drill you can’t
do frustrated the Rec. players. Both
players and parents wanted me to do something about the other group. The Rec. level players wanted me to tell the
select level players to “chill out” while the select level players wanted me to
“run sprints” for the girls who were not trying that hard.In the beginning I told the parents and girls I wanted this
to be a team where girls could pursue other sports and boy did they do that! I joked with the girls that if this soccer
thing didn’t work out we’d start a basketball team. I had many on the team who were playing select
basketball and this presented a challenge for practices and games. I ran two practices a week and usually a girl
could only make one of the practices. I
would have practice on Tuesday and 7 players would show up and then I would
have practice on Wednesday with the other 8 players showing up. I can honestly say that for the entire year I
maybe had 1 or 2 practices where I had all the girls there!

Since the girls were involved in other sports it was
difficult to get a constant team out for the game. The only time the girls played together was
during the game. Also, there would be
girls who couldn’t make the game so my lineup was constantly changing.

Although I can not prove this, and it might be a theory, but
cost ended up hurting us. Each girl paid
$400 to play the season. Yes, you read
that correct – total cost for the season was $400. That included $100 for uniforms, $100 for warm-ups,
$100 for Plano registration
and another $100 for portable goal. Since
the financial commitment was so low I think there were times when girls chose
other events over a game or practice. This
is not to slam parents / players for making this chose, it’s just a reality. If you pay $2000 to play on a club team most
parents will say, “Yes, we paid good money and your going to practice” whereas since
the parents only paid $400 it was easier to say, “I guess it’s okay you miss
the practice / game.”
As the coach, I made some mistakes as well. This was my first time coaching select girls
and I probably set myself up for the perfect storm. I had 15 x U14 girls! This is an interesting time for girls and as
many of you know there’s a lot of drama at this age. I know I didn’t handle the select level verses
Rec. level thing well. I ended up
coaching down to the Rec. level girls and this made a lot of parents / girls
unhappy. During the winter break we had
a team meeting and I asked for feedback. Everyone, and I mean everyone, both players
and parents, wanted me to run a more rigid, disciplined practice. I made this change for the spring season and
it helped a lot. From a coach’s perspective,
I am a much better coach after this experience! I learned a lot! Parents and players want leadership and discipline
from the coach. I trying to be Mr. Nice guy
and make everyone happy. It didn’t work
and when I started running a more structured – disciplined practice, everyone
was much happier.
I consider myself very lucky. I had a lot of good girls join this team. The risk to doing what I did is that I could
have ended up with a bunch of Rec. level girls which would have made for a very
long season. I know our record doesn’t
show it, but we were a better team then what our record indicates. You could ask any of the coaches within our
group and they would all tell you that we were not a team to be taken lightly. Depending on who showed up for the game, we
could be really good or really bad.
The season was very stressful on me and when the season
ended I basically shut it down. I’ve
been trying to help girls find other teams, but I’m thankful for the experience
I had. Would I do it all over again? I’m not sure. There were times when this was really hard. However, I really enjoyed the girls and I
consider all of the parents good friends.

I had just looked the other day to see what your standings were as I was interested in how this turned out.
I am sorry to hear that the experiement has ended. The life of an independent is a difficult one, and sometimes the 2nd year is a little more difficult than the first:
1. Players brought from rec may not be committed
2. Good players are constantly recruited away
3. Come time to look for a team most parents won't bring their players out to independent teams even if they are guaranteed to make. Maybe an exposure issue for College, maybe they believe the training will automatically be better, maybe the just like the big club name, but whatever the reason, it is hard to get new players to an independent open practice.
I coach an independent 93 team that came directly from rec with no cuts, or recruiting of new players.
2nd year we lost some players with more commitment/less commitment issue.
Coming into our 3rd year we should be solid with our core and a couple additions.
As a coach it is hard to make that transition as well, and in hindsight there are many things that could be done differently, but it is a hard proposition at best.
Hopefully all the girls will be able to find a place to play that want to continue. Don't give up on it if you have a core though. Teams have to figure out what they are:
Maybe the core doesn't care about going to Qualifying.
Maybe they want to play with friends at a higher level than rec.
With all the other sports, and High School looming for them holding Prestonwood together in some form could be a benefit for them.
Anyway, I am glad you had the positives that you did and hopefully everybody will get what they want out of soccer in the coming years wherever they are.

ExpressFC wrote:I had just looked the other day to see what your standings were as I was interested in how this turned out.
I am sorry to hear that the experiement has ended. The life of an independent is a difficult one, and sometimes the 2nd year is a little more difficult than the first:
1. Players brought from rec may not be committed
2. Good players are constantly recruited away
3. Come time to look for a team most parents won't bring their players out to independent teams even if they are guaranteed to make. Maybe an exposure issue for College, maybe they believe the training will automatically be better, maybe the just like the big club name, but whatever the reason, it is hard to get new players to an independent open practice.
I coach an independent 93 team that came directly from rec with no cuts, or recruiting of new players.
2nd year we lost some players with more commitment/less commitment issue.
Coming into our 3rd year we should be solid with our core and a couple additions.
As a coach it is hard to make that transition as well, and in hindsight there are many things that could be done differently, but it is a hard proposition at best.
Hopefully all the girls will be able to find a place to play that want to continue. Don't give up on it if you have a core though. Teams have to figure out what they are:
Maybe the core doesn't care about going to Qualifying.
Maybe they want to play with friends at a higher level than rec.
With all the other sports, and High School looming for them holding Prestonwood together in some form could be a benefit for them.
Anyway, I am glad you had the positives that you did and hopefully everybody will get what they want out of soccer in the coming years wherever they are.

The original post was on TM and I said all the things above but got blasted by it with people saying I was trying to sabotage the team and many other things. I on the other hand was just giving the coach a warning of what is reality here in DFW and I was exactly right which bring me to the point of, that its a very sad situation here in DFW when a coach tries what should really be a great time and situation for players by doing things he thinks is right only for it to be thrown back in his face by the parents. There are some great parents out there and people who want this to happen but its taken advantage of by the parents

I had no predictions in this matter, but I did hope for the best for this group. I am saddened to hear that the team didn't last.

Based on my experience, many of the same complaints could be easily registered on low D1 and D2 teams.

Part of the team is pulled away by school sports. Most of the girls are true athletes and are good in any team sport partly thanks to the conditioning and training provided by a select soccer team.

You have varying degrees of interest in conditioning work as part of the team says the reason I am in D2 is I don't want to work that hard and the other part wants to work extra hard to advance.

Many teams have scholarship players and the other parents get quite irked when the scholarship players skip the fundraisers or skip practice. Others have parents where the fees for select are not a compelling enough reason to go.


The top players that you worked so hard to develop get recruited away.

Lastly, 7th place in a 8 or 10 team division often wrongly leaves a sour taste in parents mouths. "I did all this work taking my kid to practice and all we could manage is 7th?" Doesn't matter the which Division you are in!!


What I think you missed as an independent is the camaraderie and opportunity for commiseration that a decent club can provide its coaches.

My hat is off to you.