It’s that time of the year. The silly tryout season…   I always get questions about my opinions on clubs and teams offering tryouts. It is hard to navigate where a good place would be for every single player. There are a few things that come to mind when thinking of tryout season. This season starts to become earlier and earlier with clubs/teams trying to tie down “new” players to their programs. There are fall tryouts as early as the first week after the new year with a deposit that’s due the following week. You have coaches sending player’s messages on Instagram and friend requesting parents on Facebook promising them the world and that they can give them a better situation. This should automatically be a red flag for players who are looking for a new environment. Until New Jersey Youth Soccer and US Soccer cracks down on this, it will continue to happen unfortunately. First, if you plan on leaving or cutting a player you need to let the coach or player know well in advance. There is a respect factor that comes into play in this game. You never want to leave on bad terms since you may want to come back in the future. Families need to do a lot of research before trusting anyone who is doing a tryout. Stop making a decision based on a teams got soccer points. Especially at such a young age. Got soccer has ruined a lot of development in this country. When that is the first topic of conversation when speaking to another parent, that should be another red flag. What does the current roster…