SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP How is Bridge tryouts going

Anyone here want to comment on how the tryouts are going for Bridge FA?

I think they are going about as well as can be expected for the first year. I must say that the
process from signing up, getting your number to being on the field for the tryouts is one of the smoothest that I have been through. There were a lot of kids from all area clubs there on Monday and things looked good. Lets see if they are back tonight or if they were testing the water with the Bridge concept. I think the bridge will have a better idea on numbers as the week goes on. The big day will be on Saturday for the U13-U15 groups.

Great turnout at JIYSC last night....well run and very organized.

Why do you think Saturday will be the biggest day?

Obviously, my opinion is clearly biased, so I'll hold it until later.

Vapor, thanks for the positive feedback.

Bridge FA is encouraged by the response so far. With only 2 of 10 days completed it's very difficult to accurately determine what has and is happening. The multiple locations appear to be having a positive effect, as there were players at JIYSC last night, that were not at the first session.

Soccersmylife,
You chose to start this topic, without providing your opinion. Do you have an opinion?

Soccersmylife,

I stated that Saturday will be big day simply because it's a weekend, it is the last day for those age groups and the tryouts are in a central location for travel.
Regardless, 30 bucks is a cheap price to pay to see how you stack up against the best players in the area. You never know, you may like what you see.

Bridge FA - tryouts were wonderful Monday night and I was very excited to see so many players out there. I am fully behind this concept and have thought for years this needs to happen in the Charleston area.

Vapor7 - I would hope that players do not wait until Saturday. It is recommended that they attend at least the first and last day. I have witnessed players having bad days on one tryout day and then see the same player have a great day. Again, I hope they do not wait until the last day to come out. I also agree the price is right!!

I guess $30 is what the market will bear down here...considering MPSC is $65 for all tryouts, classic, challenge and premier. That includes the $15 tryout fee and $50 commitment to play fee (but we won't go there again!). SSC will be $15 for classic tryouts only. Charlestowne is charging $25 (not sure the number of classic, challenge or premier teams they have) So, Bridge may be more than CESA, but certainly not out of line with the other big clubs in the area. And if you go to all the Bridge sessions, it's almost like paying $30 for a 5-day soccer camp.
Really, SCdad, we'll just pay any amount of money for good teams down here!!

scdad,

You answered your own question by writing the information, but I'll expand.

This is Bridge FA's first year of operations, and as such sponsorship is very difficult to secure. Like you, others on the message board think it's good to see, but there is still much speculation in the low country, due to which clubs aren't fully in the alliance. So the cost of the tryouts, and other operating costs, have to be fully self sustaining, this year.

Many decisions go into determining the rate structure of the tryout costs. One of the biggest is the amount of hours for evaluation. This is obviously affected by the structure and number of days that we decided on. This decision wasn't reached lightly.

Bridge FA is intended to be an inclusive cooperative arrangement, not an exclusive competitive arrangement. As pointed out by another poster, in a different thread, it's very unfortunate for the players/parents of the low country to have been placed in the position they have been placed. After the tryouts for Bridge FA were announced other tryout schedules were posted, which directly conflict on some of the sessions. All area club's leadership was aware of this potential, forcing players/parents to make the very difficult choice, of "leaving us to go to them", and they chose not to join and ultimately the players/parents have a very difficult decision. For those that haven't reached a decision, come take a look and compare. This development was/is unfortunate, but not all together surprising, even though we worked very very hard to avoid it. We still are hopeful that the other area club's will continue the dialogue and join the alliance.

In staying with our inclusive approach, we intentionally spread the tryouts out to afford players the opportunity to tryout both with Bridge FA, and the applicable current local clubs that aren't part of the alliance. Additionally, we split the age groups in the manner we did to avoid HS playoff conflicts. Several of the low country high schools are in the various championship games this weekend, and many others went deep into the playoffs, which would have conflicted with tryouts this week.

These two factors alone lead us to more evaluator hours, and more trips to the fields by the evaluators. Although some evaluators have donated their time, others desire to be paid when they perform their professional service. I do like the CESA rate structure, and hope to be able to institute something very similar next year.

We have been pleased with the support of the younger age groups this week, and are hopeful that we will see the same response in the older age groups next week.