Rock and a hard place.
Hi, will try to keep this brief. My daughter has a decision to make between two clubs. She's going to be a U13 next year. This year she played on a DPL team (our club has 2 DPL per birth year, hers was considered lower than the other). She wants to continue to play with her current coach - this cosch has been exactly what she needed for her development and confidence this year, and she's made great progress. However, our current club is adding GA Aspire next year, and that plus the age change affects is making things tricky (as everyone in the club world can attest to). Tryouts for current club aren't until next week. And the club hasn't released coaching assignments for next year (despite repeatedly saying they will soon 🙄).
To give her another option, she tried out at another local club. That club has ECNL and ECNL-RL teams. She was given an offer for the 3rd team, which is NAL. We aren't badge chasers and weren't expecting a ECNL offer. Talked to someone from that club a little over a week ago, and got some more info. That coach invited her to a practice last week, as the majority of the players on his current U12 team were given NAL offers as well. Practice was awesome and she said everyone was friendly, supportive and inclusive, and she found the coach to be strong and of a similar philosophy and style as current coach. However, that coach won't be assigned to that team next year.
Originally, we were going to have her tryout with her current club next week and see where everything fell. But then we just got a notification from the other club that her offer there expires tomorrow. So now she's stuck with a hard decision.
My husband thinks we should talk to the other club and ask for an extension on the offer. Does that sound reasonable? We're not new to club but, as other parents probably feel, are frustrated by the timelines and trying to figure out what's best. Ultimately, we let her drive the bus and will do a pros/cons list tonight with her. But we welcome any insights and suggestions. TIA!