Youth Soccer: Elite Level Soccer

Not all select soccer tournaments are the same. There are some tournaments that are very selective. Meaning they select the best select teams from all the applicants. The following comes from the FAQ on one of the best tournaments in Ohio, the Mead Cup it illustrates my point. 

My team has an excellent record, so why can't we be in the FiveStar (top) Division?

With over 40 State Cup Champions and almost 20 State Cup Runnerups in the U12, U13, & U14 Age Groups you can clearly see that the level of competition is extremely high. This occasionally means a few teams are surprised when they are not in the FiveStar Division. The Tournament Committee does an extensive review of the applications we recieve, and seeds teams based predominantly on their performance record (occsasionally geographical diversity factors in). Although you may not agree with our assesment, we assure you that we try to give it our best possible effort based on the information that was submitted by each team.

Games 118, 119 and 120

My daughter's team competed in the U10 Girls Five Star division. Her team competed hard in pool play winning 1 and losing 2. They did not advance to the elimination round.

The Main Point


There are levels within the levels. Soccer players move up to select from rec. Select players are then placed on E level, D level, C level, Premier and Elite teams. My daughter is only a U10 Elite level player, when she is a bit older she will have even higher levels to reach if she continues to develop as a player. The top select players move on to CUP level and ODP (Olympic development). There are also super regional teams. Parents need to understanding the levels within the levels if they want to help their kids reach the highest levels of soccer.