Tryout season brings a lot of questions. What are the coaches actually watching for? Does my kid need to be the best player out there? What if they’re nervous? All fair questions. Here’s what’s actually going through our coaches’ heads on tryout day at South Van FC. No guesswork needed.
Players show up to youth soccer tryouts in Vancouver every season not quite knowing what to expect. So here’s a straight look at what we’re actually watching for.
We’re Looking for the Whole Player
A kid can be the fastest one out there and still not make the cut. What we’re looking for is a player who chases down a ball after they just gave it away, or attempts to motivate and show leadership when the game is falling apart. That stuff tells us a lot more than raw talent ever could. We’re looking for players who are willing and able to grow.
That’s the foundation of how we run our youth soccer academy in South Vancouver. We’re not looking for the best eleven-year-old in the room. We’re trying to spot who’s got two or three more gears still in them.
Effort and Attitude
Each tryout, attitude is one of the elements we look for when selecting a player for the team. We’ve taken players who needed work on their technique and turned them into key contributors. We’ve improved fitness levels over a season. What we’ve never been able to do is make someone care. That part is on the player.
Effort and attitude are things we watch from the very first drill to the very last. A player who keeps pushing when they’re tired, or lifts a teammate up after things go sideways, that kind of stuff sticks with us. It’s also something that can be practiced and encouraged well before tryout day even arrives.
Technical Ability
First touch, passing, shooting, defending. Those are the basics and yes, we watch all of them. But not in isolation. A cone drill on its own tells us almost nothing. We want to see that technique hold up when someone’s closing you down and the game is actually happening around you. That’s also at the core of Canada Soccer’s long-term player development model, and it shapes how we evaluate and coach year-round.
We work with players at all stages of technical development across our Vancouver youth soccer program, so don’t let imperfection hold you back from trying out. What we’re assessing is your starting point and your ceiling, not whether you’ve already arrived. If you want to understand how we evaluate that more formally, our player evaluation process walks through exactly what we track.
Soccer IQ
Most players are making decisions when the ball reaches their feet. The ones we remember were already in the right spot before it got there.
In the small-sided games we run during tryouts, we’re barely watching the player on the ball. We want to see what everyone else is doing. Where are you when your team doesn’t have possession? Are you finding space or losing it? Are you helping a teammate or watching the play? That’s what tells us how much a player actually understands the game.
Soccer IQ is a big part of what we develop at South Van FC year-round. You can see how it fits into our overall coaching approach in why we train differently from most clubs in Vancouver.
Coachability
Our coaches give feedback throughout tryouts, and what happens right after that feedback is something we watch closely. Some kids hear a correction and you can see it click right away: they go out and do it differently on the next play. Others freeze up or brush it off and nothing changes. That tells us a lot.
Nobody walks into tryouts fully relaxed. It’s a tough environment. Everyone’s a stranger, everyone knows the spots are limited, and the nerves are real. Being pulled aside by a coach you’ve never met, in front of kids you just met, takes some composure. The players who take it in stride and actually use the note on the next play are the ones we keep an eye on for the rest of the day.
Communication
Some of the best players we’ve ever seen at youth soccer tryouts in Vancouver were also some of the loudest. Not the kind of loud that gets annoying, just players who kept talking throughout the game. Letting someone know a defender was closing in, asking for the ball in the right moment, helping reorganize after giving up possession. Those moments stand out.
We’ve also seen technically strong players struggle to make an impact simply because nobody around them knew what they wanted to do. Tryouts throw a group of strangers together and ask them to play like a team. The players who communicate from the start make that a whole lot easier, and we notice.
Fitness and Readiness
Nobody is expecting every player to show up in peak physical condition. What we do expect is that players can keep up for the full session without running out of gas by the halfway point. Tryouts are long and the players who are still moving well at the end of the day have a real advantage over the ones who checked out physically an hour in.
Some pickup, some running, ball work a few times a week. Staying active in the month before tryouts puts you in a much better spot than showing up cold. If you want something more specific to follow, we put together a game day prep guide that gets into the details.
A Note for Parents
Families put a lot of weight on tryout day and that’s understandable. Our coaches are not sitting there looking for reasons to say no. At the end of the day they want to find good players just as much as your kid wants to make the team. If they put the work in before showing up and left everything on the field, the chances of being selected are pretty high.
If you’re still figuring out whether South Van FC is the right fit for your family, our guide on how to choose a soccer academy in Vancouver walks through the questions worth asking any club before your child commits.
Come Try Out With South Van FC
Come out and show us what you’ve got. Any questions before tryouts, drop us a line through southvanfc.com or check the player evaluation page first so you know what you’re walking into.
See you out there.
Dipinder Kainth is a coach at South Van FC, working with players in the youth academy in South Vancouver. If you have questions about the programme or want to talk development, reach out at southvanfc@gmail.com.
South Van FC is a community football club based in South Vancouver, BC. We run a youth development academy and a VMSL Men’s team, built around one philosophy: develop real players, technically sharp, tactically aware, and mentally tough. Learn more at southvanfc.com.