ECNL forcing Brave & Union Partnership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Creation of Fairfax VA Union

ECNL and ECNL R parents,
I am writing this email on behalf of the MYS Leadership and Board of Directors to give some additional context about the creation of the Fairfax VA Union ECNL club. First, we understand the impact this has on the MYS/VA Union players, coaches, and families. We have been faced with a difficult situation and are working tirelessly to make decisions that are in the best interest of our players and the organization in both the short and long term. 

Earlier this month, we were informed by the ECNL league that our National Program membership for the Virginia Union was in jeopardy due to poor performance, particularly on the boys side. We have had a downward trend and rank near the bottom in our region/nation on several performance metrics that are closely tracked by the league. We were also informed that our ECNL R program is under review and is subject to a hearing and potential removal.

At the request of the MYS Board of Directors, a follow-up meeting was held with ECNL President Christian Lavers. During this meeting, we were informed that ECNL has begun reviewing all participating clubs in order to enhance the level of competition and the player pool. ECNL feels that Fairfax County is an over-saturated market and given our performance in recent years, our boys program was one of the organizations under consideration for expulsion from the league. To maintain an ECNL pathway for our club, ECNL leadership encouraged VA Union/MYS to pursue a merger with another member club. Fairfax Brave was given a similar directive and given our geographic proximity and shared desire to provide an ECNL path for our members, we chose to merge Fairfax Brave and Virginia Union.  

As most of you are already aware, the Fairfax Brave club comprises the Vienna and Braddock Road clubs. In order to merge the VA Union with the Brave, we created a new entity and established the Fairfax VA Union club. This new entity has a three-club founding membership structure and under the agreement, each founding club represents one third of this new organization that has come together to make decisions that are in our best interests. Each club has two member representatives that sit on a Fairfax VA Union board of six directors. According to the bylaws of this new entity, all decisions regarding the new club must be voted on unanimously, including the coaching staff decisions. 

We hope to have the final coaching slate in place by midweek. As much as we want to place all of our existing VA Union/MYS coaches into this new club, we all must understand that it is a collaborative effort involving 3 clubs with talented and skilled coaches. It is our shared objective to ensure we are leveraging the tremendous coaching resources that all three clubs have to position the Fairfax VA Union teams to be competitive and to create better talent pathways for our players. Continuing to create these pathways is what will drive our focus at MYS with our involvement in the Fairfax VA Union for our ECNL level players, and for all our MYS players from recreation to travel.

We appreciate that there is a lot of change happening for our ECNL players during this transition and we will continue to provide our families with timely updates as they become available.

Yours in soccer,
Tim Ryerson
Associate Executive Director
McLean Youth Soccer

Wonder why this was not signed by Louise Waxler, Executive Director.

[Anonymous]

I am reassured. This is definitely going to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Creation of Fairfax VA Union

ECNL and ECNL R parents,
I am writing this email on behalf of the MYS Leadership and Board of Directors to give some additional context about the creation of the Fairfax VA Union ECNL club. First, we understand the impact this has on the MYS/VA Union players, coaches, and families. We have been faced with a difficult situation and are working tirelessly to make decisions that are in the best interest of our players and the organization in both the short and long term. 

Earlier this month, we were informed by the ECNL league that our National Program membership for the Virginia Union was in jeopardy due to poor performance, particularly on the boys side. We have had a downward trend and rank near the bottom in our region/nation on several performance metrics that are closely tracked by the league. We were also informed that our ECNL R program is under review and is subject to a hearing and potential removal.

At the request of the MYS Board of Directors, a follow-up meeting was held with ECNL President Christian Lavers. During this meeting, we were informed that ECNL has begun reviewing all participating clubs in order to enhance the level of competition and the player pool. ECNL feels that Fairfax County is an over-saturated market and given our performance in recent years, our boys program was one of the organizations under consideration for expulsion from the league. To maintain an ECNL pathway for our club, ECNL leadership encouraged VA Union/MYS to pursue a merger with another member club. Fairfax Brave was given a similar directive and given our geographic proximity and shared desire to provide an ECNL path for our members, we chose to merge Fairfax Brave and Virginia Union.  

As most of you are already aware, the Fairfax Brave club comprises the Vienna and Braddock Road clubs. In order to merge the VA Union with the Brave, we created a new entity and established the Fairfax VA Union club. This new entity has a three-club founding membership structure and under the agreement, each founding club represents one third of this new organization that has come together to make decisions that are in our best interests. Each club has two member representatives that sit on a Fairfax VA Union board of six directors. According to the bylaws of this new entity, all decisions regarding the new club must be voted on unanimously, including the coaching staff decisions. 

We hope to have the final coaching slate in place by midweek. As much as we want to place all of our existing VA Union/MYS coaches into this new club, we all must understand that it is a collaborative effort involving 3 clubs with talented and skilled coaches. It is our shared objective to ensure we are leveraging the tremendous coaching resources that all three clubs have to position the Fairfax VA Union teams to be competitive and to create better talent pathways for our players. Continuing to create these pathways is what will drive our focus at MYS with our involvement in the Fairfax VA Union for our ECNL level players, and for all our MYS players from recreation to travel.

We appreciate that there is a lot of change happening for our ECNL players during this transition and we will continue to provide our families with timely updates as they become available.

Yours in soccer,
Tim Ryerson
Associate Executive Director
McLean Youth Soccer

What a mess…

[Anonymous]

Just takes one person to veto a coaching decision.

[Anonymous]

And shifting blame to the boys side….yikes..

[Anonymous]

Wonder what role Syc had in this…it was a ticking time bomb

[Anonymous]

Girls rule and boys suck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wonder what role Syc had in this…it was a ticking time bomb

Proactive, forward thinking, brilliant works

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Crickets from BRAVE. Very disappointing. I feel bad especially for the 06/07/08s. It feels like they’ve abandoned these players. One would expect more from adults working in youth sports, but I guess the fact that it’s a business first is being reinforced. It’s a first world problem, but what a tough lesson for these kids to learn.

KJ and MV are in the midst of coup of the largest soccer brand in NoVa, strapped with carrying the BRYC ball and chain. I would preach patience, and seriously be happy that you will likely have a pre determined roster spot on NL or RL in the McBrave family.

Was I wrong? 3 way PowerShare BRYC is the most blessed

[Anonymous]

Why would Vienna get two voting seats? They didn’t have an ecnl team. Seems like a bad deal for McLean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean just sent out an email confirming that ECNL basically forced this on them and that ECNL was looking at pulling MYS' patch due to poor performance, particularly on the boys' side.

LOL. So all those entitled posts that assumed this happened because of BRAVE and that it was not because of McLean’s poor performance, were wrong?!

The email says it was both clubs, but boys in particular on McLean side.

[Anonymous]

It was the boys on both sides. But they didnt need to combine the girls, why not let them have two ECNL teams one from each club?

[Anonymous]

Maybe now they’ll pick the best players and leave the politics out of it.

[Anonymous]

Fat chance. Each coach will push their own players. This will take probably 2-3 years to work out.

[Anonymous]

Very honest email. Questions would be what are they doing to make sure this new club doesn’t end up in the same situation, is it the same staff and leadership that has put us in this spot?