VYS Soccer - better or worse?

[Anonymous]

Former VYS BOD member who may or may not have the initials CO wrote:I beg to differ on the reason for Eddie's departure. I was on the BOD at the time Eddie came on board. His salary was approx 60% of the current TD's. I would ask the board to verify this info. If they won't, there is your answer. I can tell you this with complete certainty. He was not asking for anything unrealistic. That is completely false!

Will you verify that Eddie's deal allowed him to keep running ITS and get a cut of the salary of every coach he hired from ITS?

Will you verify that is a huge conflict of interest?

Will you verify that the VP-Travel at that time (probably you) allowed Eddie to do whatever he wanted with no oversight?

Anonymous wrote:If [you] won't, there is your answer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good point from the above individual! As a matter of fact, from what I understand, Eddies salary was a little more than half of our current TD. Yes, he did have a few of the trainers under his company, (which I might add, was a VYS decsion, "for tax purposes" as a matter of fact some under his umbrella were placed there at the request of the BOD president of the week at that time.

BOD president of the week? VYS had the same president from at least 2010 to 2014, right?

I'm more than a little skeptical of that salary info.

Ask your BOD... I can tell you that when Eddie came on board, his salary was approximately 65% of the current TD's. If they refuse to share this info with their members, there lies your answer. It's a shame that this misinformation has been put out there. It makes Eddie appear greedy which couldnt be farther from the truth. I can honestly say that when I sat on the board, he was frequently helping VYS beyond his obligation to our club.... from giving of his own time to provide oversight/programs (Friday night lights, for one) to showing up over an hour early to set up by himself, to bringing in his company's trainers for some programs in at HIS expense for the kids. The BOD knows this but has chosen not to share these things. He took alot of pride in the club and worked very hard to build our programs. That handful of parents, for reasons I can not understand, did not like Eddie and made a point to squeeze him out. While we are discussing false accusations agains Eddie... I can add that this group went as far as to create a crazy "anonymous survey" where they said terrible things about Eddie and even accused him of criminal activity! I would have assumed that if this were a legitamate accusation, as a club, we would have been obligated to involve law inforcement. It went from this group to the president that in turn forwarded it to committees. She knew there was no substance to this or it would have been addressed, but she chose to forward it. this was all in the plan to hurt Eddie and his reputation. I was truly appalled at the things that I learned about board members and believe it is time that they were called out on it. Eddie has moved on but still people find it necessary to continue to slander him. Lets move on. I am not sure what the obsession is.





Highest paid TD in Virginia or Maryland outside of Loudoun/Bethesda, with tons of perks. Well over six figures. Large performance bonus.

I have also heard that new PM makes nearly as much as most TDs, which is why left Spirit. VYS now paying more than professional clubs for staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: And that 300 votes, I strongly question. As would I with the whole "unanimous" votes we have all heard of that WERENT!

CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!! don't suppose you have any evidence? nah. i am sad the X Files is over too, but don't you think maybe you are projecting a bit?

just saying, I STRONGLY QUESTION

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Former VYS BOD member who may or may not have the initials CO wrote:I beg to differ on the reason for Eddie's departure. I was on the BOD at the time Eddie came on board. His salary was approx 60% of the current TD's. I would ask the board to verify this info. If they won't, there is your answer. I can tell you this with complete certainty. He was not asking for anything unrealistic. That is completely false!

Will you verify that Eddie's deal allowed him to keep running ITS and get a cut of the salary of every coach he hired from ITS?

Will you verify that is a huge conflict of interest?

Will you verify that the VP-Travel at that time (probably you) allowed Eddie to do whatever he wanted with no oversight?

Anonymous wrote:If [you] won't, there is your answer

you keep thinking that I am Chuck. ha well, to answer your questions.
*Probably the easiest place to start is to stress that when Eddie was hired, it was understood that he owned a company. it was not hidden from the BOD that hired him. It WAS IN HIS CONTRACT. Please refer to your current BOD for confirmation.
*His salary was a great deal less than ANY area TDs with the understanding that his income from the company would to some degree compensate for the shortfall.
while we are at it, I will add that in the contract, it was stipulated that Eddie would recieve 40% of all created developmental programs after expenses. Over the 4 year term that he served, he did not even attempt to cash in on this nor was this payment distributed to him to my knowledge during his employment.
*as far as the VP allowing eddie to do whatever he wanted to do. nah, but if it were true, looks to me like he did a better job than you are doing now. And, If he did allow that, maybe Eddie knew what he was doing, huh?
*Lastly, If we are guessing authors here. how bout I guess you. or would cry to the editor to have it deleted. hahaha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: And that 300 votes, I strongly question. As would I with the whole "unanimous" votes we have all heard of that WERENT!

CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!! don't suppose you have any evidence? nah. i am sad the X Files is over too, but don't you think maybe you are projecting a bit?

just saying, I STRONGLY QUESTION

yes strongly!! you're not kidding!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Former VYS BOD member who may or may not have the initials CO wrote:I beg to differ on the reason for Eddie's departure. I was on the BOD at the time Eddie came on board. His salary was approx 60% of the current TD's. I would ask the board to verify this info. If they won't, there is your answer. I can tell you this with complete certainty. He was not asking for anything unrealistic. That is completely false!

Will you verify that Eddie's deal allowed him to keep running ITS and get a cut of the salary of every coach he hired from ITS?

Will you verify that is a huge conflict of interest?

Will you verify that the VP-Travel at that time (probably you) allowed Eddie to do whatever he wanted with no oversight?

Anonymous wrote:If [you] won't, there is your answer

you keep thinking that I am Chuck. ha well, to answer your questions.
*Probably the easiest place to start is to stress that when Eddie was hired, it was understood that he owned a company. it was not hidden from the BOD that hired him. It WAS IN HIS CONTRACT. Please refer to your current BOD for confirmation.
*His salary was a great deal less than ANY area TDs with the understanding that his income from the company would to some degree compensate for the shortfall.
while we are at it, I will add that in the contract, it was stipulated that Eddie would recieve 40% of all created developmental programs after expenses. Over the 4 year term that he served, he did not even attempt to cash in on this nor was this payment distributed to him to my knowledge during his employment.
*as far as the VP allowing eddie to do whatever he wanted to do. nah, but if it were true, looks to me like he did a better job than you are doing now. And, If he did allow that, maybe Eddie knew what he was doing, huh?
*Lastly, If we are guessing authors here. how bout I guess you. or would cry to the editor to have it deleted. hahaha

and to add one more thing. it was VYS's idea to put all trainers under company umbrellas. As a matter of fact I know of at least one that Margaret asked Eddie to put under ITS. Then you complain that hes making too much money!? Do you realize how much he saved our club during that time from employee headaches, paperwork, taxes to insurance and on and on?? If you ask me he was the best deal going and he loved what he did. him leaving was a huge loss to this club. deep down you know that but that old ego is somethin else isnt it!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things.

1) it Ridiculous. Ridiculous. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. Just let your phone spell it for you.

2) Vienna was a joke when Eddy was at VYS. A joke in the coaching community and an utter wasteland of player development. It was the land of kick and run, wasted potential, and a fertile recruiting ground for BRYC.

But it had:

1. A couple of pretty good teams.

2. A good focus on serving the community as a whole.

The new guy doesn't get that. His experience is in a small pro academy in England. He might be good at that -- maybe if he ran a small club like Cugini or CSC, he'd be fine. But he's not good at understanding what the community wants. Case in point: killing Friday night free play, which was HIS decision, despite board objections.

Eddie wasn't perfect, and he may bear responsibility for his departure -- he simply demanded too much. But he's no joke. If he was, Arlington wouldn't have been so eager to bring him in.

His training programs were absolutely not kick and run. If you saw that from VYS teams, I'd be more inclined to blame parents and players. I've coached a ton of VYS kids, and they don't watch soccer. Their parents don't watch soccer, and they yell ignorant stuff from the sidelines. And they sometimes move elsewhere because they're caught up in status and think some other place will be better. I love Vienna and wouldn't live anywhere else, but it's your typical suburban area with a lot of good athletes but no soccer culture. Little wonder Madison is so good at baseball.

NOW, it actually IS better at other clubs for a lot of travel players. They totally botched the rising U9 tryouts under the new staff, and a lot of good players have scattered to other clubs where they're thriving.

I understand why Eddie is gone. I don't blame the board for his departure. But we're definitely not better off without him.

Well I absolutely blame the board for his departure. They wanted a better travel program and made decisions to change things up. Unfortunately change often brings a lot of turmoil. To bring things back they need more stability which means no more firing for awhile. And I wish they would stop worrying about Friday free soccer and focus on making things better without firing people in the short term. Once things get running smoothly again, perhaps we can start talking about a free soccer time, but right now most people just want decent opportunities and decent coaching. There is nothing stopping some coaches from getting together and renting a facility for Friday soccer if they want. Last year, there was a small Friday soccer for the U8 crowd during a travel practice so I don't know what all the fuss is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, we'll bite.

From our perspective, things are better at VYS than we could have possibly hoped for after just one year of the new leadership:

- shortly after new TD hired, VYS core technical staff quits; at least one member of new staff replacing old staff then quits after a few months
- first club executive director quits before first anniversary on job
- president, several club officers, and almost half of the board all abruptly quit over past year without explanation
- longtime admin staff and volunteers who built up the club over past decade treated poorly and/or quietly cast aside by new TD
- significant portion of traditional VYS volunteer base of coaches, age group coordinators, and house commissioners alienated, frustrated, no longer motivated to volunteer, or stepping down
- well-liked and highly respected VYS professional coaches quitting, being fired or asked to accept reduced roles
- inability to attract or hire high-quality coaches under new TD’s leadership and direction
- as PP noted, mass exodus of players from travel program to other clubs is accelerating rapidly and weakened remaining teams are struggling, creating a domino effect
- open war between house and travel interests, as TD allegedly seeks to redistribute money, resources and focus away from house towards travel to become more of a travel-first club
- NSCAA award-winning crossover program dismantled, degraded, and seemingly beyond repair
- beloved Friday Night Lights club pick-up program, which had been profiled in SoccerWire as an example of what VYS had been doing right previously, shut down on the premise that it was necessary to protect “the brand"
- adult volunteer and coaches’ pickup, which had been a VYS tradition for decades and served to build up a robust, cohesive VYS community of volunteers, forced to spin off from VYS and go it alone
- once-large offering of programs eliminated over the summer and cut to the bone this fall and winter as program quality plummeted
- huge club expenditure on TD and handful of senior executive salaries, at expense of critical needs, but little return on those out-sized $$$ investments; club paying more now for less
- unilateral decision to switch away from local business and to unproven Soccer.com experiment a complete disaster
- new finance direction to charge additional fees and to nickel and dime members who are already paying sky-high fees exacerbating member frustration
- erosion of respect for club in state and Northern Virginia soccer circles, making it hard for club to attract talent or engage strategically with other clubs and leagues
- rival clubs merging and moving into area, gaining access to VYS fields and facilities, and offering programs in Vienna locations that VYS apparently no longer wants to offer; players then move to those rival clubs providing services in Vienna that VYS does not
- complete lack of transparency; poor communication; over-reliance on generalities and platitudes in parent meetings instead of providing timely and necessary information, or a real, concrete plan
- club seemingly incapable of escaping downward spiral; unclear if issue is that the club does not realize or care about predicament, or if that it just doesn't know how to get out of it
- club morale extremely low and community spirit that always characterized VYS seemingly gone (the old, proud “community-based club” ideal seems to be fading from collective memory as a relic of a past era)

Regardless, we think that the trend over the past year should continue, at which point we can then absorb what's left of VYS into our club(s).

Sincerely,
Whiny parent who left VYS and would rather hide on an internet chat board spreading rumors

Fixed it for you.

um.. had it right the first time. EVERYTHING IN THIS WELL WRIITEN SUMMARY WAS TRUE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SoccerWire profile on Vienna's Friday Night Lights: http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-posts/friday-nights-done-right-at-vienna-youth-soccer-va/

Eddie had a passion for VYS that no other TD can match. He believed in the community approach and development of the players. VYS was one of the only clubs in the area looking after their own players and not focused on the players from outside. Unfortunately that is gone now and its a shame. The BOD made a huge mistake.

I heard they just couldn't keep him. Thought it was money or his own wishes to move on. The average VYS parent doesn't really know what happened.[/quot

as much as he put into this club, I would be surprised if he simply just decided to move on. seems shady

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Who were the main people involved in bringing the TD, and what do they have to say about the situation?

Current Board supposedly loves him and believes he is doing a great job. No chance that things change until his contract runs out.

I would love to hear Mike and Ryan's take on the members frustration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Who were the main people involved in bringing the TD, and what do they have to say about the situation?

Current Board supposedly loves him and believes he is doing a great job. No chance that things change until his contract runs out.

Thanks. I've been following the VYS saga for years on the NoVa soccer thread, and find the whole situation fascinating. I seem to recall that a VYS officer made an appearance on the other thread to refute some of the allegations that had been made by various detractors. It would be good to hear from a current board member or proxy why they think the TD is doing a great job and what positive results will come of that for VYS families. Perhaps that will be covered in an upcoming meeting with parents, but I'd like to read about it here to get a better sense of the whole picture. So far, most of the responses to OP's question have been in the negative column.

Ask Beau, he always had the inside scoop !

yeah where is beau these days?

Based on his numerous posts on this site about VYS, unless he's gotten some new sources, he knows very little about the politics at his own club.

Beau here -- I know there are some things I don't know, but I know quite a bit. Enough to call BS on some things on this board.

(To prove my identity, the duresport Twitter feed will include a Tweet about 10,000 Maniacs at 8:35 p.m. ET.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: - erosion of respect for club in state and Northern Virginia soccer circles, making it hard for club to attract talent or engage strategically with other clubs and leagues

Very important point. Why has the VYS coaching been so bad since Eddie left and took his coaches with him? Unlike Eddie and other big club TDs in area, your new technical director commands zero respect in NoVirginia soccer coaching circles, which means that good coaches in the area don't want to work for him. Until you solve that problem, he can fire all the coaches he wants but the result will be the same. All the TD's recent disgraceful firings of numerous coaches in the middle of the season makes this problem even worse. For good coaches, Vienna is now viewed as soccer career suicide.

It's not that the coaches Eddie hired was any better. It's just that Eddie wouldn't fire the bad coaches, not matter how unqualified they were or even if they were doing things potentially harmful to the kids, because Eddie benefited from keeping his coaches around. Almost all the coaches that Eddie hired worked for his company and he got a cut of their paycheck, or they worked for the companies owned by his friends, for which Eddie got favors and so didn't want to upset them. At least now VYS has a TD who's interested in the quality of the coach instead of how the coach can financially benefit the TD. It will take time for a TD new to the area to find a cadre of qualified coaches, and there will be some mistakes along the way, but it will be better in the long run for the kids, and that should be the ultimate goal for any club.

and FYI the ONE coach that you were refering to (which in and of itself was not accurate) was not under ITS. the soccer community is a very small world.... of course he was friends with the other companies, clubs and families As much as he valued the club, that whole theory of keeping bad trainers for his friends is not very believable. I think that he actually was involved in dismissing a parent coach for inappropriate behavior in front of the kids that he also seemed to be friends with. and that parent was a BOD members spouse. I dont think that he favored anyone when it came to the right thing for the kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things.

1) it Ridiculous. Ridiculous. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. Just let your phone spell it for you.

2) Vienna was a joke when Eddy was at VYS. A joke in the coaching community and an utter wasteland of player development. It was the land of kick and run, wasted potential, and a fertile recruiting ground for BRYC.

But it had:

1. A couple of pretty good teams.

2. A good focus on serving the community as a whole.

The new guy doesn't get that. His experience is in a small pro academy in England. He might be good at that -- maybe if he ran a small club like Cugini or CSC, he'd be fine. But he's not good at understanding what the community wants. Case in point: killing Friday night free play, which was HIS decision, despite board objections.

Eddie wasn't perfect, and he may bear responsibility for his departure -- he simply demanded too much. But he's no joke. If he was, Arlington wouldn't have been so eager to bring him in.

His training programs were absolutely not kick and run. If you saw that from VYS teams, I'd be more inclined to blame parents and players. I've coached a ton of VYS kids, and they don't watch soccer. Their parents don't watch soccer, and they yell ignorant stuff from the sidelines. And they sometimes move elsewhere because they're caught up in status and think some other place will be better. I love Vienna and wouldn't live anywhere else, but it's your typical suburban area with a lot of good athletes but no soccer culture. Little wonder Madison is so good at baseball.

NOW, it actually IS better at other clubs for a lot of travel players. They totally botched the rising U9 tryouts under the new staff, and a lot of good players have scattered to other clubs where they're thriving.

I understand why Eddie is gone. I don't blame the board for his departure. But we're definitely not better off without him.

I certainly do blame this board for his departure and for the 3 ring circus that they have created.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Who were the main people involved in bringing the TD, and what do they have to say about the situation?

Current Board supposedly loves him and believes he is doing a great job. No chance that things change until his contract runs out.

Thanks. I've been following the VYS saga for years on the NoVa soccer thread, and find the whole situation fascinating. I seem to recall that a VYS officer made an appearance on the other thread to refute some of the allegations that had been made by various detractors. It would be good to hear from a current board member or proxy why they think the TD is doing a great job and what positive results will come of that for VYS families. Perhaps that will be covered in an upcoming meeting with parents, but I'd like to read about it here to get a better sense of the whole picture. So far, most of the responses to OP's question have been in the negative column.

Ask Beau, he always had the inside scoop !

I didnt think beau was even still participating with VYS, I heard he got smart and bailed too... with all the rumors, I could be wrong


yeah where is beau these days?

Based on his numerous posts on this site about VYS, unless he's gotten some new sources, he knows very little about the politics at his own club.

Beau here -- I know there are some things I don't know, but I know quite a bit. Enough to call BS on some things on this board.

(To prove my identity, the duresport Twitter feed will include a Tweet about 10,000 Maniacs at 8:35 p.m. ET.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a VYS House parent's perspective, the animosity and anger on this thread are frightening. It seems like posters are even being hostile toward the posters who AGREE with them.

Heh. Welcome to DCUM!

As bad as it is it's honestly better than a lot of anonymous forums. Plenty of other places someone would have blamed everything on Obama or Trump by now