VIVA

[Anonymous]

Would love to hear more about VIVA. How do they run things during the season? How drastic are changes from year to year? How is coaching? Do they have good teams? Are kids happy there in the long run? Or do kids use it as a platform to get into large clubs?

[Anonymous]

2011/2010 girls coach is Coach Karen and she is awesome.

[Anonymous]

Also interested in hearing more feedback from others. TIA!

[Anonymous]

Karen is great. So is MR, who is coaching the older girls.

The management of the club is suspect. We came up through the Annandale club, but BA and CA (and others, who have since left) really struggled to make the partnership with Villareal work. We ended up leaving for another club and honestly feel sad when we see the VIVA teams at matches and tournaments. They are pretty hemmed in by bigger brands -- SYC, BRYC, VYS, Arlington, Alexandria, and McLean. TBH, if you have options, I'd look elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about VIVA. How do they run things during the season? How drastic are changes from year to year? How is coaching? Do they have good teams? Are kids happy there in the long run? Or do kids use it as a platform to get into large clubs?

What age group? Boys or girls?

[Anonymous]

Boy's side 2010 is a great team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Karen is great. So is MR, who is coaching the older girls.

The management of the club is suspect. We came up through the Annandale club, but BA and CA (and others, who have since left) really struggled to make the partnership with Villareal work. We ended up leaving for another club and honestly feel sad when we see the VIVA teams at matches and tournaments. They are pretty hemmed in by bigger brands -- SYC, BRYC, VYS, Arlington, Alexandria, and McLean. TBH, if you have options, I'd look elsewhere.

Why do you feel sad for them? Are they any good? How has the partnership failed? What do you mean by "hemmed in"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about VIVA. How do they run things during the season? How drastic are changes from year to year? How is coaching? Do they have good teams? Are kids happy there in the long run? Or do kids use it as a platform to get into large clubs?

What age group? Boys or girls?

Both boys and girls. I have multiple children so would love to hear about multiple age groups too.

[Anonymous]

They are a smaller club, and very focused on technical skills rather than wins at the lower age groups. I’ve only met a few coaches for the younger teams (2015-2016) and they seemed good. Not a huge fan of their practice fields but that could change for next year.

[Anonymous]

^for boys

[Anonymous]

They never really made the Villareal brand work for them. It's barely affiliated wit the pro club and the top players move on quickly to ECNL/MLS teams. Seems like a club with no direction.

[Anonymous]

We joined last year. We came from a big club which was happy to take our money. They didn't develop the kids at ALL and didn't seem to have any interest in making them grow as players. On top of a hefty travel fee with the other team we had to supplement training just to keep the kid on par with foot work for their age group. Our coaches also were always pushing one on one training with them so your kid can get better. The kids that paid the extra money for 1 on 1 training seemed to get more playing time.

We saw Villarreal at a tournament and loved the way the coaches interacted with the players. We ended up seeing them again in the winter and made contact with the coach for our kids age group. We have now been here for a year. Best decision we made. I feel like them being small is a huge bonus. Their coaching philosophy is outstanding and centers around increasing soccer IQ. We didn't really know the difference between american soccer vs spanish style but our kid has been doing great with them. Practices are run like a well oiled machine and the priority of practice is to get as many touches on the ball vs just scrimmaging the entire time like with our old team. Many 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 drills. Kids are constantly in motion at practice. We also have an assistant coach which will pull out players for additional small group instruction. My kids soccer iq with this past year has grown so much. But overall we love it here. It is a small club. That isn't for everyone. We have had no issued with how things are run. It is just different. Our last club had full time soccer coaches who didn't seem interested in soccer. Our new coach has a day job and is very passionate about soccer and it shows. Regular soccer watch parties, video reviews, team building get togethers..... Now there are some things we aren't a fan of. The time of the practices is too late in my opinion. But finding field space in arlington is hard. Our team specifically did not do travel away tournaments which is something my kid enjoyed with their other team. Maybe they will do more later but this whole year we have only done local tournaments. Winter programing seems intense. Little to no time for other sports. We would always pick up another sport in winter but this year we couldn't make it happen.

BTW we came from a top team to another top team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Karen is great. So is MR, who is coaching the older girls.

The management of the club is suspect. We came up through the Annandale club, but BA and CA (and others, who have since left) really struggled to make the partnership with Villareal work. We ended up leaving for another club and honestly feel sad when we see the VIVA teams at matches and tournaments. They are pretty hemmed in by bigger brands -- SYC, BRYC, VYS, Arlington, Alexandria, and McLean. TBH, if you have options, I'd look elsewhere.

Why do you feel sad for them? Are they any good? How has the partnership failed? What do you mean by "hemmed in"?

I'm not PP, but I have a VIVA player and it can be challenging to recruit talent with so many huge clubs in the area. There isn't a lot of marketing or advertising, so you hear about VIVA through word of mouth. My kid's team mostly has kids who missed tryouts at the other clubs or joined because it's the closest practices to their house. These means there are kids who are very good and could play on the top team anywhere on a team with kids who would be on the lowest team at a big club. I think with better marketing, they could grow the club in a positive way that would lead to their younger teams being more competitive and more attractive to new families, but I don't see the management really making any effort here. That said, we've found club management and coaches to be very responsive to parent concerns and the coaches will come up and talk to parents individually at "tryouts." You won't be left hanging and wondering how your kid is doing, what the plans for the team are, whether your kid will get an offer, etc.

We've had a very positive experience with the club and have no plans to leave. The coaches are all current or former soccer players who love the game. The kids and parents are fantastic -- no drama and very welcoming. Maybe there are kids on my son's team who have dreams of playing soccer in college or beyond, but most just want to have fun and eventually make their HS varsity team. I have to drag my kid off the field after practice because all the kids just want to keep playing together. These are kids who play soccer because they love soccer, and every kid on on my kid's team is returning next year unless they're moving out of the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to hear more about VIVA. How do they run things during the season? How drastic are changes from year to year? How is coaching? Do they have good teams? Are kids happy there in the long run? Or do kids use it as a platform to get into large clubs?

I can only speak to the U8-U10 boys side. Practices are 3x a week during the season and 1-2x a week in the winter and summer "off season." Most of the teams play indoor or futsal during the winter. Our coaches always schedule make-up practices if they have to cancel a practice for weather (which only happens on the days when we're stuck with a grass field and it rains - this is really a younger age group issue, as older teams get better fields). The younger kids were on turf two days a week this spring and grass one daIt's a small club in a very urban area.

Coaches are very welcoming and the focus is on footskills, 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 drills. Lots of small space drills, which is very different than what we saw at other larger clubs. At the younger ages, you have to be comfortable with "European" or "Spanish" soccer, which like a PP said is more focused on building soccer IQ and not on winning. I cannot stress enough how little the coaches care if the team wins or loses. Every kid is getting at least 30 minutes of playing time in the game, even if it means a huge loss. I think that is very challenging. You will not be posting about your kid's epic tournament wins on Facebook, but you will see him or her grow a ton as a player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We joined last year. We came from a big club which was happy to take our money. They didn't develop the kids at ALL and didn't seem to have any interest in making them grow as players. On top of a hefty travel fee with the other team we had to supplement training just to keep the kid on par with foot work for their age group. Our coaches also were always pushing one on one training with them so your kid can get better. The kids that paid the extra money for 1 on 1 training seemed to get more playing time.

We saw Villarreal at a tournament and loved the way the coaches interacted with the players. We ended up seeing them again in the winter and made contact with the coach for our kids age group. We have now been here for a year. Best decision we made. I feel like them being small is a huge bonus. Their coaching philosophy is outstanding and centers around increasing soccer IQ. We didn't really know the difference between american soccer vs spanish style but our kid has been doing great with them. Practices are run like a well oiled machine and the priority of practice is to get as many touches on the ball vs just scrimmaging the entire time like with our old team. Many 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 drills. Kids are constantly in motion at practice. We also have an assistant coach which will pull out players for additional small group instruction. My kids soccer iq with this past year has grown so much. But overall we love it here. It is a small club. That isn't for everyone. We have had no issued with how things are run. It is just different. Our last club had full time soccer coaches who didn't seem interested in soccer. Our new coach has a day job and is very passionate about soccer and it shows. Regular soccer watch parties, video reviews, team building get togethers..... Now there are some things we aren't a fan of. The time of the practices is too late in my opinion. But finding field space in arlington is hard. Our team specifically did not do travel away tournaments which is something my kid enjoyed with their other team. Maybe they will do more later but this whole year we have only done local tournaments. Winter programing seems intense. Little to no time for other sports. We would always pick up another sport in winter but this year we couldn't make it happen.

BTW we came from a top team to another top team.

Sounds like my experience with them!