Great Falls Reston Soccer

[Anonymous]

My son cried on the way home when he heard SA is leaving. I almost wanted to also. Take from that what you will. He might not have been the coach next year anyway but still a big loss for GFR.

[Anonymous]

I apologize if this is a repeat question... it's my first time on this GFR thread.

How is retention and recruiting expected to be this season given that GFR lost it's ECNL pathway. I know some parents that have kids that are not even ECNL bound but are still shying away because they feel it's a slippery slope to irrelevance for the club. I would love to hear your thoughts because my DC is signed up for tryouts but we're not sure GFR would be our top choice now.

[Anonymous]

GFR is no more than a community based club at this point. And there is nothing wrong with that.

GFR no longer has a college pathway. They may try to sell you that NM has connections, he also has a whole lot of other teams and girls to focus on getting into college.

My suggestion is this is a good club for weekend fun. If you are serious and want to play in college...please choose a club that has both ECRL and ECNL...my 2 cents

[Anonymous]

Well NM is the head coach of the U12 girls top team and also the Director of Coaching at FVU that begins at U13 so that seems to me like a pretty good pathway. Maybe the best pathway there is right now actually.

[Anonymous]

encl-RL has a lot of players who are capable of playing in college but not at the elite level (high D1) except a very small few. And that's okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:encl-RL has a lot of players who are capable of playing in college but not at the elite level (high D1) except a very small few. And that's okay.

+1 and this is pretty much true for all RL teams in NOVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well NM is the head coach of the U12 girls top team and also the Director of Coaching at FVU that begins at U13 so that seems to me like a pretty good pathway. Maybe the best pathway there is right now actually.

They have a very strong U11 and U10 girls teams right now. They put on good additional skills clinics, as an outsider, the U10-U12 girls side looks to be in great shape and they are doing good things to develop the players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well NM is the head coach of the U12 girls top team and also the Director of Coaching at FVU that begins at U13 so that seems to me like a pretty good pathway. Maybe the best pathway there is right now actually.

They have a very strong U11 and U10 girls teams right now. They put on good additional skills clinics, as an outsider, the U10-U12 girls side looks to be in great shape and they are doing good things to develop the players.

Is the same true on the boys’ side? Need to decide about going to tryouts or not!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GFR is no more than a community based club at this point. And there is nothing wrong with that.

GFR no longer has a college pathway. They may try to sell you that NM has connections, he also has a whole lot of other teams and girls to focus on getting into college.

My suggestion is this is a good club for weekend fun. If you are serious and want to play in college...please choose a club that has both ECRL and ECNL...my 2 cents

I’m always curious on posts like these. GFR’s 2009 girls are excellent, and I think they’ve had a number of excellent boys and girls’ teams in the past. Their 2009 girls would probably land mid-table in ECNL-MA. A good number of those girls played ECNL last season and opted for ECRL this season. There must be a reason.

[Anonymous]

From last night’s zoom call it appears that they are trying to right the ship. Only time will tell. And there’s no such thing as a player pathway from RL to National at these clubs. Most clubs look from outside their own clubs teams during tryouts for new talent. Players can tryout wherever they like…

[Anonymous]

Our experience with SA was not dependent on playing time or win record.

SA constant negativity made our kid want to quit the sport and more than half the others on the team too.

From talking to people who like him I think he can be extremely nice and feed parents ego to the extreme, or he can be extremely nasty to the point of abusive name calling to kids depending on what he thinks/hears the parents on that team want.

Other problem we had was observing practices he does not actually coach any skill (this is not that different from a lot of/most coaches TBH). He wants to sell you his private lessons $$ or extra clinics he developed at GFR for $$$. He runs fast drills over and over and over the same thing which is great but basically no actual coaching or feedback other than yelling FIX IT FIX IT. Huge ego with very little soccer skills development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our experience with SA was not dependent on playing time or win record.

SA constant negativity made our kid want to quit the sport and more than half the others on the team too.

From talking to people who like him I think he can be extremely nice and feed parents ego to the extreme, or he can be extremely nasty to the point of abusive name calling to kids depending on what he thinks/hears the parents on that team want.

Other problem we had was observing practices he does not actually coach any skill (this is not that different from a lot of/most coaches TBH). He wants to sell you his private lessons $$ or extra clinics he developed at GFR for $$$. He runs fast drills over and over and over the same thing which is great but basically no actual coaching or feedback other than yelling FIX IT FIX IT. Huge ego with very little soccer skills development.

We had a very different experience. I wouldn't say SA was nice, but he was constructive in his feedback. DC wasn't the best on the team, we never were asked nor did we participate in any extra training for $$. SA is direct in his feedback, and sparing with his praise, which actually motivated DC more than a "nice" coach. I think the main point is that different coaching styles work for different kids?

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

This year is my son's first year playing travel. His coach is so incredibly negative about everything it is quite frankly mind bending. The coach on the next level up seems to be similar in approach. Is this just the culture at GFR or are very unlucky to get these coaches?

Are other clubs similar?....I just don't understand this approach. I am surprised that my son even still wants to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year is my son's first year playing travel. His coach is so incredibly negative about everything it is quite frankly mind bending. The coach on the next level up seems to be similar in approach. Is this just the culture at GFR or are very unlucky to get these coaches?

Are other clubs similar?....I just don't understand this approach. I am surprised that my son even still wants to play.

What age group?