VYS Soccer - better or worse?

[Anonymous]

It is not necessarily about the quantity of programs, as much as the quality. For example: from what I've heard, historically, the only issues the club had to worry about regarding the Friday night pick up games was not having enough parking space. Do we have anywhere near 150 kids attending our pick up games now? That being said, do we have any program with the substance to win national recognition again?

I am glad that our club is trying to move in the right direction and I hope for our children that this can eventually come to be. However, my first strong recommendation would be for the individual(s) that represent us to stop wasting their time on this forum, defending themselves, and using that energy to build stronger more quality programs for our kids. Again, it is not the quantity, but the quality of our programs that is going to rebuild our club.

[Anonymous]

Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not necessarily about the quantity of programs, as much as the quality. For example: from what I've heard, historically, the only issues the club had to worry about regarding the Friday night pick up games was not having enough parking space. Do we have anywhere near 150 kids attending our pick up games now? That being said, do we have any program with the substance to win national recognition again?

I am glad that our club is trying to move in the right direction and I hope for our children that this can eventually come to be. However, my first strong recommendation would be for the individual(s) that represent us to stop wasting their time on this forum, defending themselves, and using that energy to build stronger more quality programs for our kids. Again, it is not the quantity, but the quality of our programs that is going to rebuild our club.

I don't think the current VYS board does that. In the past, a couple of people got dragged in because a certain couple of departed people were making legally actionable statements against them.

But that small number of people -- not at all representative of the 300-plus teams VYS has in travel and House and the thousands of people therein -- have moved on. Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

One year they had five travel teams because some parents complained their snowflakes needed travel at 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

[Anonymous]

The large travel program at most clubs is due to the poor rec program that relies on overworked and less skilled parents to coach. If parents want decent coaching for their kids and more than one practice per week, travel is the only option at most clubs. We switched our boy to travel primarily because I didn't want to coach the team anymore as they got older and needed a better teacher of skills. I'm not a trained soccer player. It was fine when they were young but not when they hit older elementary age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The large travel program at most clubs is due to the poor rec program that relies on overworked and less skilled parents to coach. If parents want decent coaching for their kids and more than one practice per week, travel is the only option at most clubs. We switched our boy to travel primarily because I didn't want to coach the team anymore as they got older and needed a better teacher of skills. I'm not a trained soccer player. It was fine when they were young but not when they hit older elementary age.

Certainly an issue that goes far beyond VYS.

There's simply not a good middle level between travel and House. House soccer is fine through U8, and then it gets pretty good again by U11 or U12, but it's really rough at U9 and U10 when so many kids go to travel.

[Anonymous]

For all those who complain about the travesty of there being 3 or 4 travel teams within an age group in a club, did it occur to you that there might be that many parents/players who want a more demanding training environment than rec can provide? For the most part, unless they've been incredibly lucky to have a really good volunteer parent coach in rec (and are willing to invest in private training on the side), the only way those younger players will get better and be able to play at a higher level later on is if they receive the right training which is readily available in the club environment. That doesn't mean the quality of coaching is always the same for the 3rd team than for the 1st team, or that there aren't parents who are in it for the bragging rights of saying their kid is a travel player, but I think most are well-intentioned with kids who enjoy the game and want to get better which isn't always possible in a house or rec environment. My kids are teens now, and several of their teammates on their ECNL teams were on the 2nd and 3rd teams as U9s - U11s. Of course you need to do your homework in evaluating a club's approach to development, but there's nothing wrong with developing players coming out 3 days a week to play soccer and get better even if they're on the B or C team. If the club is doing its job, it will be applying the same training principles to each of its teams with adjustments for skill level, pace of play, etc.

I can think of worse things than "non-elite" athletes working hard to get better at a sport...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

Well overly competitive ANYTHING is not a condition that afflicts VYS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

Well overly competitive ANYTHING is not a condition that afflicts VYS.

I'm happy with what I've seen in the last 2 years at VYS. We are competitive but there has been more emphasis on player development than winning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

Well overly competitive ANYTHING is not a condition that afflicts VYS.

I'm happy with what I've seen in the last 2 years at VYS. We are competitive but there has been more emphasis on player development than winning.

I don't understand when you say competitive. competitive with whom exactly? VYS has not moved into more competitive leagues or have dominating teams and that has been the case forever. I measure a program being competitive if , you know, its on par with its competitors. Should VYS strive to be more like BRYC, Mclean, Arlington FCV and their top teams? or is being on par with those clubs silver and gold teams sufficient?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

Well overly competitive ANYTHING is not a condition that afflicts VYS.

I'm happy with what I've seen in the last 2 years at VYS. We are competitive but there has been more emphasis on player development than winning.

Teams stay in games and don't get owned. We win some and lose some.
Though, winning isn't the point...it's player development.
I'm talking about the U13s and under.


I don't understand when you say competitive. competitive with whom exactly? VYS has not moved into more competitive leagues or have dominating teams and that has been the case forever. I measure a program being competitive if , you know, its on par with its competitors. Should VYS strive to be more like BRYC, Mclean, Arlington FCV and their top teams? or is being on par with those clubs silver and gold teams sufficient?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please address how if you can afford the relatively high cost of putting your third grader in travel, that said kiddo will make /A /team? Is the talent pool so large that VYS can run four "travel" teams? Isn't this a bit watered down?

I contend that making travel anything, but mostly soccer in Vienna is simply a given for the striving, competitive parents who also have a do or die approach to choosing the right school, program, camp, college. These are also the biggest loudmouth screamers joysticking on the sidelines.

-Local girl who never played sports but can recall a mere handful of truly elite athletes who played 80s travel soccer.

So travel at the 3rd grade level is merely a product of overly competitive parents? I just want to make sure I understand your statement.

Well overly competitive ANYTHING is not a condition that afflicts VYS.

I'm happy with what I've seen in the last 2 years at VYS. We are competitive but there has been more emphasis on player development than winning.

I don't understand when you say competitive. competitive with whom exactly? VYS has not moved into more competitive leagues or have dominating teams and that has been the case forever. I measure a program being competitive if , you know, its on par with its competitors. Should VYS strive to be more like BRYC, Mclean, Arlington FCV and their top teams? or is being on par with those clubs silver and gold teams sufficient?

Personally, I think it's sufficient, but let's not forget that VYS does have a team that's ranked much, much higher than the McLean and BRYC ECNL teams in that age group. It's like 275 spots higher than BRYC nationally. Would that fit your definition of "competitive" or no?

[Anonymous]

FCV above all of them. VYS included. Just sayin'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCV above all of them. VYS included. Just sayin'

FCV above all of them - Definitely not on the boys side. Weak teams.