ECNL forcing Brave & Union Partnership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wow. I don’t know why the many good female players and their coaches in Union would remain on this ship which is sinking through no fault of their own.

With FCV players leaving that club en masse to follow their coaching staff to VRSC, is there an opportunity for Union girls to leave en masse for FCV? I hear FCV is looking for some GA coaches, so in this case the coaches could follow their players! They’d all be playing Champions League next season, ironically based on the play of current FCV players who by then will be watching Champions League online from the comfort of Revolution Sportsplex!

Too late—FCV ID sessions wrapped up tonight.

Don’t worry there is no ones else coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure why people think coaches will only select their own players…

Coaches and the club both want to win. Almost certainly, all 3 clubs & TDs will be involved in talent assessments and offers, not just the individual coach for each team.

Further, the coaches know the best players on rival teams. In the strongest age groups (like 2010 SYC and Vienna girls), the top players on both squads are well known to all three clubs.

In unbalanced age groups (like Union 2009G and Brave 2008G), the stronger team will probably put more girls onto the roster, regardless of who coaches.

Agreed. And these players tend to know each other too and are friendly.

[Anonymous]

Union is going to lose its best female players to other ECNL clubs in the next week and they aren’t doing anything about it…writings on the wall. The delay and timing of the merger couldnt of been worse. Clearly they didn’t learn enough from their last merger with SYC. Highly doubt the best players from brave or union are going to drop to a GA team of any kind. Whats amazing is both clubs have been told to perform well or else on the boys side. So despite the risk of losing their ECNL charter in 2 years, they still slow roll the release of the ID session dates and will be left with nothing but the bottom of the barrel and the leftovers from the other ECNL tryouts.

[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

This will effectively end TRUE McLean politics as we know it.

BRYC and Vienna, the ball is now in your court. If all decisions need to be voted on unanimously then this is your time to shine. If you guys want MV to coach a certain team, then don’t budge. They referred to this whole thing as a ‘collaborative effort involving 3 clubs with talented and skilled coaches….’ I bet they didn’t feel this way about your coaches 3 weeks ago….

Both BRYC and Vienna coaches deserve head coaching positions on Union’s top teams now. They are also talented and skilled. McLean just admitted it.

[Anonymous]

GAs main focus is girls soccer.
ECNL is now having to maintain the girls side and the boys side (mls next competition). I am beginning to think this will not be the first/last time something like this happens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GAs main focus is girls soccer.
ECNL is now having to maintain the girls side and the boys side (mls next competition). I am beginning to think this will not be the first/last time something like this happens

Could they just let boys ECNL die off, add ASA to the Union (why not a 4th) and boys now have MLSN to compete against stellar SYC boys MLSN teams, and of course girls with yet another talent pool to draw from in SYC's backyard will contine in ECNL

[Anonymous]

If they are having to do all that for ECNL to stay relevant on the boys side…..

[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 communication did mention that Braves were going to lose their ECNL status alongside a hearing to look at Union boys.

[Anonymous]

ECNL on the boys side is dying slowly in many regions. It appears that boys ECNL is mostly strong in the south east region and possibly Texas region.

West coast is dominated by MLS
North East is dominated by MLS
Mid Atlantic is dominated by MLS

This will be an interesting next two years in youth soccer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Union is going to lose its best female players to other ECNL clubs in the next week and they aren’t doing anything about it…writings on the wall. The delay and timing of the merger couldnt of been worse. Clearly they didn’t learn enough from their last merger with SYC. Highly doubt the best players from brave or union are going to drop to a GA team of any kind. Whats amazing is both clubs have been told to perform well or else on the boys side. So despite the risk of losing their ECNL charter in 2 years, they still slow roll the release of the ID session dates and will be left with nothing but the bottom of the barrel and the leftovers from the other ECNL tryouts.

Union saying that ID sessions should be announced this week and might start as soon as next week. Coaching assignments close to finalized — girls settled/boys almost done — to be announced momentarily.

[Anonymous]

How many girls are being rostered for ECNL teams at Union? How do they determine who plays in the matches?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many girls are being rostered for ECNL teams at Union? How do they determine who plays in the matches?

Next year expect inflated rosters. Playing time will vary based on the coach. Expect many players to self select out in year 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

The boys would get them thrown out on both sides -- boys/girls. This was the death peanlty for McL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Union is going to lose its best female players to other ECNL clubs in the next week and they aren’t doing anything about it…writings on the wall. The delay and timing of the merger couldnt of been worse. Clearly they didn’t learn enough from their last merger with SYC. Highly doubt the best players from brave or union are going to drop to a GA team of any kind. Whats amazing is both clubs have been told to perform well or else on the boys side. So despite the risk of losing their ECNL charter in 2 years, they still slow roll the release of the ID session dates and will be left with nothing but the bottom of the barrel and the leftovers from the other ECNL tryouts.

Union saying that ID sessions should be announced this week and might start as soon as next week. Coaching assignments close to finalized — girls settled/boys almost done — to be announced momentarily.

More than a moment has passed. You are late, mcbrave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This will effectively end TRUE McLean politics as we know it.

Oh no, how on earth will you survive?