Did Reston Soccer and Great Falls Soccer vote to merge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I should hope you meant that. Reston travel soccer is a joke, and has been for quite some time. Players with ANY talent leave Reston to play elsewhere - telling that NOT ONE PLAYER on the SLHS varsity OR JV plays on a Reston travel team.

Look at the NCSL standings. Reston generally has better teams. In my personal experience (my son is a U13) the Reston teams he has played against are all better than the Great Falls teams. The Great Falls kids and parents seem nice, probably because the competitive kids and obnoxious parents go to McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I should hope you meant that. Reston travel soccer is a joke, and has been for quite some time. Players with ANY talent leave Reston to play elsewhere - telling that NOT ONE PLAYER on the SLHS varsity OR JV plays on a Reston travel team.

Where do they play instead?

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:Thanks for the responses!

Anonymous wrote:Why did they merge? ...

The merger FAQ (PDF) outlines some of the potential benefits.

The unfortunate issue facing FPYC (as far as the lone 2008 girls travel team is concerned), is that there are only 12 girls on the squad now. I think it is reasonable to expect losing one or two girls per year due to life changes outside of soccer. The team will essentially cease to exist when the game jumps from 7-v-7 to 11-v-11.

Our UK-Elite-aligned coach, who is great ... as far as the parents are concerned, has made efforts to recruit/invite other girls to join the FPYC team. I think we added at least two girls from Vienna last year. Our coach was even tapped to coach the 2009 girls for FPYC, but there wasn't enough interest to field a full travel team. It would have been tough, even for him, to make up the year's difference in development between the 2008s and the 2009s for them to play as one squad. I believe that there is also a 2007 girls team under a different coach, but I have no idea how they are faring.

I don't know if there are similarly-sized clubs immediately adjacent to us that are facing similar issues (Annandale, maybe?). It seems as if a merger, if only for one or two age groups, will allow the girls to develop and play on for a few more years, without forcing everyone to (seemingly) start over in larger clubs.

What does the club's board say about this?

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does the club's board say about this?

As far as **I** know, nothing has been widely communicated to participating families across FPYC. I realize that many positions within the organization are staffed by volunteers (possibly, unpaid), and I'll assume that most folks have daily duties that are far more important than FPYC. Furthermore, this issue may only be affecting a few girls' teams in just one of the 12 or so sports within the club.

I have yet to send an e-mail to our Soccer Director for a more formal response. I don't think this specific case requires immediate action, so I may wait to engage after the spring season.

I would be interested in learning if other clubs are facing similar issues (barely fielding one team at a specific age/birth year). The 2008s are a special case given the shift from academic year to birth year significantly affects them more than other years.

I'm also an FPYC parent and I would not support a merger. We're fine on the boys side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should hope you meant that. Reston travel soccer is a joke, and has been for quite some time. Players with ANY talent leave Reston to play elsewhere - telling that NOT ONE PLAYER on the SLHS varsity OR JV plays on a Reston travel team.

Look at the NCSL standings. Reston generally has better teams. In my personal experience (my son is a U13) the Reston teams he has played against are all better than the Great Falls teams. The Great Falls kids and parents seem nice, probably because the competitive kids and obnoxious parents go to McLean.

Great Falls top team plays in NPL, not NCSL. So you are playing against a lower team.

[Anonymous]

What does FPYC have to do with Reston and Great Falls soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I should hope you meant that. Reston travel soccer is a joke, and has been for quite some time. Players with ANY talent leave Reston to play elsewhere - telling that NOT ONE PLAYER on the SLHS varsity OR JV plays on a Reston travel team.

I'm very surprised to hear that. Reston has two boys teams in NCSL Div. 1 U16, though one of those teams (Cyclones) draws from all over. In general, NCSL Div. 1 teams are stronger than the lower half of CCL and most of VPL.

Reston also has Div. 1 boys teams at U14 and U15. They have a pretty good coaching staff these days.

I only see one Reston girls team above U13, though it's Div. 1 as well.

In any case -- how will this merger affect SFL teams? I'm actually thinking of moving DS there in the fall because Vienna has nothing for U16 House.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should hope you meant that. Reston travel soccer is a joke, and has been for quite some time. Players with ANY talent leave Reston to play elsewhere - telling that NOT ONE PLAYER on the SLHS varsity OR JV plays on a Reston travel team.

Look at the NCSL standings. Reston generally has better teams. In my personal experience (my son is a U13) the Reston teams he has played against are all better than the Great Falls teams. The Great Falls kids and parents seem nice, probably because the competitive kids and obnoxious parents go to McLean.

Great Falls top team plays in NPL, not NCSL. So you are playing against a lower team.

They just joined VPL this year; this isn't my first rodeo. I've seen them play soccer and futsal, I just saw them play in a lower division of a tournament this weekend. Reston's 2005 teams are better. And as PP noted, many of Reston's older teams are in D1 or D2 of NCSL, which are as strong as any league.

Great Falls kids are polite and seem to be good sports, but their travel teams are not strong. I'm sure it's the proximity to McLean.

[Anonymous]

Not sure about the boys, but the younger great falls girls teams finished at the top of VPL last season. Teams seem to be improving within the club. The Reston boys teams have historically been better.

[Anonymous]

FPYCs biggest issue is they are so disorganized. The communication is awful and we considered staying with them beyond rec but it was impossible to figure out what was happening.

FPYC should merge with BRYC because of proximity. BRYac could handle all the organization and they would have a larger player pool. BRYC would not change their name but they would gladly take over the travel program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FPYCs biggest issue is they are so disorganized. The communication is awful and we considered staying with them beyond rec but it was impossible to figure out what was happening.

FPYC should merge with BRYC because of proximity. BRYac could handle all the organization and they would have a larger player pool. BRYC would not change their name but they would gladly take over the travel program.

BRYC is also disorganized, you can't get their travel light program to talk to the Elite travel. Would FPYC be part of the middle of the road travel? smh.

[Anonymous]

FPYCparent wrote:I don't know if I would describe FPYC as disorganized on the whole, but our 2008 girls team is managed quite well by the coach and the parents who have volunteered on certain aspects. (For example, I try to keep stats that I've been sharing with the coach. Another does tournament registrations, and a third collects player fees.) We use TeamSnap for most communications, including scheduling and availability updates. Our coach also uses Facebook and YoutTube for sharing game footage (we record our matches and scrimmages) and other fun soccer videos (skills development, select clips highlighting superstars of the game like Messi, Ronaldo, etc.).

I would love to see more communication across the travel teams within FPYC. The "primary" FPYC Facebook and Twitter accounts haven't had regular posts since 2015 and 2012 respectively. I have no idea how I'd get updates from other FPYC soccer teams aside from reaching out to a coach or another parent.

That lack of "intra-club" visibility leads me to websites for other area clubs just to see what's going one. That's how I found out about the Reston-Great Falls merger.

I'm not sure what you're looking at, but @fpycsoccer on Twitter has been active recently, though admittedly not very. Maybe you should take it over and reach out to all the teams for news. The boys 03, 04, and 05 teams were at the Alexandria Spring Kickoff last weekend and did well.

[Anonymous]

I think I know the 2008 coach and if it is who I am think- he is a good guy but has no support from the club so if he walks away- the whole team is kind of screwed. I have no insider info and don’t think he would walk away but not having a club based model can really screw over the team.

I heard they tried to have an u9 team but basically could not get enough kids, did not communicate with the kids they did have and everyone ended bailing for Vienna and BRYC or sticking with rec. Is there any chance they will have a younger girls team this fall?

[Anonymous]

You nailed the issue with FPYC. Intra-club communication and coordination are nonexistent. The teams that do well (and there are plenty) must have a good coach and good team manager..and not mind operating independently with little to no club support. But I don't know if a merger with another dysfunctional club (bryc) is the answer either...

[Anonymous]

I’m with FPYC at the older ages and things have gone pretty well for our group, so much so that we had enough people interested that we had to set up a second team. However one of the earlier posters is right, you almost have to operate independently of the club. Having said that, I know our management on the soccer side and they are fantastic people who give us a platform to showcase our boys and are always helpful when it comes to securing fields. I am at our fields all the time and there are many talented players and some good coaches at the club, not to mention all the gifted players unaffiliated with the club who play pick-up at Draper and are overlooked. I don’t see how FPYC merging with any other club would benefit anyone other than the pockets of the bigger club we’d be merging with.