Thoughts on Mclean Youth Soccer partnering with Coerver to take over the Juniors program

[Anonymous]

We did Juniors. McLean uses the Juniors to make money. Anywhere between 50K to 80K revenue and they only have to pay a couple coaches to have them dribble around. Money has always been an issue .... the large rosters on the travel teams too. The players never really enjoyed all of it but parents push it to get on the radar for travel.That was our only reason and Corver takes that away.

[Anonymous]

+1

~ around 30 girls showed this year and all made it

[Anonymous]

Interesting we had about 65 on the boys side and they indicated they were shooting for 48.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did Juniors. McLean uses the Juniors to make money. Anywhere between 50K to 80K revenue and they only have to pay a couple coaches to have them dribble around. Money has always been an issue .... the large rosters on the travel teams too. The players never really enjoyed all of it but parents push it to get on the radar for travel.That was our only reason and Corver takes that away.

Why does Coerver take that away, we were also at they boys' tryouts where the guy talking to the parents when tryouts started indicated that all the kids in the program were basically guaranteed a spot on one of McLean's U9 teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting we had about 65 on the boys side and they indicated they were shooting for 48.

65 is a lot actually. There were around 45 boys last year and almost all of them made it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did Juniors. McLean uses the Juniors to make money. Anywhere between 50K to 80K revenue and they only have to pay a couple coaches to have them dribble around. Money has always been an issue .... the large rosters on the travel teams too. The players never really enjoyed all of it but parents push it to get on the radar for travel.That was our only reason and Corver takes that away.

We can all agree that All Travel clubs aim to make money lol. There is no secret there.

As a Juniors parent, I can confidently say that Junior is a big step ahead of rec. My kid developed a lot over the course of the year. It may depend on which coach you got. If you were lucky to have your kid in one of the talented coaches group then those kids developed for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the above awkward rant against the program.

I can't speak about Juniors from many years ago but can say that most recently, it has been a great development program for U8 players aiming for U9 travel. The two coaches that are leaving are a big loss for the club. They not only developed players from a technical standpoint but also focused on developing the mental aspect of developing as a player. A lot of focus was placed on letting players solve problems/issues among each other instead of the coaches being more authoritarian. My DS improved over the year and developed other aspects of his game that aren't really focused on at this age like gamesmanship, caring for injured teammates and respecting their peers.

Now that they are gone, I do not know how that dynamic will work between an outside company and the players. I also don't know of any club that brought in an outside soccer development company to run an age group entirely. MYS might miss on the coaching philosophies that its own coaches teach to the players.

+1

We did Juniors in the past few years and it was amazing. Like any other travel team it is highly dependent on the coach. And in this case MYS scored a great coach. That coach was with MYS for a while but is moving to a club that is very far away...outside coaches will not be used for juniors with this partnership. Its just the curriculum. Which in many ways is consistent with why the current coach was awesome. He had a planned curriculum for each practice which he had researched. Now the research will be done for them which I sense may ensure consistency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did Juniors. McLean uses the Juniors to make money. Anywhere between 50K to 80K revenue and they only have to pay a couple coaches to have them dribble around. Money has always been an issue .... the large rosters on the travel teams too. The players never really enjoyed all of it but parents push it to get on the radar for travel.That was our only reason and Corver takes that away.

We can all agree that All Travel clubs aim to make money lol. There is no secret there.

As a Juniors parent, I can confidently say that Junior is a big step ahead of rec. My kid developed a lot over the course of the year. It may depend on which coach you got. If you were lucky to have your kid in one of the talented coaches group then those kids developed for sure.

How is it that travel clubs aim to make money, yet most are not for profit organizations. I don't see many soccer coaches driving Mercedes either. Even the TD does not make a huge salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the above awkward rant against the program.

I can't speak about Juniors from many years ago but can say that most recently, it has been a great development program for U8 players aiming for U9 travel. The two coaches that are leaving are a big loss for the club. They not only developed players from a technical standpoint but also focused on developing the mental aspect of developing as a player. A lot of focus was placed on letting players solve problems/issues among each other instead of the coaches being more authoritarian. My DS improved over the year and developed other aspects of his game that aren't really focused on at this age like gamesmanship, caring for injured teammates and respecting their peers.

Now that they are gone, I do not know how that dynamic will work between an outside company and the players. I also don't know of any club that brought in an outside soccer development company to run an age group entirely. MYS might miss on the coaching philosophies that its own coaches teach to the players.

+1

We did Juniors in the past few years and it was amazing. Like any other travel team it is highly dependent on the coach. And in this case MYS scored a great coach. That coach was with MYS for a while but is moving to a club that is very far away...outside coaches will not be used for juniors with this partnership. Its just the curriculum. Which in many ways is consistent with why the current coach was awesome. He had a planned curriculum for each practice which he had researched. Now the research will be done for them which I sense may ensure consistency.

Yes this is a step down. No good MYS coaches anymore.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

I suspect it's a a way to raise funds to defray other costs (pretty sure they are cash flow negative many years) and get kids, many of whom who are probably equidistant from various other local clubs, to buy into the system. McLean does offer additional skills training for rec players if they want to sign up but it sounds very different from what you describe. They also do identify U7 from their rec games and practices and offer a few of those kids an extra night of training with a professional coach for free. The "pre-travel" moniker perhaps is misplaced maybe it's used because you actually have to try-out for the program (although it sounds like they take most of the kids who do) similar to what they will have to do when they reach u9?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

I think you will see a different McLean U9 (Green) team this upcoming season. I suspect the games against Arlington Red will be a lot more competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

I think you will see a different McLean U9 (Green) team this upcoming season. I suspect the games against Arlington Red will be a lot more competitive.[/quote

McLean doesn't care if they win games at U-9. Or at least they haven't for the past few years. U-9 is an extension of juniors. MYS uses u-9 games to test approaches and create learning opportunities. Everybody gets the same playing time and kids are rotated into goalie each game--doesn't matter if they don't know how to play goalie or they suck and let every goal through. It's viewed as a development experience.

Our U-9 MYS coach had no idea whether we won or lost games, and often had to ask the parents what the score was in the end. He didn't keep track/didn't care. He pulled kids off the field during live play for teaching moments weven if it left too few players on the field during play. He rotated the best players off the field as equally as the average players. It's just a different approach. So I would not expect U-9 to ever be competitive with Arlington as that doesn't seem to be their thing--they seem very competitive and focused on winning (I think they even publish their results in terms of how many games they won vs lost across the season....MYS just doesnt care). It's not a bad thing--just different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

I think you will see a different McLean U9 (Green) team this upcoming season. I suspect the games against Arlington Red will be a lot more competitive.[/quote

McLean doesn't care if they win games at U-9. Or at least they haven't for the past few years. U-9 is an extension of juniors. MYS uses u-9 games to test approaches and create learning opportunities. Everybody gets the same playing time and kids are rotated into goalie each game--doesn't matter if they don't know how to play goalie or they suck and let every goal through. It's viewed as a development experience.

Our U-9 MYS coach had no idea whether we won or lost games, and often had to ask the parents what the score was in the end. He didn't keep track/didn't care. He pulled kids off the field during live play for teaching moments weven if it left too few players on the field during play. He rotated the best players off the field as equally as the average players. It's just a different approach. So I would not expect U-9 to ever be competitive with Arlington as that doesn't seem to be their thing--they seem very competitive and focused on winning (I think they even publish their results in terms of how many games they won vs lost across the season....MYS just doesnt care). It's not a bad thing--just different.

Is this Coach BM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't mclean do what Arlington does?? They play U8 on a team with friends and have true games not scrimmages and then sign up (no tryout) for academy, and then the coaches pull players into advanced academy? A lot less money and you can see the difference in the eventual U9 teams when they play each other between the 2 clubs as I don't see taking 45 boys and charging them money at U8 and saying they will all be on a travel team. How is this "pre-travel"?

I think you will see a different McLean U9 (Green) team this upcoming season. I suspect the games against Arlington Red will be a lot more competitive.[/quote

McLean doesn't care if they win games at U-9. Or at least they haven't for the past few years. U-9 is an extension of juniors. MYS uses u-9 games to test approaches and create learning opportunities. Everybody gets the same playing time and kids are rotated into goalie each game--doesn't matter if they don't know how to play goalie or they suck and let every goal through. It's viewed as a development experience.

Our U-9 MYS coach had no idea whether we won or lost games, and often had to ask the parents what the score was in the end. He didn't keep track/didn't care. He pulled kids off the field during live play for teaching moments weven if it left too few players on the field during play. He rotated the best players off the field as equally as the average players. It's just a different approach. So I would not expect U-9 to ever be competitive with Arlington as that doesn't seem to be their thing--they seem very competitive and focused on winning (I think they even publish their results in terms of how many games they won vs lost across the season....MYS just doesnt care). It's not a bad thing--just different.

Every club "doesn't care" about winning at U9. They all say the same thing, Arlington included.

Arlington is a much bigger club than McLean and draws from a much larger pool. It makes sense that it is stronger overall.

To the person who said 65 is a lot trying out for Juniors...? No it isn't! Not compared to very recent history.