Herndon Youth Soccer vs. Total Futbol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where's the social media post on the partnerships?

They are behind the times in terms of website and social media, but an email went out last week:


We are proud of what our club has been working towards and able to give its members now and in the coming months:

PLAYER PATHWAY: We are working to provide our members services at every level, from U3 to U23, recreational to travel.
We have partnered with two clubs to provide a pathway for our most talented players to play at greater competitive levels with the ECNL and GA: Arlington boys and girls (ECNL) and Metro United (Girls Academy).
We will have an affiliation agreement with DC United beginning next season, and are pursuing opportunities in MLS Next.
This spring, we are forming teams to participate in the CCL U23 men's and women's summer league to give our competitive players a platform to continue competing after their youth careers end.
Beginning in the fall, we will have a U3-U4 program.
Beginning in the fall, we will provide our recreational coaches and aspiring parent coaches with free access to a coaching app to improve the experience for both recreational players and coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where's the social media post on the partnerships?

They are behind the times in terms of website and social media, but an email went out last week:


We are proud of what our club has been working towards and able to give its members now and in the coming months:

PLAYER PATHWAY: We are working to provide our members services at every level, from U3 to U23, recreational to travel.
We have partnered with two clubs to provide a pathway for our most talented players to play at greater competitive levels with the ECNL and GA: Arlington boys and girls (ECNL) and Metro United (Girls Academy).
We will have an affiliation agreement with DC United beginning next season, and are pursuing opportunities in MLS Next.
This spring, we are forming teams to participate in the CCL U23 men's and women's summer league to give our competitive players a platform to continue competing after their youth careers end.
Beginning in the fall, we will have a U3-U4 program.
Beginning in the fall, we will provide our recreational coaches and aspiring parent coaches with free access to a coaching app to improve the experience for both recreational players and coaches.

Herndon has become a partner club to Metro United to provide access to GA ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last night, HYS presented their side of the story versus Total Futbol’s version. Were any questions left unanswered?
Do you have any comments about the meeting?

Here are mine:

-Hiring more females as coaches or placing them on the board does not give the girls’ teams better representation.
-Total Futbol ended up coaching so many HYS girl teams because they filled a void. Girls teams were left without coaches, or were offered underqualified ones.
-Total Futbol teams have offered stronger players a path to being recruited by colleges. Their teams have better results and compete in more prestigious tournaments.
-My DD started playing for TF fairly recently, when her HYS coaches left for personal reasons. She was perfectly happy with them, but now she has developed into a much stronger player, and has been contacted by college coaches without any effort from our part.
-Could the older teams be grandfathered in?
-Most of the older TF teams will follow their coaches. The oldes players can probably drive themselves, so distance will not be a major factor.
-TF also gave my DD the opportunity to play on older TF teams. She can also practice with girls who are in her same grade.
-This will not sound nice, but having myself experience in Latin America, girls soccer has not been supported. Only recently have girls programs received some support. Many of the HYS coaches come from this background. When they were kids, barely any girls played soccer. There were hardly any organized programs for them. Were these coaches interested in supporting the girls on HYS teams? Did Total Futbol fill in that void? If so, why punish the girls with a change in coaches?

I understand HYS has good intentions, and they have been working hard, but it seems they are trying to emulate many of TF’s positive aspects. Why fix TF if it ain’t broke?

After watching this meeting last night it sounds pretty clear that if HYS plans on improving its status in this area and opening itself up to more opportunities it has to sever ties with TF since it is for profit. It was noted that none of the other premier teams in premier leagues around here operate with a for profit entity coaching some of their teams in a team centric approach. It is not viewed favorably by specific leagues, and clubs do not want to partner with clubs who operate like that.

It was stated that HYS held discussions with TF on how to move forward but apparently TF won’t budge. I can see why TF wouldn’t want to give up this arrangement but at the same point what club will they take their teams too? What’s the guarantee all the players will follow if they CAN find another club? (Okay maybe LMVSC will...)

I don’t envy the players stuck in this position but if had a DD on a TF coached team I’d be asking some pretty hard questions of TF as well about what HYS had discussed within about keeping the current coaches on as HYS employees, etc. because the feeling I got is that HYS will absolutely separate from Total Futbol

I don’t envy the players stuck in this position, but the feeling I got from watching this is that HYS WILL separate from Total Futbol.

[Anonymous]

so... looks like either a lot of Metro players are going to be bumped off their teams, or what?

[Anonymous]

this all needed to happen a long time ago.

[Anonymous]

After watching this meeting last night it sounds pretty clear that if HYS plans on improving its status in this area and opening itself up to more opportunities it has to sever ties with TF since it is for profit. It was noted that none of the other premier teams in premier leagues around here operate with a for profit entity coaching some of their teams in a team centric approach. It is not viewed favorably by specific leagues, and clubs do not want to partner with clubs who operate like that.

This all seems odd - and morally wrong (as opposed to factually incorrect) - to me. Surely the customers are the best ones to decide whether they are getting a good service at a good price. As far as I can tell TF has done an excellent job and if the parents are happy to pay the cost, why does it matter how other teams operate? Why would other clubs and leagues dislike it? Perhaps because they are concerned tha the model might take off and eat into their profits too?

It was stated that HYS held discussions with TF on how to move forward but apparently TF won’t budge. I can see why TF wouldn’t want to give up this arrangement

Indeed. They have been hired, done what they werr hired to do and done it well - and now HYS wants to cut them out of the deal. I wouldn't budge either.

but at the same point what club will they take their teams too? What’s the guarantee all the players will follow if they CAN find another club? (Okay maybe LMVSC will...)

Agree - it may well be that TF gets the shaft. That doesn't make it right though. This could end up with both TF and HYS as big losers.

I don’t envy the players stuck in this position but if had a DD on a TF coached team I’d be asking some pretty hard questions of TF as well about what HYS had discussed within about keeping the current coaches on as HYS employees, etc. because the feeling I got is that HYS will absolutely separate from Total Futbol

Just out of interest, what questions would you be asking of TF?

I don’t envy the players stuck in this position, but the feeling I got from watching this is that HYS WILL separate from Total Futbol.

Agreed. Players will likely end up the losers. But, even so, they will have options to move elsewhere.

My advice, based on similar experiences in the past would be to make your decision to move quickly - and probably to somewhere completely new. There's a very good chance that half a team will stay at HYS and half a team will follow the coach - and neither will end up being a great option.

[Anonymous]

A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

[Anonymous]

How are they partnering with both Arlington and MU on the girls side? And with Arlington, DC United and MLS Next on boys? Is the above email a complete joke? I'm assuming troll post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

Ironically, though, Herndon has punched well above their weight with ‘contractors’. I think that set up actually led to coaches being able to make more money w/ Herndon and more money has led to them getting better coaches. A structure with bloated director salaries - like most clubs around here - leaves less cash for the coaches...Maybe, maybe not - just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

Or the TF Coaches could just become HYS employees? Does TF coach teams at any other clubs? I've only heard about HYS and MSI

[Anonymous]

Could get nasty between HYS and TF.

Anyone else remember the Soccer Performance International lawsuit against CYA back in 2013?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could get nasty between HYS and TF.

Anyone else remember the Soccer Performance International lawsuit against CYA back in 2013?

And look what came out of it.

CYA technical director with background and experience left to become Arlington director.

Now CYA is buried in debt and needs a lifeline in the form of a merger to keep existing because their executive director mark wanted puppy pet boy Dylan running the show when he can barely keep the receding line in check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

What is HYS doing? Partnering with MU and Arlington is of questionable value to anyone. Nobody who lives near Herndon is going to drive to Arlington. And MU... really?

With regard to TF, all coaches are essentially contractors anyway, it's just that here, TF pools coaching resources for an extra fee. It appears to have worked out quite well for HYS in the past in terms of quality and stability. I would give alot of credit to TF for that. It would appear they're exchanging quality for volume here. I feel bad for the current players who must now choose because I suspect they won't be able to hire coaches away from TF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

It is exactly this structure that has led Herndon to improve dramatically over the last decade. TF made a huge difference to the quality of the soccer played by the clubs' teams. I would go so far as to say that the club's success has more to do with TF than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A club can't move forward and develop itself when most of its staff are all contractors. Plus it has to pay a premium fee for the service. Instead of paying the premium fee, it can use the $ to hire more staff, improve fields, or other purposes

Ironically, though, Herndon has punched well above their weight with ‘contractors’. I think that set up actually led to coaches being able to make more money w/ Herndon and more money has led to them getting better coaches. A structure with bloated director salaries - like most clubs around here - leaves less cash for the coaches...Maybe, maybe not - just a thought.

+1. Exactly this.