VYS Soccer - better or worse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

This is a basic question, but I'm still relatively new to the area ... yes, I understand that officially, the "Town of Vienna" has 16K residents. But most of Fairfax is unincorporated, and one would think that Vienna has the potential to draw from all of the unincorporated parts of Fairfax County that surround the town of Vienna, so their potential population is larger, isn't it? I think the number shown for Vienna is small only because it's the technical population of the Town of Vienna; there are many more people surrounding the town for whom VYS would be the closest club, or equidistant to other clubs. But maybe I'm missing something.

I was disappointed to learn that Vienna limits its financial aid to kids from select schools (presumably those from Vienna proper). So it seems they've made a conscious decision to treat kids from outside of Vienna differently. It's one of the reasons -- not the only reason, but one of them -- that we'll be looking for a new club next year.

Here's a map I made a few years ago of clubs in the area. It's a little outdated and doesn't have all the more recent mergers and partnerships, but it gives you an idea:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ThvfARJPLBWxi9eeH4s_pL7DWTg&ll=38.949226214389654%2C-77.22207325967217&z=11

Vienna borders Reston, which is large and has merged with Great Falls. Vienna and McLean share a border (postal addresses, anyway) in Tysons. To the east, Falls Church tends to feed into Arlington. (It's also the home of Premier AC, which draws a good bit from Falls Church/Arlington and some from Vienna.) To the south, Annandale has had some success in the past, and Villarreal is still in there somewhere.

The only nearby area that doesn't have its own team is Oakton, and while Vienna draws a fair amount from there, Oakton kids also go to FPYC, Great Falls-Reston or Chantilly.

Braddock Road also draws some Vienna kids because of its history and its ECNL affiliation.

I'm not sure how Vienna treats out-of-towners, but I know the mentality a few years ago when Eddie Lima was in charge was indeed that Vienna meant "Vienna." That notion fits the town rather well -- we're incorporated, and we're protective of our identity. (That identity also includes a big baseball presence -- soccer may be the No. 1 sport in Arlington and Reston, but I don't think that's the case here. I see more private trainers running around here for baseball than I do for soccer, that's for sure.)

I've been ripped for saying this before, but I think VYS punches above its weight. So many clubs in Fairfax County posit themselves as "elite" -- some with good reason, some not. Loudoun County is much simpler -- Loudoun is the gargantuan club, TSJ FC Virginia also draws from the region, and then you have smaller clubs. In Fairfax County, you have the traditional powerhouses (Braddock Road, McLean), ambitious clubs drawing from large areas (Great Falls Reston, SYC, SYA), a couple more community clubs that sometimes have terrific teams (Chantilly, Herndon, Annandale), some boutique clubs (FC Dulles, PAC), and more clubs around the periphery (Alexandria, Lee Mount Vernon, NVSC). On top of all that, D.C. United and Arlington are waiting to bring in top talent.

Whats a boutique club mean? I think PAC is a small very solid club. I am bias because my DS plays there.

So did mine, and we still have some friends there. I don’t mean it as an insult at all. It’s small - one of the few clubs in the region with no rec program.

The coaches do a marvelous job maximizing the potential of each player. It’s not a bad niche to fill. And they occasionally have (or keep) enough players to have a pretty good team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the VYS/ Arlington scrimmages: The VYS 07 & 06 teams are really struggling. They are lucky Arlington didn’t score 20+ on each of them.

20??

Over 10 keeper saves and some missed shots. Arlington possessed about 80-90%.

Was this vs ecnl or red team?

Arlington ECNL teams vs Vienna’s Eagles. I’m assuming Vienna approached Arlington for these games, which I think we can all agree was dumb. Does anyone know why arlington accepted these scrimmages? Equally as dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Population numbers ??

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the VYS/ Arlington scrimmages: The VYS 07 & 06 teams are really struggling. They are lucky Arlington didn’t score 20+ on each of them.

20??

Over 10 keeper saves and some missed shots. Arlington possessed about 80-90%.

Was this vs ecnl or red team?

Arlington ECNL teams vs Vienna’s Eagles. I’m assuming Vienna approached Arlington for these games, which I think we can all agree was dumb. Does anyone know why arlington accepted these scrimmages? Equally as dumb.

They were shortened scrimmages. If you are trying to improve, you have to measure yourself against the best.
Vienna still has a way to go but it is step in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the VYS/ Arlington scrimmages: The VYS 07 & 06 teams are really struggling. They are lucky Arlington didn’t score 20+ on each of them.

20??

Over 10 keeper saves and some missed shots. Arlington possessed about 80-90%.

Was this vs ecnl or red team?

Arlington ECNL teams vs Vienna’s Eagles. I’m assuming Vienna approached Arlington for these games, which I think we can all agree was dumb. Does anyone know why arlington accepted these scrimmages? Equally as dumb.

They were shortened scrimmages. If you are trying to improve, you have to measure yourself against the best.
Vienna still has a way to go but it is step in the right direction.

How about first you make yourself competitive at your appropriate level and then challenge yourself at the next level up. If you were so dominated it's clear that you should have started with their red team as a benchmark and then look to play the next appropriate level. Unless the 07 team has drastically improved from last year I think they would have struggled against Arlington Red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Population numbers ??

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the VYS/ Arlington scrimmages: The VYS 07 & 06 teams are really struggling. They are lucky Arlington didn’t score 20+ on each of them.

20??

Over 10 keeper saves and some missed shots. Arlington possessed about 80-90%.

Was this vs ecnl or red team?

Arlington ECNL teams vs Vienna’s Eagles. I’m assuming Vienna approached Arlington for these games, which I think we can all agree was dumb. Does anyone know why arlington accepted these scrimmages? Equally as dumb.

They were shortened scrimmages. If you are trying to improve, you have to measure yourself against the best.
Vienna still has a way to go but it is step in the right direction.

How about first you make yourself competitive at your appropriate level and then challenge yourself at the next level up. If you were so dominated it's clear that you should have started with their red team as a benchmark and then look to play the next appropriate level. Unless the 07 team has drastically improved from last year I think they would have struggled against Arlington Red.

They could have done that but they didn't. Maybe the red team was unavailable? Though, this butt-whooping is what they got. I'm sure both the boys and the coaches learned something from those games. Now if they didn't, then it was a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the VYS/ Arlington scrimmages: The VYS 07 & 06 teams are really struggling. They are lucky Arlington didn’t score 20+ on each of them.

20??

Over 10 keeper saves and some missed shots. Arlington possessed about 80-90%.

Was this vs ecnl or red team?

Arlington ECNL teams vs Vienna’s Eagles. I’m assuming Vienna approached Arlington for these games, which I think we can all agree was dumb. Does anyone know why arlington accepted these scrimmages? Equally as dumb.

They were shortened scrimmages. If you are trying to improve, you have to measure yourself against the best.
Vienna still has a way to go but it is step in the right direction.

How about first you make yourself competitive at your appropriate level and then challenge yourself at the next level up. If you were so dominated it's clear that you should have started with their red team as a benchmark and then look to play the next appropriate level. Unless the 07 team has drastically improved from last year I think they would have struggled against Arlington Red.

They could have done that but they didn't. Maybe the red team was unavailable? Though, this butt-whooping is what they got. I'm sure both the boys and the coaches learned something from those games. Now if they didn't, then it was a waste of time.

That's fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Population numbers ??

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Population numbers ??

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

Yes but these are U9s if the desire to play is there, they won't be that different. They aren't made players. They can be taught/molded. Now if all 16k or 200k were starting off together than I would say yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

Yes but these are U9s if the desire to play is there, they won't be that different. They aren't made players. They can be taught/molded. Now if all 16k or 200k were starting off together than I would say yes.

You have to factor in the other sports too.
Soccer is always competing with other big sports for the best athletes. This also impacts your "select group". Hence, better to have bigger pot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

Yes but these are U9s if the desire to play is there, they won't be that different. They aren't made players. They can be taught/molded. Now if all 16k or 200k were starting off together than I would say yes.

You have to factor in the other sports too.
Soccer is always competing with other big sports for the best athletes. This also impacts your "select group". Hence, better to have bigger pot.

Again goes back to why the coaching/development needs to be better at the earlier stages. Maybe Arlington doesn't have to work as hard b/c of "select group". Because VYS develops 1 player that goes to BRYC and another that goes to McLean, doesn't mean that they are doing a good job. That happens at all clubs. If by U11, you had a very good roster of 12-14 players, where the team competed against other top teams, parents wouldn't leave. Eventually you have enough strong teams that no one leaves and maybe talent from outside the club wants to play there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

Yes but these are U9s if the desire to play is there, they won't be that different. They aren't made players. They can be taught/molded. Now if all 16k or 200k were starting off together than I would say yes.

You have to factor in the other sports too.
Soccer is always competing with other big sports for the best athletes. This also impacts your "select group". Hence, better to have bigger pot.

Again goes back to why the coaching/development needs to be better at the earlier stages. Maybe Arlington doesn't have to work as hard b/c of "select group". Because VYS develops 1 player that goes to BRYC and another that goes to McLean, doesn't mean that they are doing a good job. That happens at all clubs. If by U11, you had a very good roster of 12-14 players, where the team competed against other top teams, parents wouldn't leave. Eventually you have enough strong teams that no one leaves and maybe talent from outside the club wants to play there.

Don't want to make it sound like they aren't doing good enough job. I'm sure they have good coaches. Just feel like Vienna has potential but something just isn't working to where players want to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

RantingSoccerDad wrote:Arlington population: 236,842
Reston population: 60,335 (add 15,394 for Great Falls)
McLean population: 47,075
Vienna population: 16,556

I think VYS has shown players can stick with it all the way and still go to a D1 college. (If you don't believe me, just Google it. I'm tired of looking everything up for everyone.)

The very best players may still go ECNL. Vienna is nowhere near big enough to be an ECNL club.

Why Metro United includes Stoddert and Potomac instead of the more geographically logical Vienna and Herndon is above my pay grade. VDA is just too far away.

.

Good guess. And a pretty good explanation for differences between top teams. Geographic service areas are totally different. This is why interscholastic sports have different divisions based on school size. The bigger your population, the deeper your talent pool is likely to be. Would you expect something different? Why?

In the past, vienna used to have about 4 teams starting at u9. With that many teams you should be able to have sufficient numbers to develop a strong top team at older ages. Maybe they should look at their development process instead. Maybe not the correct coaches at the u littles? Maybe not enough player movement so that as players progress they should be moved up the team order.

Not so. The drop off between first and second and third is a lot more severe than one generally sees at other bigger clubs, so as the rosters lengthen, the quality is tougher to maintain and players depart. This is why we left. The coaching is very solid at U9 and they develop players well. Again, this is something you see at clubs with smaller geographic device areas. McLean and BRYC have the same issues with second teams at these ages and need to import a lot of their players U13 up.

I get what you are saying, but if each start with say 44 kids, then everyone starts at the same place. It's not like the water in Arlington makes for 44 better soccer players. It's still 44 kids interested in soccer at the earlier stages regardless of level they begin with.

Top 44 in a town of 16,000 is going to be different than top 44 with 200,000.

Yes but these are U9s if the desire to play is there, they won't be that different. They aren't made players. They can be taught/molded. Now if all 16k or 200k were starting off together than I would say yes.

You have to factor in the other sports too.
Soccer is always competing with other big sports for the best athletes. This also impacts your "select group". Hence, better to have bigger pot.

Again goes back to why the coaching/development needs to be better at the earlier stages. Maybe Arlington doesn't have to work as hard b/c of "select group". Because VYS develops 1 player that goes to BRYC and another that goes to McLean, doesn't mean that they are doing a good job. That happens at all clubs. If by U11, you had a very good roster of 12-14 players, where the team competed against other top teams, parents wouldn't leave. Eventually you have enough strong teams that no one leaves and maybe talent from outside the club wants to play there.

I follow what you are saying but you the problem is that VYS isn't considered an "elite" club and parents aren't willing to stay to develop an "elite" club. The grass is always greener at clubs like Arlington and Bethesda.
VYS needs to make a big splash in it's older groups (U13+) and bring in a strong and well known coach. Someone who has a history of getting players into colleges and wins touneys.
Someone that outside players at other clubs are going to come to VYS for. I'm not sure if Pep or Klopp are available though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Again goes back to why the coaching/development needs to be better at the earlier stages. Maybe Arlington doesn't have to work as hard b/c of "select group". Because VYS develops 1 player that goes to BRYC and another that goes to McLean, doesn't mean that they are doing a good job. That happens at all clubs. If by U11, you had a very good roster of 12-14 players, where the team competed against other top teams, parents wouldn't leave. Eventually you have enough strong teams that no one leaves and maybe talent from outside the club wants to play there.

yes they would because roster drastically expand at U13 and the kids who are the standouts and who decide (or have parents that decide) to really pursue the sport will have to opportunity to move to bigger clubs that play in higher leagues. Its just how it is for smaller clubs. DD plays on a good U11 team at a small club, but I doubt the makeup will be the same by the time rosters expand again