NM and DMV FC to GFR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great falls new sucker club

Unfortunately as parents we have zero input into these decisions...

It feels like clubs forming "partnerships" and "alliances" is very in vogue lately but it's sometimes hard to understand the incentive or benefit for each of the clubs involved in such an agreement. I never understood what GFR hoped to get out of NVA, for example. I can see a benefit for NVA since it expands access to players primarily at Valor and GFR because those coaches would (theoretically) "guide" their better players to NVA. And sure enough, both clubs lost some of their best players to NVA which only made the Valor and GFR teams weaker. But it's not like you could only get to NVA by being on a team at Loudoun, Valor or GFR. So what benefit do Valor and GFR get out of that arrangement? I heard all the talking points about a "common training regimens", coach training, etc. but that's all it amounted to - just talking points.

And now I hear rumors that GFR is going to leave NVA after this season and form some kind of "partnership" with McLean in the wake of SYC leaving VA Union. And that would seem to make sense as Nadir Moumem was hired as the new GFR TD. But again, what benefit would GFR get from that?

A better partnership than the one with NVA maybe, a relationship between the clubs that works both ways?

That, and geographically GFR/McLean "alliance" makes much more sense. In our age group on the girls side the NVA team is very weak. Many of our players chose not to tryout as it didn't make sense since they were either already committed or didn't want to make the drive to Loudoun/Leesburg.

[Anonymous]

Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great falls new sucker club

Unfortunately as parents we have zero input into these decisions...

It feels like clubs forming "partnerships" and "alliances" is very in vogue lately but it's sometimes hard to understand the incentive or benefit for each of the clubs involved in such an agreement. I never understood what GFR hoped to get out of NVA, for example. I can see a benefit for NVA since it expands access to players primarily at Valor and GFR because those coaches would (theoretically) "guide" their better players to NVA. And sure enough, both clubs lost some of their best players to NVA which only made the Valor and GFR teams weaker. But it's not like you could only get to NVA by being on a team at Loudoun, Valor or GFR. So what benefit do Valor and GFR get out of that arrangement? I heard all the talking points about a "common training regimens", coach training, etc. but that's all it amounted to - just talking points.

And now I hear rumors that GFR is going to leave NVA after this season and form some kind of "partnership" with McLean in the wake of SYC leaving VA Union. And that would seem to make sense as Nadir Moumem was hired as the new GFR TD. But again, what benefit would GFR get from that?

Yes but the talking points were delivered in a British accent so surely they must be true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

Checking Loudouns page GFR is no longer mentioned so everyone is waiting for the inevitable announcement that has no effect on the teams because GFR bought nothing to the table.


Honestly all eyes are on Valor. If the dip there is no Alliance and then what will loudoun do w all the marketing and new kits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

Checking Loudouns page GFR is no longer mentioned so everyone is waiting for the inevitable announcement that has no effect on the teams because GFR bought nothing to the table.


Honestly all eyes are on Valor. If the dip there is no Alliance and then what will loudoun do w all the marketing and new kits.

BS, GFR brought a lot to NVA. Think for a minute why they even NEEDED to create an "alliance" for their ECNL program...Our records on both girls and boys speak for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

Checking Loudouns page GFR is no longer mentioned so everyone is waiting for the inevitable announcement that has no effect on the teams because GFR bought nothing to the table.


Honestly all eyes are on Valor. If the dip there is no Alliance and then what will loudoun do w all the marketing and new kits.

Huh, interesting that the NVA website does only mention Loudoun and Valor now. I don’t see Valor leaving as they can tout NVA as their path to ECNL. They aren’t going to get ECNL on their own so partnering with someone lets them say it for marketing purposes. I have no idea how many NVA players have come from Loudoun vs. Valor. I suspect mostly Loudoun and a couple Valor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

Checking Loudouns page GFR is no longer mentioned so everyone is waiting for the inevitable announcement that has no effect on the teams because GFR bought nothing to the table.


Honestly all eyes are on Valor. If the dip there is no Alliance and then what will loudoun do w all the marketing and new kits.

BS, GFR brought a lot to NVA. Think for a minute why they even NEEDED to create an "alliance" for their ECNL program...Our records on both girls and boys speak for themselves.

ID sessions said otherwise… NVA has already removed GFR existence from the Alliance web page. Again… not much to the table.

Hopefully u guys will hop over to
Mclean and keep shorter practice commutes.


And we have no clue why Loudoun needed an alliance in the first place. It made no sense…
And even less when the teams didn’t pick up a lot of gfr talent. Maybe Loudoun didn’t want yall merging w competition in their backyard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah geographically I'm the McLean/SYC partnership didn't make a ton of sense. I get that club size and the desire to participate in ECNL were likely the biggest factors, but I think from the parent/player side the best situation is likely for local clubs to partner with each other to get better, instead of just chasing who has the league access at the time, as that can always change.

Checking Loudouns page GFR is no longer mentioned so everyone is waiting for the inevitable announcement that has no effect on the teams because GFR bought nothing to the table.


Honestly all eyes are on Valor. If the dip there is no Alliance and then what will loudoun do w all the marketing and new kits.

Huh, interesting that the NVA website does only mention Loudoun and Valor now. I don’t see Valor leaving as they can tout NVA as their path to ECNL. They aren’t going to get ECNL on their own so partnering with someone lets them say it for marketing purposes. I have no idea how many NVA players have come from Loudoun vs. Valor. I suspect mostly Loudoun and a couple Valor?

it’s scattered between boys n girls teams. I can say for my lil one the dual rosters get smoked in practice n dont sniff the field. Not all the same across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And even less when the teams didn’t pick up a lot of gfr talent.

When you say "didn't pick up a lot of GFR talent", were you expecting 1/3 of the NVA team rosters to come from GFR? That was never going to happen. LS wasn't looking to replace their existing ECNL players, they were looking to supplement with quality talent from outside the club. They're obviously well acquainted with the players on their own ECNL-RL teams and anybody that they wanted to "promote" to ECNL, they could have easily done at any time. I can't speak for Valor but GFR, at least on the girls side, has a decent number of players go on to play in college every year. For example, the GFR 05/06 team this year has 8 or 9 college commits on it. So whether you attribute that to complete luck, coaching, etc., the fact is, GFR has some good talent (as does Valor) and Loudoun wanted to tap into that. I have no idea what GFR and Valor hoped to get out of a "partnership" with Loudoun but it was never going to be symbiotic. Coaches at the two smaller clubs would "guide" their best players over to NVA ID sessions. That let NVA get a look at them before they potentially go tryout at another ECNL club. And even if they only decide to take 10% of those players, those are players that they would otherwise not have seen because they don't play at Loudoun.

[Anonymous]

Saying Makenna Morris left Bethesda for McLean for NM is a wild take. More likely that she wanted to play ECNL in the Fall before starting at Clemson in the Spring. Instead of Maryland structure where you play high school in the Fall.


First, I try to leave the names of players out of the discussion. The reality is that said player played HS in the Fall and joined Mclean after the season and played until Covid. Sat next to parents at a game and also knew the coach she left at previous club. She left previous club for better training environment.

I had DDs who played for NM and I think he is an outstanding trainer. That said, the BSC player came because they liked NM and thought McLean offered the best training environment FOR THAT YEAR. The player had “played up” for years on a strong BSC team that included her sister - when that team graduated a year before her, the switch made sense because the BSC team in player’s birth year was not strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great falls new sucker club

Unfortunately as parents we have zero input into these decisions...

It feels like clubs forming "partnerships" and "alliances" is very in vogue lately but it's sometimes hard to understand the incentive or benefit for each of the clubs involved in such an agreement. I never understood what GFR hoped to get out of NVA, for example. I can see a benefit for NVA since it expands access to players primarily at Valor and GFR because those coaches would (theoretically) "guide" their better players to NVA. And sure enough, both clubs lost some of their best players to NVA which only made the Valor and GFR teams weaker. But it's not like you could only get to NVA by being on a team at Loudoun, Valor or GFR. So what benefit do Valor and GFR get out of that arrangement? I heard all the talking points about a "common training regimens", coach training, etc. but that's all it amounted to - just talking points.

And now I hear rumors that GFR is going to leave NVA after this season and form some kind of "partnership" with McLean in the wake of SYC leaving VA Union. And that would seem to make sense as Nadir Moumem was hired as the new GFR TD. But again, what benefit would GFR get from that?

A better partnership than the one with NVA maybe, a relationship between the clubs that works both ways?

there is none that makes sense tho… loudoun never needed it… they may have needed rebranding tho

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And even less when the teams didn’t pick up a lot of gfr talent.

When you say "didn't pick up a lot of GFR talent", were you expecting 1/3 of the NVA team rosters to come from GFR? That was never going to happen. LS wasn't looking to replace their existing ECNL players, they were looking to supplement with quality talent from outside the club. They're obviously well acquainted with the players on their own ECNL-RL teams and anybody that they wanted to "promote" to ECNL, they could have easily done at any time. I can't speak for Valor but GFR, at least on the girls side, has a decent number of players go on to play in college every year. For example, the GFR 05/06 team this year has 8 or 9 college commits on it. So whether you attribute that to complete luck, coaching, etc., the fact is, GFR has some good talent (as does Valor) and Loudoun wanted to tap into that. I have no idea what GFR and Valor hoped to get out of a "partnership" with Loudoun but it was never going to be symbiotic. Coaches at the two smaller clubs would "guide" their best players over to NVA ID sessions. That let NVA get a look at them before they potentially go tryout at another ECNL club. And even if they only decide to take 10% of those players, those are players that they would otherwise not have seen because they don't play at Loudoun.

that 1/3 was how it was sold… or at least an even playing field come id sessions. But that didn’t happen. Lmao im actually loving how GFR maneuvered out of this meaningless alliance not alliance kind of alliance not really alliance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great falls new sucker club

Unfortunately as parents we have zero input into these decisions...

It feels like clubs forming "partnerships" and "alliances" is very in vogue lately but it's sometimes hard to understand the incentive or benefit for each of the clubs involved in such an agreement. I never understood what GFR hoped to get out of NVA, for example. I can see a benefit for NVA since it expands access to players primarily at Valor and GFR because those coaches would (theoretically) "guide" their better players to NVA. And sure enough, both clubs lost some of their best players to NVA which only made the Valor and GFR teams weaker. But it's not like you could only get to NVA by being on a team at Loudoun, Valor or GFR. So what benefit do Valor and GFR get out of that arrangement? I heard all the talking points about a "common training regimens", coach training, etc. but that's all it amounted to - just talking points.

And now I hear rumors that GFR is going to leave NVA after this season and form some kind of "partnership" with McLean in the wake of SYC leaving VA Union. And that would seem to make sense as Nadir Moumem was hired as the new GFR TD. But again, what benefit would GFR get from that?

A better partnership than the one with NVA maybe, a relationship between the clubs that works both ways?

there is none that makes sense tho… loudoun never needed it… they may have needed rebranding tho

+1

this was a rebranding play, if we can replace our worst players with the best players from valor/gfr it's icing on the cake

[Anonymous]

I believe the success of the alliance will be judged in future years. Kids from GFR or Valor who wanted ECNL national league would have already left to find it- at Loudoun or anywhere else. This year’s U11 and U12 players moving into the NVA squads will be more telling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the success of the alliance will be judged in future years. Kids from GFR or Valor who wanted ECNL national league would have already left to find it- at Loudoun or anywhere else. This year’s U11 and U12 players moving into the NVA squads will be more telling.

I imagine it will be like a 90/10 or 80/20 split on NVA for current U11 and U12.