Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basketball and soccer are contact sports. If your son is excelling at the drills and not enjoying the games as much, perhaps he'd be better off with a sport with less touching? The physicality of soccer really ratchets up in adolescence. Some kids love it, some don't.

The phrase "be aggressive" isn't exactly the right one since I associate that with yellow carding. Perhaps "engage"?

Some kids don't ever really seem to get comfortable with the contact aspect of soccer and other sports, but for others it seems to just take some time. My daughter was a fairly cautious player as a ten year old, and seemed almost to feel like it was somehow impolite to tackle the ball away from another player. Practicing with her brother's team and against older kids helped, and so did gradually getting bigger and stronger. She also had a couple of games against really physical teams that egaged in elbowing off the ball and hair-pulling, and in those games she'd get mad enough to want to go take the ball off a defender and get it to someone on her team in a scoring position. Eventually she learned to like the feeling of stripping the ball from the other team or battling to keep it, and she saw what a big difference that made for her team's ability to maintain possession. At 16, she's completely unafraid to make physican contact to get or keep the ball (still has no interest in actually trying to score, but that's a different issue).

[Anonymous]

I had a nephew who would dribble for a bit and then let the other team take it. It was their turn, he said.

On another note: Suppose you have a kid who loves soccer and wants to improve but isn't quite travel-ready at age 8. I know some kids drop out of travel by U11. By that time, should most kids who are interested in travel be able to find a place to play, even if they have to try out multiple places?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a nephew who would dribble for a bit and then let the other team take it. It was their turn, he said.

On another note: Suppose you have a kid who loves soccer and wants to improve but isn't quite travel-ready at age 8. I know some kids drop out of travel by U11. By that time, should most kids who are interested in travel be able to find a place to play, even if they have to try out multiple places?[/quote]

In these days of pay to play, seems almost anyone who wants to play travel can find a team if they look hard enough.

To get on a decent team, it probably helps if the kid is a natural athlete and picks things up quickly.

[Anonymous]

Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

I did. The new board members are enthusiastic and passionate, though maybe a bit bureaucratic and long-winded.

Any talk of the split between "community club" and "go for that national title, yee-haw!" has firmly come down on the side of "community club." They're going to serve the needs of as many people in town as they possibly can. They're confident they can have good teams and good players. If the top 1 percent feels the need to go ECNL, DA or a USYS championship-contending team, that's OK.

They did an evaluation through NSCAA to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and they're aggressively addressing weaknesses, many of them on the administrative side. A couple of coaches are now on their full-time payroll as age-group technical directors.

So I thought it was quite positive. I'm sure we'll now hear otherwise from people who think Eddie is an evil puppetmaster or think their kids are world-beaters because they're trying to justify driving 45 minutes to move up from NCSL D3 to NCSL D2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

I did. The new board members are enthusiastic and passionate, though maybe a bit bureaucratic and long-winded.

Any talk of the split between "community club" and "go for that national title, yee-haw!" has firmly come down on the side of "community club." They're going to serve the needs of as many people in town as they possibly can. They're confident they can have good teams and good players. If the top 1 percent feels the need to go ECNL, DA or a USYS championship-contending team, that's OK.

They did an evaluation through NSCAA to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and they're aggressively addressing weaknesses, many of them on the administrative side. A couple of coaches are now on their full-time payroll as age-group technical directors.

So I thought it was quite positive. I'm sure we'll now hear otherwise from people who think Eddie is an evil puppetmaster or think their kids are world-beaters because they're trying to justify driving 45 minutes to move up from NCSL D3 to NCSL D2.

sounds like a great club for my son.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have more of the scoop on the ASA Arlington Developmental Program (ADP)? Is it tough to make the program, given that tryouts are required? How effective and engaging is the pool training? Are the grownups able to restrain themselves and respect the goal of de-emphasizing wins and losses? It sounds like a good idea . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

I did. The new board members are enthusiastic and passionate, though maybe a bit bureaucratic and long-winded.

Any talk of the split between "community club" and "go for that national title, yee-haw!" has firmly come down on the side of "community club." They're going to serve the needs of as many people in town as they possibly can. They're confident they can have good teams and good players. If the top 1 percent feels the need to go ECNL, DA or a USYS championship-contending team, that's OK.

They did an evaluation through NSCAA to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and they're aggressively addressing weaknesses, many of them on the administrative side. A couple of coaches are now on their full-time payroll as age-group technical directors.

So I thought it was quite positive. I'm sure we'll now hear otherwise from people who think Eddie is an evil puppetmaster or think their kids are world-beaters because they're trying to justify driving 45 minutes to move up from NCSL D3 to NCSL D2.

Did you feel that their confidence was well-founded? Is the Academy system starting to translate into good teams? That would be nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have more of the scoop on the ASA Arlington Developmental Program (ADP)? Is it tough to make the program, given that tryouts are required? How effective and engaging is the pool training? Are the grownups able to restrain themselves and respect the goal of de-emphasizing wins and losses? It sounds like a good idea . . .

i believe they took ~40% of tryout kids the last two years. so if your kid currently plays rec and is a cut above other rec players in the age group, then the chance is good.

as to "respect the goal of de-emphasizing wins and losses" - the professional coaches coach the games so i'm not sure if they de-emphasize win/loss as you might've expected

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

I did. The new board members are enthusiastic and passionate, though maybe a bit bureaucratic and long-winded.

Any talk of the split between "community club" and "go for that national title, yee-haw!" has firmly come down on the side of "community club." They're going to serve the needs of as many people in town as they possibly can. They're confident they can have good teams and good players. If the top 1 percent feels the need to go ECNL, DA or a USYS championship-contending team, that's OK.

They did an evaluation through NSCAA to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and they're aggressively addressing weaknesses, many of them on the administrative side. A couple of coaches are now on their full-time payroll as age-group technical directors.

So I thought it was quite positive. I'm sure we'll now hear otherwise from people who think Eddie is an evil puppetmaster or think their kids are world-beaters because they're trying to justify driving 45 minutes to move up from NCSL D3 to NCSL D2.

Did you feel that their confidence was well-founded? Is the Academy system starting to translate into good teams? That would be nice.

It depends on what you mean by "good," but based on the results from this past season, the answer is no. Looks like no boys team in the Academy will be in the top two divisions of their NCSL age groups, and probably only one of the girls' academies will have a team in one of WAGS divisions 1 or 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given all the past discussions about Vienna, did anyone go to the Back to the Pitch night and be willing to share what happened?

I did. The new board members are enthusiastic and passionate, though maybe a bit bureaucratic and long-winded.

Any talk of the split between "community club" and "go for that national title, yee-haw!" has firmly come down on the side of "community club." They're going to serve the needs of as many people in town as they possibly can. They're confident they can have good teams and good players. If the top 1 percent feels the need to go ECNL, DA or a USYS championship-contending team, that's OK.

They did an evaluation through NSCAA to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and they're aggressively addressing weaknesses, many of them on the administrative side. A couple of coaches are now on their full-time payroll as age-group technical directors.

So I thought it was quite positive. I'm sure we'll now hear otherwise from people who think Eddie is an evil puppetmaster or think their kids are world-beaters because they're trying to justify driving 45 minutes to move up from NCSL D3 to NCSL D2.

Did you feel that their confidence was well-founded? Is the Academy system starting to translate into good teams? That would be nice.

It depends on what you mean by "good," but based on the results from this past season, the answer is no. Looks like no boys team in the Academy will be in the top two divisions of their NCSL age groups, and probably only one of the girls' academies will have a team in one of WAGS divisions 1 or 2.

PP here -- I think they'll be OK. The top U11 boys team was second in its division and was the only team to score a goal against Bethesda. (Bethesda's numbers through nine games: 115 goals scored, 1 conceded. Yikes.) They beat every team other than Bethesda by a minimum of two goals. I'm not sure how NCSL would keep them out of the top two divisions based on those results. NCSL says it ranks teams based solely on the fall results -- which seems fair, because this is the first year at which Vienna designates an "A" team.

NCSL doesn't post scores for U9 and U10, but I can tell you that the U9 boys did quite well. At least two of the three teams they entered -- not sure about the third.

After this fall season, I've become more and more convinced Vienna is doing things the right way. They're developing players and people, not chasing trophies. Other clubs don't have that philosophy, and bully for them.

If they get a good talented group of kids that can compete at higher levels, they have the coaches who can lead them. It's not like Gerardo disappeared -- in fact, he took a D3 team to the State Cup semifinals.

So with the fall season wrapping up, does anyone have anything to say about any other club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here -- I think they'll be OK. The top U11 boys team was second in its division and was the only team to score a goal against Bethesda. (Bethesda's numbers through nine games: 115 goals scored, 1 conceded. Yikes.) They beat every team other than Bethesda by a minimum of two goals. I'm not sure how NCSL would keep them out of the top two divisions based on those results. NCSL says it ranks teams based solely on the fall results -- which seems fair, because this is the first year at which Vienna designates an "A" team.

To clarify a bit here -- NCSL doesn't sort into merit-based divisions until spring of the U11 year. See pages 24-25 of the rulebook: http://www.ncsl-soccer.com/docs/rules-procedures/RPManualAug2014.pdf

So if you're reading down through the standings page, you might assume that the Bethesda team is Division 6. Um, no! Those kids are fast-tracked for the Developmental Academy. I'm not sure how GotSoccer only ranks then 29th nationally -- probably a function of not having enough results. Look at their tournament record: a 2-1 loss to Chantilly, then utter demolition of everyone else they played, including national No. 2 Lehigh Valley (PA) -- https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/team.aspx?TeamID=664483&History=yes&compact=

And again -- that's the only team to beat Vienna Red in league play. (They apparently didn't play any tournaments that had GotSoccer points, so don't look for them there.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here -- I think they'll be OK. The top U11 boys team was second in its division and was the only team to score a goal against Bethesda. (Bethesda's numbers through nine games: 115 goals scored, 1 conceded. Yikes.) They beat every team other than Bethesda by a minimum of two goals. I'm not sure how NCSL would keep them out of the top two divisions based on those results. NCSL says it ranks teams based solely on the fall results -- which seems fair, because this is the first year at which Vienna designates an "A" team.

To clarify a bit here -- NCSL doesn't sort into merit-based divisions until spring of the U11 year. See pages 24-25 of the rulebook: http://www.ncsl-soccer.com/docs/rules-procedures/RPManualAug2014.pdf

So if you're reading down through the standings page, you might assume that the Bethesda team is Division 6. Um, no! Those kids are fast-tracked for the Developmental Academy. I'm not sure how GotSoccer only ranks then 29th nationally -- probably a function of not having enough results. Look at their tournament record: a 2-1 loss to Chantilly, then utter demolition of everyone else they played, including national No. 2 Lehigh Valley (PA) -- https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/team.aspx?TeamID=664483&History=yes&compact=

And again -- that's the only team to beat Vienna Red in league play. (They apparently didn't play any tournaments that had GotSoccer points, so don't look for them there.)

OK, so your point is that of the teams in VYS' eight academies that will play in tiered divisions next year, there will be likely be one girls teams and one boys teams will play in one of the top two divisions. And that boys team is very proud of only losing to Bethesda by 11-1.

I understand that "good" is a subjective term, but I'll stand by my original conclusion that the VYS academies are still not producing "good" teams, especially when you consider VYS is one of the largest clubs in the region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here -- I think they'll be OK. The top U11 boys team was second in its division and was the only team to score a goal against Bethesda. (Bethesda's numbers through nine games: 115 goals scored, 1 conceded. Yikes.) They beat every team other than Bethesda by a minimum of two goals. I'm not sure how NCSL would keep them out of the top two divisions based on those results. NCSL says it ranks teams based solely on the fall results -- which seems fair, because this is the first year at which Vienna designates an "A" team.

To clarify a bit here -- NCSL doesn't sort into merit-based divisions until spring of the U11 year. See pages 24-25 of the rulebook: http://www.ncsl-soccer.com/docs/rules-procedures/RPManualAug2014.pdf

So if you're reading down through the standings page, you might assume that the Bethesda team is Division 6. Um, no! Those kids are fast-tracked for the Developmental Academy. I'm not sure how GotSoccer only ranks then 29th nationally -- probably a function of not having enough results. Look at their tournament record: a 2-1 loss to Chantilly, then utter demolition of everyone else they played, including national No. 2 Lehigh Valley (PA) -- https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/team.aspx?TeamID=664483&History=yes&compact=

And again -- that's the only team to beat Vienna Red in league play. (They apparently didn't play any tournaments that had GotSoccer points, so don't look for them there.)

OK, so your point is that of the teams in VYS' eight academies that will play in tiered divisions next year, there will be likely be one girls teams and one boys teams will play in one of the top two divisions. And that boys team is very proud of only losing to Bethesda by 11-1.

I understand that "good" is a subjective term, but I'll stand by my original conclusion that the VYS academies are still not producing "good" teams, especially when you consider VYS is one of the largest clubs in the region.

Well, no -- my point is that your information is incorrect. Now you're saying "eight academies playing in tiered leagues." Which academies? Not U11 girls -- WAGS doesn't tier them. And your take is slanted *just* a bit -- that U11 boys team handily beat every team it played except a super DA-in-waiting team.

I actually have a couple of guesses as to who you are, and I'm sorry you have such an ax to grind against VYS. But other parents reading this should take it for what it is -- one or two people with sour grapes.

VYS has a new board and has modernized a good bit to stay up with the current way of thinking in U.S. Soccer. That process is continuing, and you can't simply judge it by saying it doesn't produce megateams. VYS may be a big club, but when you get right down to it, Vienna's a pretty small town compared to Arlington, Alexandria and the whole of Loudoun County. VYS is a big club because it has good programs for ALL levels. You can't penalize a club because a lot of kids want to play in its House leagues, driving up the enrollment numbers.

If you have any specific critiques of the "academy" system, that would be interesting to hear. VYS is hardly the only club doing that. The "club pass" in en vogue now, allowing clubs to reshape their teams as needed. (That's why you had some ECNL players on their clubs' State Cup teams - http://www.soccerwire.com/news/youth-girls/virginia-state-cup-how-three-of-four-girls-champions-used-ecnl-players-to-win/ )

The whole club was just reviewed by NSCAA. I think the board is going to take that feedback a little more seriously than someone coming in with incomplete, incorrect info about its teams.

[Anonymous]

You sound like a commercial for Vienna. You should write a testimonial for Eddie, if you haven't already.