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Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss
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Anonymous
| It's too bad soccer is such an efficient machine for causing concussions. |
Anonymous
If you weren't just a blowhard and instead looked at the facts, you'd see that soccer has essentially the same concussion rate as lacrosse, and is lower than basketball and wrestling, and of course, football. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987636/ |
Anonymous
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I'm sorry you have stooped to personal insults (albeit insults that sound vaguely steampunk). But for anyone who would like to know the truth about concussion rates in youth soccer, I need to point out that your data is old, and it includes adults. The best resource for determining concussion rates in youth sports is NOT the source you have cited. It's the "Sports-Related Concussions in Youth" report that came out a year ago. It shows that the highest concussion rate for youth female athletes (of any sport) is in soccer. In addition, soccer for boys and girls has the third-highest concussion rate, ahead of wrestling and basketball. If you don't believe the data in this 300-page report (funded by the NFL), then maybe you would believe Dr. Robert Cantu or Brandi Chastain, both of whom are begging coaches and parents to work together to ban heading for the youngest soccer players (not because of concussions, but because of related brain damage risks). Here is what Cantu says:
"We recommend that youngsters under the age of 14 not head the ball in soccer, not play tackle football and not full-body check in ice hockey. Impacts to the head are more damaging under that age, due to a number of structural and metabolic reasons. The brains of youngsters are not as myelinated as adult brains. Myelin is the coating of the neuron fibers—kind of like coating on a telephone wire. It helps transmission of signals and it also gives neurons much greater strength, so young brains are more vulnerable." Soccer is the world's greatest sport, in my opinion, and that's why I said it was too bad it causes so many concussions. Responsible parents will differ, but the high concussion rate is something parents with daughters especially need to be aware of. |
Anonymous
VYS just is not aspirational or competitive - it is an odd culture for a sporting organization. And these dismissive 1% comments and 45 minute drive comments highlight that IMO. How does anyone know a kid is in this 1%? Maybe you know a kid is in the 5% or 10% and has aspirations of being in the "1%" and playing at a higher level someday. The VYS answer is basically well there is still 80% - 90% chance that you will not make the "1%" so don't worry about it and if that does not work for you then we will mock your decision to go to another club as delusional. It seems like you have made many posts on this thread. Let me ask you a question - forgive me if it is a slightly pointed. What level does your son / daughter play at? From your posts I gather it is either on a low level travel team (ODSL) or on a house team. I think it goes a long way to explaining your perspective and probably those of VYS leadership. For example I believe the current Travel VP has a daughter who plays on an ODSL team. I think several others have kids who play soccer as a generic activity and not that well. Now these are good people and presumably they reflect the beliefs of the majority of VYS families. So fair enough. But it also IMO results in VYS not being particularly concerned with the kids learning and playing good, competitive soccer. There are however a number of us out there even in Vienna who think if our kids are going to spend all this time (and our money) playing travel soccer then it is worth trying to play as well and competitively as possible. There are more than 2 or 3 of us. For example the U8 crossover enrollment was down by half this past Fall and I understand a group of U8 kids / families enrolled in the McLean program. We did not do that and would rather not drive "45 minutes" out of the community for travel soccer. It just disappoints us that our local soccer organization is not passionate and competitive about soccer and does puzzle me a little that there are so many people that are willing to put endless hours into soccer but do not seem that interested or concerned with being good at it. Our kids are involved with a number of other local sports organizations and VYS is the only one that has this culture. |
Anonymous
| You have a U8 child and you're discussing the competitiveness of a particular league? I hope you have an older child to make claims like yours on the internet. A decreased enrollment could be a lot of things for U8 children. I-9 started offering soccer classes. Schools are offering afterschool soccer classes. Another sport may becoming more popular. VYS themselves are offering more classes. VYS has recently offered five travel teams in U9! That's a huge number of travel soccer children for just one town. All the other neighboring towns have only two travel soccer teams. I think even all of Arlington which includes some of falls church has only four or five travel teams per age. |
Anonymous
Awfully personalized for an anonymous message board, don't you think? At the risk of being recognized, I'll sum up my background here: - No, my kids are not NCSL level. - I have a lot of experience researching these issues for a professional project. I have ongoing conversations on youth soccer with professional players and higher-ups in several national youth soccer organizations. So when I say VYS is doing a lot of things the right way, I'm not just saying that as a parent whose kids have had good experiences. I'm saying that based on a few years of research. All that said, can I tell you with any authority that every VYS coach is top-notch and develops kids to their full soccer potential? No, I can't judge that. Frankly, I'm not sure anyone can. No one goes around and watches every game or every training session, and results don't tell you everything. VYS has resisted dividing its younger age groups into "A" teams and "B" teams, so when they go against other organizations' "A" teams, they tend to lose. So what? Other points: - I know the VP of Travel, and he was actually a college athlete. Some of the board members played soccer in the top college programs in the country. And they've dedicated themselves to continual learning. - I know some of the kids who went to McLean's U8 academy. Want to know the reason I heard for leaving? If they did VYS House plus crossover, they would have two practices and two games a week. McLean has longer sessions, so it's only twice. They did it for driving time. Maybe in some cases they thought their kids were too good for House league. (They're wrong, but anyway ...) Look, if you want to leave because you think your kid should be in D1 or CCL or whatever, leave. A lot of kids do that and then come back to Vienna, and that's all OK. You can go play for Annandale's CCL teams that aren't competitive and can't be relegated to a division in which they CAN compete. (That's more a fault of CCL's structure that in it is of Annandale's -- they have a good program.) But it's getting pretty ridiculous to see a handful of people come here and say the same garbage about VYS. It's also ridiculous to say it's all about the new board or Eddie (still relatively new) not being interested in being competitive -- as if VYS won tons of State Cups before they all arrived. It's a community club. It's capable of having very good teams. It's also capable of producing very good players -- hey, if Bethesda really wants five VYS U12s, well, they must be pretty good players. If VYS can send players straight to D.C. United's academy, they must be doing something right. It's not going to place a premium on winning over development. (That's actually Topic A in much of the national youth soccer scene.) It's not going to put an emphasis on recruiting outside players when it has strong community support. Have you ever wondered why a town of 15,000 and change has a couple thousand youth players? It's because the overwhelming majority of people in and around that town like the club. I'm not sure why a couple of people keep returning to this thread to say otherwise. |
Anonymous
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Also, one of the facts mentioned in the latest anti-VYS screed is incorrect. I'm sorry I can't specify because it's too personal. (And it doesn't involve me.)
A couple of people have an ax to grind against VYS, and they really don't care whether they have the facts right. That's a pity, because VYS is open to actual feedback right now. You'd think from this thread that communication with VYS is all hostile, but that's far from true. (As opposed to some other clubs.) It's very productive. People are taking the NSCAA evaluation seriously -- a lot of it was good, some of it pointed to areas that need improvement. (No, I'm not on the board. Just a parent.) So what's going on at every other club? How's SYA doing with one team that moved over and has fared better than the CCL team in that age group? How's McLean doing with Ken Krieger on board? When will coaches stop doing heading drills with 8-year-olds? And how are all the different "elite" leagues doing? |
Anonymous
Oh my gosh. I don't live in Vienna and didn't know a thing about VYS, but reading this thread, it sounds horrible. Not because it's not competitive or whatever, because again, I have no idea who is right on this debate. It just sounds like a horribly fragmented club full of hostility and animosity. I don't think your post in defending VYS (in this really nasty way) makes the parents/coaches/board (or whoever you are) sound anything like a warm, fuzzy, open community club at all. Again, I don't have anything to do with VYS, just an outside parent who has been following this thread because I have a child in travel soccer in another club. And in the process of defending VYS, you have taken a swipe at just about every other club. Not very nice. If VYS is really such an "open" club, maybe they should also be open to parents wanting a different type of club or coaching. |
Anonymous
I'm sorry if my post came across as nasty. I get annoyed when some anonymous person takes a swipe at actual people who are doing good things, particularly when those swipes are based on inaccurate information. I don't think I attacked other clubs. I was pointing out that the grass is not always greener. Annandale is a terrific club -- it just happens that their CCL teams lag behind the others: http://www.clubchampionsleague.com/standings/ Again, I blame the CCL structure for that more than I blame Annandale. So the point as it relates here is that leaving VYS for a CCL team might not always be for the best. I wasn't swiping at McLean -- I was asking how it's going with a Hall of Fame coach joining the club. I was asking if the situation at SYA (one that I know a little bit about but not everything) was at all awkward. (If anything, that's another swipe at CCL. You may notice I'm not sold on the concept.) And I didn't name the coaches I've seen doing heading drills with 8-year-olds. So no, again, outside this message board, VYS has very little hostility. It's a good community club. It can't meet everyone's wishes -- no club can. Every now and then, someone's going to want to go elsewhere. Some players coming up through the ranks go on to play on Developmental Academy or ECNL teams, and that's great. And again, I can't vouch for every single coach in VYS. If something just isn't working out, that's understandable. And that's also true at every club. I'd just think at some point this thread could move beyond absurd slings and arrows at VYS and actually talk about other clubs -- for worse OR FOR BETTER! What are other clubs doing well? |
Anonymous
| Yes, can we hear about some other clubs, from the horse's mouth? Bethesda? McLean? Arlington? FPYC? PAC? Or do all the non-VYS parents and coaches and trainers out there have some kind of omertà about airing criticisms, constructive and otherwise? |
Anonymous
Ok, I'll go. Moved over to McLean this year. So far happy, my son is happy and seems to enjoy the club as well as the opportunities it offers. Has improved some skills. I like the way the organization is structured, the communication between the parents and the coaches is something we've never experienced before, very open and willing to discuss my son's skills at anytime. The coaching staff is great! This is just my opinion and experience, I don't know what others have experienced. |
Anonymous
| That sounds good! |
Anonymous
Interesting - do you know which VYS team those five players were on? Is it one of the current VYS Boys U12 teams? I noticed the top Boys U12 team tanked this Fall - maybe that's why. It was good to see the Boys U11 team do well this past Fall. The messaging at VYS the past several years is we have made some changes, have a new Technical Director, doing some things differently at the younger ages, and that all this should start showing in more skillful, competitive teams in a few years. Perhaps it is starting to happen - I hope so. |
Anonymous
This is not accurate. The whole reason why there was VYS' first ever contested board election this year, and for the huge turnout for the election, was because people were very upset over how things were being handled by VYS' professional staff and the lack of board oversight. Unfortunately, some of the new members who were elected to bring about change are not living up to their promises.
Being a community club is all that VYS strives to be. It has no aspiration of competing at high levels. So for the 90% that only want their child to get some exercise with their friends, learn some skills and compete at a level that might allow them to make their HS travel team, VYS is more than adequate. Those that want to take soccer more seriously should look somewhere else. There are plenty of neighboring clubs that will better meet that need. |
Anonymous
This goes to show that every season and every kid is different. I'm glad your son is doing well. My kid had a nasty, abusive, not to mention unqualified, coach at McLean and we left. One the rosters swell to 35+ at McLean (happens in HS), your kid will only play if he is the best. But the best players are brought in from areas faaaar from McLean. I hope your son has a smoother road. Mine is playing in college now and we are so happy that we found a good program in HS. If your kid is miserable, he/she will quit the sport. |