Valor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Valor steals money from the rec league.

The institution strategically does this. I blame the leadership and other coaches for churching up the level of play. Its all smoke a mirrors until you have 20 losses and zero wins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also not sure what you mean by "respected".

Considered good quality, valued, exhibits admiration, held with high regard, honesty, has integrity, honorable, morale, civil and considerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know players there at the younger age groups. Many are looking to jump ship already that aren't in the top teams from toxic parents to favoritism by coaches and pushes for certain 'supplemental' businesses running the show. This is just what I've been told and not just by one person. No idea about the boys side or the older ages.

Your not off base. The same resonates on the other side. Its a cancer in this institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids play bryc rec and we had a player leave for Valor from my son's rec team, play for a year, and then come back to rec this fall. He was an average player in the SFL league (did not start). He didn't get any better, in that whole year of practicing with Valor. We thought he would have improved a lot. It was surprising that he stayed the same as rec kids who were barely playing.

As someone who has a kid with valor this is on brand for them. They do not care to develop the player at all. They only care that the credit card clears for the dues.

Wouldn't a kid get better just by practicing 3 x a week year round instead of 1-2 times a week for the 8 weeks of rec season? Even if she had one of the crappy low level coaches and rec level teammates?

You’ll need develop your own kid and commit additional time. Valor did nothing to improve my kids performance thus far. If your solely reliant on that, I’d recommend another strategy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't heard anything much good about it, and my kids do CYA sports so we have known a lot of kids who have done Valor. Most move on to other clubs. Complaints we have heard:

1. they take everyone who tries out--everyone-- and most of the teams are just rec-level talent. they just make more teams.

2. the low level teams have unqualified/ignorant coaches

3. the price is really high

4. coaches with multiple teams combine practices and most of the practices are just scrimmages with no skill work

5. Really hard to move up from the lower teams once they know you are a dummy who will pay for 3rd/4th/5th team

6. Always trying to increase revenue, strong-arm kids to do camps (soccer academy camp is a private business run by one of the head valor guys and of course is not included in travel fees); discourage younger players from doing other sports even in winter which is not age appropriate.

Can we be friends, you read my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard DS didn’t leave on good terms from VRSC?

I heard he quit but never heard why. But having had a kid who was there for 1 year, I can easily imagine why…

I'm suspicious when these soccer guys bounce around so much and leave places so quickly.

Absolutely true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps they should actually make travel soccer competitive and cut some kids. Fewer teams means less field space for travel, more for rec (where many belong anyway).

Agree with this.

I agree, however, they would never attempt to do this because they would risk losing they're fan base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wouldn't you improve just doing 3 practices a week year round and playing against other good players at practice even if the coach sucked and you didn't play in games

No. Its personal interest, time and commitment. He or she will gain some endurance, stamina and resilience, but not develop technically unless the player commits to more hours. No institution can make your kid better with three hours a week. That expectation is unreal, however, I sill say valor doesn't maintain any standards for players. Your kid could be a window licker and he will make a team just as long as mommy and daddy make nice with Valor on paying the bill.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What are you talking about? Do you even have a younger player at Valor, because that just is simply untrue. The U9 and U10 boys and girls all practice at the same field every session. They are mixed up for their Academy training and then practice by team depending on the night of the week. The coaches see all of the kids. The U11 boys train together and so do the U12 boys, same thing- the Academy sessions and then their team sessions. I am a manager and I can see the field break down team by team every season when the club sends it out. Even older teams are on the same fields, maybe not for every practice but for some of them.

Same field does not mean together.

Perhaps Valor should have more transparency and publicly list the practices for the teams. Would also show possible lack of field space.

Does any club publicly list practice times/locations? I don't know who the PP is responding to, but the U9 and U10 boys are not all practicing at the same time. Their practices are held back to back on the same nights. If one age group has the earlier time slot, the other has the later one and vice versa. I have lost track of what the girls are doing. It does seem like they do more combining of teams at practices, or maybe there just aren't as many teams. The only time field space is a real issue is when CYA rec starts back up and takes up some of the fields at the same time. I wish they would figure out something else for that. I have another kid who plays rec and I don't think their practice should eat into travel team field space. They are fine on whatever nearby school field.

I'm going they are just trolling/throwing out assumptions. They definitely do not mix all the teams anymore than any other multi team age group clubs. Even full age group 'technical training' is not actually comingled. It's not as bad as some other clubs; but your team is pretty much the only ones you are practicing with. Scrimmaging at the end of practice is not practicing together.

I've heard that BRYC (at least for the younger boys) has their top 3 teams all training together every practice, and the coaches decide who will play for which team (first/second/third) before the game each week. Maybe the teams are fairly stable in reality, with only a couple kids being shuffled around. But it sounds hard on the kids and as a parent I would hate not having a set game schedule in advance.

Its amazing they get anyone to pay for that. Most people want to know their team assignment before they pay up.

I can see the value in choosing the best players and rosters every week if the intent is choosing the kids who outperformed their peers during practice. It provides incentive to keep developing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Valor steals money from the rec league.

The institution strategically does this. I blame the leadership and other coaches for churching up the level of play. Its all smoke a mirrors until you have 20 losses and zero wins.

We previously played in a rec league that doesn't have an associated travel team and everything was so much better - like down to the uniforms, fields, and even the team photographers were all nicer and more professional. And it cost LESS than CYA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know players there at the younger age groups. Many are looking to jump ship already that aren't in the top teams from toxic parents to favoritism by coaches and pushes for certain 'supplemental' businesses running the show. This is just what I've been told and not just by one person. No idea about the boys side or the older ages.

Your not off base. The same resonates on the other side. Its a cancer in this institution.

We left but I found it gross how they were always hawking "soccer academy" camps when that business was run by a head valor dingus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Valor steals money from the rec league.

The institution strategically does this. I blame the leadership and other coaches for churching up the level of play. Its all smoke a mirrors until you have 20 losses and zero wins.

We previously played in a rec league that doesn't have an associated travel team and everything was so much better - like down to the uniforms, fields, and even the team photographers were all nicer and more professional. And it cost LESS than CYA.

My HS kid played one season of SYA house/recreational soccer after we moved here. It was incredibly expensive for rec ($220) and then we had to buy two shirts for $45, then we had to go buy numbers adn iron on the numbers ourselves, which was a hassle and just odd. Show up for the first practice and the high school house league team is assigned a muddy field covered in dog poop. Big holes throughout the field. Coach told the kids to jog, not run, so they didn't break an ankle. The balls kept going into the woods. There were no nets on the goals which were just football posts. The park had beautiful artificial fields--being practiced on by little Valor travel players. Joined a different club the next season out of principle, frankly. Given that the high school rec team was almost all Hispanic kids and the little travel kids were almost all white or Asian....it was a really bad look for whoever assigns those fields. Still don't understand what the $220 was for-the coach was a volunteer and the season was just 7 games-some of them against other SYA house league teams--and no tournament. If the money was being siphoned off for the travel league, that really pisses me off given they already got the good practice fields!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know players there at the younger age groups. Many are looking to jump ship already that aren't in the top teams from toxic parents to favoritism by coaches and pushes for certain 'supplemental' businesses running the show. This is just what I've been told and not just by one person. No idea about the boys side or the older ages.

Your not off base. The same resonates on the other side. Its a cancer in this institution.

We left but I found it gross how they were always hawking "soccer academy" camps when that business was run by a head valor dingus.

I always wanted to ask how much the "Soccer Academy" paid CYA to use all their fields at Soccer Park and other field permissions, and their mailing lists and social media for advertising. Of course the answer is "Soccer Academy" was grifting all those resources for free.

The cherry on the sunday is that their camps were really bad. At least offer a good product. Telling you camp payment to this other company is required after already paying travel soccer fees is money grab.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know nothing of Valor but have to concur that the tryouts we saw were very poorly run compared with the others we have experienced.

When we registered, they asked what team our kid was currently playing for (the answer was none as we had just moved here from overseas, where he played on a strong team). Upon arrival, they had lists of which kids were to go to which field or part of the field. I was told the top team was over practicing by themselves. My child was sent to what i guess was the peasant field since we did not list a current club team in his registration. The coaches did not pay attention to that field at all. After the first tryout, we did not return. Still, we received an email offer for the 4th out of 5 teams. He was offered 1st or 2nd team at several other orgs and those tryouts involved moving kids around, timing their running, doing drills, mixing the kids up, and there were several coaches/adults observing, taking notes, etc. They did not immediately divide the kids up based on their current team and then ignore the kids they put on the lowest field.

My dd played CYA rec and we had the same experience at tryouts (assigned to a field with all the other rec players and then ignored) down to skipping the rest after the first and then getting an offer for the last team. Hard pass. Have had a good experience at Burke and she made their top team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Valor steals money from the rec league.

The institution strategically does this. I blame the leadership and other coaches for churching up the level of play. Its all smoke a mirrors until you have 20 losses and zero wins.

We previously played in a rec league that doesn't have an associated travel team and everything was so much better - like down to the uniforms, fields, and even the team photographers were all nicer and more professional. And it cost LESS than CYA.

My HS kid played one season of SYA house/recreational soccer after we moved here. It was incredibly expensive for rec ($220) and then we had to buy two shirts for $45, then we had to go buy numbers adn iron on the numbers ourselves, which was a hassle and just odd. Show up for the first practice and the high school house league team is assigned a muddy field covered in dog poop. Big holes throughout the field. Coach told the kids to jog, not run, so they didn't break an ankle. The balls kept going into the woods. There were no nets on the goals which were just football posts. The park had beautiful artificial fields--being practiced on by little Valor travel players. Joined a different club the next season out of principle, frankly. Given that the high school rec team was almost all Hispanic kids and the little travel kids were almost all white or Asian....it was a really bad look for whoever assigns those fields. Still don't understand what the $220 was for-the coach was a volunteer and the season was just 7 games-some of them against other SYA house league teams--and no tournament. If the money was being siphoned off for the travel league, that really pisses me off given they already got the good practice fields!

if i paid $300 for a seven game rec soccer season with a volunteer coach and the practice situation was thus, i would have complained to the county, that's insulting