anyone know about the "Virginia Valor Fathers Day Fiesta" or the "FPYC Fathers Day Tournament"

[Anonymous]

Can anyone that attended this tournament and won tell us what the medals looked like? Is it a sombrero like last year? That would be hilarious!

[Anonymous]

Universal FC was a PWSI team. For some reason they used their team’s name not the club. They were very good. Should’ve been a travel team but talking to the staff at the field the coach said they can’t afford it. Lost to them, as did everyone.

[Anonymous]

The medals are ugly and also fell apart as coaches were handing out. Last time they won an all star tournament it had given a trophy for each player so big downgrade in bling. Not sure why they couldn't afford normal trophies/plaques since they charged more and had so few teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The medals are ugly and also fell apart as coaches were handing out. Last time they won an all star tournament it had given a trophy for each player so big downgrade in bling. Not sure why they couldn't afford normal trophies/plaques since they charged more and had so few teams.

Inflation has hit trophy prices. What used to be around $5 is now over $10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The medals are ugly and also fell apart as coaches were handing out. Last time they won an all star tournament it had given a trophy for each player so big downgrade in bling. Not sure why they couldn't afford normal trophies/plaques since they charged more and had so few teams.

Inflation has hit trophy prices. What used to be around $5 is now over $10.

They charge more than FPYC and hardly have to to give out any trophies since they have so few teams. The least they could do for these kids playing in these mismatched games is get some decent bling.

The winning teams in most of the brackets did not get even one close competitive game. That's LAME.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this tournament sucks.

Actual parent review-

My kid's field doesn't even seem like a tournament is happening. There was nowhere even to buy a bottle of water, no one from the tournament was there, no signs, nothing.

At the very first game on Saturday, it was filthy--the port a potties were unusable and parents were picking up dog poop and large pieces of trash from the field.

Our coach was lied to and told we would be playing other rec teams not all star teams and the second team we played was a "tournament team" that kids have to try out for and then practices together all year and the third team was CYA All Stars. Why were rec teams and travel teams in the same grouping when they had two seperate brackets?

They shouldn't put teams in this tournament and lie to the coaches just to try to get it to look more viable. Its not fair to the kids-our players had a miserable weekend. (Our team played in the Alexandria rec tournament previously and had even games and it was great.)

The other regular rec team lost 20-0 to a team from Sterling (the score posted says 11-0 but it was 20-0) and then just no-showed for their last game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The medals are ugly and also fell apart as coaches were handing out. Last time they won an all star tournament it had given a trophy for each player so big downgrade in bling. Not sure why they couldn't afford normal trophies/plaques since they charged more and had so few teams.

Was the medal in the shape of a sombrero?

[Anonymous]

No, there was a fugly sombrero on the medal though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, there was a fugly sombrero on the medal though.

Are you serious? They put a sombrero on the medals? :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this tournament sucks.

Actual parent review-

My kid's field doesn't even seem like a tournament is happening. There was nowhere even to buy a bottle of water, no one from the tournament was there, no signs, nothing.

At the very first game on Saturday, it was filthy--the port a potties were unusable and parents were picking up dog poop and large pieces of trash from the field.

Our coach was lied to and told we would be playing other rec teams not all star teams and the second team we played was a "tournament team" that kids have to try out for and then practices together all year and the third team was CYA All Stars. Why were rec teams and travel teams in the same grouping when they had two seperate brackets?

They shouldn't put teams in this tournament and lie to the coaches just to try to get it to look more viable. Its not fair to the kids-our players had a miserable weekend. (Our team played in the Alexandria rec tournament previously and had even games and it was great.)

The other regular rec team lost 20-0 to a team from Sterling (the score posted says 11-0 but it was 20-0) and then just no-showed for their last game.

That sounds crappy, so to speak.

That said -- FPYC also had little to no signage at the venue I attended, and there was no place to buy water that I know of. They had bottles of water for referees, though they were just sitting in a box in the tournament official's tent, not on ice in a cooler.

The rec team that no-showed for its last game won its first one 7-1. That was an SYA team -- looks like some SYA teams bore the brunt of lopsided results. But some also won. Granted, they had a ton of teams in it, so by sheer numbers, they were bound to have some fare well and some fare poorly.

Universal FC's scores remind me of International FC (IFC), a club founded by former DC United Spanish-language media liaison Boris Flores (RIP, sadly). They had no rec league, but they would show up at Lee Mount Vernon's "crossover" league and All-Star tournaments and just destroy everyone. At older age groups, they had teams in ODSL who were also quite good.

[Anonymous]

I think clubs just take so many different approaches to this.

Some clubs basically have one or two All-Star teams per age group.

Then take SYC. Here's a look at the number of teams they had in NCSL-Rec and in the FPYC tournament

U12 boys: 7 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U13 boys: 4 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U14 boys: 5 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U16 boys: 3 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U19 boys: 6 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U12 girls: 3 NCSL, 1 All-Star
U13 girls: 2 NCSL, 1 All-Star
U14 girls: 5 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U16 girls: 4 NCSL, 2 All-Star
U19 girls: 2 NCSL, 1 All-Star

So in some of their age groups, half of the rec players are in All-Stars.

Meanwhile, FPYC entered five (5!) All-Star teams at U9.

[Anonymous]

They proudly posted a pic of the South of the Border medals on their insta.

[Anonymous]

My kid's field doesn't even seem like a tournament is happening. There was nowhere even to buy a bottle of water, no one from the tournament was there, no signs, nothing.

At our field, SYA Park, they had food trucks, tshirt stands, signs and it was perfectly tournament-like atmosphere. I get that not all sites can have that, and your site may have been underwhelming.

At the very first game on Saturday, it was filthy--the port a potties were unusable and parents were picking up dog poop and large pieces of trash from the field.

That stinks, but I don't blame the tournament for that. Back in the fall, that happened to us for our first game in the Herndon Cup tournament. We had to kick people who were playing a game off the field and they left all their trash for us, so the parents all stepped up to clean up the field. I was pretty annoyed but I don't blame the not the organizer's fault. And my god the portapotty situation at the finals for Herndon Cup was the stuff of nightmares.After dark, the main bathroom was locked and the one remaining port-a-potty was overflowing.

Our coach was lied to and told we would be playing other rec teams not all star teams and the second team we played was a "tournament team" that kids have to try out for and then practices together all year and the third team was CYA All Stars. Why were rec teams and travel teams in the same grouping when they had two seperate brackets?

We were a rec team, but had girls chosen from across multiple rec teams, so it was an "All Star" thing for us. However, this team only got to have three practices together before this weekend. When we go against Loudoun, who has had a team picked from across their entire county and have been practicing together for a entire season, it does feel rather like David and Goliath. But in any case, the tournament should be all rec teams. I guess the choice to do a season long all star team is up to the organization, and CYA/SYA just doesn't do that.

And yes, with the low participation in this tournament, there were teams that were the regular season rec teams that went to the tournament as a team. But I do know at least one of those teams made the final.

I wish there had been a consolation game for our age group. We were up against the top Loudoun team in our flight for our first game, and when we lost that first game, we basically lost any chance at the finals even though we tied for 2nd for points across our age group.

So my review as a parent is that I wish our team could have played in the larger FPYC tournament, this one definitely had fewer participants. I wish the seeding/qualificiation process was better, but overall the tournament was run fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We were a rec team, but had girls chosen from across multiple rec teams, so it was an "All Star" thing for us. However, this team only got to have three practices together before this weekend. When we go against Loudoun, who has had a team picked from across their entire county and have been practicing together for a entire season, it does feel rather like David and Goliath. But in any case, the tournament should be all rec teams. I guess the choice to do a season long all star team is up to the organization, and CYA/SYA just doesn't do that.

And yes, with the low participation in this tournament, there were teams that were the regular season rec teams that went to the tournament as a team. But I do know at least one of those teams made the final.

I wish there had been a consolation game for our age group. We were up against the top Loudoun team in our flight for our first game, and when we lost that first game, we basically lost any chance at the finals even though we tied for 2nd for points across our age group.

So my review as a parent is that I wish our team could have played in the larger FPYC tournament, this one definitely had fewer participants. I wish the seeding/qualificiation process was better, but overall the tournament was run fine.

The Loudoun team only has 5 practices before the tournament. They don't practice together all season. The majority of the team does remain the same from season to season so the girls are familiar with each other.

[Anonymous]

20-0 in a 60 minute U14 game is pretty crazy.