GFR Falling apart?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nice deflection of not addressing the strange choices your club's management has made. Aren't you even mildly upset or curious as to the crazy moves your club made (or didn't make) last season? Or are you just a good obedient little team parent? GFR parents, if you hear "local neighborhood" club one more time, you should know that they are treating you like a fool. No club of GFR's caliber is telling their families to stay put and local.

What "strange choices" - and what do you mean by "GFR's caliber"? They are nothing but a good regional league club. There are a few very good teams mixed in but they do not have the caliber to play at a higher level. The only choice would be to align themselves with a pathway to feed their good players into one specific national platform instead of just letting players leave on their own. What's the real difference?? Seriously, how does playing for Herndon with a "pathway" to FVU differ all? Herndon isn't making money off this alliance! They're losing players to FVU like everyone else

The strange choice of not joining an ECNL alliance simply because that alliance kicked NM out. That is not in the interest of the club, that is in the interest of NM. You all can drink the TF kool-aid if you like, but the club had options until he took them away. Funny how Bethesda will be just fine though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nice deflection of not addressing the strange choices your club's management has made. Aren't you even mildly upset or curious as to the crazy moves your club made (or didn't make) last season? Or are you just a good obedient little team parent? GFR parents, if you hear "local neighborhood" club one more time, you should know that they are treating you like a fool. No club of GFR's caliber is telling their families to stay put and local.

What "strange choices" - and what do you mean by "GFR's caliber"? They are nothing but a good regional league club. There are a few very good teams mixed in but they do not have the caliber to play at a higher level. The only choice would be to align themselves with a pathway to feed their good players into one specific national platform instead of just letting players leave on their own. What's the real difference?? Seriously, how does playing for Herndon with a "pathway" to FVU differ all? Herndon isn't making money off this alliance! They're losing players to FVU like everyone else

The strange choice of not joining an ECNL alliance simply because that alliance kicked NM out. That is not in the interest of the club, that is in the interest of NM. You all can drink the TF kool-aid if you like, but the club had options until he took them away. Funny how Bethesda will be just fine though.

Again, I ask, what does an alliance do for a club? It did nothing for GFR when they were part of NVA but encourage more players to go to NVA!? There was no financial benefit. No coaches got promoted to NVA. They just lost players, the same as they do now, to a national platform. In fact, they probably lost more players to OTHER clubs than to NVA even though they had the alliance!

[Anonymous]

To the people arguing about a mass exodus – isn’t that a good thing as the kids get older if the club tops out at RL? It means the club developed the kids well enough for them to go on to play in a national level league. Wouldn’t it be worse if the club was retaining a bunch of their players at U13 and beyond? Isn’t it harder for smallish clubs to have strong RL teams if they lose their best players to national leagues and then don’t have a really deep pool of players to backfill with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Nice deflection of not addressing the strange choices your club's management has made. Aren't you even mildly upset or curious as to the crazy moves your club made (or didn't make) last season? Or are you just a good obedient little team parent? GFR parents, if you hear "local neighborhood" club one more time, you should know that they are treating you like a fool. No club of GFR's caliber is telling their families to stay put and local.

What "strange choices" - and what do you mean by "GFR's caliber"? They are nothing but a good regional league club. There are a few very good teams mixed in but they do not have the caliber to play at a higher level. The only choice would be to align themselves with a pathway to feed their good players into one specific national platform instead of just letting players leave on their own. What's the real difference?? Seriously, how does playing for Herndon with a "pathway" to FVU differ all? Herndon isn't making money off this alliance! They're losing players to FVU like everyone else

The strange choice of not joining an ECNL alliance simply because that alliance kicked NM out. That is not in the interest of the club, that is in the interest of NM. You all can drink the TF kool-aid if you like, but the club had options until he took them away. Funny how Bethesda will be just fine though.

Again, I ask, what does an alliance do for a club? It did nothing for GFR when they were part of NVA but encourage more players to go to NVA!? There was no financial benefit. No coaches got promoted to NVA. They just lost players, the same as they do now, to a national platform. In fact, they probably lost more players to OTHER clubs than to NVA even though they had the alliance!

We're just going around in circles, but let me explain this one last time and then you can convince yourself that local club is great for GFR. But believe me, this is DEFINITELY a lot of chatter going on outside of DCUM of parents unhappy with the rudderless direction the club is going.

To your first question, an alliance is not just for the club but its for the best players of the club. If GFR cares about the kids they would make sure they have easier access to the ECNL coaches that will be making selections. It doesn't hurt the club to have an ECNL pathway when players are already leaving in droves. Remember what was stated about 2015G top team... all are gone! With a pathway GFR would have retained them another year and perhaps longer. Second, stop with the NVA argument. That is a false flag. NVA was dominated by Loudoun and Valor left also, but landed fine in FVU. I agree FVU is not doing well, but with GFR's players that could have made them formidable.

[Anonymous]

But the "pathway" is just marketing.

Do parents really think that if GFR was part of an "alliance" with FVU, that that would give their kids an edge in ECNL tryouts? It certainly does not. It is meaningless.

[Anonymous]

DP, but I also do not see the huge value of being in an alliance. At best 2 or 3 players at the U13 level would potentially leave GFR to follow an alliance 'pathway' After that age it would be harder to follow because existing players typically get the edge at ID sessions. If those players are really that talented they are probably going to be club hopping every year or so anyway to find their best fit. Definitely no reason for a whole team to leave a club because of lack of a perceived pathway Most were never going to benefit from the alliance anyway

[Anonymous]

Does GF owner still draw a $150k salary from the Non profit?

[Anonymous]

GFR has plenty of money, they are going nowhere. I personally believe that they are in a good place as they aren't trying to compete at the national level which is good because they can focus their resources on being a strong community club.

Most people on this board don't understand, but it's ok to be a top regional team. It shouldn't be ECNL/MLS Next or bust. Even easier on the girls side. GFR will never be NVA or VDA, but they will be as good as Loudoun or any other regional level team.

[Anonymous]

plenty of $$? they cut coaches and admins salaries.

[Anonymous]

Werent they way overpaying those girls coaches compared to the rest ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:plenty of $$? they cut coaches and admins salaries.

But didn’t RS ask for 60k raise? Don’t think he got but thought he asked even knowing all other cuts

[Anonymous]

So KG resigned effective immediately?? She was the only thing holding this club together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So KG resigned effective immediately?? She was the only thing holding this club together.

Wow. Agree, she was relied on to do, uh, basically everything!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP, but I also do not see the huge value of being in an alliance. At best 2 or 3 players at the U13 level would potentially leave GFR to follow an alliance 'pathway' After that age it would be harder to follow because existing players typically get the edge at ID sessions. If those players are really that talented they are probably going to be club hopping every year or so anyway to find their best fit. Definitely no reason for a whole team to leave a club because of lack of a perceived pathway Most were never going to benefit from the alliance anyway

Clubs are rarely ‘standing still’. They are expanding and growing or contracting and shrinking. Having a pathway is probably less about the actual nuts and bolts of what it entails and more about being a club that leagues want, clubs want to partner with and players want to play for. 7-8 years ago, CYA had 3-5 teams across age groups and was a partner w/ VSA and PWSI in VDA. Now they have merged w/ a slightly smaller club in SYA, and the merged club is smaller than they were, and it doesn’t seem like it is getting better anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does GF owner still draw a $150k salary from the Non profit?

There is no owner at GFR. The ED salary is $130k per last tax report