Herndon club

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should be able to see the field assignments for all the travel teams in the playmetrics app. You can literally see how little space the high school boys teams are being assigned when some of the younger teams get half or a third of a field. And how many spaces on the same field at the same time that are being putting aside for rec teams that should be used for travel teams.

Why should all turf space go to travel players? Why not have your precious little travel players play on grass one of the 3 nights of practice? Open up the space for everyone. It's healthier for the kids to not abuse their joints on turf that often anyway.

It doesn't. I was told the rec teams have exclusive use of all Herndon's space at the high school on weeknights, and assigned nights at other turf fields.

Last year, our travel teams had a lot more space for each practice, and we didn't have any rec teams on the field with us at the same time.

Herndon needs to acquire more field space, or charge a lot less in fees, if this is the direction they are going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Did that poster ever come back who didn't know if her team had only 13 players or not?

\
No. That's my daughter's age group (at another club) so I was curious as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since there is a Herndon thread anyway- we played their girls team this weekend and their uniforms said Sterling on them. Did those two clubs merge?

I don't remember playing them last year. Did they even have girls teams last year?

I don't want to be unkind but anyone who knows girls soccer would know ahead of time that this Sterling/Herndon team will not be competitive in this league.

It seems kind of nasty to knowingly enter teams into a league where they will lose badly every game. Are they required to enter teams for boys and girls at every birth year to stay in RL?

I think Herndon and Sterling announced a merger for the older girls age groups. It was the only way they’d have enough for RL teams. And I agree that it’s hard on those girls because they are not at that level.

I am curious about your last question too. If the league requires girls and boys teams at all age groups I don’t see how Herndon can stay in RL when they do not even have girls teams at some of the younger age groups. Which would be a real shame for the boys.

I don’t understand how a club could let its girls side just fall apart like that… unless they never really had much of a girls side to begin with? And are leagues just recently starting to require teams for both boys and girls at all age groups?

Herndon is a small-ish club. All the small clubs have a hard time rostering girls teams for RL. There just are so few girls who play compared to boys side. Their only travel teams on the girls side are playing in RL. The larger clubs have 2 or more lower travel teams for development. Herndon is pulling kids straight from rec league into ECRL. Its simply impossible to have competitive teams with no player pool and you can't attract good players without an existing program.

I am not convinced that Herndon leadership sees what is potentially coming for next year. They may find themselves shut out of ECNL RL without younger girls teams to put in. It seems there are challenges with getting girls to play in the Herndon/Sterling area. There aren't as many in the first place, and the ones that do play apparently go to the bigger clubs that are very close by.

We live in Herndon and DD has been playing travel for several years. There are actually a lot of girls who live in the Herndon area who play soccer. Hardly any of them play for HYS. It's been well known for a very long time that Herndon does not value girls soccer so some of the girls may have started out at Herndon but moved on when they realized this or just started out at better clubs. There are a lot of travel options for players who live in the Herndon area that are close by and all of them are better options for girls than HYS.

Herndon used to be a pretty decent sized club. About 10-12 years ago they were fielding 3 teams per age group on both boys and girls side. It's a shame how much the management of the club has caused such a drastic downturn in the overall quality.

[Anonymous]

This club is struggling with serious governance and management issues. The board no longer holds annual meetings, and with only five remaining members (several having quit out of frustration with the lack of transparency), there is little meaningful oversight of the management team. Board elections have lacked transparency, and open seats are often left unfilled.

Operationally, the situation is just as concerning. The uniform procurement process with Capelli has been disorganized and frustrating compared to the efficiency we experienced with Sterling Soccer. Leadership turnover has been telling—while the departure of the former Director of Operations was a relief to many parents, the Technical Director has been largely absent for some time.

The coaching staff is the only real strength of this club, and many parents appreciate the dedication of certain coaches. But systemic inequities remain unaddressed. The girls’ program has been neglected for years, while the boys’ side receives opportunities such as international trips. Additionally, there is a perception among many families that preferential treatment is given to scholarship players, while paying families are sidelined or mistreated.

These concerns are widely shared among parents and have been experienced repeatedly, yet no changes are made. Families are understandably choosing other clubs, and it is difficult to see how this club can sustain itself if it continues to ignore transparency, accountability, and equal treatment for all players.

[Anonymous]

Interesting about the lack of Board oversight because a lot of people on here complained that the fees went up substantially but their teams were doing fewer tournaments and the club seems to have not secured enough practice field space. So everyone is paying more and getting a lot less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This club is struggling with serious governance and management issues. The board no longer holds annual meetings, and with only five remaining members (several having quit out of frustration with the lack of transparency), there is little meaningful oversight of the management team. Board elections have lacked transparency, and open seats are often left unfilled.

Operationally, the situation is just as concerning. The uniform procurement process with Capelli has been disorganized and frustrating compared to the efficiency we experienced with Sterling Soccer. Leadership turnover has been telling—while the departure of the former Director of Operations was a relief to many parents, the Technical Director has been largely absent for some time.

The coaching staff is the only real strength of this club, and many parents appreciate the dedication of certain coaches. But systemic inequities remain unaddressed. The girls’ program has been neglected for years, while the boys’ side receives opportunities such as international trips. Additionally, there is a perception among many families that preferential treatment is given to scholarship players, while paying families are sidelined or mistreated.

These concerns are widely shared among parents and have been experienced repeatedly, yet no changes are made. Families are understandably choosing other clubs, and it is difficult to see how this club can sustain itself if it continues to ignore transparency, accountability, and equal treatment for all players.

ThanksGPT

[Anonymous]

What international trips?

[Anonymous]

I have never seen kids treated better because they were on scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Why is a 2016 team with ten players assigned the same amount of field space to practice on as a 20 player team of high school seniors?

Someone, please explain this.

[Anonymous]

they clearly put someone incredibly dumb in charge of assigning practice spaces for both rec and travel teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

ThanksGPT

I allowed me to remain polite…

[Anonymous]

I don't know what going on but when I dropped off for later practice, it looked like 4, 5, 6, extra rec leag teams trying to practice on their feild. His coaches and their other travel teams who usually there were trying to practice on the feild at same time.

It was crowded like a mobhouse. My son plays sevral years and never have this.

[Anonymous]

I think when HM was at Herndon he truly cared about the girls. “They” acted as if he was the worst thing to happen to Herndon. Unfortunately he left and it hasn’t gotten any better, actually it’s worse.

[Anonymous]

Who is HM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what going on but when I dropped off for later practice, it looked like 4, 5, 6, extra rec leag teams trying to practice on their feild. His coaches and their other travel teams who usually there were trying to practice on the feild at same time.

It was crowded like a mobhouse. My son plays sevral years and never have this.

It seems like there is plenty of space at 5 pm practices. Is it possible that too many coaches (and/or parents) did not want 5 pm practices thus making the later practices super crowded? Traffic is rough now with more people going to and from the office.