they don't want you to know. really. In a 14-team league, some teams will be at the bottom. It's bad enough for them to be at the bottom THIS year, the last thing they want you to know is that they have been at the bottom the last FOUR years.

The only way you see a team's historical record is by using the soccer rankings app usasportstatistics.net (formerly youthsoccerrankings.com)

Coaching highly competitive travel teams = low pay relative to the workload, no benefits, non traditional hours, high stress, time away from family (weekends/evenings/holidays) not appealing for the majority of women who want to get into coaching.

There are a few but not that many. Male coaches seem to be more willing to make those sacrifices than female coaches. From my knowledge in the northern Virginia area, I'm going to estimate that there are no more than 40 highly experienced female (expert) coaches actively coaching in the game right now. I'm talking about someone that has 10+ years of experience.

Compare that to male coaches and there are probably 200+ coaches in the area with at least 10 years of experience.

Here's the post you have been waiting for.

Here/s your list:

2010:
Loudon: Rae-Ann Taylor
Union: Matt Lee
BRAVE: Michel Vanderhart
Arlington: Makenzie Wright
VDA Alex Silver

2009:
Loudon: Rae-Ann Taylor
Union: Nadir Moumen
BRAVE: Lindsey Ottavio
Arlington: Molly Menchel
VDA Alex Silver

2008:
Loudon: Nick Surkamp
Union: Brent Leiba
BRAVE: Michel Vanderhart
Arlington: Joseph Nemzer
VDA: Mikey Welsh

2007:
Loudon: Phil Leversedge
Union: Clyde Watson
BRAVE: Gene Mishalow
Arlington: Haytham Mansur
VDA: Michelle Alioto


2006:
BRAVE: Tyler Mishalow
Union: Brent Leiba
Loudon: Phil Leversedge
Arlington: Joseph Nemzer
VDA: Mikey Welsh

2005/2004:
Arlington: Declan Cole
VDA: Scott Sinclair
Loudon: Dave Bucciero
Union: Nadir Moumen
BRAVE: Tyler Mishalow



1. Clyde Watson
-Unquestioned reputation in the area, but is retiring. Basically built Mclean's girls program with his own hands over the last 20 years.

2. Nadir Moumen / Mikey Welsh
-Not the most warm and fuzzy personalities but have an established track record of many years of high performing teams, even if your DD hates playing for them. Even if your DD dislikes their personality and coaching style, she will still play for them because of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Bobby Puppione and Christian Czommer from FCV also make an appearance here because of the track record with their teams. Even if your DD dislikes their personality and coaching style, she will still play for them because of the light at the end of the tunnel.


3. Michel Vanderhart / Gene Mishalow / Rae Ann Taylor
-Coaching veterans in the area who have been grinding it out for 20+ years and have a ton of experience but not the benefit of coaching for a club with reputationally has pulled in the best girls talent in the area (Mclean / FCV typically)
Some people have mixed feelings about these coaches (love/hate relationship) but undeniably they are veteran coaches in the area.

4. Phil Leversedge / Dave Bucciero / Brent Leiba
-A group of very smart coaches who can really coach. Dave used to be the women's coach at AU, Phil and Brent are extremely brainy and capable, experienced coaches who have a lot of experience in the game and are respected.

George Hales makes an appearance here, not sure if he is still coaching with Metro United or not but I'd put him here.


5. Michelle Alioto / Hayhtam Mansur / Tyler Mishalow / Matt Lee
-All very capable coaches who have coached in the area for a while and probably have cabinets full of trophies for state cups, tournament trophies, and ODP accolades.

6. Joseph Nemzer / Scott Sinclar / Declan Cole
Experienced in coaching at college levels but by their bios it looks like this is their first year or two coaching youth players, which is completely different. BRYC experimented with this method the last few years by bringing former college coaches in to coach some age groups and it was a disaster. These coaches are fine for a U18/U19 team that is in its last year already. A lack of experience coaching youth players may be covered over by being handed a strong age group to begin with.


7. Lindsey Ottavio / Molly Menchel / Nick Surkamp / Mackenzie Wright
-Experienced in soccer as former players but haven't established themselves in the area or a coaching reputation / track record yet on the girls side. I'm sure they are all good coaches, but they are being compared to the list above so they fall at #7.

8. Alex Silver
-Do your own research

Many of the coaches who I know and respect in the area don't coach ecnl or GA. Paul Ellis doesn't coach ecnl. Neither does Ann Germain. Neither does TJ white. Neither does Gus donolo. Neither does Sully Hamid. Fantastic coaches and veterans in the area. None of them coach in ecnl or ga.

the majority of these coaches are great yellers

Encl and GAv more about selection the development. All the players that end up on these teams were standouts already at u9-u12 and then a few trickle in at u13-u14. It's rare for a player to make the transition after that.

Coaching is more about performance than development. You could stick a bad coach with some of these teams and the players would still play fairly well and get recruited by colleges.

Here's a disclaimer. About 50% of all these coaches are actually disliked/hated around the area. 25% of them are unproven, and 25% of them are veterans and people have a mix of love-hate relationships with them.

Why do you ask? Well I'll let everyone else respond to that on specific coaches. It's not too hard to list all the coaches by their initials with a little bit of research.

I'll say this. When you're a coach who inherits a team of the clubs best players, it's sometimes hard to see the gaps in coaching ability or the coach's knowledge. They are working with players who are already very talented in their own right and mostly deserve to be there, except for the u13 teams where they grandfather and players who may not really deserve a spot. But they eliminate them by u14 typically.

I won't name names but if you take some of the more successful coaches on this list by measurement of trophies they have won, and you put them with developing players, most of them would struggle. On this list you're going to run into coaches who do not know how to develop players, only know how to crack the whip on them and motivate them to play harder and be more competitive players, but not actually develop them more. That is why they don't work with younger age groups and they don't work with developmental players, only players who have already made it to a very high level. This masks their lack of coaching ability.

You need to do this by club - can you be a little more specific? the DC area is big. There are coaches who do not coach in ECNL or GA that are better than some who do.

you should be asking about pre schools not soccer programs

Any thoughts? Are all of the player living in Great Falls or reston going to be commuting to Alexandria for practices? How about all of the players from potomac?

What went wrong this year??

Will the VYS partnership be able to rescue BRYC from this past year's results?
Here are the girls standings... am not even bothering to post the boys.

W-L-T

U13: 0-26-0 2 goals for, 140 against
U14: 1-24-1 15 goals for, 104 against
U15: 1-11-1 10 goals for, 44 against (high school ages only play the fall season)
U16: 3-8-2 15 goals for, 25 against
U17: 0-9-4 9 goals for, 32 against
U18/19: 3-8-2 14 goals for, 39 against

Totals (6 age groups)
8-86-10
65 goals for, 384 against (differential of -319)


Sooo... will resetting the teams and adding ECNL-R players from VYS help for next year?

I was there at another game but caught bits and pieces of it. It seemed like SYC was ahead by at least a goal or two, then later I looked back and it seemed like the game went into overtime. That's the last thing I saw, but the SYC parents were going crazy most of the game as far as I could tell

Hi OP,

I don't know if you are aware of this, but arlington's rec league has different divisions for each age group. If your son is on the more competitive side, you should try to join a team that is in a high division when he finishes ADP. The divisions are posted here:

https://arlingtonsoccer.demosphere-secure.com/programs/recreation/schedules-scores

By the time players finish up ADP, all of the ADP players will filter out to Arlington's internal rec league, so the league will be more competitive anyway because the same players from ADP will be in it.

If you're looking for a less intense travel program than arlington eventually, check out PAC. Premier Athletics Club. It is based in Falls church with practices at Luther Jackson middle school, falls church high school, and maybe some other nearby locations.

Middle school soccer is extremely competitive in Arlington. The middle schools have several hundred students in each grade, and many, many players who play on Arlington's travel teams all want to try out and be on the team. Making the middle school roster is a big accomplishment just by the sheer number of players who try out.

It is not a place to learn soccer, it is just 2 months of the year, the coaches are more like PE teachers, and some of them coach for Arlington Soccer in some capacity or another.

So, I would not worry about Arlington middle school soccer at all. When ADP ends, just try to find a higher division team to join, and if you feel like taking it a step further, check out PAC.

Also, by the high school age groups, all of the less serious, less motivated players have moved on. The high school divisions of Arlington's internal league are very competitive, especially division 1, which has former travel players who dropped out, and talented players who should be playing travel but never did. The high school age group teams offer plenty of competition.

you don't go to ID clinics in order to get discovered. You send the coaches highlights in advance, if they take an interest, then you go. If no interest, don't expect much other than "a fun and competitive environment for each player to develop their technical skills and to apply those skills to game situations"

If anyone is curious, heres all of the local ECNL teams playing the same team from south carolina. Cant find a video of VDA vs CESA but did find a video of NC fusion.



Mclean union vs CESA
https://youtu.be/mVdwyA6REI4

Loudon vs CESA
https://youtu.be/5g27nONtA58

Braddock road vs CESA
https://youtu.be/mKhwwR4_KlA

Arlington vs CESA
https://youtu.be/I-1iTJe2JYk

VDA vs NC fusion
https://youtu.be/d-pqKyzEcqk