Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD just got an offer via email. Has anyone else heard anything?

No but it certainly changes the urgency and the approach to solve the problem. From all accounts the MYS boys leadership were not included in negotiations. The girls leader NM led this move and it had nothing to do with their program. Begs the question if the threat was real to begin with if they lied about the girls being in danger. What other options could they have explored. Let Brave die and the Girls take the players anyways and there is no disruption of staff. Lose boys ecnl and the Boys play USYS NL since that’s their level anyways and keep the coaching staff and parents happy. Or maybe attempt a bid for Boys MLS next with BRYC and Vienna? If the league kicks boys and brave out they can’t stop a move to another league. Would be a strong play to really improve all clubs. The league wouldn’t allow that type of move hence the threat not really being a threat. This was a wet dream of NM and he played his card well. Give up boys control to Brave and he get a new source of talent to recruit from (since when has NM developed a young player), and expand his footprint of totalfutbol camps. Genius move.

Doesn't seem smart to me? NM had multiple ECNL teams as did the other McLean coaches. Now they each have only 1 and MV has 2. Seems like VYS out maneuvered the McLean crew. If they had just let BRAVE die those girls would have come to Union anyways. Now they just gave up control. In 5 years this will just be Vienna ECNL. CW is going to retire. NM and crew will start up a new club. You saw it here first.

Which teams were BP and CC coaching at FCV. Will that impact where girls go? Maybe they go to where their own teams coach went

Union

2012 - ML
2011 - CW
2010 - NM
2009 - BL
2008 - NM
2007/06 - BL

Saw Aaron Brunner announced as new Technical Director at VDA. Is he taking over for MW? Will he coach the 08 team? Does that team even have a coach anymore? Amazing move on their part. Wonder if some of the Richmond girls will make the drive to VDA.

Also saw he is head coach at George Mason. How will this work? Seems like a good move on their part but that is quite a bit of responsibility.

I have seen videos posted about the Next Star trainings. Have called the number on their website as well as emailed with zero response. Took my 16 year old DD who plays for a local ECNL team to one of the trainings but seemed like the kids were mostly younger so left. Next day stopped by the Pro/College group and it looked like 20 year old male college players. I've seen HS age girls in some of the videos. Can anyone in the know comment on this program and which may be best suited for a U17 ECNL player?

I am seeing lots of leagues advertised and am wondering what the difference is between them? Anyone with older daughters still playing know? I see W League, WPSL, PRO 23. Are there more?

I know Union girls offers have all gone out. Not sure about other McLean girls teams

Loudoun is going to be fine. For U13-U16 all of the teams qualified or are close to qualifying for Nationals. Their 2006 team is in the top half. The only team struggling is the oldest age group which is going to graduate this year. This merger will help them with the younger ages as they enter ECNL age. What Loudoun needs to focus on is getting girls into top college programs and they will be set going forward

Won't matter for this year or next year but once your DD reaches HS age the ECNL games are either in the fall or spring. If you live in DC and do HS soccer your season will be the fall and a VA ECNL team will be having lots of games during that time whereas the MD ECNL teams are on a break. I know there are MD families who chose Union anyways but it makes for a very crazy fall season and a long dead spring season.

And it is true that Union does giant rosters. The current U14 team has 22 players and U16 has 29. U17-U19 has over 30 players. No other ECNL clubs operate like this. Even if you have a top player the trickle down of such a huge roster is felt by every player on the team. I don't know a single parent happy with rosters that large.

I'm not sure why you think BRYC doesn't have a U12 team. I saw the boys get beat by the Richmond team last fall and their U12 girls are towards the top of the state rankings?

VYS plans to keep all of their current teams. After BRAVE they will have the Phoenix/Eagles teams for girls and boys playing ECNL-R which is what they are currently doing and then Black, White etc playing in NCSL. For the U9 and U10 age groups they will still have red teams. My guess is only a few players will be moving onto the BRAVE teams and they are assuming that all of the players not making BRAVE will stay with VYS. I am sure there are some players who won't make BRAVE but will think they should have and will look around at other clubs. Not sure if players not making BRAVE are going to be getting onto other ECNL teams. I guess players may consider a lateral move to another non-ECNL team?

Here is my take on what is happening after having listened and talked to parents. BRYC is incredibly disorganized. Teams operate somewhat independently and coaches have a lot of freedom to do whatever they want. With this new partnership a few VYS coaches will be coming in to coach a few ECNL teams probably the younger ones which will have the most VYS players accepted. I think for the most part BRYC coaches would have retained their teams at the older ages but there are going to be a few new coaches on both the girls and boys side. In addition there will be at least one practice per week in Vienna area. These BRYC coaches don't like this new setup so they have decided to threaten to leave and take their teams with them. If the parents of the top players follow these coaches to NVU - I think this will be a disaster for the players as they will not be playing in a competitive league anymore and also for this partnership. Messy situation. I hear parents talking about the teams applying for MLS Next. That is not going to happen for such a long time and the BRYC teams are not strong enough to even be accepted. There is not a single BRYC boys team that is in the top half of the standings. All of this is due to disgruntled coaches convincing parents to make a decision that is not in the best interest of their players. Sad

Cruzado wrote:

joy4 wrote:So having a boy in the shuffle, what is my choice?

1: going with ECNL badge (mainly VYS) and experiencing degraded team performance in ECNL for 2022-2023 season?
-- Maybe the BRAVE team will survive ECNL?
-- what if BRAVE got boot out? My boy settling down at VYS.

2: going with NVU and playing EDP, same shit, and MOst likely also degrade team performance
-- are those coaches trustable, one years or years in the future?
-- Comfortable at EDP may not / may necessarily fit my boy?

in All, BRYS boys travel is gone. I can image all boys go to VYS and SYC/Burke.

Why do you think that the BRAVE ECNL will be "degraded team performance" as compared to the soon-to-be-defunct BRYC ENCL team performance? How does the collaboration with VYS (and presumably the addition of the top talent from VYS that makes the jump from VYS Eagles to BRAVE ECNL) result in a "degraded" team?

If you were happy enough with BRYC ECNL to have your boys playing on that team this year (or if your kids are younger BRYC players considering BRYC ECNL for future years) I don't know what changed.

Of course, if you were already unsatisfied with BRYC ECNL, and we already looking to go to another ECNL club, the question then becomes does the new BRAVE ECNL team represent enough of a change for you to stick with BRYC.

I can tell you why the BRYC families are upset. BRYC operates with "composite" teams. This means there are 30 plus kids on each ECNL team. 10 of which probably never set foot on an ECNL field but are able to claim being on an ECNL team. They do get to practice with ECNL players so the training is good. With this new partnership that is now gone. Out of the 30 players probably half will be cut. My guess is about 2/3 of each ECNL team will retain the top BRYC players but the top VYS players will displace the bottom of the roster. And all of the composite players are now going to be on an ECNL regional BRYC team. They will play games as BRYC and not under this new BRAVE team. I am guessing there will be quite a bit of duel rostering going on to appease players and families of both clubs but the days of being one of 30 players on an ECNL team are over.