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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is so much wrong with VYS, it's a daunting task to even start.  But, I'll boil the problems down to two areas:

1.  The attitude of VYS's management, at the house and travel levels, is driving away parents and players.  The management is more concerned with telling parents and kids what to do than they are in delivering a fun, educational experience for kids.  From our immediate experience, VYS is not a service oriented outfit - they are an obedience-oriented outfit.

Example 1:  At the house level we had one "parent" coach who hadn't had kids in the league in over a decade.  This coach was known as "Creepy (insert name here)."  In that instance (before we pulled out kid out of the team) we literally had parents begging VYS to let them coach, but the league persisted in keeping Coach Creepy.  We later learned that it wasn't just our team who referred to this coach as Coach Creepy - it was the entire age-group.  It should not take a league long to react when an entire age group of parents is referring to a particular coach as "Coach Creepy."   After that year, we pulled our daughter out of VYS and we're happily playing in Chantilly's travel program.  Which is less expensive, friendlier and has FAR better coaching.

Example 2:  We had a travel coach was ABYSMALLY bad on an interpersonal and technical skill level.  He was so arrogant and condescending, it was shocking.  Our kid came home from practice asking to drop out of travel because, "the way coach talks to the team makes everyone feel stupid."  After two months of observing practices, I spoke with the ATD and raised countless examples of the coach alienating players, treating them harshly, and actively insulting and/or discouraging young players.  Nothing changed.  Then, after one family left mid-season and we threatened to leave, the league FINALLY replaced this coach.  We only later found out that this particular coach had a lengthy track record of being run-out of coaching positions across the country.  Apparently, VYS' reputation is such that they can't attract enough good coaches and are forced to settle for cast-offs.  Oh, to add to the story, once the coach was replaced EVERY SINGLE PARENT on the team thanked me for raising the issue.  Yet, when I asked why they didn't raise it, they all indicated that they didn't want the league to punish them for speaking up.  Apparently, VYS management has a reputation for being vindictive - taking retribution on players to "teach parents to stay in line."  How about that?  Nice.

2.  There's a vicious cycle between VYS' mismanagement (See #1), which is driving away parents and kids that the league apparently can't attract and retain good coaches.  As a result the overall quality of coaching (and resulting play) has suffered - tremendously.  All you have to do is attend ANY VYS game.  VYS players are rarely "first to the ball."  They're hesitant and they're ball control is nowhere near the level of their opponents.  Their overall "soccer intelligence" is far below that of neighboring clubs.  Seriously, go look at the results.  More often than not VYS teams are not just beaten, they're destroyed.  Like 8-0, 10-1 or worse.  And it's not just one game.  It's game after game, season after season.  I don't expect to "win every game", but it would be nice to at least be developing the skills that would allow players to be in the same competitive range.  Which is NOT happening.

Finally, it's not just that VYS is not responsive to parents or that they're travel-level coaching is well below average.  VYS consistently puts house and travel kids on poor-quality fields. (FWIW, Freedom Hill Elementary's U-10 fields are downright dangerous.)  They are losing good practice facilities like Jones Branch because they can't get their administrative act together.  The league spends a ridiculous amount of time on nonsense like promoting the "anti-concussion partnership" with a local hospital.  Mention it once or twice: fine. Develop an SOP for coaches to deal with potential concussions:  fine.  Spend countless hours promoting and marketing an expensive and unnecessary pre-screening process that is more like free marketing for the hospital than anything else:  Count me out.

In the end, we removed one child from VYS and the results were great.  We'll be removing our other child as soon as this season is over and we won't be back.  I would HIGHLY discourage parents - especially at the travel level - to go elsewhere.  VYS needs to completely clean house at the senior-most levels and start charting and implementing a credible path to recovery.[/quote]

Will you please stop confusing "Club" with "League".

The NFL is a league, the Washington Redskins are a "team" or "club" that play in the NFL.[/quote]

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