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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the person who started this thread on May 30th, a little over five months ago. At the time we had just finished the season with Bethesda and were moving to a different club. It was the right decision. My kid was asked to return to the same top team in age group at Bethesda. We left based on several factors, including: An abundance of politics that dictate who makes teams and who gets minutes on teams. This exists most everywhere but not to the degree of Bethesda. A hyper intensive focus on winning over player development by most coaches. There is a gradual move to accomplish this by rostering big players. Unapproachable leadership. Addressing any concerns in even the most polite way is more likely than not to result in retribution than solution. Age group directors typically fuel flames instead of extinguishing them. Pitiful organization or basic effort to obtain field space and consistent training times. One top team practiced on average of twice per week in the spring, three if very lucky. Stale coaching staff. Many of the coaches are comfortable, arrogant, and stuck in their ways. Not all. Many. 
All this said - the decision to leave was not easy. The Bethesda reputation is solid outside of the DMV. Their pipeline of talent to colleges is indisputable. The point of my original post was to say, "Is all the above worth that end goal? And is Bethesda your only way to achieve it?"  The answer to this is up to each family, but my experience and thought is "No, it's not."  Your kid's childhood is too short and precious for you to spend a year with a coach who neither knows nor cares at all about them as a person or even player. Maybe I'm naive, but I still think there are coaches out there who do care, including some at Bethesda. Not enough. BSC has become fat, happy, mean-spirited and complacent. A shakeup would serve them well. [/quote] Totally agree, was there, saw similar things, left. Youth soccer has become like choosing a cable tv package, great into rate which goes away after the first year. Rinse and repeat. I don't think they will have an honest competitor in the near term though. Bottom line, choose a coach not a club and bounce quickly.[/quote]

I'm not so sure on the competition point.  If you've been in our area for some time and know the soccer landscape you definitely realize these things are cyclical.  In the 90s, Potomac was what Bethesda is now.  But, Potomac rested on their laurels, became super arrogant, lost good coaches and staff, had weak management at times, started to have much less success overall (both on the pitch and off)...sound familiar?  And then some years later pretty much fell off the map and the nail in the coffin was when they lost the DA (when it was DA) to Bethesda.  My predication is that this will happen to BSC in the future...All the signs are there and there are just too many competitors out there now and a much more educated public for people to willingly accept the treatment and product they get for the money they invest.  Before, a player's options were somewhat limited at a certain level and Bethesda was the biggest beneficiary of this. And they knew this.  DC United was pay to play and no better than BSC for a long time, other offerings were either too small with not enough experience or teams, less established, lacked the infrastructure or lacked the talent or all of the above. Now, there is just much more to choose from on both the boys and the girls sides.  This is why people are scrambling to keep the narrative about BSC positive when the reality is that things are trending the wrong way for the organization which is what the original poster was trying to say all along...[/quote]

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