How is this topic still going but the one for Achilles got locked?

From what I understand, most clubs have politics and problems--I think that's what happens when we turn youth soccer into a machine that also makes money for a small few in each club. That said, I watched JH coach my kid on the Girls 2014 fifth team last year. Even with 2-3 guests (usually from the third team), his fifth team players really improved from Fall to Spring. Maybe they aren't ECNL-level players (or at least not yet), but they learned how to play and enjoy the game--isn't that important in a world where most of the kids across all of these teams aren't going to play D1 or get called up to a national team? Two went from the fifth to third team, two or three went from fifth to fourth team, and two or three who remained on the fifth team could easily have gone to the fourth team. I watched the first, second and third teams practice--his team wasn't even close to their levels of play when the Fall season started. Positioning, passing, anticipating, dribbling--none of it was there. By the final tournament of the Spring, they looked like a soccer team. Maybe he never played, but I thought he produced results. And as someone else on here said, the kids seemed to respond to him and enjoyed going to practice. He was quick to yank a player after making a mistake, but took the time on the bench to explain what he wanted to see and then was just as quick to put them back in. I think the issue some parents have with JH is that while he could joyfully and skillfully suffer kids needing improvement in their game, he could not suffer obnoxious parents.

This is the kind of gossip that makes this board so unpleasant. People dropping lines to make a club look terrible with no concrete facts to back up the posts. Why post a rumor you heard through the grapevine and about which you have no first hand knowledge?

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Anonymous wrote:Bethesda has to be the most toxic club I've ever seen. Lots of marketing, but if you are on anything other than their 1 team you are just a revenue stream to them. Promotions half the time are not based on merit but rather based on who you know. Lots of back channel communication that you will never be aware of. They literally have a guy who has never touched a ball in his life coaching the U10 Pre-ECNL team next season. JH is a social engineer and a fraud.

I don’t know JH personally or have any idea what you’re talking about, but you do realize you are talking about the third team coach of 9 year olds? It’s a low team of third and fourth graders and you’re complaining about a guy who used to coach first teams at Potomac and has been a coach over a decade. Who are you expecting to coach a low team of kids still playing 7v7?

I am not even a BSC fan, left for our own reasons. Some of the criticism is comical.

Well the 3rd and 4th teams pay the same amount as the 1st and 2nd, should their coaching be at least adequate? I am not saying just cause you pay you should be on a better team, but you should still expect a coach who will train your kid to be better.

Is the "coach" you are referring to the older guy who simply sits in a folding chair the whole game and yells sometimes? I happened to see this scenario and was amazed and appalled at the same time.

Yes that describes JH pretty well. I noticed how he seems to avoid the ball like the plague. This is not someone who should be coaching young developing players. You want someone who can demonstrate skills or at the very least juggle a ball. A coach MUST have playing experience.

Avram Grant and Leonardo Jardim say hello.

So you are saying that you are totally ok with some clown who never played the game coach your child? JH is so bad that the only way he wins games is by bringing team 1 and 2 guests players while benching his own players. Even then he manages to lose games. He is incapable of winning a game with his own players.

Not sure how this became a JH bashing forum when he is beloved by most of his players. He is a wonderful person who enabled several of his third team players to move up to the second team for the coming year. They love him and credit the “promotion” to him. Believe me, JH is the absolute least of Bethesda’s problems. Not sure if the focus was turned on him to distract from the horrors of BSC leadership, but that’s who the criticism should target.

Anonymous wrote:The younger ECNL girls teams are impressive - both 2011s and 2010s are champions in one of the toughest conferences in the league and the 2012s Pre-ECNL are finishing top 3. All three teams that I've seen play a very distinct high quality brand of soccer.

You don't get this with mediocre coaches and generic training. By all accounts, sounds like Bethesda is far from perfect but they must be doing something right in developing strong soccer players in a difficult (for most) style of play.

Can confirm - 2010 and 2011 girls teams are good, and well coached. I don't even think they have the most talent but the club does a great job at getting the most out of the talent they have. I am speaking as the parent of a rival ECNL team who plays them a few times a year.