Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

I always hear Mclean is a top club. From ex-members, I've been told the club is chaos and overrated.
Which is it?
Maybe they have a great marketing department??

Like other clubs, each age group and team is different. McLean has some really good teams and takes their soccer seriously. They also have some coaches who are not known for being very kind or supportive. My opinion is that is not ideal at the younger age groups, but people’s tolerance for a really demanding coach is higher at older age groups.

Agreed. Its as if the McLean u9-u12 boys coaches are obligated to yell and scream whenever possible. It's really taxing on the boys

Talk about it in a Mclean thread

^ Some leagues' rules allow the clubs some control over the players.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would Vienna want to give away their top players to an ecnl team that far away? What do they even get in exchange?

Don’t really care about Vienna, maybe things should be done in the best interests of the kids. When did pay to play clubs start owning players?

This is youth soccer. No one gives players away or signs them or trades them or gets anything in return. Players and families generally choose a local club if it offers a good experience for their kid. That means soccer development and opportunity and fun. Everything in the best interest of the kid. If the experience isn't good enough for whatever reason, families will go a little further away in search of a better experience.

Clubs have zero say in the matter, so they should focus on providing the best experiences that they can. Period. And if family leaves. Clubs should wish them well. That's it.

No idea how Vienna treats players - but wanted to make a general point here. Some leagues' rules allow the players some control over the players. The now defunct DA, for example, allowed clubs to prevent players trying out at other DA clubs without permission. Of our local DA clubs both Loudoun and VDA went out of their way to make it difficult for kids to leave. VDA expressly forbade kids from trying out at other DA clubs until after they (and the other DA clubs) had already made offers - and gave kids only a few days to try out. And Loudoun would tell kids that if they left they wouldn't be allowed back (which wasn't true of course - once the kids left Loudoun regularly contacted them to ask them to come back).

When a club attempts to prevent kids leaving, or even exploring other options, it tells you three things:

1. It is putting itself before the kids - and this is reason to leave immediately in my book.
2. It is not confident that it is offering a better product to the kids than its competitors.
3. The club's response to a problem (kids potentially wanting to leave) is dysfunctional. When they should be seeking to learn why the kids want to leave and thinking about how to improve themselves so the kids want to stay, they instead respond by attempting to prevent the kids from leaving.

It's worth noting that Arlington in contrast was always perfectly happy to allow any kid that wanted to, to try out elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

I always hear Mclean is a top club. From ex-members, I've been told the club is chaos and overrated.
Which is it?
Maybe they have a great marketing department??

Like other clubs, each age group and team is different. McLean has some really good teams and takes their soccer seriously. They also have some coaches who are not known for being very kind or supportive. My opinion is that is not ideal at the younger age groups, but people’s tolerance for a really demanding coach is higher at older age groups.

Agreed. Its as if the McLean u9-u12 boys coaches are obligated to yell and scream whenever possible. It's really taxing on the boys

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

I always hear Mclean is a top club. From ex-members, I've been told the club is chaos and overrated.
Which is it?
Maybe they have a great marketing department??

Like other clubs, each age group and team is different. McLean has some really good teams and takes their soccer seriously. They also have some coaches who are not known for being very kind or supportive. My opinion is that is not ideal at the younger age groups, but people’s tolerance for a really demanding coach is higher at older age groups.

Anonymous wrote:The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

I always hear Mclean is a top club. From ex-members, I've been told the club is chaos and overrated.
Which is it?
Maybe they have a great marketing department??

Anonymous wrote:The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

This is way too general to be useful. On the boys side, it is simply wrong at younger ages with respect to McLean and BRYC. They don't have better players, coaches, teams or leagues at younger ages - they routinely lose to VYS teams and play in what many view as a lesser league beginning at U11. The director at earlier ages is irrelevant at other clubs, but at VYS, he actually coaches the top boys teams and is pretty damned good. I think you are talking about U13 on up. The rest of what you say is just plain wrong.

The top clubs (McLean, Braddock, SYC, and Alexandria) around VYS have better players, teams, coaches, directors, and leagues so VYS naturally loses the best players to those clubs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would Vienna want to give away their top players to an ecnl team that far away? What do they even get in exchange?

Don’t really care about Vienna, maybe things should be done in the best interests of the kids. When did pay to play clubs start owning players?

This is youth soccer. No one gives players away or signs them or trades them or gets anything in return. Players and families generally choose a local club if it offers a good experience for their kid. That means soccer development and opportunity and fun. Everything in the best interest of the kid. If the experience isn't good enough for whatever reason, families will go a little further away in search of a better experience.

Clubs have zero say in the matter, so they should focus on providing the best experiences that they can. Period. And if family leaves. Clubs should wish them well. That's it.

Anonymous wrote:Why would Vienna want to give away their top players to an ecnl team that far away? What do they even get in exchange?

Don’t really care about Vienna, maybe things should be done in the best interests of the kids. When did pay to play clubs start owning players?

Why would Vienna want to give away their top players to an ecnl team that far away? What do they even get in exchange?

Anonymous wrote:Partnership with the Virginia Development Academy? Don't know

A few years ago they were one one the many teams that was going to partner with VDA. I think there were 1/2 dozen of them. But Vienna never told anyone about it. They didn't want to lose their top players. Also - Haymarket is not very close to Vienna. I don't think any of the other clubs did either. It's really just PWSI and VSA feeding into VDA at this point. They grab a few players from other non-ECNL and non-GA clubs but it isn't because those clubs told them to go. They are just leaving for a higher level of play.

Partnership with the Virginia Development Academy? Don't know

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ECNL gets more and more watered down each year. Within 5 years there will be a new "elite" league to take its place. The $$$ and the pipe dream continues.

ECNL is a solid pathway to college.

and what was the pathway before the ecnl was the hot league?

Anonymous wrote:Must get to ....

100!!!!