Anonymous wrote:I heard VA Revolution was going to buy ECNL so they can get in, too!

Anonymous wrote:I heard VA Revolution was going to buy ECNL so they can get in, too!

Anonymous wrote:I heard VA Revolution was going to buy ECNL so they can get in, too!

Anonymous wrote:Must be nice to have all this time to discuss a make believe topic.

Anonymous wrote:If Bryc can't even get Burke as a partner club I definitely don't see Vys doing it either. Nobody wants to lose their best players to another club.

Springfield doesn't mind losing the girls because they don't invest in them anyway or care about their success to begin with.

VYS kind of drops the ball with the boys at the older ages so they could feed a different club on the boys side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does VYS aspire to be more than a neighborhood club? Why would you want this in an area where the elite level is already over saturated with options?

As a neighborhood club, you are content to see the most talented players leave the club for others offering higher levels of competition. It is a nice, comfortable niche. Maybe establish a pipeline to an ECNL club if you feel the need.

The talent makes those determinations. McLean and BRYC could be called the same. At some point, people decided to go further with it and the talent agreed. In terms of local talent, Vienna had more than either of those clubs at earlier ages. GFR is comparable. So yes, if they decide to ally, they could certainly strengthen a BRYC, which could use it. I don’t feel like this area of NOVA has any competitive options for my kid. So he plays elsewhere.

Except that McLean and BRYC are both already in ECNL (the topic of this thread). So they are not in the same "neighborhood club" category as VYS since they draw from a wider area. They both draw from VYS, among other clubs, just as your sons club probably has.

With regard to the motivation for such decisions, I think what you might be trying to say is that club leadership makes these decisions based on their own aspirations to be more than a neighborhood club, supported by their own assessments of the strength of their player pool. There is ego involved. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are right. My point is that although mergers and alliances seem to be in vogue right now, it will change what is a nice neighborhood club.

At early ages, McLean and BRYC are nothing more than local or neighborhood clubs and their talent level is often below Vienna and GFR, especially on the boys side. The longer term disadvantage those clubs have had in ECNL is the absence of a significant talent pool from younger ages relative to the larger clubs like Arlington, Loudoun and VDA with PWSI and VDA. McLean's alliance with SYC is a way for them to try to solve that problem. BRYC still has it. So you can say these are elite clubs until you are blue in the face, but most people on the boys side would say that is simply not true at all at older ages, and absolutely false at younger ages. Boys from VYS aren't going over to McLean/BRYC U9-12 if they can play top team at VYS, unless they are playing up in ECNL.

All of that said, VYS does nicely, and we were happy to have spent time there.

Vienna has a pretty big rec league. They don’t have the numbers that Arlington or Loudoun have, but they tend to do better than most other clubs in the area at the younger ages of travel. They aren’t just going to get into ECNL though. No way they’ll add another team to NOVA. I’d like to see BRYC pick up all the Fairfax County clubs as feeders, or do it under a different name if they have to. Or ECNL can pull the BRYC charter and give it to some all county partnership instead. Somebody needs to run it, but there are plenty of good players in the area if the clubs could find a way to work together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does VYS aspire to be more than a neighborhood club? Why would you want this in an area where the elite level is already over saturated with options?

As a neighborhood club, you are content to see the most talented players leave the club for others offering higher levels of competition. It is a nice, comfortable niche. Maybe establish a pipeline to an ECNL club if you feel the need.

The talent makes those determinations. McLean and BRYC could be called the same. At some point, people decided to go further with it and the talent agreed. In terms of local talent, Vienna had more than either of those clubs at earlier ages. GFR is comparable. So yes, if they decide to ally, they could certainly strengthen a BRYC, which could use it. I don’t feel like this area of NOVA has any competitive options for my kid. So he plays elsewhere.

Except that McLean and BRYC are both already in ECNL (the topic of this thread). So they are not in the same "neighborhood club" category as VYS since they draw from a wider area. They both draw from VYS, among other clubs, just as your sons club probably has.

With regard to the motivation for such decisions, I think what you might be trying to say is that club leadership makes these decisions based on their own aspirations to be more than a neighborhood club, supported by their own assessments of the strength of their player pool. There is ego involved. Sometimes they are wrong, sometimes they are right. My point is that although mergers and alliances seem to be in vogue right now, it will change what is a nice neighborhood club.

At early ages, McLean and BRYC are nothing more than local or neighborhood clubs and their talent level is often below Vienna and GFR, especially on the boys side. The longer term disadvantage those clubs have had in ECNL is the absence of a significant talent pool from younger ages relative to the larger clubs like Arlington, Loudoun and VDA with PWSI and VDA. McLean's alliance with SYC is a way for them to try to solve that problem. BRYC still has it. So you can say these are elite clubs until you are blue in the face, but most people on the boys side would say that is simply not true at all at older ages, and absolutely false at younger ages. Boys from VYS aren't going over to McLean/BRYC U9-12 if they can play top team at VYS, unless they are playing up in ECNL.

All of that said, VYS does nicely, and we were happy to have spent time there.