FWIW, I'm the OP, and I wasn't talking about Bethesda.And had no intention of bringing names into the thread. But guess the issue is wider than imagined. And where there's smoke there's probably fire.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

Who is doing the “luring” in this scenario? And lol re “the bait”. You are describing a situation where the most talented kids who train with NextStar end up with playing time on top teams, which leads ambitious parents to think maybe their kid will get to that level if only they put in enough hours doing the same private training. NextStar didn’t make you pay them the money and your kid can progress well on his own if he’s talented and puts in the hours.

I generally agree with OP’s point re the conflict of interest, especially if you are talking about coaches that work only or mostly with their current club players. That’s pretty much always a disaster for team morale. I don’t think it’s much of an issue where you are talking about a company like NextStar or some of the other big training programs in the area. For NextStar, hundreds of kids of all ages are doing those sessions, most of whom will never be eligible to play on the one or two teams PG coaches, and PT doesn’t coach any club teams as far as I know. PG has decades of history of spotting talented kids in our area and nurturing their talents, and has done so regardless of their parent’s ability to pay. A large percentage of men and women who have gone pro from our area were trained by him, and his pro and college protégés always train with him when they are free. The fact that he’s finally working in a structure that hopefully pays him decent money is a good thing for the level of soccer in the area.

Most NS clients are Bethesda players or trying to join Bethesda.
Where are these sessions with "hundreds of kids" kept?
Many NS most talented players are already on top Bethesda teams.
Anyone putting in quality extra work anywhere will improve.
No one mentioned the quality of the sessions being bad.
Isn't it a conflict of interest that the club Bethesda allows a private for profit entity to use their training fields for a Bethesda coach to do private training for some kids on his team?

An earlier poster mentioned appearance of impropriety or quid pro quo.
Bethesda allows Bethesda coach to make private money training some Bethesda kids who move up their age group ranks while parents who do not pay to train with him see their kids do not advance.

This post is kind of wild, to be honest.

There is no quid-pro-quo with PG. He's gonna play the kids on his team that give them the best chance to win, while rotating others to develop them.
Where are all these "wannabe BSC players" you mention? As a Bethesda parent, I wish we had more kids who put in the extra work trying to join the club.
At any given NS session, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the kids are not Bethesda. Kids come from Northern VA and DC and elsewhere in MD. And that's not even including summers/winters/etc., where there is an even greater non-Bethesda turn out.
The quality of the sessions is very good, btw.
Also, whoever posted about NS "using BSC fields" is wilding out. Bethesda uses the same old crappy school fields that others around here have to use (besides Soccerplex occasionally, which NS does not use). Neither Bethesda nor NS have the luxury of a St. Johns, or a St. James, or even Julius West.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think several area clubs prohibit this. For example, Mclean coaches may not privately coach ANY MYS player (regardless of year or team) in exchange for a fee or any other form of gift or compensation. Also MYS coaches may not provide private coaching to any player who is attempting or planning to join MYS. This is in their policies which are posted online. I think Arlington too?

I know many MYS Travel coaches who do private training on the side. Where does it say it's illegal?

No one said it is or should be illegal here or anywhere else.

Someone said it was against their policies. Not illegal.

https://mcleansoccer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/MYS-Policy-113-Coach-Code-of-Conduct.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think several area clubs prohibit this. For example, Mclean coaches may not privately coach ANY MYS player (regardless of year or team) in exchange for a fee or any other form of gift or compensation. Also MYS coaches may not provide private coaching to any player who is attempting or planning to join MYS. This is in their policies which are posted online. I think Arlington too?

I know many MYS Travel coaches who do private training on the side. Where does it say it's illegal?

No one said it is or should be illegal here or anywhere else.

Anonymous wrote:I think several area clubs prohibit this. For example, Mclean coaches may not privately coach ANY MYS player (regardless of year or team) in exchange for a fee or any other form of gift or compensation. Also MYS coaches may not provide private coaching to any player who is attempting or planning to join MYS. This is in their policies which are posted online. I think Arlington too?

I know many MYS Travel coaches who do private training on the side. Where does it say it's illegal?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

Who is doing the “luring” in this scenario? And lol re “the bait”. You are describing a situation where the most talented kids who train with NextStar end up with playing time on top teams, which leads ambitious parents to think maybe their kid will get to that level if only they put in enough hours doing the same private training. NextStar didn’t make you pay them the money and your kid can progress well on his own if he’s talented and puts in the hours.

I generally agree with OP’s point re the conflict of interest, especially if you are talking about coaches that work only or mostly with their current club players. That’s pretty much always a disaster for team morale. I don’t think it’s much of an issue where you are talking about a company like NextStar or some of the other big training programs in the area. For NextStar, hundreds of kids of all ages are doing those sessions, most of whom will never be eligible to play on the one or two teams PG coaches, and PT doesn’t coach any club teams as far as I know. PG has decades of history of spotting talented kids in our area and nurturing their talents, and has done so regardless of their parent’s ability to pay. A large percentage of men and women who have gone pro from our area were trained by him, and his pro and college protégés always train with him when they are free. The fact that he’s finally working in a structure that hopefully pays him decent money is a good thing for the level of soccer in the area.

Most NS clients are Bethesda players or trying to join Bethesda.
Where are these sessions with "hundreds of kids" kept?
Many NS most talented players are already on top Bethesda teams.
Anyone putting in quality extra work anywhere will improve.
No one mentioned the quality of the sessions being bad.
Isn't it a conflict of interest that the club Bethesda allows a private for profit entity to use their training fields for a Bethesda coach to do private training for some kids on his team?

An earlier poster mentioned appearance of impropriety or quid pro quo.
Bethesda allows Bethesda coach to make private money training some Bethesda kids who move up their age group ranks while parents who do not pay to train with him see their kids do not advance.

I’m not sure it matters that most NextStar clients are BSC or BSC wannabe kids. The vast majority of them will never have a shot of playing for PG at BSC because they are not age- or gender- eligible for the teams or team (not sure if he coaches more than one) he coaches. And there are a lot of non-BSC players who train with them, including pro and college kids and kids who play for other MLS Next clubs.

There are obviously not sessions with hundreds of kids, but I expect that 100+ different kids attend at least a couple of group sessions with them each year.

I’m not sure why it’s a problem for NextStar to use Wootton when the fields are unoccupied. Other groups not affiliated with BSC or NextStar do as well. I’ve seen any number of American football and speed and agility trainings take place there. And every private trainer is going to set up camp wherever they can.

I understand the conflict of interest argument. I do not actually think there is any quid pro quo happening with NextStar. Most kids who train with them will not end up on top teams. And all of BSC’s top teams have kids who don’t train with NextStar. PG is not going to advocate for any kid he doesn’t think is talented, and if you know him, you’d know that he has trained a lot of very talented kids in this area for free. Other trainers or programs probably have more problematic practices.

The issue is a tricky one, though, because the best private trainers are really important for kid’s’ development. Yes, you have to put the work in on your own, but it’s obviously beneficial to have as much exposure as possible to the handful of coaches and trainers who know exactly what they are doing and have the ability to inspire kids to work harder. Clubs and kids benefit from the extra development.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

Who is doing the “luring” in this scenario? And lol re “the bait”. You are describing a situation where the most talented kids who train with NextStar end up with playing time on top teams, which leads ambitious parents to think maybe their kid will get to that level if only they put in enough hours doing the same private training. NextStar didn’t make you pay them the money and your kid can progress well on his own if he’s talented and puts in the hours.

I generally agree with OP’s point re the conflict of interest, especially if you are talking about coaches that work only or mostly with their current club players. That’s pretty much always a disaster for team morale. I don’t think it’s much of an issue where you are talking about a company like NextStar or some of the other big training programs in the area. For NextStar, hundreds of kids of all ages are doing those sessions, most of whom will never be eligible to play on the one or two teams PG coaches, and PT doesn’t coach any club teams as far as I know. PG has decades of history of spotting talented kids in our area and nurturing their talents, and has done so regardless of their parent’s ability to pay. A large percentage of men and women who have gone pro from our area were trained by him, and his pro and college protégés always train with him when they are free. The fact that he’s finally working in a structure that hopefully pays him decent money is a good thing for the level of soccer in the area.

Most NS clients are Bethesda players or trying to join Bethesda.
Where are these sessions with "hundreds of kids" kept?
Many NS most talented players are already on top Bethesda teams.
Anyone putting in quality extra work anywhere will improve.
No one mentioned the quality of the sessions being bad.
Isn't it a conflict of interest that the club Bethesda allows a private for profit entity to use their training fields for a Bethesda coach to do private training for some kids on his team?

An earlier poster mentioned appearance of impropriety or quid pro quo.
Bethesda allows Bethesda coach to make private money training some Bethesda kids who move up their age group ranks while parents who do not pay to train with him see their kids do not advance.

Almost all coaches at FCGB do this. You will see one family that has multiple children trained under their head coach and those children are their social media mascots

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

Who is doing the “luring” in this scenario? And lol re “the bait”. You are describing a situation where the most talented kids who train with NextStar end up with playing time on top teams, which leads ambitious parents to think maybe their kid will get to that level if only they put in enough hours doing the same private training. NextStar didn’t make you pay them the money and your kid can progress well on his own if he’s talented and puts in the hours.

I generally agree with OP’s point re the conflict of interest, especially if you are talking about coaches that work only or mostly with their current club players. That’s pretty much always a disaster for team morale. I don’t think it’s much of an issue where you are talking about a company like NextStar or some of the other big training programs in the area. For NextStar, hundreds of kids of all ages are doing those sessions, most of whom will never be eligible to play on the one or two teams PG coaches, and PT doesn’t coach any club teams as far as I know. PG has decades of history of spotting talented kids in our area and nurturing their talents, and has done so regardless of their parent’s ability to pay. A large percentage of men and women who have gone pro from our area were trained by him, and his pro and college protégés always train with him when they are free. The fact that he’s finally working in a structure that hopefully pays him decent money is a good thing for the level of soccer in the area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

I am the PP and that is a cynical take but I don’t know enough about the other families/kids to actually disagree. We are not a BSC family and not trying to be but my kids thought the training was very good, intense and serious. That’s kind of my point, a kid that can keep up at that training or are motivated to seek that kind of training is more than likely going to play better - prob not all favoritism. But I suppose the latter can’t be helped if you’ve seen a kid more often than others bc of private training.

Anonymous wrote:Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.

A few kids at NextStar are "quite good" and would be quite good with or without NS.
They are the bait.

The rest are lured to drop big bucks on the false premise that they will get a leg up and access and rostered to top age group teams at Bethesda.
Especially MLS Next teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it a conflict of interest to have players do private trainings with their current coach outside of the club structure for additional payment? There is a coach for a Maryland club who does individual trainings with his current players for a fee. Those players then get more playing time than those who do not do private trainings. How is this allowed?

Devil's Advocate:
1 What interests specifically are being conflicted?
2 If you didn't know about the private training, would those players be playing more time because they're better?
3 Is it written in your club bylaws and agreement that this is not allowed?

It reeks to high heaven and in any other industry it would be banned or at the very least frowned upon. It is accepted as common because this US Youth Soccer landscape currently where parents are hive-minded, suffer from severe FOMO, are ignorant, and have deep pockets thus huckster coaches and clubs capitalize.

Your Honor, the witness has failed to answer the questions. I move to have the charges dropped and case dismissed.
Let the poor coach earn a living.

Yes, let us all shed a tear for the poor coach that does not GAF about your kid and views you as a sucker and a mark. Carry on.

Well that took an aggressively angry turn quickly.

Whatever you say champ. Tone over substance. You do you.

Next time try including some substance.

similar to your troll comebacks?

Quit the league and join a league with better coaches

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it a conflict of interest to have players do private trainings with their current coach outside of the club structure for additional payment? There is a coach for a Maryland club who does individual trainings with his current players for a fee. Those players then get more playing time than those who do not do private trainings. How is this allowed?

Devil's Advocate:
1 What interests specifically are being conflicted?
2 If you didn't know about the private training, would those players be playing more time because they're better?
3 Is it written in your club bylaws and agreement that this is not allowed?

It reeks to high heaven and in any other industry it would be banned or at the very least frowned upon. It is accepted as common because this US Youth Soccer landscape currently where parents are hive-minded, suffer from severe FOMO, are ignorant, and have deep pockets thus huckster coaches and clubs capitalize.

Your Honor, the witness has failed to answer the questions. I move to have the charges dropped and case dismissed.
Let the poor coach earn a living.

Yes, let us all shed a tear for the poor coach that does not GAF about your kid and views you as a sucker and a mark. Carry on.

Well that took an aggressively angry turn quickly.

Whatever you say champ. Tone over substance. You do you.

Next time try including some substance.

Philip Gyau coaches at BSC and privately at NextStar. Does he favor players? Most kids who train with NextStar are already quite good and super motivated so I assume that gets them playing time.