Anonymous wrote:2013 gold boys played 2013 white boys for their championship game.

seriously they could have done that in a scrimmage on a thursday

Lol! Did they post about that on instagram?

Anonymous wrote:2013 gold boys played 2013 white boys for their championship game.

seriously they could have done that in a scrimmage on a thursday

While this one tournament was not ideal, the kids were able to enjoy Busch Gardens, which lasts a lot longer.

2013 gold boys played 2013 white boys for their championship game.

seriously they could have done that in a scrimmage on a thursday

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Anonymous wrote:They sent their top teams to that low level Williamsburg Columbus day tournament and then bragged that they won? Are you serious?

If you want a laugh you can go see the 20+ individual brag posts over a single day on Instagram from all their champions and finalists!

Yikes. I am second hand cringing over here looking at that. Congrats on beating out...your own club's second team .

Anonymous wrote:They sent their top teams to that low level Williamsburg Columbus day tournament and then bragged that they won? Are you serious?

If you want a laugh you can go see the 20+ individual brag posts over a single day on Instagram from all their champions and finalists!

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine driving all the way to Williamsburg and spending money on travel, hotel, time you could be doing other things, to play in the same bracket as the team you scrimmage three times a week at practice? What a ripoff.

Exactly. At least do that ridiculousness at local tournaments to save on travel costs. Valor tried it again at Richmond in November; but it didn't go as well since, shocker, it wasn't all rec travel teams no one has ever heard of/played. Lol why do they keep putting their first and second teams in the same divisions?

Can you imagine driving all the way to Williamsburg and spending money on travel, hotel, time you could be doing other things, to play in the same bracket as the team you scrimmage three times a week at practice? What a ripoff.

Anonymous wrote:They sent their top teams to that low level Williamsburg Columbus day tournament and then bragged that they won? Are you serious?

Even had some brackets with their first and second teams in the same bracket playing against very low level clubs. That doesn't even make sense. If its the correct bracket for the second team, its the wrong level for the first team.

They sent their top teams to that low level Williamsburg Columbus day tournament and then bragged that they won? Are you serious?

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was common knowledge that the williamsburg tournament was for lower/developmental teams.

Not really among most parents especially u-little parents. Sometimes they don't even understand that the "purple" team is higher than the "green" team their kid is on.

I thought it was common knowledge that the williamsburg tournament was for lower/developmental teams.

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Anonymous wrote:The 2011s are top 20 in the nation, got second in state cup….what are you talking about

Really? Top 20 in the nation for a U13 team? Let's get real folks. Let's get something straight, top teams aren't doing state cup and got soccer points is a joke. Be happy your kid is doing well and having fun, but take your top 20 comment and quietly go home before you are laughed out.

I agree that the 2011s are a solid team but they compete against the second teams from bigger clubs. There were/are 2 VA state cups - one for ECNL teams and another for non-ECNL teams. Despite playing in pre-ECNL last year, Valor competed in the non-ECNL state cup, beating second teams on the way to the finals. Cool for them, but it doesn’t make them a Top 20 team in the country.

They do this all the time with the younger ages as well it seems. Play down in tournaments they can stack with their teams to just show wins against teams they have no business playing against. The club just wants wins so parents are happy and they can post about it on social media and not actually getting the kids real experience against top (or even second teams let's be honest) teams.

I've had to explain this to potential and new travel parents with elementary aged kids who don't know any better and think Valor is really good just from looking at their social media showing how much they win vs other clubs' social media.

That is actually not remotely accurate. Speaking for Girls, younger teams have been playing in a variety of tournaments. Some quite competitive and others that are not. The ones that were not as competitive had the teams playing in the top groups, but the competition was not there. The purpose of play in these tourneys was to get other competition and not just play NOVA teams. In other tournaments, Valor wanted to play in the top but for some reason was not placed there (new club, tournament sandbagging, etc.?). For mid age groups, a lot of times they are placed further down because of ECNL-RL vs ECNL/ GA. Again, not a club decision, just how all of this plays out.

Going to Williamsburg with a ton of first and second teams this fall to basically clean sweep a whole tournament against mostly subpar/unranked teams was definitely just for extra games and not to post hour after hour a picture of each team that won our got finalist for two days straight, right?

It was good PR. People definitely took notice and talked so I guess it was worth it....? No one misranked them in tournaments. More more than once they obviously at least try to set up a champion and finalist situation for each age group instead of breaking up the teams into different divisions at tournaments unlike everyone else.

For the record we love our new club but that wasn’t the question in this post. So not all of us only have bad things to say.

My kids are thriving under new coaches. We pulled both out of valor and decided to put the kids in two different clubs. So we have done a complete season with them and I can say I am pleasantly surprised. I think most valor parents and kids would be surprised to know that there are actually coaches and clubs that want more than just money.

Do they scrimmage like they did with valor? No, majority of the practices are spent working on individual skills and then incorporating them into 2v2 and then eventually a short scrimmage. Imagine that a practice with a coach that likes his job, likes teaching children, and doesn’t just stand on a field like a blob looking at a clipboard.

Neither one of my children ever came home from any practice tired. They barely moved on the field valor. They are now coming off hungry and exhausted.


To each their own but when I talk to the parents of my kids old team mates no one sounds content and I know at least 4 families that will be joining other teams next year.

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Anonymous wrote:The 2011s are top 20 in the nation, got second in state cup….what are you talking about

Valor's 2011G top team isn't bad but they're not top 20 in the nation. GotSport rankings are meaningless, they don't account for regular season play and the points are skewed.

Top 10 in the state for sure, and with some more pieces or time I'm sure they could be very competitive.

But their coach just left for SYC and will probably take a few girls with him.

The 2011 girls gold coach just quit mid-year? RQ?

Likely will finish out the year and next year will be at SYC. With how these ID's are done so early, staff changes also get announced mid year. Stupid system.

All those hopeful/delusional 2nd and 3rd team families, thinking that all the departing good players to SYC with the coach will mean their kids will get to move up after tryouts.

yea its kinda sad. Cuz thats definitely not happening. This has to be easily the most chaottic season n memory

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Anonymous wrote:The 2011s are top 20 in the nation, got second in state cup….what are you talking about

Really? Top 20 in the nation for a U13 team? Let's get real folks. Let's get something straight, top teams aren't doing state cup and got soccer points is a joke. Be happy your kid is doing well and having fun, but take your top 20 comment and quietly go home before you are laughed out.

I agree that the 2011s are a solid team but they compete against the second teams from bigger clubs. There were/are 2 VA state cups - one for ECNL teams and another for non-ECNL teams. Despite playing in pre-ECNL last year, Valor competed in the non-ECNL state cup, beating second teams on the way to the finals. Cool for them, but it doesn’t make them a Top 20 team in the country.

They do this all the time with the younger ages as well it seems. Play down in tournaments they can stack with their teams to just show wins against teams they have no business playing against. The club just wants wins so parents are happy and they can post about it on social media and not actually getting the kids real experience against top (or even second teams let's be honest) teams.

I've had to explain this to potential and new travel parents with elementary aged kids who don't know any better and think Valor is really good just from looking at their social media showing how much they win vs other clubs' social media.

That is actually not remotely accurate. Speaking for Girls, younger teams have been playing in a variety of tournaments. Some quite competitive and others that are not. The ones that were not as competitive had the teams playing in the top groups, but the competition was not there. The purpose of play in these tourneys was to get other competition and not just play NOVA teams. In other tournaments, Valor wanted to play in the top but for some reason was not placed there (new club, tournament sandbagging, etc.?). For mid age groups, a lot of times they are placed further down because of ECNL-RL vs ECNL/ GA. Again, not a club decision, just how all of this plays out.

Do you work for Valor?

Only one of the overpaid club admins would be jumping in anonymously with this level of detail LOL!