Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A one year commitment by a player only means something if the club gives a commitment in return that the roster is fixed and they won't add players. But all programs add players anytime they think they can upgrade their roster (look at Next Level 2026, for example), and in the same vein, players will upgrade they spot an opportunity to join a better team. I have nothing against VLC, in fact my son is on one of their older teams and is having a good experience. But players come and go all the time, and you are mistaken if you think anybody (team or player) cares about the one year commitment.

And that is a shame. We should do better.

The club or the player? It's a two way street, stop trying to shame kids. Long gone are the days when the coach/club is always right and kids don't know what's best.

Anonymous wrote:It would be easy to do better if clubs would make a commitment to families not to add players or increase the roster size at any time besides August. If a player did leave for whatever reason, then the club could hold a tryout or somehow fill that one spot, but otherwise no additions.

But the clubs that preach "one tryout per year" and "one year commitment" continue to add players all year long. I am not a fan of MadLax, but at least they are honest about their policy - "anytime we can find a player better than your son, from anywhere in the country, your son will be on the bench or on DMV in two seconds. and your son is free to jump to another program any time he likes." Why can't VLC and Next Level be honest about it too?

Madlax is not like you described. It has been documented multiple times that top players who left mid season or didn’t return were verbally abused/bullied by ML owner.

It would be easy to do better if clubs would make a commitment to families not to add players or increase the roster size at any time besides August. If a player did leave for whatever reason, then the club could hold a tryout or somehow fill that one spot, but otherwise no additions.

But the clubs that preach "one tryout per year" and "one year commitment" continue to add players all year long. I am not a fan of MadLax, but at least they are honest about their policy - "anytime we can find a player better than your son, from anywhere in the country, your son will be on the bench or on DMV in two seconds. and your son is free to jump to another program any time he likes." Why can't VLC and Next Level be honest about it too?

Anonymous wrote:A one year commitment by a player only means something if the club gives a commitment in return that the roster is fixed and they won't add players. But all programs add players anytime they think they can upgrade their roster (look at Next Level 2026, for example), and in the same vein, players will upgrade they spot an opportunity to join a better team. I have nothing against VLC, in fact my son is on one of their older teams and is having a good experience. But players come and go all the time, and you are mistaken if you think anybody (team or player) cares about the one year commitment.

And that is a shame. We should do better.

A one year commitment by a player only means something if the club gives a commitment in return that the roster is fixed and they won't add players. But all programs add players anytime they think they can upgrade their roster (look at Next Level 2026, for example), and in the same vein, players will upgrade they spot an opportunity to join a better team. I have nothing against VLC, in fact my son is on one of their older teams and is having a good experience. But players come and go all the time, and you are mistaken if you think anybody (team or player) cares about the one year commitment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing from other parents that people are leaving the 2028 team.. So who knows if they will fall off like the 2027 team..

Why do parents think leaving a team mid-year will make things better? All you are teaching the kids is how to be spoiled and quit.

Every team is different and every situation is different. There are good reasons and bad reasons to leave a team.

I don't know much about the 2028 team, but if VLC does lose two classes in a row, the program may have a limited shelf life after the 2026 class.

I agree there are plenty of reasons to leave a team. I think the issue here is really is there a good reason to leave a team mid-season? VLC asks for a year long commitment and only holds tryouts once a year. So leaving now should be considered mid-stream. The only good reasons I can see to leave a team mid-season would be a documented abusive coach or change in family situation (moving, family emergency, etc.).
Any other reason is a bad reason. Just because you think the team should be more or less competitive, has a bad run of form, or you are upset about playing time is not a reason to leave. Teach the boys to work through adversity. Anyone who thinks that leaving midseason to another club because of those reasons won't be happy at the new club either.
You don't have to be loyal to the club to a fault. But honor your commitment. Then tryout for another club during tryout season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing from other parents that people are leaving the 2028 team.. So who knows if they will fall off like the 2027 team..

Why do parents think leaving a team mid-year will make things better? All you are teaching the kids is how to be spoiled and quit.

Every team is different and every situation is different. There are good reasons and bad reasons to leave a team.

I don't know much about the 2028 team, but if VLC does lose two classes in a row, the program may have a limited shelf life after the 2026 class.

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing from other parents that people are leaving the 2028 team.. So who knows if they will fall off like the 2027 team..

Why do parents think leaving a team mid-year will make things better? All you are teaching the kids is how to be spoiled and quit.

Wouldn't be a huge surprise.

I am hearing from other parents that people are leaving the 2028 team.. So who knows if they will fall off like the 2027 team..

Anonymous wrote:Is there a team in the DMv that focuses on player development rather than rankings? It seems to me to make a kid a better player you need three things
1 good coaching.
2 sufficient practice time
3. Appropriate competition.

With kids, jumping from team to team (or even worse being pushed out of teams) the teams might be getting better, but it doesn’t seem like it does anything for the kids development. There’s gotta be a way to fix the system.

There is one with amazing coaches but it's right now listed as not one of the top teams so I won't name it here, but the coaches are outstanding.

Anonymous wrote:This is a bullsh*t sport

Thank you for your helpful input. It's really turned me around.

Why no 27s? Three Head Coaches in less than a year, and the quality of the last 2 just went down hill. No communication from the club, just some dude shows up to practice saying he is the new HC.

Players wanted to go somewhere where they were appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:Is VLC a dying brand? There seems like there should be a place for the talented but not insane nova eighth grader

I don’t know whether it’s a dying brand or not. Based on where they pull kids it should be growing even more. The other clubs are all competing for the same boys but VLC should be able to use their location to grow. I still don’t have understand why they don’t have a 27 team. Perhaps that’s just a down year overall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flawed argument above, Let’s take Norway for example, when you talk about being competitive I am assuming you are talking about their skiing related sports in the Winter Olympics. Skiing was invented in Norway (look up the Norwegian city of Ski and Telemark). Norwegians spend the vast majority of their time skiing. With 4 million people constantly skiing you are going to produce gold medal athletes. Norwegians also play basketball but not as the same intensity as you would see in the US. It’s about where people put their time and effort.

Right the argument relies solely on winter sports in Norway, not their performance in soccer, or the Dutch in track and field and soccer, or the Aussies in everything. I’m shocked you missed the actual point that strong coaching writ large, focused on developing strong fundamentals while cultivating love of sport is the key predictor for later athletic success as opposed to a provincial perspective on a tiny, affluent youth population in a subregion. Shocked!

Norway is not known for its soccer prowess, you might be confusing them with Brazil or Argentina?