Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but this exact scenario has happened to us at Achilles. The focus there by the club owner has clearly been on his top team and players to the detriment of others - less training, fewer tournaments, no coaches at games, 06/07 training with the 08/09s. The younger kids are probably oblivious but the older kids are very aware of the message being sent. The other coaches are kind and skilled but are stretched too thin and don’t seem to have much input about how things are run. I know they want to develop the kids but there is a rather large morale issue right now that needs to be addressed. What good is all the training in the world if the joy of playing is slowly being crushed away?

Unfortunately, is highly unlikely that anything will be done to address the morale issue there.

Anonymous wrote:OP - What club? Shouldn't back at this point since they already sent you a clear message that they don't care about this team.

Has to be Achilles. The founder, Sal, is a major, Class A narcissist. He is only interested in a few of the EDP teams through which he is hoping to build his "brand". Despite paying the same amount of money (not cheap), the rest of the teams have started to get fewer/inferior practices.

The B teams all play Sam Select (not sure if other leagues would be better). Since the games all take place in one location (Soccerplex), one coach can cover them all, which is very cost effective. I must say that the training is very good, the location convenient for some, and the other coaches are great, but they have little say in operations. Because the B teams are so neglected there are few new players for certain age groups and they end up wilting on the vine.

To top it off, Sal feels no need or obligation to communicate with parents about what is really going on. His attitude is "I know best, take it or leave it" and has, in fact, very directly, stated as much in a number of emails to them. "Where else are they going to go?"

In summary, if OP was referring to an Achilles team, Sal does know about what happened but doesn't care. No way would he send out an email with an apology or make much of an effort to rectify things.

There are so many good options out there that you don’t need to put up with this. Do your kid a favor and find another club!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can coaches not show up for games?! Who coaches the games? I have never seen a coach not show up even in rec.

In our case, parents/team manager have done it several times.

How does this even work? Parents are ok with this?

No, no they’re not

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but this exact scenario has happened to us at Achilles. The focus there by the club owner has clearly been on his top team and players to the detriment of others - less training, fewer tournaments, no coaches at games, 06/07 training with the 08/09s. The younger kids are probably oblivious but the older kids are very aware of the message being sent. The other coaches are kind and skilled but are stretched too thin and don’t seem to have much input about how things are run. I know they want to develop the kids but there is a rather large morale issue right now that needs to be addressed. What good is all the training in the world if the joy of playing is slowly being crushed away?

Playing games without enough players rostered also happens too frequently at Achilles, so kids' love of the game also is being crushed by playing 1-2 players down with no subs. There's no excuse for this, there are plenty of players available. When it happens there's no acknowledgement or response from the club, or communication about how it will be prevented from happening again. The club simply doesn't care.

My son played an Achilles team that didn't have enough players this weekend. I felt bad for the boys as the team was very good. It must have been a frustrating situation for them.

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but this exact scenario has happened to us at Achilles. The focus there by the club owner has clearly been on his top team and players to the detriment of others - less training, fewer tournaments, no coaches at games, 06/07 training with the 08/09s. The younger kids are probably oblivious but the older kids are very aware of the message being sent. The other coaches are kind and skilled but are stretched too thin and don’t seem to have much input about how things are run. I know they want to develop the kids but there is a rather large morale issue right now that needs to be addressed. What good is all the training in the world if the joy of playing is slowly being crushed away?

Playing games without enough players rostered also happens too frequently at Achilles, so kids' love of the game also is being crushed by playing 1-2 players down with no subs. There's no excuse for this, there are plenty of players available. When it happens there's no acknowledgement or response from the club, or communication about how it will be prevented from happening again. The club simply doesn't care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can coaches not show up for games?! Who coaches the games? I have never seen a coach not show up even in rec.

In our case, parents/team manager have done it several times.

How does this even work? Parents are ok with this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - has this kind of thing been going on all season? I agree with PPs, but it’s even more egregious if it’s not the first time it has happened.

OP here- as far as I remember it hasn’t happened other times this spring but there have been other matches in the fall and in prior years where the team manager had to step in and coach. B team also only gets 2 practices per week (vs A team 3) despite the fact that most kids on the team are committed players.

This is ridiculous for a coach to not show up once, let alone multiple times for the same team in the same year. Your family is just $$$$ to them.

Anonymous wrote:How can coaches not show up for games?! Who coaches the games? I have never seen a coach not show up even in rec.

In our case, parents/team manager have done it several times.

How can coaches not show up for games?! Who coaches the games? I have never seen a coach not show up even in rec.

Not OP, but this exact scenario has happened to us at Achilles. The focus there by the club owner has clearly been on his top team and players to the detriment of others - less training, fewer tournaments, no coaches at games, 06/07 training with the 08/09s. The younger kids are probably oblivious but the older kids are very aware of the message being sent. The other coaches are kind and skilled but are stretched too thin and don’t seem to have much input about how things are run. I know they want to develop the kids but there is a rather large morale issue right now that needs to be addressed. What good is all the training in the world if the joy of playing is slowly being crushed away?

OP - What club? Shouldn't back at this point since they already sent you a clear message that they don't care about this team.

This is pretty shocking. I wouldn't remain for one more day if that happened at my club. Time to move on. Also, do us all a favor and name the club so the rest of us can avoid.

OP, let me guess- no apologies from the coach(es) either? Insofar as this particular incident goes, it seems like much of this could’ve been smoothed over by an email to the parents and a chat with the kids at a practice where the coach says he’s sorry (oh the horror) and he’ll do his best not to have it happen again. To a PP’s point, people skills! Now, if you didn’t get an apology and I’m assuming you’ve heard nothing, because that’s usually how these things go, it’s probably safe for YOU to assume that this club really doesn’t give a hoot about your kid. You said this isn’t the first time it has happened either, and that your kid is getting less training than some of the others.. Do you want your kid in this environment? Do you want to give this club thousands of dollars? For me the answer is pretty simple - leave and don’t look back.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Never have been a fan of the "academy style". I think "academy style" is marketing for small clubs that want to have multiple teams without losing your 'B' players. They know exactly who they plan on playing on A and B on day 1. However, they string the B families along by giving them hope of making the 'A' team at some point. Let me tell you, there maybe 1 kid from the 'B' team that shifts to 'A' because someone is sick or someone on 'A' is struggling. Concept sounds good but it sucks to be on 'B' end. Don't expect much movement.

If the academy style was run as advertised, it would be a lot better.
My experience is that its a lie designed to suck people in with the promise of playing on better team if your child performs better, however, that rarely happens.

The basic math of the academy style doesn't work. There have to be the same number of kids moving up as moving down. The premise is that everyone is above average.

We didn’t choose academy style for the possibility of moving up. We just wanted the same quality coaching and training the A team got. Personally, I had no illusions about the (in)frequency kids get invited to play up with another team. Plus, I think scrimmaging with the ‘better’ player in small side games at practice is much more valuable than the (likely) few minutes a kid playing up in a game would get on the field. But our club changed practices and there is one academy style practice for the A teams, and one for everyone else. For that set up, I agree cons of academy our weight pros.

Not sure how you protect against something like we experienced. We asked all the questions, got all the commitments in writing. People are leaving my club in droves so it will catch up with them. The club won’t care about losing all the kids but will miss the $$ they provide because they won’t be able to enter their favored teams in a zillion tournaments like they did this year (paid for by kids they have made clear they don’t give a crap about).

BRYC?