Anonymous
02/19/2025 09:08
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So last year ECNL forced the Mclean union to combine with BRAVE. Turns out they overplayed their hand and drove Mclean to GA. Now with Loudoun about to do the same, ECNL managed to diminish their footprint in NoVa and allowed a competitor to move in. It might take a couple more years but in no way does this help ECNL. Of course the fanboys will try to spin it that way (fewer watered down teams means better teams!) but ECNL doesn’t want this.
My conclusion:
2012 or younger go GA
2011 or older stick with ECNL
I'd say that's a very accurate assumption. i'd even venture to say that 2011s are in that tweener stage - they're kind of in a great spot to wait and see what happens in the next 12~18 months before they make a choice going into their prime recruiting years. High aged girls (2010s and up) should stay ECNL nothing is really going to change in the next ~18 months.
So for the 12's, you think NVA players stay for GA while Union and Arlington players leave for GA? I don't think you've thought this through outside of your GA-loving lens.
i think no one knows what is going to happen over the next 2 years and people need to keep their minds open
Anonymous
02/19/2025 09:02
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Theres nothing special about McLean girls its what can a core group with mommy and daddy's money. Is there a former player or professional athlete offspring in the mix who understand daily training benefits for comfort on the ball. All you need is a lot of money and 2-3 families who actually know how to indentify an elite trainer/coach. Thats how you get the team that can compete nationally - 09 + 10 VDA, 11 Arlington for example. Those parents are wealthy and invested. McLean always has the chance for the recipe and it happend in 2013, lets see if that teams goes to GA or not.
Except you’re trying to cope and not doing a good job at it. The bolded is a reason why leesburg has another club. difference is mclean actually does have a (proven) track record, including college commits and national appearances. newest Leesburg club are so poor all they got is money
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:56
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Theres nothing special about McLean girls its what can a core group with mommy and daddy's money. Is there a former player or professional athlete offspring in the mix who understand daily training benefits for comfort on the ball. All you need is a lot of money and 2-3 families who actually know how to indentify an elite trainer/coach. Thats how you get the team that can compete nationally - 09 + 10 VDA, 11 Arlington for example. Those parents are wealthy and invested. McLean always has the chance for the recipe and it happend in 2013, lets see if that teams goes to GA or not.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:56
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Did a lot of Mclean kids stay with FVU? I thought a lot of them went elsewhere last year.
McLean has not been that great placing girls on Union teams for some time now, 2013s would be a return to the glory days. Too bad they will all play at Arlington now LAMO!
I would bet they didn't get mclean girls on union teams because they didn't have any say. I think that's why they are leaving the alliance.
I didn't realize that McLean was such a hotbed for athletic talent.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:55
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So last year ECNL forced the Mclean union to combine with BRAVE. Turns out they overplayed their hand and drove Mclean to GA. Now with Loudoun about to do the same, ECNL managed to diminish their footprint in NoVa and allowed a competitor to move in. It might take a couple more years but in no way does this help ECNL. Of course the fanboys will try to spin it that way (fewer watered down teams means better teams!) but ECNL doesn’t want this.
My conclusion:
2012 or younger go GA
2011 or older stick with ECNL
I'd say that's a very accurate assumption. i'd even venture to say that 2011s are in that tweener stage - they're kind of in a great spot to wait and see what happens in the next 12~18 months before they make a choice going into their prime recruiting years. High aged girls (2010s and up) should stay ECNL nothing is really going to change in the next ~18 months.
So for the 12's, you think NVA players stay for GA while Union and Arlington players leave for GA? I don't think you've thought this through outside of your GA-loving lens.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:46
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Did a lot of Mclean kids stay with FVU? I thought a lot of them went elsewhere last year.
McLean has not been that great placing girls on Union teams for some time now, 2013s would be a return to the glory days. Too bad they will all play at Arlington now LAMO!
I would bet they didn't get mclean girls on union teams because they didn't have any say. I think that's why they are leaving the alliance.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:45
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So last year ECNL forced the Mclean union to combine with BRAVE. Turns out they overplayed their hand and drove Mclean to GA. Now with Loudoun about to do the same, ECNL managed to diminish their footprint in NoVa and allowed a competitor to move in. It might take a couple more years but in no way does this help ECNL. Of course the fanboys will try to spin it that way (fewer watered down teams means better teams!) but ECNL doesn’t want this.
My conclusion:
2012 or younger go GA
2011 or older stick with ECNL
I'd say that's a very accurate assumption. i'd even venture to say that 2011s are in that tweener stage - they're kind of in a great spot to wait and see what happens in the next 12~18 months before they make a choice going into their prime recruiting years. High aged girls (2010s and up) should stay ECNL nothing is really going to change in the next ~18 months.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:41
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Did a lot of Mclean kids stay with FVU? I thought a lot of them went elsewhere last year.
McLean has not been that great placing girls on Union teams for some time now, 2013s would be a return to the glory days. Too bad they will all play at Arlington now LAMO!
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:38
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:So last year ECNL forced the Mclean union to combine with BRAVE. Turns out they overplayed their hand and drove Mclean to GA. Now with Loudoun about to do the same, ECNL managed to diminish their footprint in NoVa and allowed a competitor to move in. It might take a couple more years but in no way does this help ECNL. Of course the fanboys will try to spin it that way (fewer watered down teams means better teams!) but ECNL doesn’t want this.
Yeah but competitve parents want this because they want DD in SD playing in front of scouts. Parents drive the market not the leagues. As a GA parent one can feel one of two ways about this.
1. GA brand is thriving and overaking ECNL this is the place to be now and for the long haul
2. GA has taken a large piece of the market but it's still second to ECNL in the DMV which makes playing for VDA, Arlington, Bethesda or even Maryland Utd a better option than slumming it in GA until NWSL starts poaching players of course.
My conclusion:
2012 or younger go GA
2011 or older stick with ECNL
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:31
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:
The communication from MYS to families with players on these teams has been underwhelming at best and very disappointing to not have sufficient information to answer really basic questions.
I don't disagree, but maybe give them a break. It's been less than 24 hours, and I'm sure they had to push up the public announcement as the news started leaking. If you've got questions, ask them.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:27
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:What does all of this mean for the other McLean Teams (white and gold?) Are they impacted in all these sweeping changes?
The current white (2nd teams) will presumably play Aspire and gold will stay where they are (NCSL?). I know the MYS email said that Green would be Aspire, but I can't imagine that the club is going to attract a whole new roster at every age group to play GA. I suspect most of the players on green/RL teams will end up on the GA team.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:15
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What does all of this mean for the other McLean Teams (white and gold?) Are they impacted in all these sweeping changes?
Best kids will go GA
2nd best kids will go GA2
3rd best kids DPL or other league
The communication from MYS to families with players on these teams has been underwhelming at best and very disappointing to not have sufficient information to answer really basic questions.
If you thought the MYS communication was bad, you should have seen the FVU communication. We have kids in FVU and MYS and our coach at MYS received something from the club before it was sent. My understanding is that the FVU coaches were blindsided.
The FVU email was talking about rec soccer and core values. Also selling us on BRYC and VYS. It was kind of cryptic. This will just be Brave 2.0 unless CW, NM, ML, JA and BL are involved. Coaching slate please?!
You really think that the coaches didn’t know about this and were blindsided when practically half of youth soccer knew?
No one cares about the club or feeder systems or the philosophy. They care who the coaches will be which should have been in the email. They couldn’t even say the current coaching staff will largely be intact.
Of course they couldn’t, coaches are weighing their options like everyone else. We saw on the boys side of McLean last year that management isn’t super forthcoming. I’m sure they have questions for McLean and FVU. I bet they want to see how parents react if the teams will break up. I assume they’ve been given a deadline by FVU and then if people leave they have to find replacements.
No one can even figure out McLeans statement, I don’t think the coaches were blindsided but I bet they have questions too.
You want answers now I get it, but all you can do is sign up for tryouts where you are interested and wait for all the pieces to fall into place
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:10
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it is safe to say that FVU, who has now scrubbed McLean from their website and only list Vienna and BRYC will have Vienna and BRYC coaches. FVU already had WAY too many coaches, one team, three teams worth of coaches. Why would they show loyalty to the McLean coaches? The Vienna and BRYC coaches and admin will protect the Vienna and BRYC coaches. This without thought to the fact that the coaches on the girls side at FVU were mostly Vienna coaches, who supposedly picked the “best” kids from the three clubs and managed to produce teams with a worse record than the Union teams. Hard to do. Total debacle of politics, bad player evaluation, and bad coaching. How do you combine the supposed “best” of Brave and Union and get worse records? But I guarantee you, the coaches announced for the FVU girls will be heavy MV and LO and maybe
NM and ML if GFR joins the union. It will be interesting to see if GFR gets any voting rights in the new Union, doubtful, and if no, then expect less NM and ML. Enjoy some kickball and questionable starters. But none of this matters when the boys side also got worse and ECNL will likely revoke the charter in a year anyway.
I agree with all of this. So they already scrubbed McLean from their website - how does this affect the rest of the spring season that the 2011s and 2012s have to play? LO coaches the 2011s with CW and MV coaches the 2012s with CW. If CW is out, is he already out for the rest of the season? That would make us want to pull our DD from FVU now, and not wait around to see the disaster of the rest of the season. BRAVE was not a strong team before the merger - no way we’re staying if Union coaches don’t stay.
The spring season will continue with the current teams. Coaches have contracts to finish out the Spring season unless there's a mutual agreement to terminate it. This is similar to when FCV collapsed last year at this time and coaches moved over to VRSC. Some coaches were able able to move early, while others had to wait and finish out the season. FCV teams continued to play knowing that most of the girls would move to other clubs.
The coaches should stay out their contracts. I’m fascinated you’d want to follow coaches that would abandon kids halfway through the season or a Club that would encourage it. McLean hasn’t been about the kids in years. Few Clubs are, but few are as blatant. Don’t encourage it.
Please tell us which clubs are about the kids? There isn’t a single club that plays in a tier 1 league that isn’t run as a business. Competition does that.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 08:07
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think it is safe to say that FVU, who has now scrubbed McLean from their website and only list Vienna and BRYC will have Vienna and BRYC coaches. FVU already had WAY too many coaches, one team, three teams worth of coaches. Why would they show loyalty to the McLean coaches? The Vienna and BRYC coaches and admin will protect the Vienna and BRYC coaches. This without thought to the fact that the coaches on the girls side at FVU were mostly Vienna coaches, who supposedly picked the “best” kids from the three clubs and managed to produce teams with a worse record than the Union teams. Hard to do. Total debacle of politics, bad player evaluation, and bad coaching. How do you combine the supposed “best” of Brave and Union and get worse records? But I guarantee you, the coaches announced for the FVU girls will be heavy MV and LO and maybe
NM and ML if GFR joins the union. It will be interesting to see if GFR gets any voting rights in the new Union, doubtful, and if no, then expect less NM and ML. Enjoy some kickball and questionable starters. But none of this matters when the boys side also got worse and ECNL will likely revoke the charter in a year anyway.
I agree with all of this. So they already scrubbed McLean from their website - how does this affect the rest of the spring season that the 2011s and 2012s have to play? LO coaches the 2011s with CW and MV coaches the 2012s with CW. If CW is out, is he already out for the rest of the season? That would make us want to pull our DD from FVU now, and not wait around to see the disaster of the rest of the season. BRAVE was not a strong team before the merger - no way we’re staying if Union coaches don’t stay.
The spring season will continue with the current teams. Coaches have contracts to finish out the Spring season unless there's a mutual agreement to terminate it. This is similar to when FCV collapsed last year at this time and coaches moved over to VRSC. Some coaches were able able to move early, while others had to wait and finish out the season. FCV teams continued to play knowing that most of the girls would move to other clubs.
The coaches should stay out their contracts. I’m fascinated you’d want to follow coaches that would abandon kids halfway through the season or a Club that would encourage it. McLean hasn’t been about the kids in years. Few Clubs are, but few are as blatant. Don’t encourage it.
Anonymous
02/19/2025 07:57
Subject: McLean leaving FVU
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What does all of this mean for the other McLean Teams (white and gold?) Are they impacted in all these sweeping changes?
Best kids will go GA
2nd best kids will go GA2
3rd best kids DPL or other league
The communication from MYS to families with players on these teams has been underwhelming at best and very disappointing to not have sufficient information to answer really basic questions.
If you thought the MYS communication was bad, you should have seen the FVU communication. We have kids in FVU and MYS and our coach at MYS received something from the club before it was sent. My understanding is that the FVU coaches were blindsided.
The FVU email was talking about rec soccer and core values. Also selling us on BRYC and VYS. It was kind of cryptic. This will just be Brave 2.0 unless CW, NM, ML, JA and BL are involved. Coaching slate please?!
You really think that the coaches didn’t know about this and were blindsided when practically half of youth soccer knew?
No one cares about the club or feeder systems or the philosophy. They care who the coaches will be which should have been in the email. They couldn’t even say the current coaching staff will largely be intact.