Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 19:01     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
I have been involved with VYS for several years. Since the pre-Eddie years.... Have managed, coached, and then some. Had a kid who left the program to join a more challenging club. Have a kid who stayed and is currently very happy.

There are problems with every club. VYS has gone through major transition over the past 24 months, to be sure. But I can tell you from direct experience that the present technical staff and coaching staff are some of the most caring involved professionals in the business. Kevin and Michel have had their challenges from last fall, but I think they are handling them very well. They just finished a rain-soaked tryout season (which went much better than last year's BTW). They and Laura Skoff are working to improve communication to the parents - which is already 200% better than when Gunney was around. (Was never a fan of his - won't hide that). They have the coaching slate for next fall set up. They are working 24-7 for VYS.

Nothing is ever going to be 100% Remember - when you wrote that very "heart felt" message to Michel - or spoke with him mid year, Rich Gunney pulled all of the strings. He was a control freak and was a major impediment to any improvement.

I agree - if your kid starts hating practice, there is a reason. Yes the coach was to blame in your daughter's case, but to pin it on Michel is wrong.

Let's look forward. VYS is a great club....good families, great kids. I am not raising Lionel Messi. I just want my kid to have fun and play soccer at a club that will let him be a kid.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 18:30     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: As it stands, I'm getting parents writing me to thank me for daring to speak up.


Please rest assured, oh noble and brave whistleblower, that there are infinitely more VYS parents who think you are completely nuts and are glad that we no longer have to stand on the sidelines with you. Best of luck in the soccer paradise that most certainly exists at your next club.



That shit right there is hilarious!
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 18:16     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: As it stands, I'm getting parents writing me to thank me for daring to speak up.


Wait. I thought this was an anonymous board? How did they do that??
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 18:00     Subject: Re:VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:There is SO MUCH COMPLAINING here - some legitimate, most is just butthurtedness. What gets me though, is that all the butthurt here is no different from any butthurt in any club anywhere else, but VYS has its own thread devoted entirely to the butthurt. Are VYS parents just the MOST butthurtiest parents in all of NOVA and feel the need to express and divulge said butthurt in an open yet anonymous forum? As to warn everyone about the trials of VYS, and yet what it seems to be doing is warning everyone as to VYS's overly butthurt parents. Has VYS implemented a butthurt form on their website yet?


Best VYS post ever!
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:44     Subject: Re:VYS Soccer - better or worse?
There is SO MUCH COMPLAINING here - some legitimate, most is just butthurtedness. What gets me though, is that all the butthurt here is no different from any butthurt in any club anywhere else, but VYS has its own thread devoted entirely to the butthurt. Are VYS parents just the MOST butthurtiest parents in all of NOVA and feel the need to express and divulge said butthurt in an open yet anonymous forum? As to warn everyone about the trials of VYS, and yet what it seems to be doing is warning everyone as to VYS's overly butthurt parents. Has VYS implemented a butthurt form on their website yet?
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:21     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote: As it stands, I'm getting parents writing me to thank me for daring to speak up.


Please rest assured, oh noble and brave whistleblower, that there are infinitely more VYS parents who think you are completely nuts and are glad that we no longer have to stand on the sidelines with you. Best of luck in the soccer paradise that most certainly exists at your next club.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:19     Subject: Re:VYS Soccer - better or worse?
It was not a different experience in the spring. It was much shorter in the spring and the coaching was about the same. The coaching for both was fine, but it just isn't as robust a program as they used to have


Not sure what age group, but at ours, it was a substantial difference. In the fall, it was very disorganized with three coaches and probably 40+ kids. In the spring, there appeared to be more kids, however kids were grouped and assigned coaches to work with them.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:15     Subject: Re:VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:VYS may have it's problems, however it seems as though there is a concerted effort to improve things. Crossover last fall was a disaster; the program was revamped and it was totally different experience this spring. An earlier poster was upset that they didn't know the coaches before they accepted travel last year - they have already announced the coaches for travel this year.





It was not a different experience in the spring. It was much shorter in the spring and the coaching was about the same. The coaching for both was fine, but it just isn't as robust a program as they used to have.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:10     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A long email to club officials containing ALLCAPS is the surest marker of "crazy parent" in all of youth sports.



Agreed. I am interested to know how Coach Vanderhart responds. As for me, I think the parent should have taken "Travel Soccer 101" before starting the season (since this was their first year) and ending the year with a publicly posted long-winded one-sided email. Its very challenging for parents to keep a level-head where their kids and their money is concerned.


What does "Travel Soccer 101" consist of? A lesson in doing your homework in advance, I suppose. We learned to investigate the team and coach several months before we do tryouts. Had we done that the first time around, we would have been better off. My note here is probably best viewed as what I wish I had seen before we did tryouts last year, without having done our homework.

Vanderhart's response was the corporate blow off, as expected.




And how should he have responded differently? Asked you to return and head the BOD so the outfit runs to your preferred expectations? Your complaint is legitimate; your expectations though are not reasonable, and you can't blame the entire club or Coach Vanderhart for your kid's experience. You will - I promise - run into the same issue in the future, to a greater or lesser degree, because these issues are not endemic to VYS, they are in every club, and every club and every TD will handle things the best they can at the time, and it will never be 100% to your liking.

As for your kids soccer skills: every team has a bad season or two; if your kid loves soccer, that won't make them hate soccer; there is always extra training available for a kid who is passionate about improving if you have the time and money to invest in it. Please don't blame the whole club entity because your kid didn't progress as you hoped or expected. That being said, terrible abusive coaches should indeed be dealt with swiftly.





Yep, shame on me for thinking it may have been nice for a club's girls travel director to maybe take an interest in a team whose coach was so bad he got fired mid-season and didn't win a single game in the Spring. Seriously, this coach was an issue beginning in late August 2015. VYS never once did anything they weren't forced to do by a group of concerned parents - and only then after several parents across two different teams threatened to leave mid season leaving both teams without enough players.

You even admit the complaint is legitimate. Why is it suddenly off limits to expect a legitimate response. Vanderhart could easily have said, "let's meet after practice and we can talk." Or, "Wow, you really had rough year, we're sorry for our part in not recognizing what a problem that coach was." That would have solved that and I would never have posted anything here. As it stands, I'm getting parents writing me to thank me for daring to speak up.

The test of a good organization isn't how they deal with success. It's how they deal with challenges. VYS failed this one. We won't be back and I'd only advise incoming parents to know their coach beforehand. Because if VYS gives you a hot mess, you're screwed.

That's the last thing I'll type. Bye now. Lesson learned.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 17:08     Subject: Re:VYS Soccer - better or worse?
VYS may have it's problems, however it seems as though there is a concerted effort to improve things. Crossover last fall was a disaster; the program was revamped and it was totally different experience this spring. An earlier poster was upset that they didn't know the coaches before they accepted travel last year - they have already announced the coaches for travel this year.



Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 16:42     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A long email to club officials containing ALLCAPS is the surest marker of "crazy parent" in all of youth sports.



Agreed. I am interested to know how Coach Vanderhart responds. As for me, I think the parent should have taken "Travel Soccer 101" before starting the season (since this was their first year) and ending the year with a publicly posted long-winded one-sided email. Its very challenging for parents to keep a level-head where their kids and their money is concerned.


What does "Travel Soccer 101" consist of? A lesson in doing your homework in advance, I suppose. We learned to investigate the team and coach several months before we do tryouts. Had we done that the first time around, we would have been better off. My note here is probably best viewed as what I wish I had seen before we did tryouts last year, without having done our homework.

Vanderhart's response was the corporate blow off, as expected.




And how should he have responded differently? Asked you to return and head the BOD so the outfit runs to your preferred expectations? Your complaint is legitimate; your expectations though are not reasonable, and you can't blame the entire club or Coach Vanderhart for your kid's experience. You will - I promise - run into the same issue in the future, to a greater or lesser degree, because these issues are not endemic to VYS, they are in every club, and every club and every TD will handle things the best they can at the time, and it will never be 100% to your liking.

As for your kids soccer skills: every team has a bad season or two; if your kid loves soccer, that won't make them hate soccer; there is always extra training available for a kid who is passionate about improving if you have the time and money to invest in it. Please don't blame the whole club entity because your kid didn't progress as you hoped or expected. That being said, terrible abusive coaches should indeed be dealt with swiftly.



Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 16:34     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:So, this is just a common theme in life. You don't always get what you want or what you thought you paid for. It is just the way it is. It's not fair but....well, we all know the saying. We move on, as you did. Hopefully, it doesn't happen to you again, but the chances are, it will.
Also, I want to point out, if a child truly loves a sport, they'll stay with it. 1 losing season and a bad coach should not kill a child's passion for a sport. If it does, is it really their passion?

Coaches don't make players...players make players.


And honestly, that's a problem in Vienna. It's not a town with a lot of passionate soccer families who know the game.

Part of the problem here is that we have parents who think their kids are "awesome athletes," and they don't know anything about soccer. They never watch soccer at home, so they never get a feel for how it's played. The parents don't know offside, or legal shoulder charges, etc.

Then they wonder why the coaches haven't turned their "awesome athletes" into State Cup winners.

Arlington? Herndon? Calverton's "Cerritos Academy"? They don't have this problem quite as often. The parents show up in Barcelona jerseys. The kids have clearly watched the game.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 16:34     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote: A long email to club officials containing ALLCAPS is the surest marker of "crazy parent" in all of youth sports.


LOL

+100

Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 16:31     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A long email to club officials containing ALLCAPS is the surest marker of "crazy parent" in all of youth sports.



Agreed. I am interested to know how Coach Vanderhart responds. As for me, I think the parent should have taken "Travel Soccer 101" before starting the season (since this was their first year) and ending the year with a publicly posted long-winded one-sided email. Its very challenging for parents to keep a level-head where their kids and their money is concerned.


What does "Travel Soccer 101" consist of? A lesson in doing your homework in advance, I suppose. We learned to investigate the team and coach several months before we do tryouts. Had we done that the first time around, we would have been better off. My note here is probably best viewed as what I wish I had seen before we did tryouts last year, without having done our homework.

Vanderhart's response was the corporate blow off, as expected.


Anonymous
Post 05/23/2016 16:28     Subject: VYS Soccer - better or worse?
Anonymous wrote:Egad. I have a five year old in Vienna and was thinking about signing him up for VYS soccer for fun. But you *all* sound kinda crazy -- even if the little kids' experience is nothing like all this, why on earth would I get my kid involved in a program that holds out the prospect in a few years of being surrounded by waaaaaaay too intense and obsessed people like this? KIDS are playing SPORTS-- and you're swearing up a blue streak about it? At least now I know to avoid the whole operation, so thanks for that.


Sign him up. These issues don't trickle down to U6 House soccer.

You may get a crazy parent on your team, but that's true of every single club and every single activity your kids can do.