Yes, I'm confident the team is happy. As far as I can remember all of the kids returned last year and I expect they will this year too.
Someone on here can't stand Valor, but my experience is that most people at the club are happy.

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone thinks Valor is awful. Just putting that out there. My kid and the rest of team are quite happy. The coach is nice and approachable, knows the game, has energy, keeps practices interesting, cares about the kids, and my kid has good friends. The parents are good people. The team is improving. Our midyear evaluation seemed accurate and my kid was not only there but the coach engaged the players. I read the complaints and they are nothing like my experience has been.

You know the whole team is happy?

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone thinks Valor is awful. Just putting that out there. My kid and the rest of team are quite happy. The coach is nice and approachable, knows the game, has energy, keeps practices interesting, cares about the kids, and my kid has good friends. The parents are good people. The team is improving. Our midyear evaluation seemed accurate and my kid was not only there but the coach engaged the players. I read the complaints and they are nothing like my experience has been.

There might be some good things about Valor but I can honestly say I have never seen anyone say a positive thing about CYA.

Not everyone thinks Valor is awful. Just putting that out there. My kid and the rest of team are quite happy. The coach is nice and approachable, knows the game, has energy, keeps practices interesting, cares about the kids, and my kid has good friends. The parents are good people. The team is improving. Our midyear evaluation seemed accurate and my kid was not only there but the coach engaged the players. I read the complaints and they are nothing like my experience has been.

Anonymous wrote:Based on the 40 page thread, I don't think Valor is the answer to your bad coach problem.

Agreed valor is definitely not the answer! Why would a lousy rec league cya, which fills valor, produce a good travel team?

To the greater point rec is not worthwhile past the youngster groups. Once your child is old enough get them into a decent travel program. Your kids will get more from playing soccer at recess than from rec. Who would want to deal with a loser coordinator that calls the cops on other teams. Welcome to cya rec soccer. Do yourselves a favor and find a better organization, preferably travel.

Anonymous wrote:Based on the 40 page thread, I don't think Valor is the answer to your bad coach problem.

+10000

Based on the 40 page thread, I don't think Valor is the answer to your bad coach problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be happy that it's happening now. There are coaches who will quit a week into the season, leaving an entire team with next to no option but a random parent to step up. Happened to our challenge team last year with no notice when our coach left us high and dry to go to a travel team after a few practices in August. Everyone was shocked and pissed; but what can you do? You can't make someone stay and coach.

I think the bigger issue is finding good coaches given that this is such a thankless job. Most parents are grateful to volunteer coaches. Some are not but most do appreciate their sacrifice. It’s CYA directors and coordinators that treat coaches like they are their personal employees and treat them like cattle. Heck we’ve all heard the story of one CYA coordinator threatening to call the cops on a coach simply because a team parent was filming their games. I’m sure that coach left after being treated like a criminal. These coordinators need to get a grip on themselves. They are out of control.

Everyone knows that guy is a hack. His assistant coaches do all the work. His two assistants also have the best players in the league and he uses them to carry the rest of the team then cry when he loses in rec tournaments because they’ve never played tough competition during the season.

Welcome to cya! Stories like that are a dime a dozen. That’s why we leave for Valor and get real coaching and playing.

Anonymous wrote:I once took over my DD's rec soccer team when her coach quit. I have never been on a soccer team but the rec league told me NBD and found me an assistant. I actually bought the book "Coaching Soccer for Dummies" on amazon and used that for drills. I think now you could probably find things on YouTube, insta or tik Tok for practices. I planned my practices and we had 2 per week and 1 game per weekend. The girls were 9. We went undefeated (probably because the girls were so athletic).

I had to bring my younger kid to every practice and almost every game.

Step up to coach. If I can do it, you can do it

Loudoun Soccer's websitei, under coaching resources, has a whole season laid out with drills per practice, available for anyone.

I once took over my DD's rec soccer team when her coach quit. I have never been on a soccer team but the rec league told me NBD and found me an assistant. I actually bought the book "Coaching Soccer for Dummies" on amazon and used that for drills. I think now you could probably find things on YouTube, insta or tik Tok for practices. I planned my practices and we had 2 per week and 1 game per weekend. The girls were 9. We went undefeated (probably because the girls were so athletic).

I had to bring my younger kid to every practice and almost every game.

Step up to coach. If I can do it, you can do it

Anonymous wrote:Be happy that it's happening now. There are coaches who will quit a week into the season, leaving an entire team with next to no option but a random parent to step up. Happened to our challenge team last year with no notice when our coach left us high and dry to go to a travel team after a few practices in August. Everyone was shocked and pissed; but what can you do? You can't make someone stay and coach.

I think the bigger issue is finding good coaches given that this is such a thankless job. Most parents are grateful to volunteer coaches. Some are not but most do appreciate their sacrifice. It’s CYA directors and coordinators that treat coaches like they are their personal employees and treat them like cattle. Heck we’ve all heard the story of one CYA coordinator threatening to call the cops on a coach simply because a team parent was filming their games. I’m sure that coach left after being treated like a criminal. These coordinators need to get a grip on themselves. They are out of control.

Yes, they will not play if there is no coach. FWIW, my 15 year old reached out to a club and asked if he could volunteer to coach his little brother's team if someone over 18 agreed to supervise him (e.g., parents on the team agreed to take turns). He was told no. So the team may have no coach, as I do shift work and cannot coach every time.


Just sign up to coach. Will the league really notice if you are not there? My kid coached at that age, and it leagely wouldn't have mattered if I wasn't there. He could probably get some friends to join him.

No, I'm not comfortable with that, in the unlikely event that a kid gets injured. Parents generally drop off so some over 18 person needs to take responsibility for supervising the practice/game - just doesn't have to be the same one each time.

Can you volunteer to be an assistant coach, OP? Many parents may be hesitant to volunteer as a coach if they have no experience with soccer or with rec coaching, or if they are generally busy with other commitments. But they might be more inclined to volunteer if they know they can split the burden with one or more other parents.

You can still do some of the coaching (which is really just supervising at young ages) when your schedule permits (for example, the evenings and days you will be bringing your child to the practice or game anyway).

From past experience, I have observed that it's often the same parents who are coaching their kids' teams across multiple sports (even when the parent has no particular experience with some of those sports). My DH is one of them. There are also families who never volunteer. Some of them are truly not in a position to do so, and I think everyone understands that. But there are other parents who always show up for practices and games and it never seems to occur to them that they could help in some way (even on an ad-hoc basis). Some non-coaching parents, on the other hand, are awesome and help out as needed at practices and games. The volunteer coaches love those parents!

Be happy that it's happening now. There are coaches who will quit a week into the season, leaving an entire team with next to no option but a random parent to step up. Happened to our challenge team last year with no notice when our coach left us high and dry to go to a travel team after a few practices in August. Everyone was shocked and pissed; but what can you do? You can't make someone stay and coach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes and us parents got really aggressively hostile emails about it.

If you are coordinator please note that a little civility increases cooperation.

A civil rec group coordinator? Doesn’t exist!

Most coordinators sign up to be a coordinator and a coach so they can skew the league to their teams advantage. Roster, scheduling, field selections and all star selection. Other coaches get iced out and leave. This problem doesn’t happen with youngsters at U5/U6 because coaches aren’t fed up yet but soon enough a mini tyrant coordinators ruin the leagues for everyone but themselves.

In two years we’ve lost 5 coaches in our division at CYA because they had enough of the coordinators nonsense. Will be interesting to see who returns this season.

The good coaches quit CYA because their children are recruited into travel soccer in 2nd and 3rd grades.

5 coaches leaving in 2 years is not due to travel soccer. Our coach told us all that he was not returning because of the coordinator and said the other coaches were too. I think leagues should assign a coordinator that is not in the same age group or gender. That way there is no conflict of interest.