Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would they have less draw than before for B/C teams? Nothing has changed there, except perhaps a handful of ECNL players now coming down. I think the farther down the rung you go, the more local the players are and the less willing they are to travel. I don't see how this makes them magically decide to drive in traffic. McLean is not geographically isolated, but any alternative adds significant travel time that these families won't take on.

VYS is right next door.

Yep, and there is a hundred plus page thread on here about how good VYS is.

Say what you will about VYS, they aren’t importing the “samba boyz” of SYC to prop themselves up. And last time I checked, the younger teams at VYS had a pretty good track record of beating Mclean.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would they have less draw than before for B/C teams? Nothing has changed there, except perhaps a handful of ECNL players now coming down. I think the farther down the rung you go, the more local the players are and the less willing they are to travel. I don't see how this makes them magically decide to drive in traffic. McLean is not geographically isolated, but any alternative adds significant travel time that these families won't take on.

VYS is right next door.

Yep, and there is a hundred plus page thread on here about how good VYS is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would they have less draw than before for B/C teams? Nothing has changed there, except perhaps a handful of ECNL players now coming down. I think the farther down the rung you go, the more local the players are and the less willing they are to travel. I don't see how this makes them magically decide to drive in traffic. McLean is not geographically isolated, but any alternative adds significant travel time that these families won't take on.

VYS is right next door.

Yep, and there is a hundred plus page thread on here about how good VYS is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would they have less draw than before for B/C teams? Nothing has changed there, except perhaps a handful of ECNL players now coming down. I think the farther down the rung you go, the more local the players are and the less willing they are to travel. I don't see how this makes them magically decide to drive in traffic. McLean is not geographically isolated, but any alternative adds significant travel time that these families won't take on.

VYS is right next door.

Anonymous wrote:Why would they have less draw than before for B/C teams? Nothing has changed there, except perhaps a handful of ECNL players now coming down. I think the farther down the rung you go, the more local the players are and the less willing they are to travel. I don't see how this makes them magically decide to drive in traffic. McLean is not geographically isolated, but any alternative adds significant travel time that these families won't take on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, all these dramatic announcements of leaving MYS mean nothing to a club that is looking for ways to shore and stay competitive in ECNL. It's a business decision and only time will tell if it's a good or bad decision. At the current trajectory, the MYS ECNL is marginal - at best - and that doesn't seem like a great selling point in a saturated youth soccer market.

I mostly agree with you. But part of the business decision is whether the wealthy Mclean parents -- who keep the business profitable -- will put up with basically importing SYC players to take their kids' places on the team; or whether the SYC parents will make up for the loss of that revenue.

I have no idea -- and I have no dog in the fight -- but I do think that how Mclean parents respond to this move is something MYS absolutely needs to consider.

I think the fact that the club did not consult the families tells you all you need to know. The club is not stupid, so I think they realize that some MYS parents might not like this alliance, it's just that they felt like they had to do this (and probably other steps too) in order to survive. I expect they know and expect that there will be casualties in the short term. Those casualties are likely to be the families with players near the bottom end of current ECNL rosters. In short, they are expendable, considering the potential long term gain. Caveat emptor.

No you don’t see the big picture. Not only that you’ll have some casualties, your B and C teams will be hurt. When your casualties leave your other teams will become less competitive and you will not attract talent to fill those teams. Also look where the club is located, VYS, Bethesda and Arlington will benefit. You are not an isolated club (VSA), on the map.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, all these dramatic announcements of leaving MYS mean nothing to a club that is looking for ways to shore and stay competitive in ECNL. It's a business decision and only time will tell if it's a good or bad decision. At the current trajectory, the MYS ECNL is marginal - at best - and that doesn't seem like a great selling point in a saturated youth soccer market.

I mostly agree with you. But part of the business decision is whether the wealthy Mclean parents -- who keep the business profitable -- will put up with basically importing SYC players to take their kids' places on the team; or whether the SYC parents will make up for the loss of that revenue.

I have no idea -- and I have no dog in the fight -- but I do think that how Mclean parents respond to this move is something MYS absolutely needs to consider.

I think the fact that the club did not consult the families tells you all you need to know. The club is not stupid, so I think they realize that some MYS parents might not like this alliance, it's just that they felt like they had to do this (and probably other steps too) in order to survive. I expect they know and expect that there will be casualties in the short term. Those casualties are likely to be the families with players near the bottom end of current ECNL rosters. In short, they are expendable, considering the potential long term gain. Caveat emptor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, all these dramatic announcements of leaving MYS mean nothing to a club that is looking for ways to shore and stay competitive in ECNL. It's a business decision and only time will tell if it's a good or bad decision. At the current trajectory, the MYS ECNL is marginal - at best - and that doesn't seem like a great selling point in a saturated youth soccer market.

I mostly agree with you. But part of the business decision is whether the wealthy Mclean parents -- who keep the business profitable -- will put up with basically importing SYC players to take their kids' places on the team; or whether the SYC parents will make up for the loss of that revenue.

I have no idea -- and I have no dog in the fight -- but I do think that how Mclean parents respond to this move is something MYS absolutely needs to consider.

Anonymous wrote:So, all these dramatic announcements of leaving MYS mean nothing to a club that is looking for ways to shore and stay competitive in ECNL. It's a business decision and only time will tell if it's a good or bad decision. At the current trajectory, the MYS ECNL is marginal - at best - and that doesn't seem like a great selling point in a saturated youth soccer market.

Anonymous wrote:There are several different threads about the MYS/SYC alliance. All of them highlight how the MYS girls don't need the SYC girls but the MYS boys need the SYC boys. Considering neither MYS group has played ECNL teams outside of Virginia, the notion that the girls are so much stronger is misleading. Simply looking at the standings for both groups, the girls from ages u-13 to u18/19 are a combined 24 - 12 - 8, with only the u18/19 girls posting a strong 7 - 0 - 1 record. You take the u18/19's record out now the MYS girls are 17 - 12 - 7. Still a winning record but the collective lost or tied more games than they won. Again, these are standings against four other teams in Virginia and the standings do not reflect their relative strength or weakness against eight teams from NC and SC.

On the boys side, clearly things are more grim. The u13 to u18/19s have a combined record of 19 - 44 - 19 and the 04s are the only group with a strong record of 9 -3 - 2. Again, removing the strongest team out and now MYS ENCL boys are a collective 10 - 41 - 17. There are six teams on the boys side in Virginia but ten additional teams in NC and SC the boys have not had the chance to play due to COVID.

As an ECNL club, MYS has racked up a 43 - 56 - 27 record against five to six other ECNL clubs in NoVA, which equates to nearly 50% of all games across the teams were won and 50% lost or tied. It does not take a "Money Ball" mathematician to figure out things are not going great. So, does MYS risk being relegated to the new ECNL Regional league or do they do something drastic to fix the problem? I don't know if this alliance with SYC will solve all their problems. I do suspect BRYC will be out of ECNL next year given their continued spiral (every team but one is in the bottom half of the table).

So, all these dramatic announcements of leaving MYS mean nothing to a club that is looking for ways to shore and stay competitive in ECNL. It's a business decision and only time will tell if it's a good or bad decision. At the current trajectory, the MYS ECNL is marginal - at best - and that doesn't seem like a great selling point in a saturated youth soccer market. [/quote]

There are many parents who think if your DD is on an ECNL you will be guaranteed a scholarship to brand-name universe. Even if you are a 2 year bench player. So it’s a great selling point. I personally think it is stupid to stay on a team where your kid is not getting a lot of playing time. These kids do not have that long to play(most will be done after high school) and there are too many other good teams(maybe a step down in competition) where your kid could start or get a lot of playing time.