The pathway is meaningless

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

GFR had a pathway to NVA and it was a disaster for them. You don't have to have a direct pathway to a national league, you can just be a local club.....and GFR has done that well for a while now.

They continue to lose players due to the pathway issue and will continue to do so until they address it -- Loudoun, McLean, SYC, Arlington have all been beneficiaries of good GFR players wanting more than RL.

It is fine to lose players to other clubs. It happens even to clubs WITH a pathway. Having strong local and regional teams and not competing nationally is FINE. How many ECNL and GA/MLS NEXT clubs can there be in just the DMV? As long as they encourage talented players to move to other clubs I do not see why it matters that they don't aspire to be bigger/better.

Last season was one of the worst retention years for GFR during tryouts. Granted much of that was because of the craziness initiated by the board. But it was also GFR’s first season in a while without a pathway. Don’t be naive to think that GFR didn’t want a pathway. Last year it looked very likely that GFR was going to join BRYC, VYS and McLean in FVU. Then McLean made the surprise announcement and left. To this day no one knows why GFR didn’t join. It also seems odd that they are not entertaining a move to GA/MLS2. Why is that? I’m not buying this whole “local club” story. Something is not adding up. Any club of GFR’s size is making moves but why are they not?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

You must be talking about the girls side. BRYC and VYS are much stronger on the boys side.

Pathways are fake anyways. Does union guarantee any slots to each of its feeders? Nothing is stopping a kid at GFR from trying out for an ECNL team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

GFR had a pathway to NVA and it was a disaster for them. You don't have to have a direct pathway to a national league, you can just be a local club.....and GFR has done that well for a while now.

They continue to lose players due to the pathway issue and will continue to do so until they address it -- Loudoun, McLean, SYC, Arlington have all been beneficiaries of good GFR players wanting more than RL.

It is fine to lose players to other clubs. It happens even to clubs WITH a pathway. Having strong local and regional teams and not competing nationally is FINE. How many ECNL and GA/MLS NEXT clubs can there be in just the DMV? As long as they encourage talented players to move to other clubs I do not see why it matters that they don't aspire to be bigger/better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

You must be talking about the girls side. BRYC and VYS are much stronger on the boys side.

BRYC and VYS are mid on the boys side — not strong. The only strong program thus far amongst the Union feeders is the Valor girls. I will grant you that Valor boys are not as strong as their girls.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

You must be talking about the girls side. BRYC and VYS are much stronger on the boys side.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

GFR had a pathway to NVA and it was a disaster for them. You don't have to have a direct pathway to a national league, you can just be a local club.....and GFR has done that well for a while now.

They continue to lose players due to the pathway issue and will continue to do so until they address it -- Loudoun, McLean, SYC, Arlington have all been beneficiaries of good GFR players wanting more than RL.

Anonymous wrote:For those saying many unhappy coaches and some that left. Are those the RL coaches or NCSL? Are GK coaches still there?

Mostly NCSL - a few went to Loudoun East with RP. There is always some turnover with coaches but GFR has had a pretty consistent coaching slate especially on the girls side for the last 6 or 7 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

GFR had a pathway to NVA and it was a disaster for them. You don't have to have a direct pathway to a national league, you can just be a local club.....and GFR has done that well for a while now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some spiteful people commenting here. My son plays travel at GFR and is happy with his team and coach. It’s not perfect but for the regular family not involved with whatever the board drama is, it’s a nice program.

There really is no board drama now. It was one guy who resigned (after 6 months) who created a lot of drama with the help of the oh so bitter RP. He had 2 other board members roped in with him but one has since also resigned and the other seems to be on board now with the other board members. If you speak to the ED or TD there are lots of positives happening for the club despite the fact that they have been sued (unsuccessfully) several times. They will get through the bumps in the road but they will likely never play above the regional level and that is fine. There are plenty of neighboring GA/MLS NEXT/ECNL clubs for those who want them.

You make it sound so casual that they will never play above RL as if that's fine and the club will great. Wrong! If they don't fix their pathway problem, the club will fall into irrelevancy. It will end up being no better than a Sterling Soccer or FPYC.

Depends what the club wants to be, I guess. They will likely continue to be the smaller, neighborhood club that it always has been. Will never have the numbers to compete at the national level unless they merge with a neighboring club. Some age groups only have 1 or 2 teams. They compete well in RL but even their best teams struggle against ECNL and other national leagues. Not every club has to be Arlington or Loudoun, most parts of the country are not as oversaturated with National League teams and have smaller clubs that are more similar to GFR. And GFR coaches can, and should, tell their players who want to play at a higher level to do so. Even if that means leaving GFR.

Anonymous wrote:there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Both those clubs have pathways and Valor is the strongest club in Union now -- probably the only decent one. GFR has been a strong club but will continue to decline unless they fix their pathway issue.

there's nothing wrong with being a local club. GFR has never been a destination club. It has always been on par with the Herndons and Valors of the world.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some spiteful people commenting here. My son plays travel at GFR and is happy with his team and coach. It’s not perfect but for the regular family not involved with whatever the board drama is, it’s a nice program.

There really is no board drama now. It was one guy who resigned (after 6 months) who created a lot of drama with the help of the oh so bitter RP. He had 2 other board members roped in with him but one has since also resigned and the other seems to be on board now with the other board members. If you speak to the ED or TD there are lots of positives happening for the club despite the fact that they have been sued (unsuccessfully) several times. They will get through the bumps in the road but they will likely never play above the regional level and that is fine. There are plenty of neighboring GA/MLS NEXT/ECNL clubs for those who want them.

You make it sound so casual that they will never play above RL as if that's fine and the club will great. Wrong! If they don't fix their pathway problem, the club will fall into irrelevancy. It will end up being no better than a Sterling Soccer or FPYC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2012G - Their scores show 1-6 Loss, 7-0 loss, 8-0 loss, 9-0 loss

2011G - Scores show 7-0 loss, 7-0 loss, 4-0 loss, 2-0 loss

2011B - Scores show 6-0 loss, 4-0 loss, 3-0 loss

2015B - 14-2 loss, 11-0 loss, 8-3 loss, 7-2 loss, and 6-1 loss

2014B - 5-4 loss, 3-0 loss, 7-2 loss, 14-0 loss, 8-0 loss

This is soccer, not NFL football scores from the weekend. GFR is falling apart at all levels

Are you just making sh!t up? The 2011 RL boys scores are 1-1, 1-0, 8-0, 1-0 and 1-1. all wins or draws.

They mixed up some Herndon scores in there! Not much difference between GFR and HYS these days

Re: the 2011 Herndon team, I heard most of them went to VRSC which really depleted that team.

Four moved up to my son's FVU team and I heard the rest left to go to Rev because they didn't think the team would be good without the first four so its a brand
new team. Is the GFR team brand new also ?

For those saying many unhappy coaches and some that left. Are those the RL coaches or NCSL? Are GK coaches still there?