Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 16:27     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
There are also kids who left VDA after being there a couple of years to join Barça - kids who were at least good enough they could have stayed.
They said they made the move over coaching. I don't know or care if they were starters or not. Any kid good enough to make a DA can make any non-DA in town.

Having seen multiple age groups without doing any detective work. There are plenty of top players.

And yes, there are non-top players too, as with any other club too. No shocker there. So yeah, they have a mix of levels of players and teams. As someone pointed out already, the talent level within an individual team is generally well matched. And Barça does a great job of moving players as needed to different teams.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 16:16     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I live in Centreville and if my kid was playing travel for SYA on the best team, there is no way I would trade that to drive up to freakin Leesburg several times a week. Not worth it.


Define best team? First team <> best team, winning team <> best team. Everyone has a reason to change clubs and I think the whole idea of being a part of a winning program versus developing a good player/young adult is debatable, most will probably stay in a crappy situation until they figure out it's too late, when their kid tells them they no longer love the sport. For the record, there are plenty of SYA bags on the 06s.



2006 girls or boys? It makes a difference. Thanks.


And this is why earlier when asked the question "what top teams are the kids from?" is asked it goes unanswered. There are lots of kids at Barca double dipping and not all of it is necessarily sanctioned by the players home club. So, in those few cases I'm pretty sure the player and parents would not want to be ratted out on some stupid message board.

So, the answer is none of your business.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 16:12     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I live in Centreville and if my kid was playing travel for SYA on the best team, there is no way I would trade that to drive up to freakin Leesburg several times a week. Not worth it.


Define best team? First team <> best team, winning team <> best team. Everyone has a reason to change clubs and I think the whole idea of being a part of a winning program versus developing a good player/young adult is debatable, most will probably stay in a crappy situation until they figure out it's too late, when their kid tells them they no longer love the sport. For the record, there are plenty of SYA bags on the 06s.



2006 girls or boys? It makes a difference. Thanks.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 16:10     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

If you live near route 7/Tyson’s, Evergreen is not that far...


LOL are you serious. Even with the Toll Road/Greenway it's over 30 minutes with no traffic. At rush hour and no Greenway, well over an hour.


I actually live right in Tyson’s and it is 30 minutes for us .. for 5pm practices and Saturday games ... hoping to find more folks to carpool with to make it more bearable!


30 minutes is not the norm for sure. I used to go from Reston to evergreen and it always took longer than 30 mins. And there are the tolls too. Its about $13 round trip to use the greenway + dulles toll road. $200+ a month just for tolls to soccer practice!


Yes this is correct. There's no way it's 30 minutes to Evergreen from Tyson's at rush hour....by car anyway. Even at the fastest speed possible, the tolls are outrageous when coupled with the Greenway as well.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 15:31     Subject: Re:What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
We come from a distance, but have more than 1 kid in the program, different age groups/genders. It’s actually easier than what we were doing because they practice at the same field/evergreen, same days of the week. We used to have them across town different nights or racing back and forth between practices at a different Club that had multiple fields which weren’t that close to one another, especially during rush hour.

Ultimately, we wouldn’t justify it if were weren’t extremely happy with the coaching/technical staff and the way we’ve seen our kids develop over the past 18 months. We gave it a 1 year trial and came back for the 2nd year because our kids are very happy and wanted to return.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 15:29     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:

If you live near route 7/Tyson’s, Evergreen is not that far...


LOL are you serious. Even with the Toll Road/Greenway it's over 30 minutes with no traffic. At rush hour and no Greenway, well over an hour.


I actually live right in Tyson’s and it is 30 minutes for us .. for 5pm practices and Saturday games ... hoping to find more folks to carpool with to make it more bearable!


30 minutes is not the norm for sure. I used to go from Reston to evergreen and it always took longer than 30 mins. And there are the tolls too. Its about $13 round trip to use the greenway + dulles toll road. $200+ a month just for tolls to soccer practice!
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 15:10     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Yes there are some players on my kids teams coming 4 days a week to Barca from Maryland, West Virginia, Fairfax. Not something I would do but hey to each their own. I imagine many clubs have players coming from distances for whatever reasons, not unique to Barca.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 15:08     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:

If you live near route 7/Tyson’s, Evergreen is not that far...


LOL are you serious. Even with the Toll Road/Greenway it's over 30 minutes with no traffic. At rush hour and no Greenway, well over an hour.


I actually live right in Tyson’s and it is 30 minutes for us .. for 5pm practices and Saturday games ... hoping to find more folks to carpool with to make it more bearable!


I hear you, but it’s still not that far. If you wouldn’t make that drive, then good on you, but it doesn’t mean anything for everybody else, and it doesn’t make you superior in any way. As if the distances on weekends for games aren’t capable of ridiculous. Please.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 15:07     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:I live in Centreville and if my kid was playing travel for SYA on the best team, there is no way I would trade that to drive up to freakin Leesburg several times a week. Not worth it.


Define best team? First team <> best team, winning team <> best team. Everyone has a reason to change clubs and I think the whole idea of being a part of a winning program versus developing a good player/young adult is debatable, most will probably stay in a crappy situation until they figure out it's too late, when their kid tells them they no longer love the sport. For the record, there are plenty of SYA bags on the 06s.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 14:34     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?


If you live near route 7/Tyson’s, Evergreen is not that far...


LOL are you serious. Even with the Toll Road/Greenway it's over 30 minutes with no traffic. At rush hour and no Greenway, well over an hour.


I actually live right in Tyson’s and it is 30 minutes for us .. for 5pm practices and Saturday games ... hoping to find more folks to carpool with to make it more bearable!
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 14:25     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:I live in Centreville and if my kid was playing travel for SYA on the best team, there is no way I would trade that to drive up to freakin Leesburg several times a week. Not worth it.


So what? You chosen your best option within logistical reasons. That doesn't make you any better or smarter than someone who is willing to drive to Leesburg.

I'm sure there are folks in Leesburg who wouldn't leave their team to drive down to freakin Centerville either.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 14:07     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
I live in Centreville and if my kid was playing travel for SYA on the best team, there is no way I would trade that to drive up to freakin Leesburg several times a week. Not worth it.
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 13:54     Subject: Re:What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
And one last point, why is it so unbelievable that kids form A teams would leave to join Barca? Every club has a top team. The person didn't say kids were leaving DC United for Barca. You are saying that it is just totally outrageous that a kid could leave the top team from say CYA, FPYC, SYA, NVSC, VSA, Herndon etc?
Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 13:50     Subject: Re:What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Again, it doesn't really matter what you think in this regard. You don't believe the claim, and they could just as easily tell you names of clubs and ages that you still wouldn't believe. If you don't believe the claim at face value as is I really don't know how anyone online could actually prove it to you by naming some clubs off the top of their head.

You want to be skeptical and that is fine just don't expect people to jump through hoops to prove anything to you that ultimately doesn't matter or mean anything anyway.

Anonymous
Post 01/02/2019 13:41     Subject: What's going on with FCBEscola NOVA?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:When Barca came on the scene, it was billed as something completely different - IIRC, the talk was that they would do academy training, internal competitions and occasional competitions with other Barca schools. That seems to have morphed somewhat (maybe that is just my perception) -- and they are in local league play, local tournaments and developing a program for college placement...which is in line with what most clubs offer. So have things changed or was that always part of the plan? I'd love to see some completely different options, but my fear is that even if a club wants to do something different, the 'customers' end up forcing them to provide the same services as the other options in the marketplace.


I'm not sure why this year we haven't competed against other Barça academies. I don't know if that is planned for the spring or if logistics was an issue.

What I have found to be different - and what for me matters most - is coaching. The coaching is amazing! It's positive, they encourage my kid's creativity, and I just got a full 5 page report from my DC's coach on every facet of play and on whether it is with the dominant or non-dominant foot.

I also see a certain style across the board, like each practice, multiple teams are doing the same type of drills, learning the same content.

The main downside I find is in the level of player in the academy, meaning that they have not yet reached a strong enough recruiting foothold to be consistently drawing top area talent.

And I personally would like to see the program reach a point where they have a DA ÷egment. EDP isn't a bad place to start, and I've always believed in pro/rel style leagues. Ultimately though, to be the best it is better to land in a league where you are playing the best.


Totally agree with this post. It's similar in terms of talent level grouping of teams and you do have a mix of talents across the board, as a 2nd year family we have seen a influx of traditional 1st team level players join for various reasons so that counters the thought of only lower level players joining the club. May have been true in year 1, but I know we have several former 1st team players join from other large clubs. As this continues, the teams will inherently get more competitive.

The main difference is truly the coaching, they train the same across the board regardless of level, age group, or gender. My kid loves the training, but does wish there were more outside competition. I think the downside to internal competition is that you begin to play to the other team's weakness since you have familiarity and that sometimes inflates the perception of talent within the team. After seeing them in action across age groups, one thing is certain, they move the ball better than most other teams relative to their age groups.


How many 1st team starters from other clubs are now there? Which teams/gender/age groups? Please be specific.


We have 6 in our age group from Mclean, Loudoun, SYA, and Herndon. Not sure anything else is necessary unless you are building a hit list and you missed the point genius, Barca is attracting better talent which means at some point they will have the same access to player pools as other elite clubs. They are getting there, now if you want to call my BS, feel free but I don't need to provide any details other what I have already shared. Kids are gelling, facilities are top notch, coaching is top notch...I don't think you can as for much more.

Since you are so bold, what club are you with? Age group? Gender?



Why the high level of hostility to a simple question? It was claimed that 1st team players had moved. It was a fair question to ask where from and which age groups and genders. I don't doubt that some former players at the clubs you mention now play there. But were they 1st team players, as was claimed? It's OK that Barca has attracted lower level players. They are just starting out here and don't have the decades of advantages the other clubs have in this area.

No need to be so defensive. It's easy to see why many are apprehensive to post in this thread.



Not the PP but the tone of your original post and question seemed on the demanding side. This site has had posts of similar demanding tone of specifics and those never went well either. You are always free to ask whatever you want and folks are always free to answer the way they wish. The reality is on an anonymous forum people would rather not give specifics in many cases for several reasons, not the least of which some os it is none of your business. In this case it some is none of your business and frankly it is hard to even know overall. Most folks can only speak honestly for the immediate age groups of their own kids. Many kids still use their old club bags in a few instances but to otherwise really know where the kids are from requires more personal affiliation. It is not like there is a roster list of where kids are from. So relax and be a little more self reflective of what you are asking. The point of the PP asking you what club, age, team and gender your kid currently plays at was an attempt to help you understand the question you ask can be compromising or uncomfortable for people to answer. If you are not willing to answer the same/similar question then you really shouldn't ask it.


Sorry, I disagree with this. There was no personal question asked here. A claim was made that 1st team players were defecting to Barca and the question was merely from where the kids came. No personal information would be exchanged in sharing this information and this has nothing to do with the questioner's club. There really should be no issue with sharing where the 1st teamers have come from, in terms of specific clubs/ages/genders. Unless it hasn't happened and the claim isn't true.



You are also free to not believe the claim. You can take any and every claim on this forum with a grain of salt. It is after-all an anonymous forum with no real burden of proof.


Good point. It's just not a believable claim. I think that the excuse that they would be given away by providing the information is very, very weak. There are enough players on any given team that no one would be given away by sharing such information.