We're fairly new to the area. My kids have played travel soccer previously, and will likely try out next season. Any suggestions for quality clubs/teams/ professional coaches? My kids play well, but we want a balanced approach, sportsman(woman)ship, values in addition to skills training. We live in Vienna, but have heard from insiders mixed things about VYS, mainly, despite potential, parents are (way) overly involved in the coaching and management of the club, much more than what you would expect, even in a competitive area like Vienna/Fairfax. For the money and aggravation, Vienna House might be much better? CYA? We'd travel farther for a good all-around club. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

Yup. VYS is ruined by, as you said, politely, overly-involved parents who override professional coaches -- your hard $$$ at work supporting parent-coaches' kids: professional coaches/CEO are regularly fired, whiney, spoiled kids and parents, even cheating (for example, cooking the books/stats (yes!!), coordinated "talking points" to non-insider [i.e., non-cheating] parents) (I kid you not!! -- I've seen the copies), blatent favoritism over talent... even the very young kids know the parent "coaches" cheat and pick the teams. As Trump would say, "Sad." And you pay THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for the privilege!!! Lots of other clubs with better values and ethics than Vienna. But lots of people know that. The Academy has a bad rep. I'm glad my son wanted to play football instead! I heard other sports clubs are much better, but others have similar but not as bad problems. Vienna House teams are bad too -- surprise, surprise, the All Star Teams ACROSS THE BOARD are largely made up of coaches' sons and daughters. they're not fooling anyone. Interesting post --

There are certain attributes that you should look for to identify a great youth soccer program:

Training 11 of 12 months each year
Multiple coaches with British accents
At least $2,000 cost per season, plus tournament and travel fees
Emphasis on personal trainers at additional cost
Promises to attend the best tournaments where all the college scouts will attend
Play games in the elite regional/national premier leagues
Administrators who drive nice cars
Training only on plastic turf fields

My daughter played house for VYS until she made the travel team one year. In that year, we saw the worst of the worst that the second poster is referring to. My daughter decided to give Great Falls a try. They are outstanding. They had a new head trainer join a couple of years ago and he has totally turned the club around from what I understand. He's very approachable and has a vision for the club, but also for the players that stand out to him. The girls come from Reston, Great Falls, Vienna, and Fairfax. I'd definitely give them a look. In some cases, your kids may even be able to come and participate in a few practices to try them out as well as give the coaches a sense of where your kids would fit. Great Falls also reduced their fees when the revamped the club to make it an affordable option.

I'd recommend against CYA. We played them this weekend in a tournament and the coach was a raving lunatic. They also lost all four games and didn't score a single point. I've also heard some funky things about that club. We know of at least 7 players on one team who left to go to other clubs.

My son played VYS. Quiet, serious boy, who played well, scored or assisted at least every other game, went to all practices. We missed getting to the last tryout on time due to traffic, so my son caught only the last 15-20 minutes. We were told that he was DISQUALIFIED because he missed the team tryout. Meanwhile, a manager's son, who was painfully bad, supposedly had to miss two weeks of tryouts because of a sprained ankle or knee or something was allowed to be selected for the top team. When we questioned the decision, and pointed to the inconsistent rules, the VYS person eventually acknowledged it was unfair. Although VYS decided to waitlist him, we had already moved on to a normal club. Parents who stayed regularly said they wished they had switched too. All this wackiness about kids playing soccer.

First, after just reading a post and posting about CYA Soccer, I would stay away from them. My daughter tried out for a few teams before she got hurt. CSC was ok, but they were experiencing some personnel changes. FYPC was decent and Herndon was better. HYS believes in teaching players learn all positions and not just one, which some clubs do. I am sure other clubs also do that. I would think most clubs will let you attend a couple of practices to see if you kid is a fit with the team and the coaches. It is not like there isn't at least 20 clubs within a 20 mile drive from any place in Fairfax county.

No order: Great Falls, Reston, Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria, McLean (tough to break in - loyal club), Gunston. Look for strong paid head coach, a former professional (or even college) player, preferably from Europe with little personal ties to people/area. That said, house can be almost as good travel. You can't make non-athletes athletes by just playing travel, writing checks.

Why in the world would you get involved in this mess? And involve your children?

@ gf parent...for shits and giggles, I did a little search and found that your team did play a cya team in the icebreaker tournament. It was a tie...0-0. Clearly, your recollection is not very accurate

The OP mentions "sportswomanship." While not for everyone, Braddock Road tends to field the most successful girls travel teams in the area. By successful, I mean State Cup champions, league champions and National champions.

As a parent of a male BRYC Elite player, I find the club definitely favors the girl's side of the academy. (BTW, BRYC is now an academy, which mean higher fees). The club hires better coaches for the girls, recruits better players and tends to address the needs and requirements of the girls technical staff over those for the boys.

Case in point, BRYC is moving to the ECNL. A few years ago, the parents heard a bunch of reasons for leaving NCSL for CCL to include becoming a charter member. BRYC would play top-tier clubs in the DC/MD/VA area. We would get better competition, more favorable schedules and higher performance.

Four years later, the club decided to leave CCL for ECNL. This new league, which got formed around the top national girls teams (ahem), provides better competition, more favorable schedules and higher performance.

And more fees, plus teams as far away as Massachusetts and South Carolina. (Charter buses anyone?)

For the OP, the question becomes what do you value as a family?

As others wrote, if the kids just want to have fun, pick a house or recreational team. Nearly all the local clubs offer one. Your kids will likely play more and travel less.

If you really want to invest the time and money into travel soccer, there are many clubs happy to give your child a tryout (most clubs are doing tryouts right now or very soon) and if they offer a position to your child and you accept, they will gladly take your money...and a lot of it.

Travel soccer fees (for the club) are between $1500-2000 per year per child. (Some clubs offer discounts for siblings). Then you pay a fee to the team. Then you pay a fee for each tournament. Then you pay to travel, which means gas, food and lodging.

Despite the above, I like BRYC because my son plays with a good group of kids with decent parents and a dedicated coach. That was not always my experience with BRYC and other local clubs.

As for infrastructure, BRYC gets Woodson and Robinson for practices and games. If you live close, it's a blessing. Other clubs, like Annandale UFC, use Annandale HS, Ossian Hall Park and Mason District Park. All of these locations offer turf fields and lighting.

Both BRYC and Annandale are long-established clubs that also invested time and money in field maintenance, which is why they get first choice.

In comparison, newer clubs get the leftovers. One new(er) club based in Springfield practiced at an elementary school near Lorton and played games at Bull Run Park. Not the best locations when it comes to soccer fields and infrastructure. Yet the club charged the same annual fees as the established clubs.

Caveat emptor.

Casual observer1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ gf parent...for shits and giggles, I did a
> little search and found that your team did play a
> cya team in the icebreaker tournament. It was a
> tie...0-0. Clearly, your recollection is not very
> accurate

Really? You must be one bored housewife soccer Mom...

We lived in this area previously, but moved away for a few years and moved back again last year. I have three children (11, 13 and 16) - the eldest plays with a Herndon travel team, the middle one on a CYA rec team, and the youngest on a CYA travel team.

Before we left five years ago, we were very unhappy with CYA travel (rec leagues were fine) and had just removed our middle child from that program - but there have been major changes in the last couple of years and based on our experiences over the last year and a half, we have been very happy with CYA indeed. Less so with Herndon - but the 16 year old makes her own decisions :-).

I would add that we know a number of parents who have left VYS to move to CYA and they are all much happier at CYA for what that's worth.

And while I'm sure that the negative remarks above are based on real incidents, every club has stronger and weaker coaches and occasional crazy parents, and I think it would be a mistake to make a decision based solely on some unfortunate events.

The positives about CYA travel for us are

(1) Good coaching.

The technical director is really really strong in all three facets I would look for: his coachiong philosophy, his ability to relate to and get the best out of the kids, and his tactical understanding of the game.

He moves around between age groups, coaching different teams every year - but we have been lucky enough to have him coaching my son's team this year - and the improvement over the course of the year has been astonishing. The team plays beautiful soccer. Obviously not all the coaches are as talented, but he is careful to pick coaches who share his philosophy - and we have now seen several of the coaches in action and they have all ranged between very, very good and OK - i.e. I haven't yet come across any "you really bneed to find another job" coaches - and ther's not one that I have felt I would be uncomfortable with as the coach of my child's team.

(2) The coaching philosophy is all around possession football, passing, moving into space. Probably every coach will tell you taht's what they believe in - but you can see which ones really believe in it (or perhaps its just that they know how to teach it) by the way their teams play.

(3) The club focuses on selecting players for the travel teams based on soccer skills, not size, speed and strength. My son's team often look ridculous next to the opposition before the whistle is blown - we're about 3" shorter and 15 lbs lighter on average (and these are 10 and 11 year olds so that's a huge difference). The consequence of this, and the coaching emphasis on the passing game, was that early in the fall season we lost some games to teams with bigger, faster, stronger kids. Even then though we still looked like the better team and the improvement over the two month season was very noticeable. This (spring) season, after the winter futsal training and six months of coaching, we are beating those same teams by several goals.


(4) All turf fields mean no more cancelled pratcices and games.

And given you're in Vienna CYA is closer than many of your other alternatives.

All just my perspective of course - but we are very happy.

All the above is just the opinion of one parent obviously - and I certainly haven't seen

PS Should add, that we are perfectly happy with the specific Herndon team that my eldest daughter is on, and it's coach (just in case anybody reads all this and figures out who I am). My concerns would be more general in nature about the policies and nature of the club - such that I probably wouldn't recommend it to younger children looking for a program really keyed to their development as soccer players.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. I would stay away from ODFC, though. It is a failing club who most recently hired a child predator.

Curious, ? Spend a weekend in Camden, NJ playing kiddy soccer, or spend the weekend on a sailboat in the Chesapeake.

Which is better for your child?

This was helpful. I also heard that VYS got destroyed from within.

Reflecting on combined 14 years of youth sports including VYS:

Travel = pay to play. If you have the funds, your kid can play on a travel team. Last I checked VYS fields ABCD teams. Lots of parents are living out unfulfilled childhood sports dreams through their kids. Parents and kids get really into travel bragging rights and full soccer kit and swag.

In an achievement bubble where all kids are gifted, special, advanced, and high achieving , travel goes right along with GT AAP nonsense. Outsized egos of parents and kids.

House soccer = lots of joysticking and snarky comments from insufferable parents.
Unsportsmanship like mean comments among opposing teams. Youth refs who repeatedly get shrieked at and jeered.

Interesting to see what happens when these "standouts" get to high school ,the great equalizer. You'll be surprised! Kind of funny to see the outrage and shock among the parents whose star athlete doesn't make the high school team.

Funny thing is that all these comments can be said for little league and travel baseball.

If you have a boy who plays U16-17 at a high level you should look into FPYC.

So I saw that another VYS Executive Director and Board parted ways after the expiration of an 18 month contract... of course in a carefully worded bye-bye letter to the Community. As one poster said, VYS is not fooling anyone.

The Board needs to be replaced and let professionals run the travel soccer program.

These parents are indicative of what is wrong with this area -- wait until the real world hits these nutjobs in the face.

I agree with most of the comments about VYS travel soccer parents. And people who say that such behavior exists elsewhere, too, is only partially true -- VYS Travel Soccer parents (Board Coaches Managers) bring it to a whole new shameful level. As a mother, I was ashamed to be affiliated with such awful people every week. Yes, we left VYS too.

I also agree that FPYC has a good reputation, BTW!

Check out Annandale. Director is Wash Post All Met HS Coach of the year. Higher level teams compete at tournaments all over east coast. My son's team will place 8-9 kids in D3 college programs, and 1-2 will go D1.

Upper age group boys teams from BRYC, CYA etc are breaking up with many players coming to AUFC. Short of traveling way out to Loudon or further inside beltway to Arlington, Annandale is one of best options in the area.

Does anyone know if Vienna is still having issues with the Board? My son has been with CYA travel soccer for several years and it has recently collapsed due to Board egos getting involved. Technical Director left, the best coaches have left or are leaving, issues are endless. I know that all clubs have some issues, but is Vienna really that bad?

Another recommendation against CYA. Having volunteered with the club for many years, and forced out by the board last year, the program is in disarray.

Rumor developing over the past couple weeks is that CYA and SYA are going to merge their soccer programs, giving SYA the top-level talent for their CCL teams. I expect a continued exodus of their best coaches and players after the spring season finishes leaving the club bottom-level (at best).

Tackle Football instead.

Sounds like typical cya...baseball(fitzhugh)
Is a joke if you are not in his butt your kid won't make travel. Phillips for softball has no balls...they have not won 10 games in last 5 years...Miller and TFS is a Hitler type joke
Go somewhere else cya sucks

Yeah, I know Rob. He's clueless as VP. Has an agenda and looks down on other sports. Much better places to spend your money than cya for sure.

How abouut SYA? Any thoughts of them?

SYA for soccer? They're much better than CYA, but if the proposed merger between the two clubs happens as I have heard, SYA will be inheriting some of CYA's staff, which doesn't bode well and possibly even be run by CYA's executive director who is CYA's biggest problem. If the merger doesn't happen, then I'd say yes, SYA would be a huge step up from CYA.

These thoughts are all related to travel. For rec, those programs are much less prone to ego's and politics, so either club would be fine for rec only I think.

Cya and Sya will merge 2019 from what I heard. Pretty sure the staff will be mostly SYA coaches when it happens. CYA really only brings players and fields to the table.

The more infighting at CYA between the board and exec director, the more likely the merger will happen. The exec director doesn't like to look bad, so he'll push the merger if it benefits him personally. CYA has nothing really but fields...the better players have or are in the process of leaving because their better coaches are in the process of a mass exodus this spring.

We're leaving next year from CYA. All of the top coaches are leaving, including our son's. Also, nobody from the club has said anything about this merger and it seems like the membership will not be consulted in the decision. You'd think the board wouldn't be ok with that.

Knowing very well how the CYA board works, they don't have a clue and don't care. Some of the current board members think all the soccer coaches should just be volunteers. Also, the exec director (who happens to run the soccer program, ironically) is probably not being honest with the board.

The membership won't be consulted. This will just happen. Best thing that can happen is for the membership to vote with their feet. We left last year and it was a great decision.

Sorry you're going through this, but the downward spiral was predicted after last year.

I heard many coaches and directors are leaving? Does anyone know why?

Why is this happening Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I heard many coaches and directors are leaving?
> Does anyone know why?


Because Vienna sucks.

nhbel

Sorry didn't specify, referring to CYA.

Number of reasons:


The previous tech director left last June (for a number of good reasons), which didn't give coaches time to find a new club for the 17-18 season. This spring is the first chance many of the coaches have had to look for new clubs, and the good ones are doing it. CYA has no tech director now, just a lot of indians running the show with no good leadership. This in turn has made the better coaches realize there is no future at CYA.

The new "program director" (not tech director) is not well-liked, and has no organizational skills. He's not even close to tech director quality, so they lose that aspect and gain mismanagement as well. Not a good recipe for coach retention either.

All of this has led to the loss of the better players so again, coaches who want to coach at a higher level (VPL primarily) don't have the skilled players to compete. The new program director went 0-10 in VPL last fall, with a -37 goal differential. That won't inspire either players or parents to stick around, so the overall lack of quality of players has dropped significantly, and will continue to do so as the better coaches leave. They'll probably end up dropping VPL due to lack of ability to compete.

It's all a downward spiral that of coaches and players leaving that is difficult to stop. The good news is there are a number of far better clubs in the area so players have plenty of options.



> Why is this happening Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> I heard many coaches and directors are leaving?
> Does anyone know why?

Samuel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Number of reasons:
>
>
> The previous tech director left last June (for a
> number of good reasons), which didn't give coaches
> time to find a new club for the 17-18 season.
> This spring is the first chance many of the
> coaches have had to look for new clubs, and the
> good ones are doing it. CYA has no tech director
> now, just a lot of indians running the show with
> no good leadership. This in turn has made the
> better coaches realize there is no future at CYA.
>
>
> The new "program director" (not tech director) is
> not well-liked, and has no organizational skills.
> He's not even close to tech director quality, so
> they lose that aspect and gain mismanagement as
> well. Not a good recipe for coach retention
> either.
>
> All of this has led to the loss of the better
> players so again, coaches who want to coach at a
> higher level (VPL primarily) don't have the
> skilled players to compete. The new program
> director went 0-10 in VPL last fall, with a -37
> goal differential. That won't inspire either
> players or parents to stick around, so the overall
> lack of quality of players has dropped
> significantly, and will continue to do so as the
> better coaches leave. They'll probably end up
> dropping VPL due to lack of ability to compete.
>
> It's all a downward spiral that of coaches and
> players leaving that is difficult to stop. The
> good news is there are a number of far better
> clubs in the area so players have plenty of
> options.
>
>
>
> > Why is this happening Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > I heard many coaches and directors are leaving?
> > Does anyone know why?

All this is true. But the real problem that ruined VYS Travel Soccer was the overly competitive parents manipulating scoring and leaning on coaches to pick below average and/or whiny Board-parent-coaches'-managers' kids over top-average players. This off-the-scale- corrupt behavior started a few years ago and, yes, it happens in every club, but VYS Travel Soccer took it to a whole new, obnoxious level. We lost some really talented players (and normal parents) to other clubs. Shameful. My kid learned at an (way too) early age that adults cheat and lie with smiles on their faces and, like someone above said, that good sportsmenship and values were BS. We left VYS and we're glad we did -- we could so clearly see the self destructive behavior years ago. We were not wrong.

Whiny parents are everywhere. In Texas, they even kill for spots on elite squads. Things are a little more civilized around here.

Sounds like you're saying the directors and coaches got tired of being lead by the program director and are now leaving because of him. That would be a pretty big indictment of him. I wonder what effect this will overall. I know we see all the directors at the fields constantly working with a lot of teams but I have never seen the program director out there. Depending on where these coaches go, could see a lot of players just follow.

As far as VYS, it sounds like a lot of the mess is in the past with them. We're going to be looking there for sure.

Yes and no. The Program Director role is fairly new, so he hasn't been in it for long. But, he's been with the club for a number of years and his reputation and ability to lead a program like CYA's is well known, and neither are very good. One of the female coaches is leaving this spring solely because she was told she was working for him, for example.

There are other dynamics going on. The loss of VDA (a huge blow), the diminishing quality of VPL players, the behind-the-scenes "meddling" of the executive director (who essentially runs soccer even though his name is nowhere to be found on the soccer web site.

So there are a bunch of things going on over the past year that have all lead to the situation at hand. It's unfortunate because the club was fairly successful up until last spring, especially with the VDA partnership.

I honestly think the board and club would be happy if they had a good rec program and travel consisted of ODSL only, as they fought all the gains made in the past several years tooth and nail.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds like you're saying the directors and coaches got tired of being lead by the program director and are now leaving because of him. That would be a pretty big indictment of him. I wonder what effect this will overall. I know we see all the directors at the fields constantly working with a lot of teams but I have never seen the program director out there. Depending on where these coaches go, could see a lot of players just follow.

As far as VYS, it sounds like a lot of the mess is in the past with them. We're going to be looking there for sure.

I'm not familiar with VYS, but my comments were referring to CYA.

There are egos and infighting at every club. And some clubs (i.e., CYA) just like to turn back the clock on 5 or so years of great progress.


>
> All this is true. But the real problem that
> ruined VYS Travel Soccer was the overly
> competitive parents manipulating scoring and
> leaning on coaches to pick below average and/or
> whiny Board-parent-coaches'-managers' kids over
> top-average players. This off-the-scale- corrupt
> behavior started a few years ago and, yes, it
> happens in every club, but VYS Travel Soccer took
> it to a whole new, obnoxious level. We lost some
> really talented players (and normal parents) to
> other clubs. Shameful. My kid learned at an (way
> too) early age that adults cheat and lie with
> smiles on their faces and, like someone above
> said, that good sportsmenship and values were BS.
> We left VYS and we're glad we did -- we could so
> clearly see the self destructive behavior years
> ago. We were not wrong.

So, as a CYA parent, where would you recommend we look? BRYC? SYA? Herndon? CSC? Great Falls, Loudon?

Also, anyone know what coaches are leaving and who is staying? I haven’t heard of ANY that are staying. Any clue how CYA plans to replace all of these coaches in time for fall 2018 tryouts? Or is this Spring the end for CYA?

Hi Frustrated,

We were in your shoes a year ago and are very happy with leaving.

I might suggest steering clear of SYA, at least for now. There's a rumor CYA and SYA are going to merge at some point, so that wouldn't get you very far. CSC is a very small club and probably doesn't have the draw of better players. BRYC, FPYC, Herndon, McLean, Arlington, Great Falls, Loudon, VSA would all be a big step up from CYA. Logistics is something to consider, but depending on the age group, those clubs all have something to offer.

One of the worst things CYA did last year was raise fees, on the order of $300 - $600 per player in some cases, after pushing the previous soccer leadership out (who was in the process of trying to lower fees instead of raise them). Some of those clubs above may not be a whole lot cheaper, if at all, but you'll get a lot more for your money.




Frustrated CYA Parent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, as a CYA parent, where would you recommend we
> look? BRYC? SYA? Herndon? CSC? Great Falls,
> Loudon?
>
> Also, anyone know what coaches are leaving and who
> is staying? I haven’t heard of ANY that are
> staying. Any clue how CYA plans to replace all of
> these coaches in time for fall 2018 tryouts? Or is
> this Spring the end for CYA?

What coaches have you heard that are leaving, btw?


Frustrated CYA Parent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, as a CYA parent, where would you recommend we
> look? BRYC? SYA? Herndon? CSC? Great Falls,
> Loudon?
>
> Also, anyone know what coaches are leaving and who
> is staying? I haven’t heard of ANY that are
> staying. Any clue how CYA plans to replace all of
> these coaches in time for fall 2018 tryouts? Or is
> this Spring the end for CYA?

Soccer is for fags!
You should be playing a Man's game-Tennis!

I've heard Jane, Mike, Vince, Royce, and Ivan are leaving. That's all the directors except for Dylan. I'm not sure what other coaches are doing except for Neal, the old DOC, is leaving as well. Again, nothing said to parents about this or who is replacing them.

We're going to have to attend a lot of tryouts. We've been CYA for a few years and will see what fits best for us. We're weary of SYA because of the potential merger. We don't want the same drama in a year.

I will say our fees didn't go up from last year, but there's been conflicting reports from other parents. I think that depending on your team, your fees could vary wildly last year and that they just tried to even it out.

We play travel soccer. Just got back from Kenya. Week before that we traveled to Antarctica for a match. Also played a game in Micronesia last year.

I'm not surprised that all those coaches are leaving. They're wasting their talent at CYA at this point, unfortunately. That's going to severely impact their ability to keep players. Some will stay of course, but uncertainty going into tryouts is never good.

Nothing will be said because they don't know what to say. Admitting they were responsible for the demise of the club is not something they really want to admit. I also know how those guys operate, and transparency is not in their vocabulary.

I know fees were going to be lowered across the board (Purple, Gold, Black) for 2017-2018 before others overruled and decided a raise was in order. Some fees may not have changed much, but some did, probably depends on what team you were on.


CYA Parent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've heard Jane, Mike, Vince, Royce, and Ivan are
> leaving. That's all the directors except for
> Dylan. I'm not sure what other coaches are doing
> except for Neal, the old DOC, is leaving as well.
> Again, nothing said to parents about this or who
> is replacing them.
>
> We're going to have to attend a lot of tryouts.
> We've been CYA for a few years and will see what
> fits best for us. We're weary of SYA because of
> the potential merger. We don't want the same drama
> in a year.
>
> I will say our fees didn't go up from last year,
> but there's been conflicting reports from other
> parents. I think that depending on your team, your
> fees could vary wildly last year and that they
> just tried to even it out.

Vince is going to LMVSC
Royce and Ivan to Loudon
Jane to Wash Spirit /DA at Reston
Mike to Reston-Gf
Neal to VYS

This no secret, soccer gossip travels fast.

Heard lots of players will probably follow them, they've done a fabulous job and don't blame them for leaving but this leaves holes in many teams to fill and I am concerned about the fall out and retention for my sons team. We are entering a crucial age and It would be great to know who is replacing my sons coach!? Also, When will they announce what's happening with the SYA merger? Will the leadership be replaced by SYA? Will the merger help my sons team!? What do you all know about SYA?

A club losing all their directors at once is a huge sign something isn't right, and will (should) send a red flag that there are problems and the club isn't healthy. This is all a direct result of the Board of Directors forcing out the previous soccer leadership and handing it over to a couple people who have no clue what they're doing. But I shouldn't be surprised because the previous CYA President (who died in December) stated numerous times that all kids need is "...some grass and a ball to kick around." So if they wanted to go back to their roots of being a nice little community club of mediocre quality, they did it faster than expected.

Knowing those who are running the program, you'll be lucky to who's coaching what team before tryouts. Even if they do make an attempt at assigning coaches, it will probably change as they scramble for coaches. Good luck finding quality coaches who want to come to this mess.

No idea when the merger will be announced, but probably not soon enough to alleviate additional concerns. Rumors like this are like festering wounds that do nothing but create uncertainty, which is never good.

SYA had a reputation of being a decent club, and does play in CCL so it can attract some good players because of that. I just think they're struggling with retention also due to the many other options out there, including those who have access to the DA (PWSI, FC Virginia, VSA, Reston/Great Falls, Arlington, etc.). So the merger is probably also about survival.

Obviously everyone needs to do what's best in their particular situation, but I can't see staying at CYA being one of those options. We didn't stay, and couldn't be happier.

For what it's worth, we've been happy with CYA for several years with two kids in the program. I can't speak to the top flight play but the coaches that we've had are all really good. The new Director is actually one of our favorites. I've always been really pleased with how far each team progresses each season.

I think losing Mike and Jane hurt but they have their drawbacks also. I think they were excellent coaches but lacked some in the directorship/management.

We plan to stick with CYA for what it's worth. They have great facilities and just added the NOVA field house which will help year-round training.

7mgtv

The Exec Director Mark Abbott, will be holding a meeting on Wednesday, May 2nd to answer questions about the rumors and to discuss the club vision/ Dylan Sutherland's role for next year.

Chantilly HS - Lecture Hall #114
7pm - 9pm

Parents with questions and concerns should attend.

Try FPYC

What was said at the meeting May 2nd?

SYA has high quality coaches and plays in a very strong and competitive league in the CCL. Great structure in the club and coaches that care and not just there to collect a pay check. Really try to develop a full club experience, but also grow the kids to young adults with such things as community service, tournaments where they travel as a team and not just with there families, and great partnerships around the country.

SYA Wrote:
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> SYA has high quality coaches and plays in a very
> strong and competitive league in the CCL. Great
> structure in the club and coaches that care and
> not just there to collect a pay check. Really try
> to develop a full club experience, but also grow
> the kids to young adults with such things as
> community service, tournaments where they travel
> as a team and not just with there families, and
> great partnerships around the country.


Wow. How refreshing and mature. I can tell you Vienna Youth Soccer (VYS) Travel is the complete opposite. The VYS parents ruined the Club. Kids are brats, parents are worse, and the coaches suffer. For the posters/parents who said VYS cheats unashamedly, I say, you were not imagining it. You are dumb as dirt if you get involved in this uber-obnoxious club.