Wow!!! WUP appears to be imploding. I feel badly for the kids. I can't comment on the boys side bc I only have a daughter but...
KI's U16s were made up from two groups that have been through the ringer (WU to SW to WUP, and then the Pioneer players who lost VG mid-season). WUP allowed a U14 player (mom on the board) to play up without offering other top level players (who clearly were talented enough) from the younger age group the same opportunity. Then, to make it worse, KI took on two U14 (upcoming U15) players mid-season not because they were so talented that they weren't being challenged, but because their parents threw fits and got what they wanted. Allowing parents to call the shots is a death blow, but it also screwed the U14 age group. The U15s had a good season despite all this, and I'm sad to hear that this group...once again...is being ripped apart. Maybe its due to ECNL or or might have happened as a matter of course, but CL asking for VG back when she was a key player in his removal as coach a ferw years back... WTH is going on???
The upcoming U15s are also a group that has been through the ringer. The WU group were the dregs from the SW gutting, and the Pioneers were a group who also suffered from SW and several coaching changes. After another year of broken promises and over committed coaches, this age group is now gutted, and is it any wonder. This group was never properly combined at the merge so WUP could keep as many bodies as possible. The black team didn't even have a coach at the start of tryouts last spring because WUP fired VG. They assigned EP who is also on the board and has a full time job. The other coach was a college asst coach who wasn't around all fall. They sent the WUP black team to SC with only 13 players, and several times, sent both teams to tourneys and games with 11 or 12 players. Now, they are seeing the effects of poor management. Top players from this group either left club soccer entirely, tried out for Scorps ECNL/NPL, and some mid to lower level players left for PV Strom or FC Mass. No wonder their best player left for Stars. She should have gone last year. Now she is a player that would have benefited from being allowed to play up, and against stronger competition, but there was no way EP was going to let that happen.
WUP does not care about individual player development. Its all about keeping bodies, which means catering to parents, putting players at risk by sending undermanned teams to tournaments, allowing board members and parents to coach teams, and doing whatever is necessary to limp along week by week. From the sounds of it, the same thing was going on in the boys side.
I am sad that my daughter has chosen a different path, but I will not miss the drama and broken promises that are club soccer.
KI's U16s were made up from two groups that have been through the ringer (WU to SW to WUP, and then the Pioneer players who lost VG mid-season). WUP allowed a U14 player (mom on the board) to play up without offering other top level players (who clearly were talented enough) from the younger age group the same opportunity. Then, to make it worse, KI took on two U14 (upcoming U15) players mid-season not because they were so talented that they weren't being challenged, but because their parents threw fits and got what they wanted. Allowing parents to call the shots is a death blow, but it also screwed the U14 age group. The U15s had a good season despite all this, and I'm sad to hear that this group...once again...is being ripped apart. Maybe its due to ECNL or or might have happened as a matter of course, but CL asking for VG back when she was a key player in his removal as coach a ferw years back... WTH is going on???
The upcoming U15s are also a group that has been through the ringer. The WU group were the dregs from the SW gutting, and the Pioneers were a group who also suffered from SW and several coaching changes. After another year of broken promises and over committed coaches, this age group is now gutted, and is it any wonder. This group was never properly combined at the merge so WUP could keep as many bodies as possible. The black team didn't even have a coach at the start of tryouts last spring because WUP fired VG. They assigned EP who is also on the board and has a full time job. The other coach was a college asst coach who wasn't around all fall. They sent the WUP black team to SC with only 13 players, and several times, sent both teams to tourneys and games with 11 or 12 players. Now, they are seeing the effects of poor management. Top players from this group either left club soccer entirely, tried out for Scorps ECNL/NPL, and some mid to lower level players left for PV Strom or FC Mass. No wonder their best player left for Stars. She should have gone last year. Now she is a player that would have benefited from being allowed to play up, and against stronger competition, but there was no way EP was going to let that happen.
WUP does not care about individual player development. Its all about keeping bodies, which means catering to parents, putting players at risk by sending undermanned teams to tournaments, allowing board members and parents to coach teams, and doing whatever is necessary to limp along week by week. From the sounds of it, the same thing was going on in the boys side.
I am sad that my daughter has chosen a different path, but I will not miss the drama and broken promises that are club soccer.
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