LA Surf Implodes

All of this is just business and can be messy, especially when you're talking about youth sports (read cottage industry).

While I fully understand all the arguments about development style, philosophy and building the best club and so on, at the end of the day its all about dollars. The control issue being implied is more of business control rather than soccer control.

Couple of things to think about. Sotilo is owned by Estillo-Honda and has academies all over the world as well as own couple of professional teams in Scandinavia and Africa. They also took a small stake in Surf Sports (parent company for Surf SC) few years ago. When they announced LA Surf, it make sense from branding but probably never realized what they expected so why not go back to being Sotilo and grow their own brand. As for SGV, probably didn't like the arrangement so why not join Soltilo. Sounds like they have been a gypsy club the last few years.

We tend to think that club soccer is youth sports first, then business but in reality, its business first and youth soccer is the medium in which the money flows. Its all about branding and marketing. Kids are commodity that funnels monies to the club from parents (consumer).

May not like it but its true...

My kids played with (and I served in various BOD roles with) a community-based non-profit youth sports club, so I can attest that it is not all about mining money from eager parents.

However, the "it's just a business" theory would explain some of the interactions we had with other clubs.
 
The way Legends handled KB leaving looks so much more professional and great communication for those at Legends. That's the way to handle things like that. This is more like a nasty divorce and we all know what happens when kids are involved in a nasty divorce. BS and should never happen in girls soccer. BTW, how is all this effecting the girls? What about the Jr and Srs? Do you know how much pressure some of them feel? When my dd was in middle school one of the students hung herself. She left a note saying she felt too much pressure. I have more but it's to sad to share them. Some of these dudes, coaches, docs and dads don;t give a shit about our dds. Trust me when I say this. This is war in LA for market share and our poor dds are caught in the middle because we as parents want them to get a scholarship in soccer and they all know that. We need to send a message loud and clear. In socal, 11 girls made U16 and U17 list. I'm happy for them. Why do we need a league that has crappy rules, makes you travel all over the country and then makes you take long bus rides to AZ, NoCal and Vegas to make them a boat load of money and maybe another 100 or so goats better. Plus they make you pay. I'm embarrassed to add it all up. On top of all that, you have to give up HS Soccer. WTF?????

P.S. Lets give Beach, Legends and Pats the GDA. 100% fully funded btw :) Two teams in each age group. Stub Hub for all of LA . Great Park for OC and Silverlakes for IE and SD top goats who want that life now. The other teams play ECNL and other leagues plus HS Soccer.

I can't speak for all teams, but our team has been together going on 3 years. We started as Socal Academy, then a year later LA Surf, and now another year later we will be another new club. But our girls aren't affected. This is all above their pay grade. They just care about playing soccer. None of us parents are losing any sleep over this situation. But again, I can only speak for our team
 
I can't speak for all teams, but our team has been together going on 3 years. We started as Socal Academy, then a year later LA Surf, and now another year later we will be another new club. But our girls aren't affected. This is all above their pay grade. They just care about playing soccer. None of us parents are losing any sleep over this situation. But again, I can only speak for our team
Just curious, is the "whole" team sticking together?
 
I can't speak for all teams, but our team has been together going on 3 years. We started as Socal Academy, then a year later LA Surf, and now another year later we will be another new club. But our girls aren't affected. This is all above their pay grade. They just care about playing soccer. None of us parents are losing any sleep over this situation. But again, I can only speak for our team
Having been thru this for the last 12 yrs its only a matter of time before your kids start getting plucked away and it’s usually two or three at a time. I was in your same boat with my sons team and was saying the same thing”not our team”. I would have a good spokesperson for your team and if your coach bails then find another coach with a different club. We held on till U15 they eventually broke up. This does all depend on the age were talking about. If there older its a little easier to keep them together but if younger it will be more difficult Just my 2 cents!
 
Having been thru this for the last 12 yrs its only a matter of time before your kids start getting plucked away and it’s usually two or three at a time. I was in your same boat with my sons team and was saying the same thing”not our team”. I would have a good spokesperson for your team and if your coach bails then find another coach with a different club. We held on till U15 they eventually broke up. This does all depend on the age were talking about. If there older its a little easier to keep them together but if younger it will be more difficult Just my 2 cents!

Of course, anything could happen. I'm not saying we will be together for eternity. I'm speaking as of right now, we are good. This infighting doesn't really affect our team
 
My kids played with (and I served in various BOD roles with) a community-based non-profit youth sports club, so I can attest that it is not all about mining money from eager parents.

However, the "it's just a business" theory would explain some of the interactions we had with other clubs.
I too have served on several boards in my time when our kids were little in multiple sports. Most community-based club (e.g., AYSO Extra/Plus/United/etc, Signature league clubs and so on...) are not what we are discussing. We're talking about these mega clubs and those that aspire to grow big.

To bring up handful of exceptions does not change how the industry as a whole acts for the most part...
 
I can't speak for all teams, but our team has been together going on 3 years. We started as Socal Academy, then a year later LA Surf, and now another year later we will be another new club. But our girls aren't affected. This is all above their pay grade. They just care about playing soccer. None of us parents are losing any sleep over this situation. But again, I can only speak for our team

Sounds like you are from the San Marino side, and we just read a email from BR saying the San Marino side is not going anywhere. So what are you hearing from your coach? details
 
Its stories like this that makes me really glad that we're done with club soccer in 3 months. Our youngest graduates from HS and he'll be off to college in the summer.

We've been in club soccer between two kids for 15 years. During that time we've seen so many changes, yet so little differences. If you step back and view the big picture, there has been no real innovation or change to youth soccer. Just different dominate labels/brands.

We started the older kid with Laguna Niguel Soccer Club (which started as Laguna Beach SC, then merged to LNSC, then taken over by LNYSA to become Laguna United), then Pats, followed by FCGS, (Soltilo for a summer) , finally finishing with SD Surf. He''s playing 3rd year in college now and has a year to go for graduation.

The younger started with Laguna United, then Pats, then LAGOC (was Irvine Slammers when we moved and now Liverpool but we won't be...). He just has couple of tournaments and the National Cup to go and we're done!

So, my advise to those who are in midst of all the chaos, is the following:
- Know that whatever you have now, will not be in a relatively short time
- Try to avoid knee-jerk reaction and let things play out before taking actions
- Just focus on your own objectives/your kids objectives and ignore the white noise
- know when to leave a team (the same coach is only effective for couple of years and most coaches have best ages to work with kids)

Other than that, just enjoy the moment because I cannot believe 15 years have passed playing club soccer, and that we're going to be an empty nesters in few months. It will fly by you...
 
They haven't told us yet. They said to expect an announcement in a few days
What is the rumor mill saying? Are you still with Coach Chavez or did he stay with Coach Barry? We should take some bets on the new name. I'm thinking maybe Liverpool now? I can see a small boutique local club with a coach like timbuck for u7-13. However, the top players will be poached from the clan. My wife and I were watching Alpha Dog last night. It's a movie about a wolf that became the first dog ever and mans best friend. Anyway, the clan was all together around the camp fire eating and talking about the days events. Out of nowhere my wife screams and this big gigantic black panther type saber tooth tiger snatched one the dads sons and took him away for dinner. It happen so fast and everyone looked around saying, "dang, another one."
 
My niece had the same coach from U9 until D1.....several of the same teammates too......amazing experience and he's still in touch with the family as is the teammates.......it seems that is so rare nowadays to be almost impossible.....there is so many changes every damn day......just make sure your dd is happy and you're following their dreams not your own........
 
Sounds like you are from the San Marino side, and we just read a email from BR saying the San Marino side is not going anywhere. So what are you hearing from your coach? details

So basically from what I understand, the teams from San Marino will leave. But Surf will keep San Marino as a location and try to build new teams. I don't think they will have much luck though because its just LA Premier with a new coat of paint.
 
What is the rumor mill saying? Are you still with Coach Chavez or did he stay with Coach Barry? We should take some bets on the new name. I'm thinking maybe Liverpool now? I can see a small boutique local club with a coach like timbuck for u7-13. However, the top players will be poached from the clan. My wife and I were watching Alpha Dog last night. It's a movie about a wolf that became the first dog ever and mans best friend. Anyway, the clan was all together around the camp fire eating and talking about the days events. Out of nowhere my wife screams and this big gigantic black panther type saber tooth tiger snatched one the dads sons and took him away for dinner. It happen so fast and everyone looked around saying, "dang, another one."

I think Coach Chavez's status is a bit more complicated because of DA. Only time will tell with that one.
 
Sounds like someone who might hold folks hostage based on the little I've heard about this coach?

I really can't speak to anyone elses experiences with Chavez, but I like him. I think he's a great coach. We'll see how it shakes out in the next couple of weeks I guess
 
I really can't speak to anyone elses experiences with Chavez, but I like him. I think he's a great coach. We'll see how it shakes out in the next couple of weeks I guess
I hear many different things about him. Not hear to judge the coach. Prior to June last year, both LA Surf family and the Chavez clan were selling ECNL to all the parents. I know this from a dad from socal. Then coach Barry who also was the u15 girls YNT coach came in to make one big family. Instead of ECNL, they were sold DA. So no DA?
 
Back
Top