I think one of the reasons families come back to Madlax after trying these other programs is that they perceive that player evaluation is based strictly on the merits, which is definitely not always the case at some of these other NOVA programs. So if my son got cut from the program next year, he would be bummed, but understand that it was based soley on his performance relative to the other kids trying out. [/quote]

BRYC is definitely NOT AA team. 3d, who bought Fuze, will fill the void in the Western suburbs, Madlax will continue to dominate Fairfax and in (with a few MD kids, not many). VLC is being left out in the cold. It's already happening. VLC will drop youth teams. They embarrass the King Crab [/quote]

I think VLC wrote off youth development a couple years ago and basically wanted to knock out Blackwolf for high school level teams. One season after being bought out by Crabs they dropped U-11. That spring they cancelled the U-13a team after the team had tryouts and the families bought the gear. Just awful communications and professionalism. Now they have U-13 and U-15 teams playing in down divisions. VLC has some decent high school teams, but it is important to understand that those players and teams came up with a different VLC club that developed players and did two U-15 and U-13 teams up and through. Considering that the whole ungrateful quitter thing didn't kill Madlax, VLC and Blackwolf are now both in real trouble now because the better players developed by other clubs are tending to stay put, and this is because neither VLC or Blackwolf has put the resources into the youth levels and are finding less success just poaching the best kids developed at other clubs. Sounds a lot like the Crabs philosophy because it is the Crabs philosophy. Another big problem is VLC parents are always upset their teams don't go to the right tournaments, showcases, they never get put in the best brackets like the Balt Crabs, etc., etc. Maybe that is just whining but there is a continued belief by a lot of VLC parents that the only purpose served by VLC is to make Ryan McClernan some money.