ALERT!! Be Advised about this Control Freak Jacob Tudela Coach!

Control Freak - We have all been there - worked up about a coach or club or DOC and often with legitimate complaints. But then you have families and players down the sideline are loving the coach and the club. You have to take a few deep breaths, do some yoga, look for the annoying coach and club that fits for your DD and you as a parent, then sit back and let her play. It is often best to move on to an environment that you like and fits for you rather than doing battle. Your daughter will be happier and progress in her skills and development. As many have said on this forum, it will be over before you know it and you don't want to look back with regret about not having enjoyed the ride.
 
“Futbol Club Desires and Expectations"

Just wanted to leave that one out in the open......{I admit, I hope @controlfreak fires back and we get to see the body of said email/text.....it’s a rainy day and the entertainment value would be priceless}
 
KJR said:
I was made aware of this thread this morning and had decided to ignore it; the community weighed in quickly and accurately. But I did want to put something on the record. I'll show you the courtesy that you didn't show Jacob and not share your real name on this forum, or the text of your email of "Futbol Club Desires and Expectations" that prompted an internal discussion about whether you would be a good fit for our club.

We're a new club, built on principles of great soccer, empowering girls, diversity, and inclusiveness; and over all of that, trying to do things "the right way." Now that last bit means something different to everyone, but for us it's usually about going for as much integrity and as little drama as possible. That applies to our coaches and players, but also (because they are an intrinsic part of the youth sports equation) to our parents. It seemed very clear from your initial email that you would have trouble meeting those expectations, and further due diligence (talking to parents at prior clubs you had been a part of) confirmed that.

Jacob communicated that you as politely as possible, respectful of the fact that your... enthusiasm came from a good place: you love your daughter. I get it; I love mine. You made another appeal; it was, again, politely turned down. I'm sorry you felt that the Director was then obligated to get on the phone with you to explain something that you clearly wouldn't accept or understand.

A lot of people would have left it at that. You chose to open an anonymous account and post lies (libel, technically) on a message board. Again, fortunately, this is a pretty savvy crowd, and even the folks who don't know Jacob or our club got a sense of what really went down. But here's the thing: what you did showed a lot of drama and not much integrity. So I still feel very comfortable with our decision.

I also feel sympathy for your daughter, who I'm sure is a fantastic kid, who has no idea what opportunities her (well-intentioned) dad is costing her. Before you fire off the inevitable hit job on me, you may want to take a beat and think about that. Best of luck to you and to her.

Kirk
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Oh snap!!!
 
Control Freak, I'm with you!

Soccer is a sport where players can excel without being fast and aggressive. After all, a good coach can teach speed and personality. On the other hand, it is difficult for a coach to teach skills, which are best learned in the backyard or with a private trainer.

So it's deplorable that Tudela would pick up low income, inner city kids who have no backyard or a private trainer. And he does so at the detriment of funding!? The top priority of American club soccer has always been economic gain, and therefore enjoyed by kids who can afford it. Fortunately for you, there are several clubs around you that do appreciate the importance of the dollar and will happily place your child on one of their teams.

What Jacob Tudela is doing is downright un-American in a country where the best youth soccer emerges from privileged communities. It's almost like he's trying to throw a monkey wrench in the system of U.S. Soccer, which is universally accepted as unequivocally, the best in the world!

-Stu Pitt
 
toucan said:
Do not believe the false narrative about Tudela FC's willingness to take in "the poor." There are surely a few "inner city" families playing with financial assistance, but that can be said of all clubs. I personally know 15-20 families in the Club. Most all of those families live in very privileged neighborhoods, are very well-off, and pay very high club fees. I do not know of a single family in the Club who is struggling financially, and I seriously doubt that there are more than a handful. For those few families with severe financial need, the scholarships are not "free." I am told that those families are expected to "earn" their scholarships by participating in fundraising events, such as having their kids sell lemonade on the street.

All clubs must be financially responsible, or they will not survive. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with expecting families to earn their scholarships. What I am saying is that Tudela FC is no better than others when it comes to offering its services to "the poor."
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Man, you people are killing my weekend.

I don't know who you are, but take issue with your false representation of our club. We don't claim to be better than anyone, but 30% of our players receive financial assistance; that's a lot more than "a few" or "a handful," and I doubt many other clubs can match it. Our "very high club fees" are in line with other clubs in SoCal. And no one has to "earn" scholarships by selling lemonade on the street -- one of our sponsors donates cold press coffee, and we make stands available for our teams to use in order to raise money for team fees (tournaments, refs, travel), which I'll assume you know are separate from club fees. Most of our players, including my daughter, have done at least one shift at a coffee stand. For the girls, it's about bonding and representing their club. For families who feel a greater financial burden, though, the money raised from those stands has been a huge help; they don't need you to be patronizingly outraged on their behalf.

We have no problem with families who can afford the full fees -- and yes, we have a lot who are comfortably able to do so. They're great families with great kids. We could make a lot more money if we just pulled from those neighborhoods, if we didn't reach out to underserved communities and bring in girls who are too often left behind by the club system. But those are also great families with great kids.

We want them all. We want to make our playing field as level as we can. It puts a bigger financial burden on us as a club, but it's what we're about, and as the club President I'll get on a soapbox any day (or a Sunday night) to defend our project.

'Night, everyone!
 
toucan said:
Do not believe the false narrative about Tudela FC's willingness to take in "the poor." There are surely a few "inner city" families playing with financial assistance, but that can be said of all clubs. I personally know 15-20 families in the Club. Most all of those families live in very privileged neighborhoods, are very well-off, and pay very high club fees. I do not know of a single family in the Club who is struggling financially, and I seriously doubt that there are more than a handful. For those few families with severe financial need, the scholarships are not "free." I am told that those families are expected to "earn" their scholarships by participating in fundraising events, such as having their kids sell lemonade on the street.

All clubs must be financially responsible, or they will not survive. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with expecting families to earn their scholarships. What I am saying is that Tudela FC is no better than others when it comes to offering its services to "the poor."
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Dude. "The poor"? "Inner city"? wtf???
 
C.A.M. said:
Riled up at U11? They are calm and matured in comparison to U8. I'm not joking.
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LOL. That's soooo true!!! I am going on my second stint of youth soccer after taking my older kids from u8 to u15. I have an 8 year old and starting all over again. It's funny to see how parents go nuts on a U8 game by name calling the refs, spewing hatred towards the other teams, and then going postal on their little star player when they had a bad game after they have been playing great for the entire season.

To me club soccer = Spending time exercising, learning to be disciplined, learn to be competitive, making friends, and keeping them away from doing nothing at home. If my child somehow becomes a freak soccer player by the time she is 14, then maybe she has a chance at scholarships.

In regards to CONTROL FREAK's post of $3,000 a year. I am paying half of that fee and compared to other sports, $3k is not bad. Hockey is like $7k, Volleyball is like $4k, Dance has to be close to $3k. Even Tae Kwan Do is $2k a year and it's not even a sport in High School.
 
toucan said:
Not trying to kill your weekend. And I have nothing against your club, which had a very successful first year. But one of the posters was suggesting that the Club was funding "low income inner city" kids, as though Tudela FC was particularly philanthropic in its outlook. I have a lot of respect for what your club is doing on the field.

But your club is not philanthropic, and your club is not really funding a whole lot of "low income inner city" kids. I'm not saying you should be philanthropic, nor that you should be funding anybody. But I have to roll my eyes when you claim you are "reaching out to underserved communities and bringing in girls who are too often left behind by the club system." I know who your clientele is, and while there are a few players in the club from "underserved communities," the percentage is less than what you will find at any other local club.

I believe your base fee is in the neighborhood of $2500+, not including the team fees, and not including the more-or-less mandatory trip to Indiana to play against the founding Tudela FC. All in, it costs $3,000-$4,000 for most Tudela players for each year. Now, we aren't talking about older players on ECNL or Academy teams playing in important tournaments all over the country. We are talking about small-side bronze and silver CSL teams playing in local tournaments. Just so you know, those fees are not really "in line" with the fees of most other clubs; they are near the very, very top. It's no wonder your kids are given the opportunity to sell coffee and lemonade on street corners to help pay for their team fees.

Now, as far as your own comments about accepting the "financial burden" of funding all of those low-income inner city kids who cannot afford to pay "full fees," I call BS. Your base fees are so high that offering partial scholarships here and there means that your club is still charging high fees. You argue that 30% of your players receive partial financial assistance, and you seem to think that is a high amount. Just so you know, Tudela is nothing special in this department; almost every local club gives about 30% of its players some form of scholarship.

Look, I like your club, and I like the people in your club. I even stood up for your club earlier on this board. I make no judgment as to the propriety of your club's fee structure. If you're bringing in a ton of money, then more power to you.

But please don't try to hose the forum with talk about how your club is doing its all to bring soccer to the underprivileged. That would be inconsistent with the truth.
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Aw come on Toucan, with this late night screed now you just seem like a petty, bitter representative of a competing club, and just lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. You are mostly taking issue not with the actual representative of Tudela FC, but with some anonymous poster named Stu Pitt. And I call a big BS on your claim that every local club gives scholarships to 30% of its players. My daughter plays for LAGSB but I am interested in this thread because I have a lot of respect for Tudela FC’s mission and what they have been able to accomplish. What club are YOU with? I want to know where to send the good players I know who could use some financial assistance.
 
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toucan said:
Not trying to kill your weekend. And I have nothing against your club, which had a very successful first year. But one of the posters was suggesting that the Club was funding "low income inner city" kids, as though Tudela FC was particularly philanthropic in its outlook. I have a lot of respect for what your club is doing on the field.

But your club is not philanthropic, and your club is not really funding a whole lot of "low income inner city" kids. I'm not saying you should be philanthropic, nor that you should be funding anybody. But I have to roll my eyes when you claim you are "reaching out to underserved communities and bringing in girls who are too often left behind by the club system." I know who your clientele is, and while there are a few players in the club from "underserved communities," the percentage is less than what you will find at any other local club.

I believe your base fee is in the neighborhood of $2500+, not including the team fees, and not including the more-or-less mandatory trip to Indiana to play against the founding Tudela FC. All in, it costs $3,000-$4,000 for most Tudela players for each year. Now, we aren't talking about older players on ECNL or Academy teams playing in important tournaments all over the country. We are talking about small-side bronze and silver CSL teams playing in local tournaments. Just so you know, those fees are not really "in line" with the fees of most other clubs; they are near the very, very top. It's no wonder your kids are given the opportunity to sell coffee and lemonade on street corners to help pay for their team fees.

Now, as far as your own comments about accepting the "financial burden" of funding all of those low-income inner city kids who cannot afford to pay "full fees," I call BS. Your base fees are so high that offering partial scholarships here and there means that your club is still charging high fees. You argue that 30% of your players receive partial financial assistance, and you seem to think that is a high amount. Just so you know, Tudela is nothing special in this department; almost every local club gives about 30% of its players some form of scholarship.

Look, I like your club, and I like the people in your club. I even stood up for your club earlier on this board. I make no judgment as to the propriety of your club's fee structure. If you're bringing in a ton of money, then more power to you.

But please don't try to hose the forum with talk about how your club is doing its all to bring soccer to the underprivileged. That would be inconsistent with the truth.
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Um, thank you for your support?

There's only so much anonymous rock throwing I can deflect, and this thread has to be getting dull for everyone else. But you started out by declaring, with apparent insider knowledge, that we give financial assistance to only a "handful" of families. When I told you the number was actually 30% of our club, you just rolled with it, turned on bold and italics, and announced that "almost every local club" does that. So... are you retracting your first statement? And will you retract your second? Because that's not true, either.

Again, I don't know who you are, and you seem to know some things about our club; but you clearly don't know everything, and the gap is an important one. It's what lets you say you "like" us so much that you won't judge us for "bringing in a ton of money." It's what lets you call me, several times, a liar. With friends like that, etc.

The club exists because Jacob Tudela is an incredible coach with a desire to make great soccer training accessible to as many girls as possible. He's not the only director who feels that way; we're not the only club with that mission. But set your cynicism aside and consider the possibility that we mean it. Yes, it costs a lot of money to compete in club sports -- that sucks! There's a whole "pay to play" conversation out there that you may be aware of. Having been a part of clubs that exemplify the worst end of the model, I wanted to help build something on the better side. If we can't break pay to play, we can bend it.

Or we can throw rocks. How 'bout this: you worry about your club, whatever it is, and I'll worry about mine. I only got on this thread because someone was spreading some seriously defamatory bullshit, and I wanted to clarify a few things. I appreciated your earlier comments in defense of what we're doing; you probably should have left it at that.

Now get me off this girls DA board.
 
toucan said:
Not trying to be petty. In fact, most of what I said about Tudela FC was positive. I praised their G2007 team and said it earned my respect. I praised Tudela FC successful first year. I said I liked the club and the people in it. I have not said a negative thing about the club, nor any person involved in it. I believed all those things when I wrote them, and still do.

Yes, you are correct that I was responding to an "anonymous" poster named Stu Pitt. Just like I am now responding to an "anonymous" poster named ajaxahi. Stu Pitt suggested that Tudela FC was funding a load of underprivileged and inner-city players. Later, KJR doubled down on that, stating that the Club was taking on the "financial burden" of reaching out to those players, "because its what we're about." It is only on that claim where I call BS.

My last responses stated facts supporting my opinion that - despite other areas where Tudela is doing well - it is not anymore "philanthropic" than any other clubs. You call me a bitter competitor, but I supplied supporting facts which you did not dispute. You supplied none of your own.

The facts provided were (1) the very high costs Tudela charges, ($2,500+ before team fees), (2) the fact that Tudela FC kids are raising money at lemonade stands, (3) the fact that most clubs give at least as much in scholarships as Tudela FC, and (4) the fact that I personally know much of the clientele at Tudela FC.

If you would like to know more facts, then we can look at competitor clubs directly in Tudela FC's neighborhood. LAUFA and Hollywood FC are the two closest clubs to Tudela FC. There are positive and negative things to say about both clubs. But pertinent to this conversation, both have significantly higher scholarship ratios than Tudela, and since both charge significantly less than Tudela, their scholarships make a bigger difference. Neither club has its kids selling coffee and lemonade on street corners in order to afford their team fees. (Not that there is anything wrong with doing so, but it is a bit cringeworthy.)

Although my club was bracketed with some of Tudela FC's teams, we are not in the same recruiting neighborhood, and do not compete for the same players. As to my own club, our club fees are about $1,500, and our team fees are about $500 per year. I personally spoke with all parents and personally negotiated all contracts for all the girls in the club so far (over 70 so far). The club scholarships awarded amounted to 29.6% of fee revenue. On the boys' side, the scholarships are higher, as is true for most clubs.

Let me repeat my bottom line.
  • I respect Tudela FC;
  • I like the people at Tudela FC;
  • I have no problem with Tudela FC charging any amount of money the market will bear;
  • I don't accept Tudela FC's claims as they relate to reaching out to the poor and underprivileged.
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LAUFA! I heard Rocky charges five figures for spots on his "academy" team.
 
Am I reading reading this right that people are arguing about how to spend or where to spend 2k + on club soccer? I'm just glad that I'd spent somewhere around 4k total in my DD's entire 11 year playing time.
 
"I have to roll my eyes," "I call BS," "that would be inconsistent with the truth" -- but "chill, dude, I'm not calling you a liar!"

General life lesson: lack of response doesn't imply agreement. I didn't give you a point by point rebuttal because I don't know you, and I don't need to sell our club to you. A lot of your numbers are wrong, and you may mean well, but your framing is borderline offensive. But it sounds like you're trying to do good things at your club -- maybe you should say the name so people can check it out! There are a lot of girls who want to play good club soccer, so the more the merrier.

Best of luck to you and CLUB TK.
 
rainbow_unicorn said:
ALERT!! Your kid will get cut if you being a pain in the ass outweighs the contribution that your kid brings to the team.
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From U8 to English premier that Applies aswell if the player is bigger pain in the butt or being a distraction outweighs the clubs ability to make money.
 
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