December 26 -- Some folks just can’t get enough soccer!  There was no snow on the field this year...just a glorious late December sun overhead... as currrent and former U16/19 Boys and Girls gathered for their annual alumni get-together at Wakefield Park on December 24. 

Organized by long-time Senior Division Deputy Commissioner and U16/19 ("She Devils") Girls coach Doug Alcorn, and (just as) long time U12 - U16/19 Boys coach John Kelleher (who now has two very active U4 boys of his own and just might complete the cycle again), more than a dozen girls and over two dozen boys got together with current and former soccer teammates and opponents for an afternoon of fun...and hot chocolate! 

Not content to take the winter off, the senior boys and alums continue to play at Wakefield every Friday night from 6-7:30 PM, weather and field conditions permitting.

Thanks to Doug and John for the group photos to freshen up the web page as we wait for the spring season!

November 20 -- At the end of Saturday’s 25 minute "seeding" games, Coach Mauricio Milian’s U11 Boys had only a "so-so" record that placed them pretty much in the middle of the ten team division. As a fortuitous draw would have it, that was good enough to earn them a bye in Sunday morning’s early games in the second tier, and place them into a semi-final match-up against a team from Chantilly (CYA). In a hard fought contest, BRYC’s boys prevailed...and it was on to the finals where they would likely face the top-seeded team in the bracket. As fortune would again have it, however, the top-seeded boys from Fairfax (FPYC), playing at the same time, were going down to a determined squad from Vienna (VYS) who Milian’s boys had played, and beaten 2-1, during the seeding round. They would meet again for the championship.

After warning his boys not to take Vienna lightly, that beating a team twice in two days wasn’t going to be easy, Milian said he had confidence in their ability to win Championship honors if they played as well as they could. And they did! Congratulations to Rani, two Erics, Brian, Ezana, Giles, Benjamin, Liam, Roman, Daniel, Brendan, Kyle, and Philip, and certainly to coach Milian, for a great tournament weekend...the only BRYC squad to win it’s final game.

Five other BRYC squads were not quite so fortunate, but made it to the Championship game before going down, three of them in heartbreaking penalty kick shootouts , joining five other BRYC squads who also ended their All Star campaigns in PK’s without reaching the finals.  So the BRYC Recreational Soccer season ends with the thought that before next spring’s FPYC Tournament we just might want to spend a little more time practicing penalty kicks! But win, lose, or draw, the consensus is it was a great tournament for all the participants. As Joan Smith, coach of the U14 Girls noted in an email after their heartbreaking loss, "THAT is what youth sports should be all about. I’m sure we all agree that ... we would have liked the win... but in the end it’s a game. There will be another year."

Press "Continue" to see team photos of the other trophy winning squads.  More team and action photos will be posted soon in the individual league pages.

November 12 - Congratulations to the U13/14 Girls "Danger," coached by the husband and wife team of James Sullivan and Joan Smith, for their undefeated Fall 2011 season, winning the Red Division of the two-division league before entering the season’s final game against the Springfield Youth Club (SYC) Cobras, winners of the Blue Division, who were also unbeaten but once tied by another SYC squad. In a game every bit as exciting as you would expect based on their records, the SYC team fell behind early in the second half (giving up their first goal of the season) before coming back to even the game (with the BRYC squad giving up only its second goal of the season) in heart-stopping action.

In a game played for "bragging rights", both squads had a lot to be proud of as the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Check the U14 Girls League page for a more complete story and lots of photos to accompany the team photo at the right.

Meanwhile, in U16/19 Boys tournament action in the Suburban Friendship League, coach Mitch Peyser’s U16 Boys (below left) took first place in their division with a 2-1 win over North Virginia Soccer Club and a 1-0 win over Annandale in the finals.  It took three tournament wins for Coach John Kelleher’s U19 Boys (below right) to claim the championship trophies in their division, beating Annandale 2-1, Chantilly 4-2, and upsetting a second team from Annandale in the finals, 1-0.  League Director/Coach Greg Walsh’s team also went undefeated in tournament action, but a 3-1 win over Haymarket and 2-2 ties with two squads from Alexandria was only good enough for third place in the tournament after a very sucessful season.  Congratulations to all.

Back in December 2009 the BRYC Board and Recreational Soccer EXCOM fulfilled a dream they’d had since they were kids (pictured at left as they looked when they were younger),  having their own clubhouse (pictured at right as they imagined it). 

That dream became a reality when the owners of what had been the World Gym building in University Mall allowed BRYC to use the vacated building until it was leased again.  In the last two year BRYC Rec Soccer has made good use of the space for meetings, classes, and uniform distribution, just to name a few. 

Sadly, our "temporary" home is no more.  After Uniform Night in the rain and terrible traffic created by Tropical Storm Lee, and an impromptu reprise on Saturday morning for those who couldn’t make it to the Clubhouse that evening, BRYC bid adiu to our temporary home.  The real estate developer will be demolishing the building as part of a major renovation project for the mall.  Members of the EXCOM who were there for the Saturday morning uniform distribution were the last ones out...and turned off the lights before we locked the door, but not before snapping a few photos.

   John Davis          U14 Coach James Sullivan             Young Uniform Shoppers       D. Knight, M. Squires, D. Alcorn

BRYC, the Braddock Road Youth Club, is a non-profit organization in Fairfax County, Virginia, established in 1968 to offer a variety of youth sports activities in the Burke/Annandale/ Springfield, Virginia area.  BRYC Soccer is divided into two programs, Recreational Soccer and Travel Soccer.  This web site is devoted exclusively to BRYC’s Recreational Soccer program, consisting of neighborhood-based teams. Any youth that signs up to play in the recreational league will be placed on a team.  For information on BRYC Travel Soccer, go to brycsoccer.com. For links to all the BRYC sports programs, from football to fast-pitch softball, go to bryc.org