ECNL forcing Brave & Union Partnership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again. Any GA chat can go on the other 7000 threads on this site. Go away.

No, please stay. Helps us figure out which alternatives to Union are worth exploring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again. Any GA chat can go on the other 7000 threads on this site. Go away.

No, please stay. Helps us figure out which alternatives to Union are worth exploring.

But real info about Union coaching slates, ID sessions, etc. also appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one big game of chess and ECNL is running out of moves

ECNL is fine for now but MLSN is the top league for boys. If MLSN cared about dominating the youth soccer market they easily could.

ECNL girls is also fine for now but parents are starting to figure out that GA is the same thing. The only difference is the clubs involved.

The big unknown right now is if/how NWSL will partner with youth soccer. A working framework has been established by MLS and implemented via MLSN. Logically if NWSL was to follow MLSs footsteps they’d partner with GA and create NWSLN. If this was to happen there would be 20+ ECNL to GA defections year one.

That bolded part is so wrong.....

792 D1 verbal commitments for the 2025 class & breakdown by platform.

#ECNL -575 (72.6%)
#GirlsAcademy -166 (21%)
All Others -27 (3.4%)
🇨🇦 -24 (3%)

There’s a twitter handle that is tracking all this.

Are the above ECNL numbers just girls? I don’t doubt that ECNL girls has more D1 commitments than GA girls, even proportionately to the number of players / teams, but 3.5:1 doesn’t seem right. 575 ECNL boys and girls and 166 GA girls makes more sense to me.

Just girls. That is the point. Of course you can get recruited in GA. But not like ECNL.

Ignore the current mess at FCV. Any reasonable person would acknowledge that, on the whole over the last five years, FCV’s GA teams have been as good (not meaningfully better or meaningfully worse) as any of the ECNL teams in the DMV. Similarly, any reasonable person would acknowledge that some portion (top 10%, top quarter, top half?) of their teams could have played on any of the ECNL teams in the DMV. Given that the ECNL is producing 3x the number of D1 players, why did that portion of FCV’s players stay at FCV and not move to an ECNL team?

Because FCV HAS actually been meaningfully better. Currently they are ranked #1 in the state at 05/6, 07, and 08. Those players stay because coaching and development and club culture is good. Younger players come and stay because they see the success of older teams. Then 20+ players commit to college every year. So could they play at other ecnl clubs? Yes? Why don’t they? Because their club WAS probably better.

Fixed it for you.

[Anonymous]

For those trying to figure out what to do:
Go to as many ID sessions for as many clubs as possible, both GA/MLS Next and ECNL. Ask kids currently on the team you are looking at how they like the culture and coach.

If your child makes a lot of the teams, then you pick based upon fit. If your child only makes 1 team, and you liked it, perfect. If your child only makes 1 team and you didn’t like it, you have to decide whether what matters most to you, the league and prestige of the league or other factors.

This is a hard time of year. Best of luck to all, both players and their families and coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else completely annoyed how this thread was hijacked by ECNL dad and GA dad?

Most people on this thread want what's best for their McLean and Brave players. We are looking for any insight to coaching, roster spot numbers, and why this happened. I think all of us were very surprised by this. These are two ECNL clubs, so GA people go away and take your measuring stick with you or better yet, go to another thread.

Anyone know when coaching slates and ID sessions will come out? Maybe OP does since he spilled the beans to begin with.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. But the timing of this is killing parents because if we need to search elsewhere, we are down to wire with club IDs - including GA clubs.

I wish the adolescent jousting would stop, but I find the ECNL vs. GA discussion particularly relevant for players and parents impacted by the McLean - Brave combo as three of the alternatives for our DDs are the local GA clubs.

How is the GA/ECNL debate at all helpful to kids at BRAVE/Union?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else completely annoyed how this thread was hijacked by ECNL dad and GA dad?

Most people on this thread want what's best for their McLean and Brave players. We are looking for any insight to coaching, roster spot numbers, and why this happened. I think all of us were very surprised by this. These are two ECNL clubs, so GA people go away and take your measuring stick with you or better yet, go to another thread.

Anyone know when coaching slates and ID sessions will come out? Maybe OP does since he spilled the beans to begin with.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. But the timing of this is killing parents because if we need to search elsewhere, we are down to wire with club IDs - including GA clubs.

I wish the adolescent jousting would stop, but I find the ECNL vs. GA discussion particularly relevant for players and parents impacted by the McLean - Brave combo as three of the alternatives for our DDs are the local GA clubs.

How is the GA/ECNL debate at all helpful to kids at BRAVE/Union?

Does DD take a bench spot on a huge ECNL Union (Brave doesn’t exist anymore) roster or move to a starting role on a normally sized roster at GA FCV, SYC, or VRSC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else completely annoyed how this thread was hijacked by ECNL dad and GA dad?

Most people on this thread want what's best for their McLean and Brave players. We are looking for any insight to coaching, roster spot numbers, and why this happened. I think all of us were very surprised by this. These are two ECNL clubs, so GA people go away and take your measuring stick with you or better yet, go to another thread.

Anyone know when coaching slates and ID sessions will come out? Maybe OP does since he spilled the beans to begin with.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. But the timing of this is killing parents because if we need to search elsewhere, we are down to wire with club IDs - including GA clubs.

I wish the adolescent jousting would stop, but I find the ECNL vs. GA discussion particularly relevant for players and parents impacted by the McLean - Brave combo as three of the alternatives for our DDs are the local GA clubs.

How is the GA/ECNL debate at all helpful to kids at BRAVE/Union?

Does DD take a bench spot on a huge ECNL Union (Brave doesn’t exist anymore) roster or move to a starting role on a normally sized roster at GA FCV, SYC, or VRSC?

Or the 23rd spot, which I think cannot be considered a bench spot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of this is not relevant but a few of the answers are wrong and could be misleading to parents trying to separate signal from noise, so here’s some follow up:

“- ECNL parents are in constant state of FOMO”

Probably accurate, but unimportant of college recruiting- in fact FOMO parents can be unintentionally helpful.

“- GA is more relaxed”
Maybe? I felt like the parents were roughly the same, also not important.

“- There's bottom feeders in both leagues”

True but not super relevant other than as i noted earlier, if there’s better kids then more coaches show up.

“- The top GA teams get as much visibility with recruiters as the better ECNL teams”

Not accurate unfortunately. It’s a numbers game and there are way more college coaches at ECNL showcases and Nats.

“- There's 10ish ECNL clubs that would win in any league they play in. (Most are in California and Texas)”

Sure, but completely irrelevant to recruiting. Winning and losing is only vaguely important.

“- From a rules perspective for games, coaches, and clubs GA and ECNL are nearly identical”

Yep, totally agree.

“- If your kid is a once in a lifetime soccer talent other clubs, other leagues, colleges, and pros will find them no matter where they play”

I am not confident this is accurate, but I’ll agree.

“- For 99% of the players it doesn't matter where you play they'll end up in the same place”

100% wrong. Full stop. This trope that coaches are out there scouring the earth for players is simply wrong. For girls soccer, coaches have limited time and budget. Coaches know they can get enough of the talent they need from going to ECNL and GA tournaments/showcases and a few big club private showcases to fill their slots. College coaches wsnt to win, but it’s a churn business. They have 30 kids on the roster, 1/4 of them will graduate each year. The season is stupid short and brutal. Healthy bodies are almost as important as talent at the end of the season.

If your daughter wants to play upper D1 or high level D3 the chances of breaking through playing NPL or E64 are diminishingly small. My kid has friends who were probably as hood as she was, but they didn’t make the jump to ECNL/GA. A few belatedly tried to get a College spot, but the only interest was from D3 schools just looking for bodies.

My kids are not once in a lifetime talents. they both are good, one hit all met honorable mention and got UNited Coaches player of the week, but no call ups or huge honors. Without a chance to be seen by College coaches over and over, my kid isn’t playing in college today. As a parent, I would be fine with that, but it was her dream and i supported her. ECNL and GA are tools that help support that goal.

lol.. college coaches will get who they want, doesn’t matter the league. Yes ECNL showcases may have more coaches attend, but overall coaches will come see who they want, no matter the league.

Sure. But ECNL has about 70% of the commits to D1 and ECNL girls have a leg up at the D2 and D3 level as well.

If your kid plays on a crap ECNL team… I would rather take my chances at a successful GA team

Bingo.

Also eventually ECNL teams will join GA (it's just how things work) either because they're getting tired of getting beat in ECNL or because they think they can run GA and get more visibility for their teams.

This would be believable if there was one example of a ecnl club leaving to join ga.

SYC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else completely annoyed how this thread was hijacked by ECNL dad and GA dad?

Most people on this thread want what's best for their McLean and Brave players. We are looking for any insight to coaching, roster spot numbers, and why this happened. I think all of us were very surprised by this. These are two ECNL clubs, so GA people go away and take your measuring stick with you or better yet, go to another thread.

Anyone know when coaching slates and ID sessions will come out? Maybe OP does since he spilled the beans to begin with.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. But the timing of this is killing parents because if we need to search elsewhere, we are down to wire with club IDs - including GA clubs.

I wish the adolescent jousting would stop, but I find the ECNL vs. GA discussion particularly relevant for players and parents impacted by the McLean - Brave combo as three of the alternatives for our DDs are the local GA clubs.

How is the GA/ECNL debate at all helpful to kids at BRAVE/Union?

Does DD take a bench spot on a huge ECNL Union (Brave doesn’t exist anymore) roster or move to a starting role on a normally sized roster at GA FCV, SYC, or VRSC?

Its take a GA spot where you can play, its not even a question. I know there are good intentions but this is whats wrong with you all. Your Kid has to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else completely annoyed how this thread was hijacked by ECNL dad and GA dad?

Most people on this thread want what's best for their McLean and Brave players. We are looking for any insight to coaching, roster spot numbers, and why this happened. I think all of us were very surprised by this. These are two ECNL clubs, so GA people go away and take your measuring stick with you or better yet, go to another thread.

Anyone know when coaching slates and ID sessions will come out? Maybe OP does since he spilled the beans to begin with.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. But the timing of this is killing parents because if we need to search elsewhere, we are down to wire with club IDs - including GA clubs.

I wish the adolescent jousting would stop, but I find the ECNL vs. GA discussion particularly relevant for players and parents impacted by the McLean - Brave combo as three of the alternatives for our DDs are the local GA clubs.

How is the GA/ECNL debate at all helpful to kids at BRAVE/Union?

Does DD take a bench spot on a huge ECNL Union (Brave doesn’t exist anymore) roster or move to a starting role on a normally sized roster at GA FCV, SYC, or VRSC?

Its take a GA spot where you can play, its not even a question. I know there are good intentions but this is whats wrong with you all. Your Kid has to play.

Time to sign DD up for any remaining ID sessions at FCV, SYC and VRSC!

[Anonymous]

The goal is always to play. Don't take a spot to sit on a bench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of this is not relevant but a few of the answers are wrong and could be misleading to parents trying to separate signal from noise, so here’s some follow up:

“- ECNL parents are in constant state of FOMO”

Probably accurate, but unimportant of college recruiting- in fact FOMO parents can be unintentionally helpful.

“- GA is more relaxed”
Maybe? I felt like the parents were roughly the same, also not important.

“- There's bottom feeders in both leagues”

True but not super relevant other than as i noted earlier, if there’s better kids then more coaches show up.

“- The top GA teams get as much visibility with recruiters as the better ECNL teams”

Not accurate unfortunately. It’s a numbers game and there are way more college coaches at ECNL showcases and Nats.

“- There's 10ish ECNL clubs that would win in any league they play in. (Most are in California and Texas)”

Sure, but completely irrelevant to recruiting. Winning and losing is only vaguely important.

“- From a rules perspective for games, coaches, and clubs GA and ECNL are nearly identical”

Yep, totally agree.

“- If your kid is a once in a lifetime soccer talent other clubs, other leagues, colleges, and pros will find them no matter where they play”

I am not confident this is accurate, but I’ll agree.

“- For 99% of the players it doesn't matter where you play they'll end up in the same place”

100% wrong. Full stop. This trope that coaches are out there scouring the earth for players is simply wrong. For girls soccer, coaches have limited time and budget. Coaches know they can get enough of the talent they need from going to ECNL and GA tournaments/showcases and a few big club private showcases to fill their slots. College coaches wsnt to win, but it’s a churn business. They have 30 kids on the roster, 1/4 of them will graduate each year. The season is stupid short and brutal. Healthy bodies are almost as important as talent at the end of the season.

If your daughter wants to play upper D1 or high level D3 the chances of breaking through playing NPL or E64 are diminishingly small. My kid has friends who were probably as hood as she was, but they didn’t make the jump to ECNL/GA. A few belatedly tried to get a College spot, but the only interest was from D3 schools just looking for bodies.

My kids are not once in a lifetime talents. they both are good, one hit all met honorable mention and got UNited Coaches player of the week, but no call ups or huge honors. Without a chance to be seen by College coaches over and over, my kid isn’t playing in college today. As a parent, I would be fine with that, but it was her dream and i supported her. ECNL and GA are tools that help support that goal.

lol.. college coaches will get who they want, doesn’t matter the league. Yes ECNL showcases may have more coaches attend, but overall coaches will come see who they want, no matter the league.

Sure. But ECNL has about 70% of the commits to D1 and ECNL girls have a leg up at the D2 and D3 level as well.

If your kid plays on a crap ECNL team… I would rather take my chances at a successful GA team

Bingo.

Also eventually ECNL teams will join GA (it's just how things work) either because they're getting tired of getting beat in ECNL or because they think they can run GA and get more visibility for their teams.

This would be believable if there was one example of a ecnl club leaving to join ga.

SYC

SYC didn’t really even have a coach on the ECNL staff so really no coaches and not many players are choosing to leave ECNL. SYC decided they wanted to have their future players compete in the GA.

They decided to go get a GA director that wasn’t even good enough for Arlington. And Arlington is not exactly killing it right now with their staff.

No matter how much you bring up SYC and the GA, anyone that isn’t a current u12 parent or an SYC coach knows that GA is just a glorified EDP right now. They took VA Revolution who is not even a good EDP club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those trying to figure out what to do:
Go to as many ID sessions for as many clubs as possible, both GA/MLS Next and ECNL. Ask kids currently on the team you are looking at how they like the culture and coach.

If your child makes a lot of the teams, then you pick based upon fit. If your child only makes 1 team, and you liked it, perfect. If your child only makes 1 team and you didn’t like it, you have to decide whether what matters most to you, the league and prestige of the league or other factors.

This is dumb. Parents know what is best for their kids. Kids will evolve and grow into whatever team they join as long as you support them. Don’t base a year long commitment on whether or not your kid like the feel of a tryout.
This is a hard time of year. Best of luck to all, both players and their families and coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The goal is always to play. Don't take a spot to sit on a bench.

+1

The McLean way is to have large rosters over 20 and they won’t tell you how many they have signed up, so in the fall when 25 of you are in TeamSnap, sorry but, we told you so.

Please consider a club that actually focuses on soccer development as opposed to creating soccer logos and shining what is left of the turd they once called a successful soccer club every few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of this is not relevant but a few of the answers are wrong and could be misleading to parents trying to separate signal from noise, so here’s some follow up:

“- ECNL parents are in constant state of FOMO”

Probably accurate, but unimportant of college recruiting- in fact FOMO parents can be unintentionally helpful.

“- GA is more relaxed”
Maybe? I felt like the parents were roughly the same, also not important.

“- There's bottom feeders in both leagues”

True but not super relevant other than as i noted earlier, if there’s better kids then more coaches show up.

“- The top GA teams get as much visibility with recruiters as the better ECNL teams”

Not accurate unfortunately. It’s a numbers game and there are way more college coaches at ECNL showcases and Nats.

“- There's 10ish ECNL clubs that would win in any league they play in. (Most are in California and Texas)”

Sure, but completely irrelevant to recruiting. Winning and losing is only vaguely important.

“- From a rules perspective for games, coaches, and clubs GA and ECNL are nearly identical”

Yep, totally agree.

“- If your kid is a once in a lifetime soccer talent other clubs, other leagues, colleges, and pros will find them no matter where they play”

I am not confident this is accurate, but I’ll agree.

“- For 99% of the players it doesn't matter where you play they'll end up in the same place”

100% wrong. Full stop. This trope that coaches are out there scouring the earth for players is simply wrong. For girls soccer, coaches have limited time and budget. Coaches know they can get enough of the talent they need from going to ECNL and GA tournaments/showcases and a few big club private showcases to fill their slots. College coaches wsnt to win, but it’s a churn business. They have 30 kids on the roster, 1/4 of them will graduate each year. The season is stupid short and brutal. Healthy bodies are almost as important as talent at the end of the season.

If your daughter wants to play upper D1 or high level D3 the chances of breaking through playing NPL or E64 are diminishingly small. My kid has friends who were probably as hood as she was, but they didn’t make the jump to ECNL/GA. A few belatedly tried to get a College spot, but the only interest was from D3 schools just looking for bodies.

My kids are not once in a lifetime talents. they both are good, one hit all met honorable mention and got UNited Coaches player of the week, but no call ups or huge honors. Without a chance to be seen by College coaches over and over, my kid isn’t playing in college today. As a parent, I would be fine with that, but it was her dream and i supported her. ECNL and GA are tools that help support that goal.

lol.. college coaches will get who they want, doesn’t matter the league. Yes ECNL showcases may have more coaches attend, but overall coaches will come see who they want, no matter the league.

Sure. But ECNL has about 70% of the commits to D1 and ECNL girls have a leg up at the D2 and D3 level as well.

If your kid plays on a crap ECNL team… I would rather take my chances at a successful GA team

Bingo.

Also eventually ECNL teams will join GA (it's just how things work) either because they're getting tired of getting beat in ECNL or because they think they can run GA and get more visibility for their teams.

This would be believable if there was one example of a ecnl club leaving to join ga.

SYC

SYC didn’t really even have a coach on the ECNL staff so really no coaches and not many players are choosing to leave ECNL. SYC decided they wanted to have their future players compete in the GA.

They decided to go get a GA director that wasn’t even good enough for Arlington. And Arlington is not exactly killing it right now with their staff.

No matter how much you bring up SYC and the GA, anyone that isn’t a current u12 parent or an SYC coach knows that GA is just a glorified EDP right now. They took VA Revolution who is not even a good EDP club.

We don’t even know who the FVU TD is and now have a VYS coach for multiple age groups…