ECNL forcing Brave & Union Partnership

[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.

GA took VRSC based on the coaching staff they recruited from FCV, who over the last 13 years built one of the most successful girls soccer programs in the DMV (some would say in the nation). One can reasonably debate whether the historical success of a coaching staff at an entirely different club should be enough to get a GA charter, but it’s misleading to suggest VRSC’s current program is the basis for the new GA program.

[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.

Calm down little ECNL cheerleader. It's time to sleep.

He's such a tiger. Tomorrow he'll be up and posting like never before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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…

Do we? Where is the coaching slate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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…

Do we? Where is the coaching slate?

If I’m to believe this thread then yes. He may or may not have coached the same 08 team for 3, going on 4 years?! Unless Union coaches are confirmed, we have downgraded to Bryc coaches who have not shown any ability to develop or win and a VYS coach who was coaching ncsl a few years ago. How is this setup better than any of the competing GA clubs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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…

Do we? Where is the coaching slate?

If I’m to believe this thread then yes. He may or may not have coached the same 08 team for 3, going on 4 years?! Unless Union coaches are confirmed, we have downgraded to Bryc coaches who have not shown any ability to develop or win and a VYS coach who was coaching ncsl a few years ago. How is this setup better than any of the competing GA clubs?

It’s not.

https://varevolution.com/girls-academy/

https://www.fcvirginia.com/tsjfcvga

[Anonymous]

I heard there were few offers made from previous Union to the players who did tryout before the news brokeout. Hint, from GA.

Will FVU honor those offers? Or players will have to do the tryouts again?

[Anonymous]

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.

What is the name of this twitter handle?

[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.

Both maldonados and tupy had been on the coaching slate in 22-23. Este still on staff for 24-24. Not sure why they started dropping off. Maybe in expectation of GA or maybe they got ousted? Either way, point stands that SYC is leaving ECNL for a lesser league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

When are those ID sessions? And has NVA 2012 girls already sent invites?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

When are those ID sessions? And has NVA 2012 girls already sent invites?

https://varevolution.com/...s-academy/

https://www.fcvirginia.co...m/tsjfcvga

[Anonymous]

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.

LOL all you want, but the numbers don't lie:

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

There's a higher than 0% chance for non ECNL/GA kids of course, but not much higher.....

That’s class of 25. 792 commits across 330+ D1 programs. There are literally thousands more that will happen in the next year. It’s like 20% of the class. Plenty of non ECNL/GA players will go D1. I literally know like 5 D1 players that came from EDP and I barely know anyone in that age group, since my kids are younger.

First of all, there aren’t “thousands more”, there’s roughly 1,500 spots left. Second of all, no you don’t know 5 D1 players that came from EDP. Name the five schools. Are there more than 5 EDP players playing for D1 schools? Sure! but you don’t randomly know them. Want proof? Here’s EDP’s own list of recruits. https://www.edpsoccer.com/general-8-2

You will note the vaaaast majority are not D1, and the D1s listed are not P4. Ironically the one P4 I did see on the list played at least two seasons on ECNL because my kid played against her!

Dumb, dumb - I said I know players PLAYING D1, not class of 24 commits. Want proof? Read the post you quoted!! EDP is barely in VA and FCV has had girls from their United teams go D1 in the last few years - Towson, Stetson, VMI, etc.…use your awesome googling skills to look that up.

And, by the way, EDP’s list is *wait for it* not right! There is a 24 from this area playing EDP who is a D1 commit and not on the list. A MAAC school. See if you can figure that one out, Benoit Blanc!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Both maldonados and tupy had been on the coaching slate in 22-23. Este still on staff for 24-24. Not sure why they started dropping off. Maybe in expectation of GA or maybe they got ousted? Either way, point stands that SYC is leaving ECNL for a lesser league.

A different league better aligned with their model of player development, which is proven again, see boys MLSN at SYC. Plus independence and space from the sinking legacy media ship formerly known as just McLean now it’s McBrave. SYC 100% left Union so yes they left ECNL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one in their right mind is leaving for GA teams. Your kiddo would be better off at regional ECNL….anyone that knows the youth soccer landscape knows that. Soccer 101 for dummies

How is an ECNL-RL team better than a GA1 team? Sounds like something only an -RL parent would say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Both maldonados and tupy had been on the coaching slate in 22-23. Este still on staff for 24-24. Not sure why they started dropping off. Maybe in expectation of GA or maybe they got ousted? Either way, point stands that SYC is leaving ECNL for a lesser league.

A different league better aligned with their model of player development, which is proven again, see boys MLSN at SYC. Plus independence and space from the sinking legacy media ship formerly known as just McLean now it’s McBrave. SYC 100% left Union so yes they left ECNL

GA is better aligned with development? How do?

[Anonymous]

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.

What is the name of this twitter handle?

@imyouthsoccer