How much movement once your kid has made an ECNL/MLSNext team?

[Anonymous]

For those with experience-- how much movement and or turnover once your kid has made a "top" team for their club and gender. Do kids tend to get sent down a team ? How many a year? Do the 1st team kids tend to stay there and the lower tier ones just lose minutes/dressing out? I assume 2-3 kids will "trade up" for what they think is a better club each year. Happy to hear from both genders, but for this particular post interested in MLSN for boys and ECNL for girls.

[Anonymous]

Older ages, the rosters can get big. I haven’t seen ECNL girls get cut but I do see new talent brought it and players lose field time. Then they might choose to leave. Mostly by U14 rosters are set with a strong core team. I don’t ever see RL girls move up. That is a farce and definitely false advertising. Once you are on RL, that’s it for your club. You could probably move to a lower level ECNL 1 team (MDU eg) or GA, but not up within your club.
This is not as true at clubs outside MD/VA. Other clubs north of here have true ECNL pools that are more fluid.
My DD is RL, ok with it but she will not develop as well and that is clear. Level of play is generally a bit lower.

[Anonymous]

For ECNL Boys, ours doesn't cut, but will all but eliimnate playing time so a lot of those players will leave on their own. Kids do occasionally get moved up from RL teams, but not very often.

[Anonymous]

ECNL girls - kids do get cut but they usually know and ask to move down themselves or they go tryout at other club to stay in ECNL. It really depends on the team, some team will take in 6-7 players every year and that usually mean someone is going somewhere else and bench players losing minutes.

Usually the writing is all over the wall where your kid stands on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For ECNL Boys, ours doesn't cut, but will all but eliimnate playing time so a lot of those players will leave on their own. Kids do occasionally get moved up from RL teams, but not very often.

Def Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For ECNL Boys, ours doesn't cut, but will all but eliimnate playing time so a lot of those players will leave on their own. Kids do occasionally get moved up from RL teams, but not very often.

Def Arlington

Not Arlington, but since Arlington also does it, probably something most of the clubs do. If the club cuts down on a kids playing time and the kid keeps signing back up, the club still get the money and that is more playing time to keep other kids happy.

[Anonymous]

Why do you think ECNL coaches almost never bother looking at their own ECNL RL team. Its clearly not done at our club. You would think they would be looking for the kid that has drastically improved between 12 and 14. But time and time again you hear the only way for that now very good 14 year old to move up is to switch teams. Most times those RL kids dont even get a chance to try out. You would think during tryouts every year they would bring up the 5 or so best players from RL and have them try out with the outside players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think ECNL coaches almost never bother looking at their own ECNL RL team. Its clearly not done at our club. You would think they would be looking for the kid that has drastically improved between 12 and 14. But time and time again you hear the only way for that now very good 14 year old to move up is to switch teams. Most times those RL kids dont even get a chance to try out. You would think during tryouts every year they would bring up the 5 or so best players from RL and have them try out with the outside players.

Most coaches would rather take a proven player that played ECNL from outside than a player unproven from within. It’s not right but…

[Anonymous]

It depends on the club. SYC likes the smell of new money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think ECNL coaches almost never bother looking at their own ECNL RL team. Its clearly not done at our club. You would think they would be looking for the kid that has drastically improved between 12 and 14. But time and time again you hear the only way for that now very good 14 year old to move up is to switch teams. Most times those RL kids dont even get a chance to try out. You would think during tryouts every year they would bring up the 5 or so best players from RL and have them try out with the outside players.

my experience for boys is that there is a significant difference between the 1st and 2nd team, regardless of the league. My DS is in his last year, and of those that were or are on the 2nd team, only 2 would get significant playing time on the first team that were moved up. We have had about 10 boys over the years be moved from the first to the second team.

The girls side is similar, where there is a significant difference between the 1st and 2nd teams. We've had two players move up to the first team and get decent playing time.

[Anonymous]

I think where there isnt much of a difference is in the bottom few players on the top team and the top few players on the second team. I think those bottom players arent moved as much as they should to see if the top kids of the 2nd team can give something different because most clubs know that those bottom kids on first team if moved down are either going to quit or switch clubs. This creates a lot less movement between teams then there should be. Does it change the bottom line w/l record probably not.

[Anonymous]

All clubs want to entice new players from outside their club by offering high level team offers. Often, clubs don't recruit from within the lower clubs when families have already been paying to be on those lower teams.

If you player wants to make the jump from a lower to team to a higher one, he has to make that intention known over the winter of the season before. Let them know you will leave the club too.

[Anonymous]

I have an ECNL daughter. How many ECRL girls can get moved up and become a starter on the NL team? I think that's why you don't see girls moved up.

On my daughter's team, I've see 3 girls moved up over the years. They sat on the bench for a year, hardly playing. The following year, team has a player come from outside and this girl moved back down. I find that those girls and parents are happier on the ECRL team, where she plays lots of minutes and is a strong player on the team. So, I think realistically, kids who move up aren't good enough to take a starting position and the next shiny new girl who shows up pushes her back down.

I guess my club is better than lots of others in general because a girl does get the opportunity to move up. But all 3 moved back down the following year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an ECNL daughter. How many ECRL girls can get moved up and become a starter on the NL team? I think that's why you don't see girls moved up.

On my daughter's team, I've see 3 girls moved up over the years. They sat on the bench for a year, hardly playing. The following year, team has a player come from outside and this girl moved back down. I find that those girls and parents are happier on the ECRL team, where she plays lots of minutes and is a strong player on the team. So, I think realistically, kids who move up aren't good enough to take a starting position and the next shiny new girl who shows up pushes her back down.

I guess my club is better than lots of others in general because a girl does get the opportunity to move up. But all 3 moved back down the following year.

I think that pretty much sums it up, fair or not players being brought up from the 2nd team don't get the minutes on the top team that they're used to and either ask to go back down or switch clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think ECNL coaches almost never bother looking at their own ECNL RL team. Its clearly not done at our club. You would think they would be looking for the kid that has drastically improved between 12 and 14. But time and time again you hear the only way for that now very good 14 year old to move up is to switch teams. Most times those RL kids dont even get a chance to try out. You would think during tryouts every year they would bring up the 5 or so best players from RL and have them try out with the outside players.

It’s like this. The top 2-3 ECNL players are easily identified and make or break the team in terms of wins. The next 5-8 players are solid ECNL players but are nothing outstanding- ie roll players. The final part of the roster really is the hardest part to build. Most of the players have a few weaknesses and a few strengths but it depends on what the coach values.

The top few players of the lower team and the bottom of the ECNL team are for the most part interchangeable. The thing is the coach/es have seen all these players and have ranked them based on a lot of factors(not all based on how they play). Shuffling the bottom of the roster does not win you more games but creates unhappy parents. The coach will take another ECNL player from a different team over the bottom of the current rosters or the top player on the lower team because they hope to get another solid ECNL player- ie a starter or a good backup.