Summer leagues

[Anonymous]

With all the teams switching their summer leagues for the older HS and college kids coming home can someone explain the difference between WPSL, Pro 23 and the USL W league?

[Anonymous]

My college player did McLean last summer but they don’t seem to be listed on WPSL site anymore.

[Anonymous]

No real difference, just different competing semi-pro leagues. I believe USLW is the only one tied to an actual pro league.

[Anonymous]

Based on the question, I assume you are looking at women's teams versus men's...

The poster above may be right in saying that there isn't a real difference between them. The quality of play may be similar but the support is probably pretty different.

From being here where all are in play - USL-W, Pro23 and WPSL, the USL-W team has by far the most support.

The Pro23 club here was run by the youth team and has had HS and lower level college players on the team. Parents and friends of the players show up to watch.

he WPSL club in our area is a step up and has a good mix of college players and some HS talent. Parents and friends along with a a hardcore group of fans show up to watch.

The USL-W squad is squad is much higher level college players and may have one or two very top HS level players. Parents and friends along with thousands of others show up to watch these games.

That's at least what I have seen here in my area the last couple of years.

I think all are valuable in terms of continuing to play in the summer. It's what exactly are you expecting.

[Anonymous]

UPSL is trying to get a DMV women's division going, but have been struggling to find teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the question, I assume you are looking at women's teams versus men's...

The poster above may be right in saying that there isn't a real difference between them. The quality of play may be similar but the support is probably pretty different.

From being here where all are in play - USL-W, Pro23 and WPSL, the USL-W team has by far the most support.

The Pro23 club here was run by the youth team and has had HS and lower level college players on the team. Parents and friends of the players show up to watch.

he WPSL club in our area is a step up and has a good mix of college players and some HS talent. Parents and friends along with a a hardcore group of fans show up to watch.

The USL-W squad is squad is much higher level college players and may have one or two very top HS level players. Parents and friends along with thousands of others show up to watch these games.

That's at least what I have seen here in my area the last couple of years.

I think all are valuable in terms of continuing to play in the summer. It's what exactly are you expecting.

This is a great understandable summary for women, thanks. Does the same hold true for men?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the question, I assume you are looking at women's teams versus men's...

The poster above may be right in saying that there isn't a real difference between them. The quality of play may be similar but the support is probably pretty different.

From being here where all are in play - USL-W, Pro23 and WPSL, the USL-W team has by far the most support.

The Pro23 club here was run by the youth team and has had HS and lower level college players on the team. Parents and friends of the players show up to watch.

he WPSL club in our area is a step up and has a good mix of college players and some HS talent. Parents and friends along with a a hardcore group of fans show up to watch.

The USL-W squad is squad is much higher level college players and may have one or two very top HS level players. Parents and friends along with thousands of others show up to watch these games.

That's at least what I have seen here in my area the last couple of years.

I think all are valuable in terms of continuing to play in the summer. It's what exactly are you expecting.

This is a great understandable summary for women, thanks. Does the same hold true for men?

Man, the men's side is tough because there seems to be such a mish-mash of leagues and I'm not as familiar. There's NPSL teams, USL2 teams, USL-A U20 teams, UPSL teams. I know that NPSL and USL2 are summer leagues and have mostly college and a handful of HS players. The Annapolis Blues have been extraordinarily successful l in drawing fans - they played in NPSL previously and joined USL2 last year. Just summer soccer with college and a couple of HS players and they are packing almost 9k fans a game over at the Naval Academy stadium. It's a fun atmosphere for sure though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the question, I assume you are looking at women's teams versus men's...

The poster above may be right in saying that there isn't a real difference between them. The quality of play may be similar but the support is probably pretty different.

From being here where all are in play - USL-W, Pro23 and WPSL, the USL-W team has by far the most support.

The Pro23 club here was run by the youth team and has had HS and lower level college players on the team. Parents and friends of the players show up to watch.

he WPSL club in our area is a step up and has a good mix of college players and some HS talent. Parents and friends along with a a hardcore group of fans show up to watch.

The USL-W squad is squad is much higher level college players and may have one or two very top HS level players. Parents and friends along with thousands of others show up to watch these games.

That's at least what I have seen here in my area the last couple of years.

I think all are valuable in terms of continuing to play in the summer. It's what exactly are you expecting.

This is helpful. Do you know which are the better USL-W teams in the area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on the question, I assume you are looking at women's teams versus men's...

The poster above may be right in saying that there isn't a real difference between them. The quality of play may be similar but the support is probably pretty different.

From being here where all are in play - USL-W, Pro23 and WPSL, the USL-W team has by far the most support.

The Pro23 club here was run by the youth team and has had HS and lower level college players on the team. Parents and friends of the players show up to watch.

he WPSL club in our area is a step up and has a good mix of college players and some HS talent. Parents and friends along with a a hardcore group of fans show up to watch.

The USL-W squad is squad is much higher level college players and may have one or two very top HS level players. Parents and friends along with thousands of others show up to watch these games.

That's at least what I have seen here in my area the last couple of years.

I think all are valuable in terms of continuing to play in the summer. It's what exactly are you expecting.

This is helpful. Do you know which are the better USL-W teams in the area?

A lot of the local clubs (DMV) based have added USL-W teams recently, so I have no idea of how good they will be...for example, VDA announced a USL-W team along with NVA and Loudoun United. All new for the 2026 summer season.

Loudoun United and NVA are grouped in the Mid-Atlantic which includes clubs from Patuxent to Central PA. VDA is in the what's called the Chesapeake Division which includes Annapolis, Richmond, Charlottesville and two teams in VA Beach.

The quality of play for these clubs is probably pretty similar. Some are definitely better than others in terms of who they are rostering. Clubs that have had youth programs nearby or affiliated with them have tried to bring back some of their college players. Annapolis, who was new last year, won the Chesapeake and was pretty dominant overall.

The level of fan support is really what varies widely. And this is from direct experience knowing young women who have played on these teams...You get Annapolis and Richmond pulling in thousands of fans per games - Richmond averaged around 4k and Annapolis was even higher. The Blues had over 7k fans at their opener, Richmond was around 6k at theirs. But, you also get teams that are playing in HS stadiums and may get a few hundred fans per game. It just really varies overall.

Not sure what you are looking for specifically, but my DD has trained and was rostered as a HS player for a few games with one of the local clubs. She got some minutes too which was just a bonus. The training experience itself was worth it to be around higher level college players. It challenged her - the pace of training, expectations from coaches, etc was good for her. She plans to try to do it again this year.

Good Luck and hope this helps a bit.

[Anonymous]

Summer leagues like this are great for high school players with collegiate aspirations. My son developed significantly this way. The speed and physicality from the college kids were greater than he was accustomed to and he had to adapt, quickly.