Arlington RL to ECNL

[Anonymous]

We moved to Arlington a few seasons ago for a great coach, and early on it felt like a true development environment, with several players moving up from RL to NL.
More recently, however, the pattern seems to have shifted—players are progressing into RL from within the club, but then remaining there, with no upward movement beyond that. This makes us wonder whether the issue is with player development, or if the pathway effectively stops at RL rather than supporting continued progression within the club.
While we don’t have full visibility across all age groups, we’ve heard enough consistent feedback from others to suggest this may be a broader pattern. We hope we’re mistaken…

[Anonymous]

A couple years ago, the conventional wisdom on this board was that you could move from NL team to another (or top MLSN division) or you could move down. But the attitude was coaches wouldn’t promote you to the top team internally because they didn’t trust that you could adjust to the speed/quality of play if you weren’t on a top team to begin with. And they’d rather take another top team’s cast-offs than risk an internal promotion not being able to handle it. Top team or bust, especially for U13+ was always the message here. Not sure why Arlington is getting picked on here.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think this is being picked up. I believe it’s entirely reasonable to ask Arlington-specific questions in the Arlington thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think this is being picked up. I believe it’s entirely reasonable to ask Arlington-specific questions in the Arlington thread.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:on all their million teams they only moved up 3 kids?

Out of 6 ECNL teams - that doesn’t seem so bad. Likely most kids in the older age group probably don’t get much movement at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, the conventional wisdom on this board was that you could move from NL team to another (or top MLSN division) or you could move down. But the attitude was coaches wouldn’t promote you to the top team internally because they didn’t trust that you could adjust to the speed/quality of play if you weren’t on a top team to begin with. And they’d rather take another top team’s cast-offs than risk an internal promotion not being able to handle it. Top team or bust, especially for U13+ was always the message here. Not sure why Arlington is getting picked on here.

Wouldn’t say picked on but Arlington is the only club with NL and RL so there is more expectation from RL parents to have their DD promoted.
What they don’t realize is the NL teams are essentially a separate organization at Arlington. RL players aren’t guesting with NL teams or even practicing with them. NL teams practice together. RL teams practice on whichever night works for the coach. NL teams scrimmage NL teams. RL teams scrimmage whoever happens to sharing the field which is often a “lower” team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:on all their million teams they only moved up 3 kids?

Out of 6 ECNL teams - that doesn’t seem so bad. Likely most kids in the older age group probably don’t get much movement at that point.

What do you mean, 6? U13, u14, u15, u16, u17-18? boys and girls= at least 10