Just curious... how many girls move to ECNL from a lower team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ECNLDD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ECNLDD wrote:It does happen, but rare, maybe 1 or 2 players every few years and usually it's replacing the bottom few non-starters. Congrats to your dc for making it.

As for the ECNL v GA inevitable debate and I know I'm biased, but there really is no debate, a club like FCV would leave GA in a heartbeat if they were offered an ECNL spot, the reverse would never happen as it would be a big downgrade in competition.

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This post is spot on from what I’ve seen. Most RL players seem to have to leave their club if they want to move up.

GA has some great teams but doesn’t have the rep as a league. Here in NOVA it’s FCV or bust I think. Not sure where the Metro/ Alexandria partnership went though

It's a shame that Metro/ASA lost the GA; lot's of talented players for ASA and good coaches but now no pathway, top talent leave at pre-ecnl age.

Metro/ASA had a handful of quality players in each age group. When they merged, several positions were held for ASA players who were the weaker girls. Each age group was at the bottom of the GA standings, except for the oldest girls. Coaches talked a good game but if they couldn’t recruit, develop and field competitive teams, were they good coaches?

They were not. Metro parents just did not know any better. They were “nice” so the delusional parents thought they were good coaches.

The coaches did not know how to motivate, inspire, and get the highest level play out of the girls. They played favorites and unfairly treated other players. They also did not take responsibility; there was a lot of finger-pointing at the kids as the losses continued. Many parents were definitely snowed by what the heard; for some reason they believed what GH and co told them. It was definitely challenging driving to away games, knowing a loss would be the result.

The girls have been scrambling since last year to find other teams to join. I know of a few players from 2006-08. A handful made ECNL and ENCL-R teams.

You may think this, but look at the coaches. Three are at Arlington. So they must have done something right. They ran a great program but couldn’t get the talent to see past the badge and hype.

Those three coaches are coaching the 3rd and 4th teams at Arlington. That’s where travel director place the weakest/least experienced coaches

You suggested the girls were the problem. That’s a poor joke; you can’t believe this for 1 second. You must be one of the coaches. Or they must have helped your daughter connect with a D3 school we’ve never heard of somewhere in Iowa.

If they ran a great program, why was the club in the red? The coaches actively recruited and selected the roster each year. They were responsible for the talent. Why was only one age group (04/05) competitive at all over 4 years? For most of the season, the teams practiced 4 days/week. There wasn’t a lack of training but definitely a lack of effective training. It was also poor coaching, and a bad business model of not having consistent feeder teams.

Lastly when coaches play favorites and unfairly treat a handful of players, losses will rack up. Those mistreated players will focus on playing to not make a mistake (will coach sub for me if I screw up?), while the golden girls (favorites) think they can do no wrong and don’t work to improve. Builds bad team chemistry.

[Anonymous]

Those coaches couldn’t even win with a Washington Spirit logo on the shirt. They had the draw of being associated with a professional team and they had good players because of it and they still could not win back then. Thousand and thousands of dollars spent to play at a school in Iowa that nobody has ever heard of.

[Anonymous]

There is a lawsuit against one of the ez-Metro coaches. Great guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a lawsuit against one of the ez-Metro coaches. Great guy.

A lawsuit for what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question, whether or not your home club gives your DD a chance to move up, I think it helps to be seen by other coaches/other clubs, either through Super Y, guest playing/training and futsal programs (as other posters have recommended) or ODP. We moved from a non-ECNL club to ECNL this year (U13) and did all the above. It helped my child be a better player to be exposed to other styles of play/coaches.

I think it's hard to move up if you start at a club in the U-Littles and don't do anything dramatic. The coaches put you in a box, remember all the things you did wrong as a kid, and so on. Better to try out at other clubs, or take private coaching with the ECNL head coach.

What is ECNL head coach is doing private lessons?

Loudoun's coach does. Any players who pay get more playing time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving up to ECNL within one's club is very challenging unless your daughter is one of the top players on her ECNL-R team, and/or there is a need to fill a certain position. Our experience (and from talking to other parents) shows that clubs in this region do not actively promote from within, ie., moving girls up from the second team to the top team. There is a long list of girls in our area wanting to play on the top level, so finding players from outside the club is easy. Also, if parents continue to pay checks for the second/third team, there is no incentive to develop kids and move them up.

Moving up to ECNL can many times be a combination of skill, positional awareness, speed, luck, timing, and grace. We found that to be the case this year with our daughter as she moved up at another club. They had a need and she was a match. She tried out at 2 clubs and received an offer from one of them.

Visit and practice with other clubs this fall; don't wait for spring tryouts. Ask if they have openings, if there are positional needs, etc.

I disagree that there's no incentive to promote from within. The clubs do want to win - because nothing drives player numbers more than a winning program. So there is an incentive to promote the best kids they can find to the first team.

Most of the time kids stay on the second team because that's where they belong. Despite all the people who claim that things change - the most coordinated and athletic kids usually stay that way and usually remain the best players. I've had three kids play soccer - one of whom took it seriously and was always on the top team of a good club. One club he was at for a few years definitely promoted kids from the second team, but I can only remember two kids (out of ten or more) who managed to establish themselves as starters on the higher level team. Most struggled because they were marginal players and likely would have been better off staying on the second team where they were strong starters. Indeed several chose to go back to the second team for precisely this reason.

And if your kid is *clearly* at the wrong level, most clubs will move them quickly. A kid who moved to the area mid-year initially started on the fourth team at my son's club, and within a handful of months they had moved him all the way up to the first team where he was still one of the strongest players.

On the other hand if your kid is in a mix of kids at the bottom of the first team / top of the second team who are all about the same level then you may find that a clubs is reluctant to rock the boat - and you might be able to find another club who will take your kid onto a first team. But whether or not it's worth it is an open question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ECNLDD wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

ECNLDD wrote:It does happen, but rare, maybe 1 or 2 players every few years and usually it's replacing the bottom few non-starters. Congrats to your dc for making it.

As for the ECNL v GA inevitable debate and I know I'm biased, but there really is no debate, a club like FCV would leave GA in a heartbeat if they were offered an ECNL spot, the reverse would never happen as it would be a big downgrade in competition.

.

This post is spot on from what I’ve seen. Most RL players seem to have to leave their club if they want to move up.

GA has some great teams but doesn’t have the rep as a league. Here in NOVA it’s FCV or bust I think. Not sure where the Metro/ Alexandria partnership went though

It's a shame that Metro/ASA lost the GA; lot's of talented players for ASA and good coaches but now no pathway, top talent leave at pre-ecnl age.

Metro/ASA had a handful of quality players in each age group. When they merged, several positions were held for ASA players who were the weaker girls. Each age group was at the bottom of the GA standings, except for the oldest girls. Coaches talked a good game but if they couldn’t recruit, develop and field competitive teams, were they good coaches?

They were not. Metro parents just did not know any better. They were “nice” so the delusional parents thought they were good coaches.

The coaches did not know how to motivate, inspire, and get the highest level play out of the girls. They played favorites and unfairly treated other players. They also did not take responsibility; there was a lot of finger-pointing at the kids as the losses continued. Many parents were definitely snowed by what the heard; for some reason they believed what GH and co told them. It was definitely challenging driving to away games, knowing a loss would be the result.

The girls have been scrambling since last year to find other teams to join. I know of a few players from 2006-08. A handful made ECNL and ENCL-R teams.

You may think this, but look at the coaches. Three are at Arlington. So they must have done something right. They ran a great program but couldn’t get the talent to see past the badge and hype.

Those three coaches are coaching the 3rd and 4th teams at Arlington. That’s where travel director place the weakest/least experienced coaches

You suggested the girls were the problem. That’s a poor joke; you can’t believe this for 1 second. You must be one of the coaches. Or they must have helped your daughter connect with a D3 school we’ve never heard of somewhere in Iowa.

If they ran a great program, why was the club in the red? The coaches actively recruited and selected the roster each year. They were responsible for the talent. Why was only one age group (04/05) competitive at all over 4 years? For most of the season, the teams practiced 4 days/week. There wasn’t a lack of training but definitely a lack of effective training. It was also poor coaching, and a bad business model of not having consistent feeder teams.

Lastly when coaches play favorites and unfairly treat a handful of players, losses will rack up. Those mistreated players will focus on playing to not make a mistake (will coach sub for me if I screw up?), while the golden girls (favorites) think they can do no wrong and don’t work to improve. Builds bad team chemistry.

I don't know anything about this situation or these teams. But I would definitely say that a good coach can put together a reasonable record with below average talent. And a bad coach can generate a losing record with great talent. In general in this area the teams with the best records are the ones with the best coaches. This is especially obvious within a club where a team can have and deserve a great record one year, keep most of the same players but change to a different coach and wind up with a losing record or vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Back to the original question, I would say lower team players can make an ECNL team, just depends if they will be an impact player, not as likely, or a marginal player. There are also fairly big differences in roster quality from top to bottom amongst the 7 ECNL clubs in the area. I know for my daughters team, we just picked up a "fringe" starter from one of the local clubs and she will not be a starter on our team and will likely struggle for minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question, I would say lower team players can make an ECNL team, just depends if they will be an impact player, not as likely, or a marginal player. There are also fairly big differences in roster quality from top to bottom amongst the 7 ECNL clubs in the area. I know for my daughters team, we just picked up a "fringe" starter from one of the local clubs and she will not be a starter on our team and will likely struggle for minutes.

What is a fringe starter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question, I would say lower team players can make an ECNL team, just depends if they will be an impact player, not as likely, or a marginal player. There are also fairly big differences in roster quality from top to bottom amongst the 7 ECNL clubs in the area. I know for my daughters team, we just picked up a "fringe" starter from one of the local clubs and she will not be a starter on our team and will likely struggle for minutes.

What is a fringe starter?

When we played against them, she would start sometimes but not always and then get subbed out after 20-25 minutes. Maybe not start 2nd half, player is a good player, just not a true impact player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question, I would say lower team players can make an ECNL team, just depends if they will be an impact player, not as likely, or a marginal player. There are also fairly big differences in roster quality from top to bottom amongst the 7 ECNL clubs in the area. I know for my daughters team, we just picked up a "fringe" starter from one of the local clubs and she will not be a starter on our team and will likely struggle for minutes.

What is a fringe starter?

When we played against them, she would start sometimes but not always and then get subbed out after 20-25 minutes. Maybe not start 2nd half, player is a good player, just not a true impact player.

Ah, got it. Sounds like one of my DS. A solid, good player, not the most memorable, but not on the bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

hmm didn’t FCV just beat BSC 2010s in a memorial day tournament? The day after playing them to a draw. And Union was in the same tournament but didn’t advance enough to play them. Doesn’t mean FCV is better but certainly in the same ballpark

BSC tied Koge in national semifinal. Lost in PKs. Koge played overtime in national championship and went to PKs to win national championship. Are you saying FCV could potentially be as good or better than ECNL national champions?

Probably? FCV is the best club in virginia.

I challenge any other dmv club to put up their credentials against fcv. No chance. Fcv will dominate in wins, college recruiting, development, etc. across all and every age group.

This is very funny.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving up to ECNL within one's club is very challenging unless your daughter is one of the top players on her ECNL-R team, and/or there is a need to fill a certain position. Our experience (and from talking to other parents) shows that clubs in this region do not actively promote from within, ie., moving girls up from the second team to the top team. There is a long list of girls in our area wanting to play on the top level, so finding players from outside the club is easy. Also, if parents continue to pay checks for the second/third team, there is no incentive to develop kids and move them up.

Moving up to ECNL can many times be a combination of skill, positional awareness, speed, luck, timing, and grace. We found that to be the case this year with our daughter as she moved up at another club. They had a need and she was a match. She tried out at 2 clubs and received an offer from one of them.

Visit and practice with other clubs this fall; don't wait for spring tryouts. Ask if they have openings, if there are positional needs, etc.

At what are do you start trying out with other clubs? My daughter is 2013 with Arlington. Disheartening to see them bring less good players from outside instead of developing within.

[Anonymous]

I feel like Arlington keeps current girls even when they should bring outsiders in. At least on the girls side- it feel like when you have a spot- you have it for as long as you want it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like Arlington keeps current girls even when they should bring outsiders in. At least on the girls side- it feel like when you have a spot- you have it for as long as you want it.

Their coaching is just not very good. They rely on big fast girls and when they play against girls that have more skill, they lose. But that goes for most ECNL teams.