ECNL the only path?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:OP here. Let me illiterate. My DD will soon be 10. She’s being approached to go to to ECNL CLUBS, what I guess is pre-ECNL. I feel it’s important to work hard and follow any dream. Dreams change and that’s ok. Best thing is to give them the tools and let them grow.

I do think it’s important not to be a “club hopper” and make bonds with teammates and coaches. I personally played a D1 sport, but never had to deal with ECNL, GA and so on. Times have changed.

Found out tonight the coach was an ECNL coach, and is well licensed.(not that makes a difference) He has relationships with college coaches. One parent has said he is a great coach and has done a lot for his older DD.

Is this doable. Can 1 coach start a team, make it his super team in hopes to start a non bias soccer club that focuses on player’s growth and ambitions? Has anyone experience or seen it happen?

She’s so young that what’s really important is that she’s in an environment that is challenging, fun, and rewarding. Maybe he can provide that, but words are just words. If you just listen to proposals and don’t actually get to let her experience what this next step might actually feel like to her, you could end up putting her into a position that will make her no longer enjoy what she’s doing.

See if this coach will let her come and train with one of his current teams if he’s currently coaching players her age or near her age. That way she can feel the environment out and how he runs his sessions. You can then also talk to parents on his team and their experiences.

He currently has no team. He’s working on getting a team built and registering the team in tournaments. The team will primarily do only tournaments.

He’s an ECNL coach but has no team? That just means he’s not an ECNL coach. Furthermore, ECNL has no requirements to coach a team other than the sham safe sport background check. So that doesn’t really mean anything. I would approach with caution.

He was an ECNL coach. My understanding is he left the stress of corporate ECNL. Right now his goal is to start a “super” team that can play up an age group at tournaments. More focus on ranking. 1 tournament a month, scrimmaging on other weekends. Incorporating a more European approach.

An item to consider on scrimmaging is that while this would be a 1 off team, the teams you're looking to scrimmage aren't and they're already playing in leagues and tournaments, so the availability is not likely to match up. That's before you consider existing clubs having most of the fields already permitted with the county and that refs are hard to come by these days. Logistically much of what you're being told is fairly difficult. Soccer coaches aren't known for their planning and administrative skills, so while much of what you're hearing sounds great, it would take a pretty special person to pull off all the coaching, planning, logistics, and recruiting side of this equation. The Eddie Johnson model someone mentioned on here works because it's in addition to their regular team at home. Those kids are already registered and carded with a team, they're paying for individual training and traveling to the facility on a semi-regular basis, and then the best of those kids whose parents are willing to travel with them take on established teams in big tournaments - all of which removes the logistics of field space, team scrimmages, league registration. It's a great model and the kids he trains are very talented, but it's a fairly different model than what it sounds like your kid is being recruited to join.

That's where the grand plan falls apart. Every decent field in any of the inner counties is already spoken for. This team will struggle to find anywhere to either practice or play

It also falls apart when it’s run by a coach nobody will hire.

LOL

[Anonymous]

OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

Is this the recently fired VDA director?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

Is this the recently fired VDA director?

Fired? I thought he left for personal reasons. I guess this is why it’s not a horrible idea for a club to get out in front of prominent staff leaving. The public begins to create their own narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

Is this the recently fired VDA director?

Fired? I thought he left for personal reasons. I guess this is why it’s not a horrible idea for a club to get out in front of prominent staff leaving. The public begins to create their own narrative.

Wasn’t fired. The club handled it correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

Is this the recently fired VDA director?

Fired? I thought he left for personal reasons. I guess this is why it’s not a horrible idea for a club to get out in front of prominent staff leaving. The public begins to create their own narrative.

Wasn’t fired. The club handled it correctly.

The parent’s child will not start for at a minimum on 4 games and the parent is on probation. Everything will be fine as the matter is now settled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here
Thanks for all the input. After speaking to parents of older players it seems as though this is a pattern. Lacks maturity. Would love to have my DD with a coach that is committed to the whole team, as well as the players themselves. It’s how I grew up and it works.

Is this the recently fired VDA director?

Fired? I thought he left for personal reasons. I guess this is why it’s not a horrible idea for a club to get out in front of prominent staff leaving. The public begins to create their own narrative.

Wasn’t fired. The club handled it correctly.

The parent’s child will not start for at a minimum on 4 games and the parent is on probation. Everything will be fine as the matter is now settled.

This is not true. This makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

So, wasn’t fired. Doesn’t sound like personal reasons. Definitely sounds like something occurred internally. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

OP - anyone talking to you about ECNL when your player is U9 is BS-ing you big time.
You can see talent at U9 but thinking about what they do at U13 is like a 9th grader choosing classes for their first year of college... or a 5th grader thinking about what to wear on their first day of high scool. 

At U12, you can start thinking about it.

If you really want to join ECNL, just join the clubs that have it at U13. If you're in maryland, join Bethesda. If your in VA, join Arlington, McLean, Loudon, VSA/PWSI, or Vienna/Braddock Road.

All of these clubs have talented players on the top team in the pipeline. Your DD isn't going to walk in and be the best player, no matter what people have been telling you. There are kids there with soccer-playing parents who have been training them at home since they could walk, or signing up for HP Elite multiple times per week, along with freak early growth spurts or being naturally gifted and talented athletes... which will get them to ECNL when the time comes.

If you really want it, go down that route and stop listening to the BS coach.

[Anonymous]

ECNL or a strong Girls Academy League program is the straightest path to playing D1.

Legit D1-potential players will get looked at during winter-spring of 10th grade.

Next up are the stronger ECNL-regional players (were either cut from ECNL-national or barely not good enough) or maybe strong EDP players who stand out. They get the last pickings of the D1 spots.

[Anonymous]

By the way, stop thinking about playing in college for your U9 player. In all likelihood, she will take up an interest in the sport YOU played in college at some point and drop soccer when she realizes you can coach her at home.

[Anonymous]

You just don't know if she will even survive the "switching sports" phase... 7th-9th grade.