Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

I think the leagues like NPL and CCL will be somewhat of a shifting sands. CCL has to make a decision if they are going to be "regional" in nature or condense down to a more local level league. NPL has a different battle but will be held up on the boys side with ENPL, ECNL's sister counterpart. NPL has a more regional to national level format that will help the league maintain their regional focus. Half the battle for these leagues is determining their own scope and what they really want to be. NPL at least knows what it wants to be even if the DA on the girls side muddies the waters for them.

CCL, in my opinion, has a little more soul searching to do. Does it consider NPL its competition now or is NCSL its competition? With two of the three DA clubs in NPL that can make CCL a harder sell to some parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

BRYC has not had the same historical success on the boys side as it has had on the girls side. Fewer State Cups, fewer regional titles, fewer national team players, no national championships, and fewer boys going on to play in college.

That said, the last few years have been very good for BRYC boys teams, and the boys are currently pretty close to the girls side when it comes to the results the boys teams are producing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

I think the leagues like NPL and CCL will be somewhat of a shifting sands. CCL has to make a decision if they are going to be "regional" in nature or condense down to a more local level league. NPL has a different battle but will be held up on the boys side with ENPL, ECNL's sister counterpart. NPL has a more regional to national level format that will help the league maintain their regional focus. Half the battle for these leagues is determining their own scope and what they really want to be. NPL at least knows what it wants to be even if the DA on the girls side muddies the waters for them.

CCL, in my opinion, has a little more soul searching to do. Does it consider NPL its competition now or is NCSL its competition? With two of the three DA clubs in NPL that can make CCL a harder sell to some parents.

Thanks for a thoughtful response. Very interesting points. I think that CCL would strive to compete with NPL so they will have to find what their competitive edge is going to be. I say NPL and not NCSL because most of the clubs in CCL already compete in NCSL with their lower teams. I think CCL needs to do better to ensure that all clubs in CCL/CCLII are fielding teams for all age groups. I've heard that NPL tends to have more 1 sided games than CCL (although they have them as well). Maybe CCL does need to find a pathway to higher level regional competition.

Are the different leagues discussing where they stand in comparison to others and how they are addressing the growth of others in comparison to theirs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

BRYC has not had the same historical success on the boys side as it has had on the girls side. Fewer State Cups, fewer regional titles, fewer national team players, no national championships, and fewer boys going on to play in college.

That said, the last few years have been very good for BRYC boys teams, and the boys are currently pretty close to the girls side when it comes to the results the boys teams are producing.

This year, BRYC had 3 boys teams in National League -- 1 won their division and will be playing at Nationals this summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

I think the leagues like NPL and CCL will be somewhat of a shifting sands. CCL has to make a decision if they are going to be "regional" in nature or condense down to a more local level league. NPL has a different battle but will be held up on the boys side with ENPL, ECNL's sister counterpart. NPL has a more regional to national level format that will help the league maintain their regional focus. Half the battle for these leagues is determining their own scope and what they really want to be. NPL at least knows what it wants to be even if the DA on the girls side muddies the waters for them.

CCL, in my opinion, has a little more soul searching to do. Does it consider NPL its competition now or is NCSL its competition? With two of the three DA clubs in NPL that can make CCL a harder sell to some parents.

Thanks for a thoughtful response. Very interesting points. I think that CCL would strive to compete with NPL so they will have to find what their competitive edge is going to be. I say NPL and not NCSL because most of the clubs in CCL already compete in NCSL with their lower teams. I think CCL needs to do better to ensure that all clubs in CCL/CCLII are fielding teams for all age groups. I've heard that NPL tends to have more 1 sided games than CCL (although they have them as well). Maybe CCL does need to find a pathway to higher level regional competition.

Are the different leagues discussing where they stand in comparison to others and how they are addressing the growth of others in comparison to theirs?

My honest guess is that Leagues are not as concerned about the "competition" as we would like to believe. I think Leagues tend to look for like minded clubs that field teams at a similar competitive level. One sided games happen in every league so lets please dispel that as any kind of proof. I am speaking more towards "Club based" leagues like CCL and NPL and to a larger extent ECNL and DA.

NCSL is team based and serves a function. It can field teams for large and small clubs and all can be competitive but it at least offers promotion relegation to fix any errors along the way.

That said, all leagues do want to thrive but only within their stated goals or focus. I think we as parents see the comparisons between leagues and formulate some kind of power struggle that I'm not sure exists in the way that we imagine. The fact of the matter is clubs will field teams in nearly all the leagues if they could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

BRYC has not had the same historical success on the boys side as it has had on the girls side. Fewer State Cups, fewer regional titles, fewer national team players, no national championships, and fewer boys going on to play in college.

That said, the last few years have been very good for BRYC boys teams, and the boys are currently pretty close to the girls side when it comes to the results the boys teams are producing.

This year, BRYC had 3 boys teams in National League -- 1 won their division and will be playing at Nationals this summer

And the boys have won a national championship - http://championships.usyouthsoccer.org/PastNationalChamps/PastUSYouthSoccerNationalChampionshipWinners19352007/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

BRYC has not had the same historical success on the boys side as it has had on the girls side. Fewer State Cups, fewer regional titles, fewer national team players, no national championships, and fewer boys going on to play in college.

That said, the last few years have been very good for BRYC boys teams, and the boys are currently pretty close to the girls side when it comes to the results the boys teams are producing.

This year, BRYC had 3 boys teams in National League -- 1 won their division and will be playing at Nationals this summer

And the boys have won a national championship - http://championships.usyouthsoccer.org/PastNationalChamps/PastUSYouthSoccerNationalChampionshipWinners19352007/

It's not easy to get accepted into the DA, especially around here. You need more than just a high quality program, which BRYC undoubtedly has. You need to offer fields both practices and games, and you need to be in a position to subsidize your DA teams so there is little to no financial burden on players (ideally--you at least need to charge a lot less than the average for area travel clubs). That's hard to do if you are a smaller club, unless you have a really generous donor or sponsorship agreements. Geographic placement is also an issue. DC United and Arlington (though it's a partial DA only) are reasonably convenient for most people who would play for BRYC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why BRYC did not get a Boys DA team? Seems like all their peer major Northern Virginia clubs got some Boys DA teams (Arlington, Loudoun, McLean, PWSI). McLean's position is currently kind of weak - with only a U12 DA team. With BRYC's history I would have thought they would have been a strong candidate for expanded DA at the younger age groups.

Do you just get a DA team or do you have to apply? I don't see why they would get a Boys DA team when it seems like they pour everything into their Girls program. Do they have a strong Boys program? Was the move to ECNL in the best interest for their boys?

BRYC has not had the same historical success on the boys side as it has had on the girls side. Fewer State Cups, fewer regional titles, fewer national team players, no national championships, and fewer boys going on to play in college.

That said, the last few years have been very good for BRYC boys teams, and the boys are currently pretty close to the girls side when it comes to the results the boys teams are producing.

This year, BRYC had 3 boys teams in National League -- 1 won their division and will be playing at Nationals this summer

Look at the prices for the DA programs in clubs and DC United in the area, they are all around $2,200 per year. That is actually about the same a Select Travel Program costs in the Arlington/Fairfax area. In PW, the select program is cheaper, actually. The only people that are committing to the DA programs in the area are the one's that can afford it anyway and just see the DA as the A team for their club. I think BRYC didn't get a DA, if they applied, because of the field space and player pool.

And the boys have won a national championship - http://championships.usyouthsoccer.org/PastNationalChamps/PastUSYouthSoccerNationalChampionshipWinners19352007/

It's not easy to get accepted into the DA, especially around here. You need more than just a high quality program, which BRYC undoubtedly has. You need to offer fields both practices and games, and you need to be in a position to subsidize your DA teams so there is little to no financial burden on players (ideally--you at least need to charge a lot less than the average for area travel clubs). That's hard to do if you are a smaller club, unless you have a really generous donor or sponsorship agreements. Geographic placement is also an issue. DC United and Arlington (though it's a partial DA only) are reasonably convenient for most people who would play for BRYC.

[Anonymous]

In response to the DA costs cited above, are you talking about U12 and U13? At DC United and Bethesda at least (and I assume most other full DAs) the fees go down significantly for the older, more competitive age groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

I agree CCL will outlast NPL with most of it's clubs staying put. I think NPL and ECNL will eventually have to combine to stay relevant.

[Anonymous]

Please don't use ECNL and NPL in the same sentence. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

I agree CCL will outlast NPL with most of it's clubs staying put. I think NPL and ECNL will eventually have to combine to stay relevant.

Your statement screams ignorance. VPL is a league made by teams in southern VA that wanted better competition, NOVA clubs later joined in. ECNL is specifically to have higher level competition for girls in their latter stages of their youth in order to showcased, scouted, and play in college. The identification for NPL is through the PDP and Id2 programs for individuals, not team focused. For boys, a newly created ENPL will allow teams in NPL's across the nation compete for national level status. It is to compete with USYS National competition and US soccer DA programs. The structure is already in place for ECNL for scouts to come, why would a few girls moving from ECNL to DA disrupt that. Everyone seems to think if you're not in ECNL it's probably because you can't cut it. I a would argue the more elite level of platforms available, the more players will be interested in competing at that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the DA post results between clubs? Will be interesting to see FCV and VDA relegate Spirit to 3rd tier DA afterthought. Will only change if they offer $$. Reston . . . just ridiculous. Glad my DD is YEARS away from this joke you guys are delaying with. ECNL will hopefully implode in about 5 years and one DA in this area will attract the top 20 girls in NoVA. Current U9s are very lucky. This mess ideally and finally put an end to the ODP state pool wasteland. Crap ... you 03/O2 guys must be at a terrible xroad. Condolences.

DA scores and playing minutes are all on the US Soccer site, nobody in DA can hide. I'll be curious to see how competitive the Spirit VA team is also.

You're right though, its gonna take a few years for this DA thing to stabilize and the impact depends on the age of your kid. The hurdle that I'm looking at is the collapsing of single age group years at U16/U17. U14's have two years of relative peace before half the team gets left behind at U16. At that point, the affected players are relegated to HS soccer, NPL, try to break into another club's ECNL squad, or quit. Yes, this narrowing at the top is the nature of most sports, but it definitely ups the ante for players and families. Is it necessary? After all, the end goal for the vast majority of these girls is college soccer, and as it is, ECNL's single age group format is doing quite well feeding the college ranks. If ECNL does die, under the current age group format, DA would not provide the throughput that ECNL does unless it grows a bit. In the near term, I can see the older age groups keeping ECNL alive for quite some time. Less competitive than DA, but very much alive. Curious to hear thoughts on this.

ECNL has only been around since 2009. so we're looking at 2 college 'generations' coming out of ECNL. I also believe ECNL will hang around, but WAGS--home of Mia Hamm etc--probably seemed pretty permanent until ECNL, CCL (2012), and Virginia NPL (2013) ate their lunch. CCL might be relegated out of business first, with ECNL and NPL duking it out for a bit longer as the next level of play after the DAs. Frankly, I think this area (and all the rest of them, too) will go as SoCal goes, and the ECNL teams appear to be the B teams in the clubs that have both DA and ECNL out there.

Why would VA NPL outlast CCL? The list of clubs in CCL appears to be stronger than those in VA NPL. Unless those clubs in CCL are planning on going to NPL it is unlikely to be the case. Both leagues will likely continue to exist as the next level down from DA/ECNL although I think CCL is the stronger of the two. I'm not CCL guy just wondering why one would survive over the other?

One reason NPL has staying power is that its a national league and is ultimately backed by U.S. Soccer. One school of thought is that they will continue to invest in this league as a feeder to DA that they can control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't use ECNL and NPL in the same sentence. Thank you.

Wow. Don't forget that for many clubs NPL teams are their A teams. While ECNL is generally a higher level of play than NPL, I see NPL teams beat ECNL teams all the time. I would bet that NPL national finalist teams would give many ECNL teams a good run for their money. BTW, that's four uses of ECNL and NPL in the same sentence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree CCL will outlast NPL with most of it's clubs staying put. I think NPL and ECNL will eventually have to combine to stay relevant.

Your statement screams ignorance. VPL is a league made by teams in southern VA that wanted better competition, NOVA clubs later joined in. ECNL is specifically to have higher level competition for girls in their latter stages of their youth in order to showcased, scouted, and play in college. The identification for NPL is through the PDP and Id2 programs for individuals, not team focused. For boys, a newly created ENPL will allow teams in NPL's across the nation compete for national level status. It is to compete with USYS National competition and US soccer DA programs. The structure is already in place for ECNL for scouts to come, why would a few girls moving from ECNL to DA disrupt that. Everyone seems to think if you're not in ECNL it's probably because you can't cut it. I a would argue the more elite level of platforms available, the more players will be interested in competing at that level.

VPL was created for better competition ? Isn't that the league that most of the clubs with ECNL and DA put their second tier teams ?