VA MD DC Girls soccer - thoughts, opinions
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Anonymous
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Yes, clubs, not teams move up. But these are professional clubs who move up or down and they bring their Youth Academies with them. And it is not as open a system as you would have it laid out in your post. The reality is that there is very little movement of clubs up the chain. Big powerful clubs stay at the top, continue to attract the best players and the smaller clubs make their name and living by getting their players into those big money clubs. Players do not join a small club hoping to advance the club forward, they join because it is the best place to start with a club that has a reputation for getting kids scouted.
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Anonymous
| If we had a system where a youth program would make millions for discovering top talent we would have free DA and the best athletes would play soccer. The difference between us and Spain is not just Pro/Rel - it’s La Liga. |
Anonymous
And those pesky child labor laws we have here. |
Anonymous
... have absolutely nothing to do with it. |
Anonymous
I am huge open system proponent, and until we have that we will always be fighting this battle with one hand tied behind our back, but ... pro/rel at the youth level without pro/rel at the professional club level is a recipe for disaster, developmentally speaking. Unless the success of youth player development is tied in to the success (competitively and economically) of the professional first team of the club, the incentives for long term development just do not exist. |
Anonymous
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Thr difference is if your daughter is on the bottom end of an ECNL Roster she may get on the field at a top showcase with hundreds of coaches watching and have an opportunity to show what she has. Bottom of the barrel D1 schools and D3 schools are the only ones watching non ECNL/DA teams now. There are a few exceptions but not many.
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Anonymous
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Umm... talent isn't a birthright and it isn't genetic. Clubs accept or reject players based on their view of their current skillset and potential. Just because they can't keep up with the Hawks player now doesn't mean they won't ever. The rosters I'm familiar with have 18-20 on the DA side, except for the age group that US Soccer combined and there is an EDP provision for that one. So again making the target 18-20. Even in the case of BRYC, the one concrete example of 30 players on the ECNL roster, how does it hurt the 10 kids not in the top 20 to train with the top 20? How does it hurt BRYC to have these kids in reserve for development. On the Spirit, just curious, how do you expect teams made up of players who have never played together to beat teams who have been together in large since they were 9 or 10 years old? I think your view of this is very near-sighted. If DA/ECNL remains a stalemate over years, then perhaps you can make the watered down argument long term. But, if one or the other wins out, which is more likely, then the talent will slide to the winner. US Soccer is already forcing that hand with the very best players they identify, so you can imagine which side has the upper hand, long term. I won't even begin to start eh argument of how you define "best" in terms of players and how team dynamics may result in players that you might not consider the "best" being the better fit with a given team than a player with more "talent" Original poster here...It’s true that talent isn’t a birthright or genetic. But if you aren’t talented - go play for your local club and take the $8000 you save and get some of the best trainers money can buy. Mediocrity is not what either DA or ECNL are about. Some parent of a mediocre kid probably told you otherwise. It’s really about the best girls getting better by learning from the best, teaming with the best and competing against the best. Top 25 colleges only recruit the best. Employers only hire the best. Navy Seals only recruit the best. Why should elite DMV soccer be any different? If your 8th - 11th grade daughter is mediocre (top half of her roster) - get her fit, trained and competitive locally - don’t relegate her to EDP. It’s a boondoggle and I’m here to tell you it is a waste of time (you won’t get back). Is an EDP player going to USWNT? No. Will they play D1? Yes (maybe), but they would be better off in their chances with $8000 savings each year getting fit and skilled. I made my point - just be honest in your analysis. Everybody wants the BEST players. Don’t kid yourself if your daughter isn’t there yet - she’s not going to get there at the bottom of an elite roster. |
Anonymous
Exactly right, it's cultural which has been discussed ad nauseum on these boards. We simply don't have the money to do everything the same way it's done in Germany, Spain, etc. We do have a centralized federation who has the interests of the sport in this nation at heart and they want to control the way training is administered. I don't see why that's an issue given the main challenge we have here with the type of system these other folks are proposing. One size fits all won't fit here until the culture changes. |
Anonymous
With all due respect, it's not your right to determine who is "mediocre" and who is the "best." If they are good enough for the ECNL/DA team, get accepted, and can pay the bill, then they are in. I don't have a problem with that until such time as there is money there to finance those who can't get in. Right now it isn't there in the USA. With all the competition from other sports in this country, I don't know that the environment will ever get there, at least in my lifetime. I'm not going to wax Pollyanna about some fantasy system that isn't sustainable right now. Stop chastising kids who want to succeed in the system in place, even though you think they are mediocre. |
Anonymous
College coaches are recruiting around 6 - 8 kids per year NATIONWIDE. If you’re daughter is on the bottom half of an ECNL team - you’ll find very few takers. Don’t take my word for it - at your next ID day’s question and answer session - ask the coach! He / she will not say “I really make a point of watching the kids who aren’t that good”. No, they look at the kids everyone is watching - and then they move on after a few minutes to watch the other top kids. Even top D3 schools aren’t looking for mediocre players - they are looking for players that want to go to the best schools in the country that might need help getting through admissions. They too only want to win - or they’re out of a job. |
Anonymous
You are drinking the cool-aid if you think USSF has the best interest of the sport at heart. They are too cosy with SUM/MLS, have huge conflicts of interest. Closed system may benefit some MLS owners, but it is horrible for soccer in general. |
Anonymous
And now we are getting very far away from the topic of DC area girls soccer. This argument has been discussed many times before in many threads, somehow I don't think anyone is going to make any headway on it. Feel free to start yet another topic on it so we can see all the usual suspects come out of the woodwork again, but I wouldn't expect any answers there either. Back to topic, parents and girls in ECNL/DA, chin up and keep trying your hardest to be the best player you can be. Quitting because you aren't a starter now is a very bad answer, for soccer or life. Quit if you have soured on soccer, or just want to play for fun, not because there are 10 girls on the team who are currently ahead of you on the depth chart. You were selected because your coaches saw something in you and thought you could compete. Hard work, repetition, and maybe a little luck is all that separates you from your goal. Once you crack that lineup, you will have the same chances to keep improving and to make an impression, for whatever your goal may be. It's not pre-ordained, it hasn't already been determined. You only fail when you follow the awful advice of people like some in this thread and quit. |
Anonymous
Yes the cut down rate is about 10% - ie only 10%(give or take) of the whole age group nation wide will play in college. Is your kid in the top 10% of players in your league(not your club)? |
Anonymous
Bad reasoning. It assumes all leagues nationwide are of the same quality. |
Anonymous
Original poster her: I too like a reasoned argument - so I did a little research on the Class of 2018 in Virginia with the assistance of TopDrawerSoccer. My conclusion is that if your daughter is not in the top half of her elite soccer team, you should pull her out of her DA / ECNL club and reinvest the money saved ($8000 per year) in having her instead play in a local club and have her enrolled in private training. This is to improve her soccer skills, game play, fitness, etc and have her tryout the following year to make sure she is on the top half of the roster. Please note that I have used some web sites like GotSoccer, TopDrawerSoccer and others to provide a reasoned argument. Facts: - There are about 80 soccer clubs in Virginia - For the most recent graduating class of 2018 - 83 girls are playing soccer in college - and out that number - 58 girls in Virginia committed to play for a D1 program. So estimating that there are 16 per roster - that means there was an estimated 1280 girls who graduated high school in 2018 playing on any club team in Virginia. That means only 4.5% are committed to play in a D1 program. - Of the 58 girls, only 40 of them played for either an ECNL or DA club last year in Virginia AND committed to a D1 program. The remaining played for non-DA / ECNL clubs (like Beach FC, SOCA, Herndon, etc). - If there were 5 DA / ECNL clubs in Virginia last year - that means 8 players per team were picked up on average by D1 programs. - On average, the rosters of the D1 schools have 28 players on them - and there are only 14 full scholarships allowed per NCAA rules. So assuming everything is equal (and it isn't) the 48 players would be on 50% scholarship. Therefore, if you live in Virginia and you wish for your kid to play D1 - be on the top half of your teams roster! If you kid is not playing - then save the $8000 and put it into a mutual fund every year and use the proceeds to pay for private training to get her into the top 8 of your team. That's my reasoning. |