These are basically summer leagues for college players. They are U23 although each league may allow a couple of older players per team. In some cases it's an extension of youth soccer - free to watch and parents pull up the folding chair and you need to pay to play. Bigger teams are more like a minor league baseball experience - they sell tickets and concessions, and will arrange host families for the players to stay with over the summer.

- WPSL is the oldest, been around for 25 years or so. Teams play a regional regular season and top teams qualify for a national championship playoff.
- W League is in its 2nd/3rd year, exact same concept. It's connected to USL (which also fields 3 men's divisions and in 2024 plans to add a pro women's division).
- Pro23 is a DMV-only league and (I think) would be considered a lower competitive level than the 1st two.
- UWS - this is a fourth summer league although I don't think they have any DC-area teams.

That's about all I know...

Yep, the SAC tournament. Only been to Covenant once and it was a Sunday morning game on a non-tournament weekend so parking wasn't a big issue.

Which club organizes the Cannon Cup? Sounds like it was a good time.

Lots of goals is always a good way to end a season. Except for keepers I guess.

Are you saying that Brookland is closer to you or DC Soccer Club is closer?

DCSC (formerly DC Stoddert) are a much, much bigger club and have been around for a long, long time. Brookland is/was a small club focused on NE DC and trying to grow that base into something bigger. The merger gives Brookland kids an easier pathway to the DCSC 1st teams which is a much higher level than Brookland. At least that's my take.

Here's the article - https://www.dcsoccerclub.org/news_article/show/1274425

My son had 1 game at Glenelg HS and 2 games at the Moose Athletic Center in Glen Burnie. Both are fine facilities but it's not the "tournament experience" of seeing tons of other kids at a sprawling facility. Those were fun memories of my soccer childhood. I guess the tournament (and many others) are just continuing to expand so they're looking for any available rectangular space.

https://www.soccerwire.com/news/ccl-marks-25th-anniversary-with-announcement-of-new-brand-identity/

BunchlineDC wrote:Note to those doing SAC with U-littles at Covenant Park, and you haven't done it before...the parking is an absolute nightmare, particularly on Sunday. Give yourself an extra 30 minutes at least to deal with it. I cannot stress this enough.

Thanks. We did a Labor Day tournament there in 2021 and yeah, it was a mess. He is in the U-middles now so we are Glenelg HS and a place called the Moose Athletic Club near BWI.

I would guess plenty of DCUM soccer parents will be spending their Memorial Day Weekend at the field. What tournaments are everyone playing in?

My son's team is doing the Columbia Invitational.

CampChairCoffee wrote:Thanks, that’s really helpful. So basically it’s all fairly diluted because there’s so much money to be made in the youth industrial soccer complex….

Ha. Yes, the primary goal is to squeeze as much money out of parents as possible. And the more kids that play in an elite/super/premier league the better.

CampChairCoffee wrote:Thanks, all. Not remotely fluent in soccer (what’s P.R.O.?) but trying to help my kid navigate the process, and it’s touchy IRL with teammates moving up and down and around.

It's totally confusing and by the time I get it all figured out my kids will be done with soccer.

PRO as it has existed for the last 10(?) years is a more selective version of National League. Basically each regional conference has 10-12 teams that compete for a league title each season. The top 2-3 teams from each conference qualify for the following season's PRO. PRO is a national league of 30-40 teams divided into a few different groups. All the teams will get together at a couple of different events and play some games. The top teams then qualify for the national championship. These events are (I assume) attended by plenty of college scouts.

CampChairCoffee wrote:So it sounds like national league would rank below ECNL/MLS Next in competitiveness, but above EDP and NCSL? And that’s partly based on the ability to advance in national competition, and partly because recruitment is strongest at the highest level?

You nailed it.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

Having boys and girls within the same league and having more input on the direction of the league seem like a "nice to have" to me. The question of "to play or not to play" high school soccer seems like the dividing line. I guess there are enough "customers" in the area to support both approaches.

What about ECNL vs GA on the girls side?

@westsidesoccer gave a good overview.

Just to provide a bit more detail, National League and EDP are technically different entities but EDP runs the 4 National League conferences in the Northeast. Teams are promoted/relegated back and forth from National League II to EDP III.

OrangeSlicez wrote:Which leads to the broader question USYS v US Club Soccer. What is the difference? The point of having two youth soccer associations sanctioned by USSF? I tried looking but couldn’t find anything helpful.

USYS is the original youth soccer association in the US dating back (I think) to the 1930s. It started organizing a national championship at some point. Things were simpler in those days. Teams played in a local league, league winners played in a state tournament, state winners played in a regional tournament, regional winners played in a national tournament.

In the 70s 2 other national associations were started - AYSO and SAY. They are most/only focused on rec soccer and I'm not sure either have a presence in this area.

In the 70s and 80s soccer camps and huge soccer tournaments took off and some of the biggest clubs started having full-time coaches and administrators.

Sometime around the late 90s/early 2000s some of those biggest clubs decided they weren't getting what they wanted out of USYS so they formed a new organization called US Club Soccer. It was more focused on elite/travel soccer while USYS was/is more of a big tent organization.

I think that's the basic history, I'm sure others know.

Personally I think it's ***crazy*** and counterproductive to have rival national youth soccer associations.

Can anyone provide insight on why a club would choose to join MLS Next vs ECNL on the boys side or ECNL vs GA on the girls side? Would every ECNL boys club jump at the chance to move to MLS Next but they just haven't gotten the offer? Or do they prefer ECNL for some reason? And anything similar on the girls side?

I'm just curious what the mindset would be from the club's perspective.

Thanks in advance.

Great work, thanks for creating this.

Great work.

One thing to note is that high school soccer is a spring sport in VA. However it's a fall sport in MD, DC, and for most/all private schools.