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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So do most top Potomac ECNL players make the jump to MLSNext teams or other ECNL teams? Most top clubs had at least a player (boys and girls) or some invited to a USYNT talent ID event and I don’t recall seeing Potomac ECNL on the list much.  [/quote]

I would imagine so. In full transparency, we are with Bethesda because it is the closest to us. Potomac beat us last year and they have some really top players that my kid trains with in neutral environments. Those parents are with Potomac because it is close to them just like we are with Bethesda because it is convenient for us. I am not some crazy that believes my club is better than your club. These kids are where they are based mostly on what they do outside of training. The more comfortable you get with setting up home training and pickup close to home, the less inherent pressure and expectations you will have from your kid, and the more they will enjoy the game and actually want to train on their own. Once they have passion and internal drive on their own, the sky is the limit.

As the kids age up, people will tend to gravitate towards Bethesda because they have the track record. In our age group, if Potomac kept their team together, they would be formidable if they continue to develop. It is really deeper than the club and badge. At Bethesda, we had an awesome coach for two years and then a dud this year. If we had another dud, we will start looking. The leagues do not matter pre-puberty from talking to parents of older kids.

To combine two previous posts, if you are a novice parent, check out neutral training environments to see what quality training looks like. Then pick the club closest to you that has those principles and train with them.  More importantly, play at home with your kid in the backyard and with other kids in the area at school. Most parents default to club because there aren’t a lot of options between rec and club. Even if you want to be fancy, find a top coach who is $50-$200 an hour and split it with 9 kids and run 3v3 pickup with guidance.  For $6-$23 a session, your kid will have a blast with some guidance on their free play. That is how they develop. Actually playing and making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. We all love our kids and these clubs take advantage it but many of them aren’t providing a quality product for the hype.

Whatever you do, don’t believe that any club or badge means anything on the boys side.  I can’t speak on the girls side but because those Bethesda girls take so much abuse and parents accept it because of the “access” the coaches provide. I would not do it but I am grateful the boys side is not like that and I am not forced to make that decision. On the boys side, most of the boys develop in environments that allow them to play. We, Bethesda, have several USYNT players that developed on smaller, no name, clubs before they came to us. If your kids stand out, a coach will walk across the sidelines to find you. You go to tryouts and they will ask your kid “who are your parents?” It is really that simple on the boys side. Once that starts happening, you can begin worry to think about the league and access.  ECNL still has ID2 and I know a few kids who have been identified through that process for USYNT’s and MLS academies also.

To summarize, there is no one path.[/quote]

Potomac ECNL defeated Bethesda MLS Next?[/quote]

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