Reply to Just curious... how many girls move to ECNL from a lower team?

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Reply to "Just curious... how many girls move to ECNL from a lower team?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moving up to ECNL within one's club is very challenging unless your daughter is one of the top players on her ECNL-R team, and/or there is a need to fill a certain position.  Our experience (and from talking to other parents) shows that clubs in this region do not actively promote from within, ie., moving girls up from the second team to the top team. There is a long list of girls in our area wanting to play on the top level, so finding players from outside the club is easy.  Also, if parents continue to pay checks for the second/third team, there is no incentive to develop kids and move them up.

Moving up to ECNL can many times be a combination of skill, positional awareness, speed, luck, timing, and grace.  We found that to be the case this year with our daughter as she moved up at another club. They had a need and she was a match.  She tried out at 2 clubs and received an offer from one of them.

Visit and practice with other clubs this fall; don't wait for spring tryouts.  Ask if they have openings, if there are positional needs, etc.
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I disagree that there's no incentive to promote from within.  The clubs do want to win - because nothing drives player numbers more than a winning program.  So there is an incentive to promote the best kids they can find to the first team.

Most of the time kids stay on the second team because that's where they belong.  Despite all the people who claim that things change - the most coordinated and athletic kids usually stay that way and usually remain the best players.  I've had three kids play soccer - one of whom took it seriously and was always on the top team of a good club.  One club he was at for a few years definitely promoted kids from the second team, but I can only remember two kids (out of ten or more) who managed to establish themselves as starters on the higher level team.  Most struggled because they were marginal players and likely would have been better off staying on the second team where they were strong starters.  Indeed several chose to go back to the second team for precisely this reason.

And if your kid is *clearly* at the wrong level, most clubs will move them quickly.  A kid who moved to the area mid-year initially started on the fourth team at my son's club, and within a handful of months they had moved him all the way up to the first team where he was still one of the strongest players.

On the other hand if your kid is in a mix of kids at the bottom of the first team / top of the second team who are all about the same level then you may find that a clubs is reluctant to rock the boat - and you might be able to find another club who will take your kid onto a first team.  But whether or not it's worth it is an open question.[/quote]

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