Reply to Top Level Goalie Questions (Girls)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid plays GK for a club that is not ECNL.  She gets 100% of every minute of every game throughout the year.   Twice she was offered spots on a nearby ECNL roster.  She would split time 50/50 but offered to rotate time on with the other starter on the 2nd team as well to get extra reps.  Both times the offer was made I turned it down.   
The way I see it she gets all the time she can handle right now with her current club.  They are competitive and play in a good league.   She loves her team.   What more can a different club offer than she is already getting.

Now some of you will argue she should of course play ECNL...
Why?
Shes happy.  No one the team gets more minutes than she does.   For us its the best spot for her.  Obviously her team is a one GK team with a field player as a backup should it ever come to that[/quote]

DC was in this predicament and chose to split time and play ECNL. It's a personal choice with a lot of factors to weigh so I'm lending one alt perspective here. In DC's case it has been both beneficial for her development and exposure as well as a huge relief for a few reasons: 1) Before ECNL, the league competition was so bleak for her competitive team that there were games as well as entire tournaments where she wouldn't touch a ball, not even for defensive relief. The competition at the ECNL has given her a tremendous opportunity to step up her game. 2) She could never miss a game when she was the sole keeper (stressful!). Now, not only can we feel we aren't letting down the team if she needs to take a sick day, she loves having a true peer on her team to warm up with and train alongside on the weekends. It's such a unique and challenging position and she feels less isolated on a team with a 2nd keeper.

One or two others in this thread made a comment about needing to be able to refer to being the "starting" keeper at U16 or above. This is inaccurate from my observation. DC is on the bench the first half of every other game and routinely gets views from college coaches including P5. They don't assume there's a big diff between the two rostered keepers such that one is highly skilled and the other merely there as a backup and not as skilled. (I think that dynamic may be more commonplace at the collegiate level.) We've observed the 50/50 split and rotation as such a common practice within the league (as there are diff and equally important considerations for each half) that when we have coaches come by our games at ECNL showcases who are interested in a GK, they simply ask which half she in is playing in so they can know when to watch. No one bats an eye if the response is, "second."

I hope this anecdotal bit helps to lend a diff view to anyone whose DC is grappling with a similar decision. [/quote]
+1. My son is not a GK but his best friend and teammate is and we know the family very well. When the team brought in the 2nd GK the family was nervous obviously but just the thought of the competition made my sons buddy 100x better. He improved by leaps and bounds. Sought out extra training. Worked on his own.  Etc. he loves having another keeper to warm up with and all the things prior poster mentioned.  It’s really been a blessing in disguise for him. [/quote]

Well stated! I applaud you for this comment. Competition breeds champions! Your DC should want another keeper on the team to challenge them (and to have coverage for the team if one of the two keepers is injured). It pushes your DC to get better and not rest on their successes. This pattern is a great lesson for the future. They should have to work hard to get what they want and if there are better people to do the job then they should congratulate them (and work hard to gain it back if that is really what they want). Meritocracy at it's best![/quote]

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