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[quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad]Yeah, I'm not sure how this became a DA discussion. Sure, it's going to be extremely rare that a player moves from U10 rec to U12 DA. I don't think that was ever the point.

To answer the Travel A/B/C/D question -- in most clubs, the A team is either in the DA, the ECNL, EDP, CCL or VPL. A handful still have their A teams in NCSL and a couple are in ODSL -- a couple of *those* teams are actually quite good.

So we should remember, of course, that some clubs B teams will be better than other clubs' A teams.

But most clubs' C/D (and E/F in some cases) teams will be in NCSL and ODSL, usually not in the top NCSL division.

Maybe we should be talking, then, about league tiers rather than club tiers. A rough look at that ...

Tier 1: DA, girls' ECNL

Tier 2: Top EDP division, top third of CCL, other teams in the top 25 at Youth Soccer Rankings (which would likely include a couple of teams from VPL, maybe 1-2 from NCSL, maybe lower-tier EDP and middle of CCL).

Tier 3: Boys' ECNL, middle of CCL, top half of VPL, EDP Div 2-3, NCSL Div 1, other teams in top 50 at Youth Soccer Rankings (the occasional ODSL team will make that).

Tier 4: The rest of CCL, all of CCL2, the rest of VPL, the rest of EDP, NCSL Div 2-5, more ODSL teams.

Tier 5: The rest of NCSL and ODSL.

I'm sure there are Classic/Select teams that could beat the Tier 5 teams and certainly some Tier 4 teams as well.

And I'd think the very best U11 rec players (maybe 1-2 percent) could make a Tier 3 team, the next group (maybe 10-15 percent) could make Tier 4, and an above-average rec player would make Tier 5 if not Tier 4.

Then after a year or two of travel, some of those players could move up a tier. Maybe even two if they're starting in Tier 4 or 5.  [/quote]

NP here. This is a good analysis. My DD is one of the rare kids that started travel soccer at the C team/ODSL level (Tier 5) for U9/U10 and eventually played at the ECNL (Tier 1) level.  She was also senior year Captain and "all-league" for her strong high school team.

The progression was gradual and involved a lot of individual training.  At U11 she moved from ODSL up to the Tier 4 level. Then at U14 made at Tier 2 level team at another club, and at U17 she played at the ECNL level.   So while she did not make it to Tier 1 from "rec" soccer, she did make the progression from Tier 5 to Tier 1.  
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