Anonymous wrote:We are in the Mid Atlantic on a GA team and have already had a few RL girls at practice.

Not surprising. GA is a big step up from RL. Some of the RL teams are very bad and kids are leaving to new GA teams if given a chance.

Potomac plays in an ECNL league that starts in the spring because Maryland high school soccer is now, fall. So they are doing it ahead of their season, which is opposite Virginia. Welcome to the not so United States.

We are in the Mid Atlantic on a GA team and have already had a few RL girls at practice.

The club soccer system waiting an extra year for the SY change has thrown a grenade into the normal tryout season. Everyone better start thinking about next year and contingency plans soon. For people above who say don't wait until tryout season, this year will be especially crazy months ahead of tryouts.

Anonymous wrote:Ok so… Kid is U16 RL.
Teams will get mixed up next year due to SY switch.
Kid late developer but is finally there, grew nearly 5 inches in a year.
How do you get them seen? Remember season doesn’t start til spring in NA so no games, no fall film. Just ask to come to practices??
Clearly not an insider and it’s beyond opaque.

I’d wait until mid-October and then email clubs that seem to be a good fit. Since your DC is in an ECNL club, look at clubs that are under different carding systems (ie MLS Next or GA). If you have decent HS film, it’s worth sending along. I’m saying to wait until mid-Oct since you are in NA and things will start ramping up in late Oct/early Nov, so give the club(s) a couple of weeks to get back to you and schedule to have a date/time when your DC can attend practice.

Ok so… Kid is U16 RL.
Teams will get mixed up next year due to SY switch.
Kid late developer but is finally there, grew nearly 5 inches in a year.
How do you get them seen? Remember season doesn’t start til spring in NA so no games, no fall film. Just ask to come to practices??
Clearly not an insider and it’s beyond opaque.

Anonymous wrote:crazy parents..... The season just started, and you're already thinking of moving your kid? Get a life.

Usually by the end of the fall season/november you have a pretty good idea if your child is a good fit on their current team. Many clubs will have ID sessions around this time and then invite players they are interested in to practice end of winter/beginning of spring. Most teams are more or less picked prior to tryouts but hopefully clubs hold a spot or two if a surprise shows up at tryouts. Yes, there are separate ecnl rules that have already been discussed.

Now this year is going to be even more chaotic with the age change. Not crazy at all to be keeping your eyes open and evaluating options. My daughter is a great fit at her current team but is a June birthday. I would love to keep her at her current team but we will likely go to other ID sessions and explore other options because I have no idea what will happen come tryout time.

ECNL mandates tryout period and notifies clubs. Clubs in DMV area tried to hold tryouts early this spring to compete against each other but got shot down by ECNL so clubs had to retract tryout emailing being sent out early and specify the dates. Unless Potomac and other ECNL clubs received official letter from ECNL, I would look forward to spring(April tryouts)

Anonymous wrote:crazy parents..... The season just started, and you're already thinking of moving your kid? Get a life.

Yes, only because TRYOUTS for some Clubs are in November. Do you realize that is less than 2 months away right? If the clubs would universally wait until May or June for tryouts.... this issue would go away.

crazy parents..... The season just started, and you're already thinking of moving your kid? Get a life.

Anonymous wrote:If you are currently on and ECNL or RL team, you can’t practice or tryout with another ECNL team until the spring. Forget the exact date.
Now if you are currently part of a GA team you can practice/tryout at anytime with and ECNL team.
Believe the same is true in reverse. GA can’t tryout with GA now but ECNL/RL can.

This brings up another question. If you are on a RL team with no ECNL pathway, when is the right time to contact GA teams? I’ve heard you don’t want to just go to tryouts in the spring and hope to be discovered.

This can be true. We lived that very thing. DD did great at 3x tryouts, but 3 slots were already earmarked for players who came to practices ahead of time and agreed to jump ship as a package deal from another club. They only came to tryouts 1 day and had offers that night. No one else made the team... my kid was grinding away and told she did very well, but didn't get an offer.

Anonymous wrote:If you are currently on and ECNL or RL team, you can’t practice or tryout with another ECNL team until the spring. Forget the exact date.
Now if you are currently part of a GA team you can practice/tryout at anytime with and ECNL team.
Believe the same is true in reverse. GA can’t tryout with GA now but ECNL/RL can.

This brings up another question. If you are on a RL team with no ECNL pathway, when is the right time to contact GA teams? I’ve heard you don’t want to just go to tryouts in the spring and hope to be discovered.

Great question. I am in this boat now. My oldest (2010) is ECNL but my youngest is ECRL (2014). Pretty sure she'll be a late bloomer but possibly too late. If she doesn't make the ECNL team in her age group next year we'll start looking at GA teams. Unfortunately most clubs put very little effort into RL teams (just my experience) and they get very little college exposure.

Anonymous wrote:If you are currently on and ECNL or RL team, you can’t practice or tryout with another ECNL team until the spring. Forget the exact date.
Now if you are currently part of a GA team you can practice/tryout at anytime with and ECNL team.
Believe the same is true in reverse. GA can’t tryout with GA now but ECNL/RL can.

This brings up another question. If you are on a RL team with no ECNL pathway, when is the right time to contact GA teams? I’ve heard you don’t want to just go to tryouts in the spring and hope to be discovered.

if they are talking about ECNL and Potomac, i'm pretty sure they are talking about Boys side and GA will have nothing to do with it.

If you are currently on and ECNL or RL team, you can’t practice or tryout with another ECNL team until the spring. Forget the exact date.
Now if you are currently part of a GA team you can practice/tryout at anytime with and ECNL team.
Believe the same is true in reverse. GA can’t tryout with GA now but ECNL/RL can.

This brings up another question. If you are on a RL team with no ECNL pathway, when is the right time to contact GA teams? I’ve heard you don’t want to just go to tryouts in the spring and hope to be discovered.

I was told recently that Potomac Soccer will be running ECNL ID sessions in November? Is that common? Are there other clubs that do this too? I thought most of these things happened in April/May.