Anonymous wrote:I just came across the National League. It seems like a competitive group of teams, at least the MD, PA and NJ teams. I don't see any VA teams. Anyone know anything about the league and its prestige. Is it a money grab or is it a serious platform. Do college coaches attend?

Loudoun, BRYC, and McLean all had National League teams last year. I believe they have all left for Boys ECNL.

My daughter left ECNL for a national league team. Found the competition to be pretty comparable. ECNL definitely faster paced/more athletic, but noticeably better coaching--more intelligent play and possession in national league. That was before GDA though, not sure if that will be true any more with DA/ECNL expansion taking so much more talent into closed leagues.

The National League is a very strong one, and great for showcasing kids who want to play in college. It tends to include many of the “best of the rest”—boys teams that don’t play in DA and girls teams that don’t play in DA or ECNL. There have been boys teams from VA in it in recent years, and a team from McLean won the national championship a few years ago. There are various ways to qualify as explained on the bottom of the page at this link: https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/2019-20-national-league-qualifiers/.

Anonymous wrote:I just came across the National League. It seems like a competitive group of teams, at least the MD, PA and NJ teams. I don't see any VA teams. Anyone know anything about the league and its prestige. Is it a money grab or is it a serious platform. Do college coaches attend?

As I recall, national league teams are teams who have won the state cup, then the regions and win, and so on until they are the top teams. So it starts with the state cup. In Virginia, there isn't enough talent depth to have the DA, ECNL and form teams that can make it through the layers it takes to get to the national league level any more.

I just came across the National League. It seems like a competitive group of teams, at least the MD, PA and NJ teams. I don't see any VA teams. Anyone know anything about the league and its prestige. Is it a money grab or is it a serious platform. Do college coaches attend?