Other countries don't have what we call "travel." You're in a professional academy, or you're playing what we call "rec."

Which means the top "rec" divisions are pretty good. They just don't spend their entire weekends on some godforsaken field in New Jersey or Ohio.

Having "travel" isn't the end of the world, but things would be a lot simpler if all the leagues de-siloed themselves and everyone just played in one system. Then you could make a true pyramid. The top teams would play what we'd now consider ECNL or GA or MLS Next or whatever. By the time you get the fourth tier or so, you're at low-level NCSL travel or the new NCSL rec league.

Rec parents don't really post here. I asked a question about an all star tournament awhile back and there wasn't much feedback.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Tell me you're a toxic jealous rec parent without telling me you're a toxic jealous rec parent.

LOL. A rec parent would know that you register your kid via Mclean Youth Soccer (for instance) and not directly on the SFL or now NCSL website.

Rec parents know about travel and don't give AF. The parents of the really good travel
players don't care about rec.
The nastiness comes from some
Of the parents of the lower travel teams.

Nice theory. But you need not look further than this thread and others to see how much rec parents are getting bent out of shape.

How do you know who is a rec parent vs. an angry travel parent? This forum seems to be 95% travel parents in pissing contests over which league is better and just shouting acronyms at each other.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Tell me you're a toxic jealous rec parent without telling me you're a toxic jealous rec parent.

LOL. A rec parent would know that you register your kid via Mclean Youth Soccer (for instance) and not directly on the SFL or now NCSL website.

Rec parents know about travel and don't give AF. The parents of the really good travel
players don't care about rec.
The nastiness comes from some
Of the parents of the lower travel teams.

Nice theory. But you need not look further than this thread and others to see how much rec parents are getting bent out of shape.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Tell me you're a toxic jealous rec parent without telling me you're a toxic jealous rec parent.

LOL. A rec parent would know that you register your kid via Mclean Youth Soccer (for instance) and not directly on the SFL or now NCSL website.

Rec parents know about travel and don't give AF. The parents of the really good travel
players don't care about rec.
The nastiness comes from some
Of the parents of the lower travel teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Not true. I just signed up for sfl from the club website.

No such thing as sfl anymore. It’s ncsl rec where the most talented kids that don’t play travel show off their skills and talents.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Not true. I just signed up for sfl from the club website.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Tell me you're a toxic jealous rec parent without telling me you're a toxic jealous rec parent.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

There are so many things wrong with this post. I'm not even going to bother lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

My kid plays U14 on a team with a few former travel players who've decided that they care about other sports more than soccer. None of them seem to have any desire to play travel soccer again. The never travel parents know it exits but are not inclined to spend 20x the price for travel. Once you get past the initial U9 through U10 exodus to travel, the rec families are in rec because that's where they want to be not because they don't know about travel

This is true too, left Rec for travel at U8, but still play Rec sometimes and talk with rec parents often. The Rec families are barraged with 'come to travel tryouts' e-mails and the travel coach recruiters constantly tell parents their kids are good enough to join the 'travel academy.' They just don't want to, its too much of a time commitment. There are some great players out there in rec for sure otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

My kid plays U14 on a team with a few former travel players who've decided that they care about other sports more than soccer. None of them seem to have any desire to play travel soccer again. The never travel parents know it exits but are not inclined to spend 20x the price for travel. Once you get past the initial U9 through U10 exodus to travel, the rec families are in rec because that's where they want to be not because they don't know about travel

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they keeping the same divisions? Ten teams in D1 and 60 teams in D2?

They said the division structure will be the same.

Their main concern seems to be keeping rec and travel as separate as possible. They asked the orgs with rec and travel teams to try and make sure the teams played on different fields. And the reps aren't even attending the same meetings.

That’s not surprising. NCSL is glorified rec. I don’t think they want NCSL parents realizing how similar the quality of play is

And ECNL-RL around here is about the level of NCSL.

Here we go again. Rec parents trashing travel kids. You guys are so predictable. If your volunteer league were so great even us travel parents would stay. Kids just cannot grow and develop at the same level in Rec with some well intentioned volunteer parents as they can in any decent travel program. If you want to take a sport very casual, for fun and some simple exercise and socializing then yes rec is fine. But any real development is not going to happen in 99.9% of rec teams.

The ecnl statement was clearly a travel parent. Rec people don't know or care about the pissing contests between the various dumb leagues.

no that statement was in response to someone calling ncsl "glorified rec" and he was piling on:

"That’s not surprising. NCSL is glorified rec. I don’t think they want NCSL parents realizing how similar the quality of play is
...
And ECNL-RL around here is about the level of NCSL."

let's be honest, some rec parents have a HUGE chip on their shoulders. relax and enjoy your saturday afternoons watching your kids get some fresh air and exercise, but don't hate on others that want a bit more.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Nonsense. People register with their local leaguez snd then the leagues put the teams into ncsl.
Most rec parents wont even realize its not sfl

Here's what it's going to happen, parents have to now go to the ncsl website to register their kids for rec. Once they go to the website they're going to have the Epiphany that there is this level above, and then there's going to be a drive towards having their kids trap for the club's travel teams.

You think having d e f g teams is bad? Now there's going to be h i j k level teams because we're parents are going to become aware that travel soccer exists and want better for their kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they keeping the same divisions? Ten teams in D1 and 60 teams in D2?

They said the division structure will be the same.

Their main concern seems to be keeping rec and travel as separate as possible. They asked the orgs with rec and travel teams to try and make sure the teams played on different fields. And the reps aren't even attending the same meetings.

That’s not surprising. NCSL is glorified rec. I don’t think they want NCSL parents realizing how similar the quality of play is

And ECNL-RL around here is about the level of NCSL.

Here we go again. Rec parents trashing travel kids. You guys are so predictable. If your volunteer league were so great even us travel parents would stay. Kids just cannot grow and develop at the same level in Rec with some well intentioned volunteer parents as they can in any decent travel program. If you want to take a sport very casual, for fun and some simple exercise and socializing then yes rec is fine. But any real development is not going to happen in 99.9% of rec teams.

The ecnl statement was clearly a travel parent. Rec people don't know or care about the pissing contests between the various dumb leagues.