the 2013 GA teams will be fire in the fall 2025.

SJEB
NVA
SYC
Real
Mclean?

Anonymous wrote:How will Loudoun and McLean (and perhaps Bethesda) leaving ECNL affect the rising U13s? Any obvious winners and losers (clubs and categories of players)?

Winners- remaining ECNL clubs

How will Loudoun and McLean (and perhaps Bethesda) leaving ECNL affect the rising U13s? Any obvious winners and losers (clubs and categories of players)?

Thanks so much for detailed explanation.

Anonymous wrote:It seems that a lot has changed recently, with many clubs transitioning to GA. We are from a smaller cub and uncertain about trying out for GA or ECNL.

What area do you live in? Your practical concerns will be traffic and space on the rosters. Also, I think the conventional wisdom says you should try out for both leagues if you can and see what kind of offers you get. Remember, committing to a GA or ECNL team comes with increased headaches in logistics... practices, events, games and trainings go up from 3 days per week to 5 days per week. Travel games and tournaments will now include a couple of $3,000 weekends for airfare, lodging and events.

Is your ECNL or GA team good because of the coaching at practice? Or are they good because the team is a magnet for talent? Before you make a huge time and financial commitment, I would attend a few practices as a parent and talk to a few other parents 1st if you can. Doing some legwork now, will likely save you some aggravation later. Ask good questions of the parents or the team managers: How many kids are on the roster? Does the coach communicate their weekly plan to the parents with their practice and game goals? Is the practice schedule well known, or does it change all the time? How much scrimmaging do they do in practice? Has the team cut anyone? Do they demote to make room for better players, or do they only care about player longevity? ...you get the idea.

Anonymous wrote:It seems that a lot has changed recently, with many clubs transitioning to GA. We are from a smaller cub and uncertain about trying out for GA or ECNL.

Thanks for sharing. Is there a question here?

Anonymous wrote:It seems that a lot has changed recently, with many clubs transitioning to GA. We are from a smaller cub and uncertain about trying out for GA or ECNL.

Ok

It seems that a lot has changed recently, with many clubs transitioning to GA. We are from a smaller cub and uncertain about trying out for GA or ECNL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems NVA posted ID sessions. But they are appear to be by invitation only.

It's always by invitation. You register and then they extend an invitation to participate. Just registering/Signing up doesn't guarantee your participation at an ID session... I think all of the bigger clubs operate the same way. I'm sure a smaller club would be willing to accept a larger number of players that want to come tryout.

they end up invited everyone anyways. They already know who they want. And IDs are for Show. If you haven't heard from a coach prior to official tryout then generally your kid has no shot. Nepotism is pretty bad within NVA and other ECNL clubs

Anonymous wrote:It seems NVA posted ID sessions. But they are appear to be by invitation only.

It's always by invitation. You register and then they extend an invitation to participate. Just registering/Signing up doesn't guarantee your participation at an ID session... I think all of the bigger clubs operate the same way. I'm sure a smaller club would be willing to accept a larger number of players that want to come tryout.

Anonymous wrote:It seems NVA posted ID sessions. But they are appear to be by invitation only.

Literally there is a link of their insta to sign up / register for ID sessions

It seems NVA posted ID sessions. But they are appear to be by invitation only.

Anonymous wrote:As someone who did ECNL at u13 and u14 and is now unaffliated, save your money and wait unil u15 or u16 to join ECNL/GA/MLSN. You may be losing some time to gel with a specific high level team, but your kid will be better player unltimatley by not playing at this level during these development years. Too much is dependent on winning, which in the end means absolutely nothing to your kid becoming a better soccer player. Find a coach that believes in your kid, league and level doesn't matter, spend more time with the ball than in the car, and keep it fun. Competition will always be there and not really worth the money until you know college coaches are watching you compete.

I completely agree with this. Kid played on a lower level team and had a lot of fun and a lot of playing time. Kid is creative with the ball and I believe in part is due to the development and fun kid had playing at the lower level. Eventually landed on ECNL/GA/MLSN at U15 but it was much harder than it needed to be. Yes, politics.

With that being said, it’s much easier to get on ECNL/GA/MLSN level teams at the older age groups if you joined at a younger age.

Is the competition the same? No. But you can certainly save a lot of money and let your child build confidence and have a crack at either of the NL programs after the U13/14/15 fallout. It definitely happens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who did ECNL at u13 and u14 and is now unaffliated, save your money and wait unil u15 or u16 to join ECNL/GA/MLSN. You may be losing some time to gel with a specific high level team, but your kid will be better player unltimatley by not playing at this level during these development years. Too much is dependent on winning, which in the end means absolutely nothing to your kid becoming a better soccer player. Find a coach that believes in your kid, league and level doesn't matter, spend more time with the ball than in the car, and keep it fun. Competition will always be there and not really worth the money until you know college coaches are watching you compete.

So true. These NL leagues are so unnecessary at U13/14, some may even say U15. Nobody is coming to scout your games.

The problem is if you don't do ECNL nl or MLSN the level below drops significantly in competition level, seriousness, coaching, resources. The downside is the increased cost and travel time.

This is also true at the ulittle levels and it makes it very hard for a [U10] kid who is not quite good enough to make the first team to ever catch up with the kids on the first team unless the parents fork over gobs money for private training. The delta in all those things—competition level (at practice and in games), seriousness of teammates and their parents, quality and commitment of coaching, resources such as field space—between area first and second teams is frankly shocking and clearly demonstrates that this area is over-saturated with clubs that aspire to be national level clubs. Is the separation between first and second teams as dramatic in other parts of the country?