ECNL & Total Global Sports

ECNL

BRONZE
In the Spring of 2016 ECNL decided to hire Total Global Sports to revamp their website. This new website requires all ECNL players to register (and then edit the basic free profile) to use their back-end software called Totalplayer which is similar to CaptainU or Berecruited. I was thinking at the time that this is a great idea and considered it to be a value-added service. Then I registered and learned that the free account is extremely limited and basically forces parents to upgrade to have any real functionality whatsoever. The most important aspect to this service, in my opinion, is to have access to the College section which is unfortunately not provided unless you upgrade (see cost below). Basically, ECNL effectively raised customer cost of participation by $199 to $249.

Teen Plus account: $19.95/month or $199.95/year.
Teen Premium: $24.95/month or $249.95/year.

The following is cut/paste from email sent out after registering with TGS:

Getting the most out of TOTALplayer:
  • With a TOTALplayer free account, all ages have access to the Nutrition Center and Video Center where you can purchase short videos to improve specific skills. Players can easily email their teammates and coach, view schedules and indicate your playing status for upcoming games. For U13 and older players, college coaches can view your basic profile year-round and can take and save electronic notes field-side, tied to your profile, directly in their system. College coaches' TGS recruiting software is on the same platform as player profiles so that data is shared in real-time.
  • With an upgraded TOTALplayer Teen Plus or Premium account, players have a more robust profile including soccer accomplishments, academics, coach evaluations, references, fitness scores and college preferences. Players have access to the entire College section, can research our extensive database of colleges, can email with college coaches directly from their account and "Follow" them, while college coaches can do the same. Players also have access to the Testing Center to watch short video clips and test to improve skills.
  • With an upgraded TOTALplayer Junior Plus account, players have a more robust profile with soccer accomplishments, coach evaluation and access to the Testing Center for skills improvement and can even see how they rank against other players in the region, state or country
 
I agree totally lame. A bad play by ECNL management.
Yes about as lame as TDS when they post an email that your kid is in an article and then you have to pay to be a premier member to read it. Sorry TDS is a total douche publication and I have yet to meet anyone in SoCal that will admit to ever being contacted by TDS to rate or comment on a player.
 
Yes about as lame as TDS when they post an email that your kid is in an article and then you have to pay to be a premier member to read it. Sorry TDS is a total douche publication and I have yet to meet anyone in SoCal that will admit to ever being contacted by TDS to rate or comment on a player.

Please don't get me started on TopDrawer. They are so horrible it is funny. My player moved further and further down the list the more accolades that she got. I think that she was the lowest rated player in her recruiting class by them! As you know they were a little off on that assessment based upon what has happened so far on the field.

Good luck to your daughter on Sunday.
 
Please don't get me started on TopDrawer. They are so horrible it is funny. My player moved further and further down the list the more accolades that she got. I think that she was the lowest rated player in her recruiting class by them! As you know they were a little off on that assessment based upon what has happened so far on the field.

Good luck to your daughter on Sunday.
Not gonna play still too much pain.
 
Yes about as lame as TDS when they post an email that your kid is in an article and then you have to pay to be a premier member to read it. Sorry TDS is a total douche publication and I have yet to meet anyone in SoCal that will admit to ever being contacted by TDS to rate or comment on a player.

Any recommendations on alternatives to TDS?
 
I created websites for my DDs using GoDaddys website builder and linked their youtube videos to the site. It was $12 the first year and about $30 easch additional year. You can see who is looking at the site and has proven very useful.
We are also on CaptainU's free site but we found the ECNL showcases plus contacting Coaches directly got us to the right schools for my DDs. That said both my DDs have very specific requirements for their major, location, size, academic profile, etc which greatly reduced the number of schools that they were looking at so we were not looking to cast a wide net. I do know people who really like Fitfinder but I think all these sites are about the same.
 
Is anyone surprised by the latest money grab with TGS? Of course, it is just another money maker for select individuals and doesn't provide much of a service. Youth soccer is the biggest racket around and a few individuals putting a lot of money in their pockets.
 
Any recommendations on alternatives to TDS?
Our club provided a College Fitfinder (https://www.collegefitfinder.com/intro/index.php) player profile and team profile for free to all of the club's older players. It was a great way to keep organized with phone calls, emails, and visits. I thought it was a very effective tool with some great information about all of the schools. We used the team and player profile links as part of her email signature, along with club coach email/mobile and high school coach email/mobile. NCSAA, CaptainU, SINC, TGS and BeRecruited are all pay services that we elected not to use.
 
You have to pay to list player accomplishments? Wow that's lame.
Hey at least they're granting free access to the "Nutrition Center", whatever that is. Super Lame............ So $200 a year per player x say 20 players a team x 79 teams x 5 age groups = $1,580,000 if everyone decides to list their soccer accomplishments on their ECNL profile. These figures aren't even based on the "Teen Premium" package. Amazing...
 
Our club provided a College Fitfinder (https://www.collegefitfinder.com/intro/index.php) player profile and team profile for free to all of the club's older players. It was a great way to keep organized with phone calls, emails, and visits. I thought it was a very effective tool with some great information about all of the schools. We used the team and player profile links as part of her email signature, along with club coach email/mobile and high school coach email/mobile. NCSAA, CaptainU, SINC, TGS and BeRecruited are all pay services that we elected not to use.
Our club provided College Fitfinder at no charge as well. I find it surprising that ECNL is not doing everything it can to get their players recruited.
 
Our club provided College Fitfinder at no charge as well. I find it surprising that ECNL is not doing everything it can to get their players recruited.

My player's ECNL club did not provide those things however during her prime recruiting years they did average over 60+ college coaches a game on the sideline from a who's who of D1 programs...

Maybe not as good as Fitfinder however, every senior on her team was committed to a D1 school and almost all are getting playing time this year.
 
MAP, we all understand that you love ECNL. I have stated in the past that ECNL was the best path to college exposure. ECNL is not without it's problems however (most of which GDA will also have), and it is fair to point them out. I am still surprised that ECNL would not offer a better online college recruitment tool at no charge. Maybe some of the member clubs offer something better. I can say that Surf's web presence sucks with regards to showcasing their players and Blues is not much better.

I agree with you about TDS. Gotsoccer has plenty of problems, but at least they don't charge fees.
 
Why even bother with a recruiting website? Simply write your DDs individual and team accolades on an Word document, have her attach it to an email, and send to the college coaches/universities she is interested in attending. Then create an email recruiting folder sorted by universities for tracking purposes. It's as simple as that and what my DD did.

I recall at SC Blues, they recommended creating an email account such as SoCalBluesClass2020-JaneDoe@Gmail.com, because any college coach will open a Blues players email.
 
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MAP, we all understand that you love ECNL. I have stated in the past that ECNL was the best path to college exposure. ECNL is not without it's problems however (most of which GDA will also have), and it is fair to point them out. I am still surprised that ECNL would not offer a better online college recruitment tool at no charge. Maybe some of the member clubs offer something better. I can say that Surf's web presence sucks with regards to showcasing their players and Blues is not much better.

I agree with you about TDS. Gotsoccer has plenty of problems, but at least they don't charge fees.

Outside,

I understand that you love GDA since your club was announced on the most recent list. I also understand that you are enjoying the value adds that your club has recently provided. I had actually taken issue with the ECNL trying to charge for a service that was an additional value added service for your daughters club (notice that I didn't say free because you paid for it with your fees). You said that you were surprised that ECNL clubs didn't offer the same service (which we both know was a backhanded swipe at the ECNL). I simply pointed out that although they don't offer that value add they do deliver the goods when it comes to having college coaches actually come out and watch games and in my opinion that does substantially more when it comes to getting a player recruited by a school and ultimately committed to and enrolling in a school (I think that is the goal for most of the girls that are high school aged and still playing competitively).

There are many roads that lead to Rome. I can tell you that a college matching service although useful did not factor into my players journey.

Good luck to you and yours. Carlsbad seems to be an excellent club.
 
Why even bother with a recruiting website? Simply write your DDs individual and team accolades on an Word document, have her attach it to an email, and send to the college coaches/universities she is interested in attending. Then create an email recruiting folder sorted by universities for tracking purposes. It's as simple as that and what my DD did.

I recall at SC Blues, they recommended creating an email account such as SoCalBluesClass2020-JaneDoe@Gmail.com, because any college coach will open a Blues players email.

I agree sir. If I was a college coach and received an email from a Blues, Slammers or Surf player I would open it simply based upon those clubs track record of putting kids in college.
 
I agree sir. If I was a college coach and received an email from a Blues, Slammers or Surf player I would open it simply based upon those clubs track record of putting kids in college.
OK, but what about the Strikers players? The Arsenal girls? What about RSC or Eagles kids? Blues, Slammers, and Surf players had their emails read long before the ECNL existed. This is just more of the same attitude..."we're the ECNL, and we don't have to do anything extra to help your players. Just slap a patch on it, and let it do the work."

I guarantee you that the DA clubs that go the extra mile for their players and don't rely upon the DA acronym to help those girls achieve their dreams, they will enjoy more success and personal satisfaction in the long run. It will at least put alot of pressure on the clubs that sit back and do nothing on their behalf, other than attending a showcase.
 
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MAP, I don't love GDA. It seems to have many of the same problems that ECNL has being that it is also a closed system. About the best thing I can say about GDA is that by selecting Carlsbad (now LAGSD) they broke the Surf monopoly for players in San Diego county. No club is perfect and having options is better. How GDA will change things remains to be seen and will have minimal impact on my DD. While access to College Fitfinder was nice, it also did not factor into DD's recruitment. She went the "old fashioned" way with emails. I just don't understand why ECNL does not offer something similar to College Fitfinder since not all ECNL players at all ECNL clubs will be as fortunate as the players on your DD's team. As I've stated in the past, ECNL was a power grab. GDA is also. USSF is showing its usual complete lack of meaningful leadership.

Best of luck to y'all as well.
 
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