Below is how the SoCal clubs break down by age group.
Some notes:
- As recently as 2018-19, Washington/Oregon had 12 DA teams - including several teams who were competitive w/ SoCal teams - that maxed out at u14 but all of those clubs left DA in 2019-20 with most going over to ECNL.
- The theory behind the lower number of clubs at the older age groups vs the lower age groups is that the "pyramid" will winnow out the lesser players and the better players will continue on based on merit.
In practice, the efficacy of this "pyramid" varies widely.
- A significant number of clubs continue with 90% of existing rosters due, in large part, to incumbency bias.
- Late bloomers and late dobs are swimming upstream since promotion to u15 thru u19 is, reasonably, based on early in the cycle (u13/u14) performance.
- Due to spotty geo coverage by the DA outside of major metros, for some families, it's difficult to impossible for kids to find a club within reasonable travel distance.
Net net, If a player is good (i.e. top 15% to 20% of DA - potentially college level) but not pro potential and they don't get into a u13 thru u19 DA club early in the cycle i.e. u13/u14, it will be very difficult later.
The impact of this is that - because colleges focus on DA due to limited time and $ for recruiting - there's a ton of potential players deserving of college attention who are at risk of falling off the track.
- The basis for many of the clubs that go u13 to u19 is that they were 1) one of the original clubs who joined DA early on or 2) are MLS.
Looking at DA performance over time across age groups and across geo's, there's a number of clubs in SoCal and across the country where their u13 thru u19 status is not based on recent performance i.e. in the last five years
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Here's list of SoCal clubs by age group:
Only Chula Vista FC is still only u13.
The following clubs are u13 and u14 only
- LA Surf u13 and u14
- Legends u13 and u14
- Murrieta Surf u13 and u14
- OC Surf u13 and u14
- San Diego SC u13 and u14
- Santa Barbara SC u13 and u14
- Ventura County Fusion u13 and u14
The following clubs are u13 thru u15
- LAUFA u13, u14 and u15
- TFA u13, u14 and u15
here's u13 thru u17:
- LAGSD u13 thru u17
- LAFC u13 thru u17
here's go up thru u19:
- Albion
- Arsenal
- FC Golden State
- LA Galaxy
- Nomads
- Real SoCal
- Real Salt Lake (RSL AZ + RSL Utah)
- Pateadores
- San Diego Surf
- Strikers
- Barca Residential (u15 thru u19 only)