shales1002
GOLD
What is so telling? It's just another league created under USYS and NOT USSF. Please explain.
In SoCal what’s it going to be DA/DPL or ECNL?
- Thread starter JoeZ
- Start date
What about coach licensing for this? Is an "A" License still required for DPL?
It doesn't really tell much, other than the Girls DA programs want to put their "B" teams in a regional "league of their own," which smartly is sanctioned by USYS/CalSouth. I say "smartly" because these DPL teams have the ability to participate in all of USYS and Cal South's programs (i.e. National League, CRL, State/National Cup, etc.). I can also appreciate the the fact that there is so much talent in SoCal, that they can get the same level of games without messing with ECNL's travel requirements. The fact that many "DPL" teams will also play in the CRL and a few in USYS's National League is more telling.
The DPL is not the USSF Development Academy. Its simply a Non-DA team within a club that wants to put their higher level girls on a team that will compete against other "B" teams or "Academy II" teams. This league is sanctioned by Cal South, which doesn't have coaching license restriction beyond an "E License" or now "GrassRoots 11v11."
For the record, in the DA the "A License" is only required for the Academy Director, the coaches are supposed to have "B Licenses"
Slammerdad
SILVER
Another question is will the DPL teams be club supported in the same financial level as their respective DA teams? Or what if they do not have a DA team?
I thought we covered this. The DPL is restricted to clubs that have USSDA Girls Academies. A club cannot have a team play in the DPL, unless it has a DA team. If you look at the SD Galaxy they charge more for the DPL, but less than the same age group DA. See below.
2000 Academy USSDA $2,850
2000 Academy II/Elite SCDSL/DPL $2,265
2000 Premier/Premier II SDDA $1,840
2000 Gold/White SDDA/PSL $1,640
https://lagalaxysd.com/competitive/fees/
Now, the DPL makes perfect sense because the level of play for the USSDA (at this time) is equal to or slightly below the level of play for the ECNL. Its still a new league. See this thread:
http://www.socalsoccer.com/threads/...ithout-prior-ecnl-experience-struggling.4959/
While a club is free to support their DPL team at whatever level they deem appropriate, in all likelihood you will not see the same "financial level" of support between the DPL and DA teams. For example, DA requires more travel.
Given the newness of the league, all clubs have time to get their coaches up to the appropriate license. As long as those apprentice coaches are enrolled in the appropriate license courses AND making progress toward their eventual B, more power too them. On the boys side, there are much more stricter.
Simisoccerfan
PREMIER
I wouldn't assume that DPL is restricted to clubs that have DA. That is how they have chosen to operate so far but nothing is preventing them from expanding. Maybe they could not have other 03"s guest at the DA Showcases but they are a league under Cal South just like any other league.
Just so we are clear on the current situation:
USSDA Girls Teams in Southwest Conference
USSDA Girls Teams in Southwest Conference
- Albion SC
- Beach Futbol Club
- Eagles Soccer Club
- LA Galaxy
- LA Galaxy San Diego
- LAFC Slammers
- Legends FC
- Los Angeles Premier Futbol Club
- Pateadores
- Real So Cal
- San Diego Surf
- SC del Sol
- So Cal Blues Soccer Club
- West Coast Futbol Club
- Arsenal FC
- Del Mar Sharks
- Heat FC
- San Diego Surf
- Sereno Soccer Club
- Slammers FC
- So Cal Blues SC
- Strikers FC
- West Coast FC
Bottom line there is not enough talent in SoCal to support all these teams. Never was never will be. When their was ECNL the second tier teams were garbage. There was not even enough to fill a solid 18 on the 8 ECNL teams at each age group back in the day. Hence discovery players. There were isolated teams that were not ECNL at certain age groups that could beat any ECNL team on any given day. Personally ECNL pissed me off in the day. I did not like the fact that those that got in were chosen not earned. Their coaching sucked but they were "in".
Should be interesting.... I agree ECNL needs to make a move. It seems like DA has made Socal its hub. Given the dropping of the DA by three of the countries largest clubs this week, socal seems to be trending in a different direction. The concern with that is that the DA has over saturated the market here. This seems kind of contrary to what it was designed for. It’s difficult to have the best play against the best when they are spread over 14 teams. You can see this illustrated in the lopsided standings in DA.
I still think the X factor for ECNL will be the high school option. I have heard of quite a few girls reconsidering their choices to play DA and forgo high school sports, after experiencing some buyers remorse and ending up on a DA team that has struggled all season. Many don’t like the rules associated with DA either now that they have experienced them first hand.
To continue: The DA is a joke run by clowns for incomprehensible reasons. For the ECNL teams they took the same coaches. Some of the "outside clubs" should have been ECNL anyhow. Flush DA. Take the 13 SoCal clubs and have them be ECNL. Let the Arizona and Nevada teams go to some other division. Quit dicking around and get it done. There is no soccer career for women. $35000 a year and living with 4 teammates to pay the rent is not a career. It is a hobby. ECNL got girls to college - leave it at that. The top 1% will be the top 1% regardless. Let the USWNT find them.
shales1002
GOLD
You had me pumped up until you said get rid of NV and AZ.
outside!
DA
Understandable, but the facts are that there is a large enough population in SoCal that there is not real need for SoCal teams to travel to NV or AZ for league games.You had me pumped up until you said get rid of NV and AZ.
shales1002
GOLD
It literally ONE or TWO travels to our gazillion. But hey, it's not easy.
I especially agree with this statement, which needs to be the lens that every single girl playing soccer must fundamentally understand:
The reality is that the in thd 200+ years of this country, the current 324 Million residents of the U.S. have never supported professional women's sports leagues. The WNBA (insolvent, but for support from the NBA), the NWHL (insolvent, but for support from the NHL), the NWSL (insolvent, but for support from the MLS and USSF), LPB (baseball, folded in 1998), the list goes on and on. The only sports where a woman can have a legitimate career are those where you don't have teammates, Golf, Tennis, UFC, stock car racing (I know there is a team, but in name only).
Of the top 100 athletes in the world, there is only 1 woman (Serena Williams) [http://time.com/money/4810637/female-highest-paid-athletes/]
What many lose sight of is that at the youth level, sports has numerous benefits for young people and helps them grow and mature into healthy productive adults. There is societal value and we should encourage all of our youth, boys and girls, to play sports later in their adult life through recreational amateur leagues. BUT and this is a huge BUT ... at the professional level sports is pure entertainment. It has no benefit to society other than for its entertainment value, which unto itself has some intrinsic value. Professional athletes are on the same level of actors, comedians, youtube stars, dancer, strippers, artist and musicians. They don't cure cancer, they don't discover the next great scientific advancement, they don't invent a better way to feed the hungry or do anything else but entertain. When a boys U15 ODP team can whip our Woman's National Team by 6+ points, it should be obvious to all (including the USSF) that soccer for teenage women is purely a means to stay healthy and possibly get some college paid for. That is it. The ECNL gets it. The Girls DA remains confused as to what their mission statement should be.
All we have to do is look at the USSDA "mission," which is nothing more than some platitudes and an admission that it only wants to control (i.e. "set the standard") development for the international game:
There there you have it. Build players for the "international game" and control their training. Which is absolutely, positively what the USSF should be be doing.
If one were to rewrite the mission statements of the DA for the girls and boys programs, this is what they should be:
Boys: "The mission of the Boys USSDA program is to create a national database of elite soccer players, so we can identify those athletes early, help them avoid college where they will lose 4 years of development, and figure out a way to get them into professional international leagues at age 17-19 (but if we can't, then the MLS will do) in order to have a pool of elite US professional players good enough to form a team that will win the world cup and/or the Olympics."
Girls: "The mission of the Girls USSDA program is to foster as many opportunities for girls to attend college using soccer in order to get high enough paying jobs to continue playing soccer for the semi-pro woman's league in order for the USSF to put together a good enough team every few years to win the world cup and/or the Olympics."
In each case, the mission of US Soccer misses the ultimate point. Top level professional athletes (men and women) don't reach their peak until their late 20's early 30's. Its roughly 27 years of age for soccer players, men and women. By they time these athletes are ready for the National Team, they have over 4-6 years of Non-DA development under their belt. Why US Soccer is dicking around with kids is beyond me. Its resources need to be put into programs that impact the "college" and post college age kids. This is where its pool of National team players will come from. If the MLS wants to form an academy, fine, let them. But our Federation is wasting its money. 99.9% of these kids won't sign a professional contract. The fact that the USSDA has the audacity to tell these kids to ignore the social aspect of H.S. sports is insane.Girls: "The mission of the Girls USSDA program is to foster as many opportunities for girls to attend college using soccer in order to get high enough paying jobs to continue playing soccer for the semi-pro woman's league in order for the USSF to put together a good enough team every few years to win the world cup and/or the Olympics."
The goal of boys and girls at an elite level should be college, college, college. If an athlete can get a Generation Adidas deal, then great, but let the kids be kids, let them experience some of the best aspect of H.S., the social benefits of being on a team with their classmates, just let them be student-athletes. The ECNL gets it, USSF doesn't (especially on the girls side). For this reason, the ECNL isn't going anywhere.
To answer the title question of this thread: "In SoCal what’s it going to be DA/DPL or ECNL?"
Its going to be both. DA for those parents that buy the sales pitch the DA is selling. ECNL for those parents that are looking for a more balance path. In the end, both programs will get their girls playing against top competition. Both programs will get sufficient exposure for the top athletes to get some college money. As far as DPL goes, fine, another league that won't get as much exposure as DA or ECNL. If it works for your daughter, that is all that matters.
outside!
DA
Wow, starting off with misleading numbers. How many women (or insert any minority) were there in the top 100 athletes 10 years ago, or 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago? When it comes to female/minority representation in statistics, predicting the future based solely on the way things have always been rarely works. The times they are a changing. There are now 2 American women that have passed up college scholarships to play professional soccer. Five years ago there were none. While we should definitely educate young women about the challenges involved and that the deck is stacked against them, that does not mean there will never be opportunities for them. You are correct that for most female athletes, for now, college is the best path forward. But as Ms. Horan and Pugh have shown, there may be other options. Repeating the blurb about 15 year old boys beating the WNT merely restates the fact that men and women are different. Regarding the whole ECNL/GDA/DPL/(insert acronym here) mess, the grown ups need to act like grown ups and compromise and the parents and players need to find the best team/coach/club that meets their individual geographical/budget/playing level needs in the meantime. The people in the next county are not firing artillery at us and life is good.
Sorry Lindsay Who? She already left the club that enticed her to skip college and probably has very little marketability in the upcoming years cause US soccer has done nothing for her. Mal has been the upcoming face for US Soccer and they have been behind her. How long do you think that will last? How long do you think the NWSL will last? My dd watches soccer all the time - the men and the best club teams in the world. Not the MLS and certainly not the NWSL. She can watch her brother's above average U16 team play and will watch better soccer than any NWSL team can provide. So if my dd chooses not to watch the NWSL and most of her D1 teammates don't watch ANY soccer (pretty typical for the US female player) who is NWSL marketing to? 11 year old girls that don't know any better? I certainly am not going to spend 2 hours on Saturday watching an entertainment product that is not very entertaining. How long will it last. My dd and her dbl major and double minor from a very well known SoCal school will out earn all of them in the next 10 years. If she plays a little pro prior to entering a career it will certainly be a "hobby". Lindsay and Mal will cease to be soccer players one day (may happen sooner than later) and then they will have zip to fall back on. Different story if your are a pro athlete in one of the big 4 where 3-5 years could set you up for life if you are smart.
^Holy smokes, enough already! You don't like DA, we get it. So just have your kid go play on an ECNL team!
The GDA showcases were loaded with college scouts, and US scouts as well as an added bonus. We will choose to let our daughters have their outlandish dreams... and play in college too.
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