just to take devil's advocate position for a minute re: surf.
couple of key things happened this year that were disruptive
1) The Surf coach - who had been with the 05s for a bit - left mid season to go to LAFC. Plus, immediately after his departure, rumors started that 05 and 04 players were likely to follow him to LAFC in 2019-20. So at least a little shock to the system...
2) Reportedly, only two Surf players were among the 60 total players called into the June 4th u14 YNT camp.
Given that the Surf were ranked as the #1 team in the country for most of the 2018-19 season by TDS, this must have been a disappointment. invite letter would have gone out in first part of May.
And, since one of the Surf players called up was only added to the Surf mid last season - while most of the 05 surf team (who weren't called up for 6/4 ) has been together for a bit - that must have been also a little bit of a shock.
the piece about the Surf not having a path to the pros is fair, and certainly MLS DA players are also more likely to get called up to the ynt. For example, an 04 left the Strikers to go to u15 LAG this year and then, magically, got called up to the YNT for the first time...
But, if only two players were called up for June, not sure that playing pro is a reasonable expectation for most of the Surf.
maybe reading too many tea leaves but can see why things w/ the 05 surf would reasonably start to transition at the end of the season as expectations by players/families started to not be met.
maybe a cautionary tale...