ECNL/ECRL/GA tryouts

[Ljohnso8]

The 2012 age group does not start these leagues until next year. However, how does the process work if you wanted them to play up with 2011? Go and tryout and if you make the team you would have to leave your SoCal team? Would you have not tried out with your current age division and just have waited until now? Just curious on how other parents handled this in the past. Thanks.

 

[Carlsbad7]

The 2012 age group does not start these leagues until next year. However, how does the process work if you wanted them to play up with 2011? Go and tryout and if you make the team you would have to leave your SoCal team? Would you have not tried out with your current age division and just have waited until now? Just curious on how other parents handled this in the past. Thanks.

It might be difficult to find a spot on a ECNL or GA 2011 team right now because this is their first year + all the players are new + coaches, parents, DOCs are all feeling each other out + defining expectations.

That being said both GA and ECNL allow for "guest" players. Guest is defined as a player that is not currently registered as GA or ECNL. Since 2012s would be SoCal you can also be registered as a 2011 ECNL Discovery player or as a GA Guest player.

Here's where you'll run into issues...
- 11v11 is a different game than 9v9 what works in 9v9 won't work in 11v11 with teams that play possession.
- Socal, ECNL, and GA games overlap all the time which will make it hard for you to commit full time to a single team.
- GA and ECNL highly discourage playing more than 1 game a day (which you'll probably want to do while playing Socal + GA/ECNL)

We did exactly what you're proposing. My kid played SoCal 9v9 + ECNL 11v11 as a Discovery player. Getting 11v11 experience early was helpful. But it doesn't help when other teammates don't yet. Your kid will just get frustrated trying to play with an 11v11 mindset with others that aren't there.