Elite Soccer League - Reviews?

I

ItsCalledSoccer

SILVER
I have a kid on a ULittle team in Orange County, I keep seeing these flyers and heavy promotion for Elite Soccer League (ESL). Sounds like just another signature program, smaller than AYSO Extra and less organisation. Only people I've spoken to about them have been negative.

Does anyone have experience of the program? We are happy where we are currently playing, but lots of friends from AYSO are asking about it and I haven't heard anything positive, yet seems to be a growing program.
 
Elite is basically a level below AYSO extra. They allow teams to stay together vs AYSO draft. There is nothing else that's different, besides a little nicer uniforms.
 
Depends on age and goals. Many coaches float to Elite because they allow you to bring a team. So in the past, I have seen crazy coaches who get upset at their AYSO or other Signature/+ League and take entire teams with them - or at least the base of a team with them. These coaches are typically the type who think they are better coaches than they really are and think its about winning - as if winning Signature league is the end-all of competition. In the end most of these coaches lose all these kids to their own club system (CFA), other clubs or kids quit. At Signature and Rec level kids should be DEVELOPING locally and fed into Club as their skills improve - if they decide they want to play at higher level. Elite markets more, so you see all the signs everywhere, but not more organized more than bigger leagues/clubs. Given you can bring a team over or form your own team, it can lead to your kid being placed on a team with one of these coaches.

Obviously there are good reasons parents/coaches take their kids/teams to Elite. They could be sick of club structure. Kids just want to play for fun, parents not wanting to pay a ton of $ on club for kids just to play for fun and Spring League. Elite in the Spring allows kids to keep playing and develop by working on aspects of their play without much pressure. Seen teams of kids from various clubs getting together and playing because they all go to the same school.

In the end its going to be dependent on the coach and if you are going over to Elite solo or not. Big crap shoot if you arent coaching the team yourself or know the coach who will be coaching.
 
I have a little in Elite. We’ve done it for a couple of years and the only reason (for us) was to keep a team together. His pre-k class formed a team, and they’ve stuck together a few seasons just for the sake of sticking together.

The admin staff seems very nice, and the fields are fine (we’re still at the pop up goal stage basically). We will probably switch back to AYSO next year purely due to geography/distance.
 
I had my DD leave AYSO for elite around U7 to follow a coach who although didnt have a soccer background was very good at coaching. He basically gathered the best AYSO girls from the age group and formed a team. They had alot of early success. After two years he left the team and moved his daughter to a legit club team. The rest of the girls stayed together and played in the leagues CFA until eventually moving on to a bigger club. The support of Mike Affleck the President is really good and he has the best intentions to helping make the players evolve for a very good cost. When I look back at the girls now, they are almost all on different club teams but several play in DA/ECNL/Flight 1 teams. Is it the girls talent or the development? I would tell you both. For our family, ESL was a good progressive move up away from AYSO that gated our daughters to bigger and better things.
 
So do they just play other ESL teams? How many teams even are there? Sounds like the league is in between AYSO core and extra from what I have seen and heard. Was surprised that kids who were on extra teams were considering the switch.
 
ItsCalledSoccer said:
So do they just play other ESL teams? How many teams even are there? Sounds like the league is in between AYSO core and extra from what I have seen and heard. Was surprised that kids who were on extra teams were considering the switch.
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My daughter hasn't been in it for a number of years but if I recall the teams were a mix of teams from JUSA, Signature teams from LNYSA, and some other ESL teams. At the lower age, plenty of teams are out there. When we moved to CFA(club arm of Elite), then we were playing in CSL and doing ALOT of driving to meet teams. I would tell you that some of the teams in the signature league would be middle pack in bronze or flight 3 and I would put it above extra from what I recall. Of course, in South County where our team was located, the resources for coaching, fields, extra training were bountiful which may defer from some of the other teams from JUSA,Canyon and others.
 
Slammerdad said:
My daughter hasn't been in it for a number of years but if I recall the teams were a mix of teams from JUSA, Signature teams from LNYSA, and some other ESL teams. At the lower age, plenty of teams are out there. When we moved to CFA(club arm of Elite), then we were playing in CSL and doing ALOT of driving to meet teams. I would tell you that some of the teams in the signature league would be middle pack in bronze or flight 3 and I would put it above extra from what I recall. Of course, in South County where our team was located, the resources for coaching, fields, extra training were bountiful which may defer from some of the other teams from JUSA,Canyon and others.
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Yep they play here in the Fall:
http://www.calsouthsignature.com/

In the Spring teams USUALLY either play in the league Elite puts together (mixed with club teams that sign up, signature/plus teams that sign up or teams people just put together) or league JUSA puts together.
 
What is the obsession for using the word ‘elite’ in youth soccer here?

It’s included in so many league names and is so common in team names that it seems almost automatic for many clubs now to use it. ‘Academy’ has the same issue.
 
Because its all about marketing. Much easier to label something than actually come up with a top level product. Everyone has to be the best, another reason why there are so many leagues, so more kids can be the top team.
 
Elite Soccer League has been around for a while.

Next new league- PAID LOTS- Pathway Academy Instructional Development League of Top Soccer
 
True, but I don't know how many times an Elite Soccer League team have won State Cup? What qualifies them to be elite? Clearly, they are not alone in this, but it's sad that kids aren't allowed to be normal anymore, everyone has to elite/star/academy/super blah blah blah
 
ItsCalledSoccer said:
True, but I don't know how many times an Elite Soccer League team have won State Cup? What qualifies them to be elite? Clearly, they are not alone in this, but it's sad that kids aren't allowed to be normal anymore, everyone has to elite/star/academy/super blah blah blah
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Around 4 years ago or so one of their boys U17 teams did win State Cup. They had an OK team plus every good team in this age group normally go to National Cup.
 
Eagle33 said:
Around 4 years ago or so one of their boys U17 teams did win State Cup. They had an OK team plus every good team in this age group normally go to National Cup.
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That's great, but doesn't qualify a program for calling themselves the Elite of the game. As I said, they are clearly not the only one guilty of this.
 
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