Girls Development Academy

SocalPapa said:
Harsh criticism for Girls DA yesterday from a New York-based sports reporter who's covered soccer for 20 years... http://www.democratandchronicle.com...old-bill-goods-development-academy/594677001/
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The most telling line in the article...

"News flash: If you're good enough, recruiters will find you. Trust me."

That's the crux of the problem though. From what I can tell, in So Cal anyway, you have a couple of types that are buying into the hype of DA.
1. Those at clubs that have been shut out of the "Elite Players" group..
2. Those that know that their players aren't good enough for the recruiters to "find" them so they literally buy into anything that portends a shot at a scholarship for their child
3. Those that incredibly think that their player is the next Mia Hamm and the DA will deliver them to the promise land.

I wonder how many more parents there are, like a dear friend of mine, who has essentially forced the DA issue onto their child and now brags to strangers about how it was his daughter's choice and she is doing it for....insert whole list of BS reasons.

Just how much are parents willing to make their children give up so they those kids can pursue their parent's dreams? If you are wondering who those parents are, just look below and see who clicked "dumb" on this post.
 
El Clasico said:
The most telling line in the article...

"News flash: If you're good enough, recruiters will find you. Trust me."

That's the crux of the problem though. From what I can tell, in So Cal anyway, you have a couple of types that are buying into the hype of DA.
1. Those at clubs that have been shut out of the "Elite Players" group..
2. Those that know that their players aren't good enough for the recruiters to "find" them so they literally buy into anything that portends a shot at a scholarship for their child
3. Those that incredibly think that their player is the next Mia Hamm and the DA will deliver them to the promise land.

I wonder how many more parents there are, like a dear friend of mine, who has essentially forced the DA issue onto their child and now brags to strangers about how it was his daughter's choice and she is doing it for....insert whole list of BS reasons.

Just how much are parents willing to make their children give up so they those kids can pursue their parent's dreams? If you are wondering who those parents are, just look below and see who clicked "dumb" on this post.
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention those like @CaliKlines will just push "old."
 
Bananacorner said:
Back to the topic -- Girls Development Academy

Rosters are "due" this Friday, Aug 18th (although names can be added after), we should be able to see the rosters up on the DA site shortly thereafter. I know some clubs have been scrambling last minute to add 1-2 players, so should be interesting.
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Are rosters published somewhere? Or is it up to each club to put them on their own website.
 
I think you are all kidding yourselves if you don't believe that the girls playing DA or ECNL will have way more exposure to college coaches than those not. At the end of the day I fully believe it should be the kids decision to play in those leagues and not the parents. If you look at the recruiting classes for every major college most players played ECNL. I heard their was an insane amount of coaches on the sidelines at Chicago. I personally have seem dozens and dozens of coaches on the sidelines of DA games at the summer showcases and way less coaches for all other teams. So if your kid wants to maximize their chances of playing in College, DA/ECNL is clearly the way to go. I believe you can make it playing on a CSL/SCDSL team but you better be working extra hard at getting seen by writing/calling coaches and attending camps.
 
Bananacorner said:
http://www.ussoccerda.com/all-clubs

Click the club of interest and then the team of interest. They are at the top before the schedule.

Many aren't up, but Here is an example
http://lefc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=3951420
Click to expand...
Very interesting. So I just pulled up the DA rosters for several SCDSL clubs:

1) Legends 01/02 DA team

It turns out there are only three 2002 birth year players on the roster. Last fall those 3 girls played for 1) Legends FC G02 Academy I, 2) Arsenal FC ECNL, and 3) Legends FC G01 Academy (playing up). So there is only ONE former Flight 1 G02 player on that whole DA roster.

Yet, Legends pulled BOTH their Academy I and Academy II teams out of the SCDSL G02 Champions bracket this year. There were 34 girls on those two teams. So where did they all go? Even if 18 chose to go to Legend's DPL (unlikely but possible), that still leaves 15 unaccounted for. There's a Legends FC West team that has had a good summer and will play in Champions this fall. Is the talent there now?

It seems so. Perhaps this is how it played out...

1) Originally, both Legends A and B teams played in SCDSL last fall;
2) Their new Academy 01/02 team drew only 1 player from either of its prior SCDSL teams;
3) The rest of their former G02 A team moved to DPL;
4) Much of their roster from their former B team is still in SCDSL (now playing for a team called Legends FC West).

2) Beach 01/02 DA team

They are a little different than Legends. They have 7 G02 Academy players and ALL 7 had previously played on their Beach FC G02 Academy team (which finished 1st in the SCDSL G02 Champions division last fall).

But unlike Legends, they only pulled one team from SCDSL. So perhaps the remaining players from that SCDSL champion team now make up the core of their DPL team and SCDSL was otherwise unaffected?

3) West Coast FC's 01/02 team

They have only three 02 players on their Academy team and all 3 came over from their ECNL team. So no impact on SCDSL. (They're not a DPL club so no potential impact there either.)

Real So Cal, LA Galaxy and LAFC Slammers haven't posted their rosters, so I can't tell how they were impacted. But for those first 3 clubs, it looks like Girls DA/DPL may have cost SCDSL only two quality Flight 1 G02 teams in total.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
I think you are all kidding yourselves if you don't believe that the girls playing DA or ECNL will have way more exposure to college coaches than those not. At the end of the day I fully believe it should be the kids decision to play in those leagues and not the parents. If you look at the recruiting classes for every major college most players played ECNL. I heard their was an insane amount of coaches on the sidelines at Chicago. I personally have seem dozens and dozens of coaches on the sidelines of DA games at the summer showcases and way less coaches for all other teams. So if your kid wants to maximize their chances of playing in College, DA/ECNL is clearly the way to go. I believe you can make it playing on a CSL/SCDSL team but you better be working extra hard at getting seen by writing/calling coaches and attending camps.
Click to expand...

That's because the very top talent went to ECNL. Coaches go where the talent is. That's now the case with DA, although it seems to be a lot more watered down due to the number of teams. My guess is that right now it is probably better to be very top of the bench at an ECNL or top flight 1 team than bottom of the bench at DA to get looks. Probably better to be a top ECNL team than a bottom DA team as far as getting looks. Although we are still a year away, so what do I know except we are all spending a lot of time and money on a dream that may never happen!
 
ECNL's Instagram posted a picture of a side by side ECNL alumni roster for the Standford vs Florida game. 40 total ECNL alumni between the 2 schools. That's impressive. We will have wait and see if DA can match that type of success.
 
FourFourTwo said:
ECNL's Instagram posted a picture of a side by side ECNL alumni roster for the Standford vs Florida game. 40 total ECNL alumni between the 2 schools. That's impressive. We will have wait and see if DA can match that type of success.
Click to expand...
San Diego Surf ECNL's Catarina Macario is a freshman at Stanford and has already scored 3 goals in her first 2 games (the first a mere 7 minutes after being subbed in). Perhaps not a surprise though. She's the all-time top ECNL scorer.
 
FourFourTwo said:
ECNL's Instagram posted a picture of a side by side ECNL alumni roster for the Standford vs Florida game. 40 total ECNL alumni between the 2 schools. That's impressive. We will have wait and see if DA can match that type of success.
Click to expand...

Yes--I think DA will have that success...if you look at commitments for Stanford in coming years-- I am guessing most of those girls - that were ECNL last year, will be playing DA this year-- some may not have had much of a choice--because if their club is going DA and no longer have ECNL, geographic reasons, girls wanting to stay with their team/coach if movement, etc...unless the girl really really wants to play high school-- that is the one big reason I am hearing for a girl staying ECNL over DA....but not too many of those girls in our area doing that, most are opting out of high school soccer to play DA...
 
El Clasico said:
I wonder how many more parents there are, like a dear friend of mine, who has essentially forced the DA issue onto their child and now brags to strangers about how it was his daughter's choice and she is doing it for....insert whole list of BS reasons.

Just how much are parents willing to make their children give up so they those kids can pursue their parent's dreams? If you are wondering who those parents are, just look below and see who clicked "dumb" on this post.
Click to expand...


I completely agree that if parents are forcing DA and its rigors on their children, that is just crazy and a really bad scene, especially if they are players who won't get much playing time. There are no doubt better fits for those kids to play and be happy.

However, at this early point, seems the majority of the players are happy to participate and enjoy the extra hours- others will be weeded out no doubt- just really too bad if a parent can't see it. Not every kid wants or needs to play soccer past high school!
 
soccer661 said:
...unless the girl really really wants to play high school-- that is the one big reason I am hearing for a girl staying ECNL over DA....
Click to expand...
Yup. Similar situation. Players can get the "best of ECNL, HS and DA worlds" if they have really thought it through. At least the 2017-2018 season IMHO.
 
SocalPapa said:
San Diego Surf ECNL's Catarina Macario is a freshman at Stanford and has already scored 3 goals in her first 2 games (the first a mere 7 minutes after being subbed in). Perhaps not a surprise though. She's the all-time top ECNL scorer.
Click to expand...

Those were against tomato cans. Let's see what she does at 2pm PST today against a real team...

I think that she is an amazing player but you can't tell much from playing teams that aren't tournament quality.
 
El Clasico said:
The most telling line in the article...

"News flash: If you're good enough, recruiters will find you. Trust me."

That's the crux of the problem though. From what I can tell, in So Cal anyway, you have a couple of types that are buying into the hype of DA.
1. Those at clubs that have been shut out of the "Elite Players" group..
2. Those that know that their players aren't good enough for the recruiters to "find" them so they literally buy into anything that portends a shot at a scholarship for their child
3. Those that incredibly think that their player is the next Mia Hamm and the DA will deliver them to the promise land.

I wonder how many more parents there are, like a dear friend of mine, who has essentially forced the DA issue onto their child and now brags to strangers about how it was his daughter's choice and she is doing it for....insert whole list of BS reasons.

Just how much are parents willing to make their children give up so they those kids can pursue their parent's dreams? If you are wondering who those parents are, just look below and see who clicked "dumb" on this post.
Click to expand...
You are making a whole lot of assumptions.
 
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