Girls Development Academy

Pitch pop said:
It would appear not everyone shares your opinion on high school, including some of top college coaches in the country. With that said, everyone is entitled to their opinion and who am I to say whose is right.... Time will tell.

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...er-blundered-badly-on-high-school-soccer.html
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I know a high school coach I respect a lot whose boy plays with mine and girl plays the year under mine in the DA and he hates the high school soccer rule. I know a lot of people disagree. Most do when change comes. Like you said.. time will tell.
 
ToonArmy said:
Doesn't high school soccer also cost a lot of money nowadays depending on the school?
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Ours in the IE cost about $175 total for the entire season. Pennies compared to club. We make it to CIF every year (won regionals 4 years ago) and soccer is huge at our school. I would say the training is mediocre at best and no one that I know at our school does it for the training. They play for the fun and team environment (and of course the pre-game dinners that the girls love). I've heard several academy players saying they're leaving due to the 4 days/week practice and sub rules. ECNL seems to be a better path for me and my girls but since West Coast is dropping ECNL, not sure what do now. West Coast is saying DA2 is the substitute for ECNL but I don't see that from the quality of competition ECNL brings to the table compared to playing "B" academy teams.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
I don't agree with your comment that most girls regret not playing HS. Your kid is in college along with her peers. DA did not exist when they were in HS so playing HS was the norm. So unless you have another kid currently playing HS I think times have changed and you may not have the current perspective. From a parent perspective I loved HS. Friday night games with packed stands. Newspaper articles. It feeds a parent's ego. From my dd perspective she was extremely frustrated by the quality of play (even though we won league) and the quality of training. She won't be playing HS during here senior season and is looking forward to having a break since DA shuts down for about 5 weeks during December/January. I have asked my dd whether this has been discussed with her current DA players and she tells me that really no one misses HS. Personally I think its the parents that miss it more.
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You are wrong regarding my situation. I was the one trying to convince my player not to play high school soccer. I went to maybe 10 high school games my players whole career. Her junior year she started the season as the team manager and absolutely hated it. She ended up asking the coach to let her play (and didn't tell me until after he said yes!).

No matter who the player is at some point they have to hang up the cleats. My player is ecstatic to have played with the girls that she grew up with, none of which were good enough to play on her on her club or ODP team.

Good luck to you and your player.
 
GoWest said:
I do agree with you that it is nice to have options. I would add that, "ECNL is not for everyone but does work well for those that want to play HS and are serious about soccer."

This season my DD chose to stay ECNL but also trains at times during the week with the DA team. She also does private lessons to boot. She's pretty serious about soccer but also enjoys a bit more freedom playing under the ECNL banner....see HS. The P5 and high mid-major college coaches that have recruited her only seem to care about her continued enjoyment of the game along with her continuing efforts to improve her technical abilities and tactical understanding of the game. She is well-balanced and happy and most importantly is enjoying the beautiful game. This is her journey and I know everyone's is different so I'm just putting emphasis on the "options" portion of your comment which I wholeheartedly agree with but expanding your "serious about soccer" to include ECNL.

Best of everything to you and your player!
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Great post! As one who has a player in college this is a great path to success. At the end of the day they are teenage girls. My kid and I mainly talked about Coachella and school so far this week. Not soccer and she is on a mission to be 100% by July.
Meet them enjoy the journey that is the best way to make it last. Continued good luck to you and your player.
 
El Clasico said:
Here is what I am pretty sure that I do know....You are an idiot, you haven't been anywhere, and likely haven't done anything. That is what comes through to me in your posts. Like I said pretty clear. You don't know what you don't know. If you were to go back and read my posts, you would see that I am one of the few that has said that one of the things that USSF is doing wrong is trying to copy someone else's identity, that if USSF just embraced who Americans are, and built a system around that culture, they would have better results. One of the glorious things about this country is it's culture. Coming from another culture, I like millions of others here appreciate the culture and see the benefits that it brings to not only soccer but to all their sports and athletes. Develop our own style!! But if you think that is what USSF is doing, and that the system is NOT broke, you have spent too much time sucking the DA pole.

In case there is any question as to your ignorance, just look at your quote "Just like the US Women did from day one." If you think for one second that the success of the women's team is due anything USSF and their system did for them or because the women had a system of "keeping what works for us and tossing the rest", you really don't understand soccer in general, or the history of women's soccer period. Title IX has done more for women's soccer in this country than USSF ever has done, or ever will do. To this day, there are still more countries without a women's team than the number that do. So yes, without taking anything away from the WNT, they have done very, very well for themselves (again, on their own and without much support from USSF) but they have also been playing with a loaded deck. Now that that other countries have increased their involvement and participation in women's soccer, you see the women struggling much more. So when you see, or hear poster's complain that they better get better at development and SELECTION, you now know what they are talking about. University's, High Schools and leagues like ECNL have done all the heavy lifting and as soon as the women reach their pinnacle, DA announces that they have to take over to make it great. Oh brother!! Try getting up off your knees for a minute and looking around you. It's a big, beautiful world with many paths to where you want to go. Yours is not the only one.

Oh, by the way....in this country, it's called Soccer.
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This time it was a funny bitch-slapping. Well done and back to back.
 
soccer dude said:
Ours in the IE cost about $175 total for the entire season. Pennies compared to club. We make it to CIF every year (won regionals 4 years ago) and soccer is huge at our school. I would say the training is mediocre at best and no one that I know at our school does it for the training. They play for the fun and team environment (and of course the pre-game dinners that the girls love). I've heard several academy players saying they're leaving due to the 4 days/week practice and sub rules. ECNL seems to be a better path for me and my girls but since West Coast is dropping ECNL, not sure what do now. West Coast is saying DA2 is the substitute for ECNL but I don't see that from the quality of competition ECNL brings to the table compared to playing "B" academy teams.
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What club do these players say the academy schedule is too much? Are these 04s?
 
Josep said:
What club do these players say the academy schedule is too much? Are these 04s?
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I spoke to parents at Legends, Pats, and West Coast. Yes mostly 04s and some 03s. Oh, I forgot to mention that 75% of the parents I spoke to say the 4 back-to-back practices (usually Mon-Thurs) is brutal on the girls and many are injured due to overwork and not enough recovery. I have yet to speak to one parent that agrees or approves with the 4 practices. Most say 3 is max. My girl guested with west coast a few times due to 5 injured players. Fortunately, they are all back now. Being an ECNL parent with 2 practices I can say not one of our girls has ever been injured from overuse but I think 2 practices is too few and would prefer 3. If we could only meet in the middle somewhere...
 
soccer dude said:
I spoke to parents at Legends, Pats, and West Coast. Yes mostly 04s and some 03s. Oh, I forgot to mention that 75% of the parents I spoke to say the 4 back-to-back practices (usually Mon-Thurs) is brutal on the girls and many are injured due to overwork and not enough recovery. I have yet to speak to one parent that agrees or approves with the 4 practices. Most say 3 is max. My girl guested with west coast a few times due to 5 injured players. Fortunately, they are all back now. Being an ECNL parent with 2 practices I can say not one of our girls has ever been injured from overuse but I think 2 practices is too few and would prefer 3. If we could only meet in the middle somewhere...
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DA is not for everyone. My DD is doing very well......same schedule she had prior to DA because she used to do privates, groups and futsal. I’m surprise to hear some are saying the 4x practice is brutal because everyone shows up to training, even injured players when they can’t practice
 
soccer dude said:
I spoke to parents at Legends, Pats, and West Coast. Yes mostly 04s and some 03s. Oh, I forgot to mention that 75% of the parents I spoke to say the 4 back-to-back practices (usually Mon-Thurs) is brutal on the girls and many are injured due to overwork and not enough recovery. I have yet to speak to one parent that agrees or approves with the 4 practices. Most say 3 is max. My girl guested with west coast a few times due to 5 injured players. Fortunately, they are all back now. Being an ECNL parent with 2 practices I can say not one of our girls has ever been injured from overuse but I think 2 practices is too few and would prefer 3. If we could only meet in the middle somewhere...
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HS teams practice 5 days a week when not playing games. When they start playing games they usually play two games a week with practices on the other three days along with possible games on Saturdays prior the start of league. If they complain about practice 4 days and usually just one game a week then HS has more than this. Also away games usually take all afternoon/evening since the quite often have to be present for the other levels of play.
 
This game is more reflective of how soccer should be played (by both teams) even at a younger age (2004 GDA). Kudos to the coaches for teaching these girls to play the right way.

First Half:
Second Half:
 
My kid has never complained about practicing four nights a week. But she has always worked in extra stuff beyond normal practices or practiced an age up on the off nights.

This is a good indicator. The 04s can make a decision if this is right for them going into HS.
 
futboldad1 said:
Other than the top two teams, these rankings (for 05 at least) are so far off from reality it's funny. It's as bad as gotsoccer.com

youthsoccerrankings.us is the only rankings site of value.
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So true. Same thing with the 04's. There is a team which was newly added as a top 10 team to that list which got dominated 6-1 last month by a team that should be ranked. Not sure what metrics they use for their rankings, but doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how they make these lists. At least we know how gotsoccer does their rankings. LOL.
 
soccer dude said:
I spoke to parents at Legends, Pats, and West Coast. Yes mostly 04s and some 03s. Oh, I forgot to mention that 75% of the parents I spoke to say the 4 back-to-back practices (usually Mon-Thurs) is brutal on the girls and many are injured due to overwork and not enough recovery. I have yet to speak to one parent that agrees or approves with the 4 practices. Most say 3 is max. My girl guested with west coast a few times due to 5 injured players. Fortunately, they are all back now. Being an ECNL parent with 2 practices I can say not one of our girls has ever been injured from overuse but I think 2 practices is too few and would prefer 3. If we could only meet in the middle somewhere...
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What was the sample set? 75% could mean you talked to 4 parents. We had a team meeting and parents had no issue with the 4 practices during general discussion other than the the people who drove from LA. The only parents I have heard complaining should take their kid and go anyways because their kid doesn't belong in DA. My DD loves it and during ECNL last year joined the boys side at least once a week. I do worry a little for 04 girls undergoing major hip growth - that can be an issue if the girl practices at high intensity.
 
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