San Diego league question
- Thread starter WillJohn
- Start date
Banana Hammock
SILVER ELITE
you are correct about the #1 and #2, NPL and CRL are not better than the top flights of CSL and SCDSL. They are often the same teams. Example CRL, they have their play-in for older teams in the summer when a lot of teams are on vacation and don't have a complete roster yet. To get an appreciation of this look at the results of the CRL play-in and then look at the season results of those teams that qualified. It has been long debated whether CSL or SCDSL is better. Lets just call them even for the example. I think that a better ranking would be:
1. DA (boys)
2. ECNL (girls)
2. DA (girls)
3. CSL
3. SCDSL
3. ECNL (boys)
3. CRL
3. NRL
4. SDDA
5. Presidio
With a little effort, it is possible to figure out which teams entered in State/National Cup are members of each league, and thus track head-to-head performances. Of course, you should bear in mind that no league recruits or trains players - the member clubs and teams do that.
It depends on whether you are ranking boys v. girls. Generally speaking, SCDSL has stronger girls teams; whereas, CSL has stronger boys teams. CRL is ahead of NPL (generally speaking), and teams that don't make it into CRL may play NPL, so in my mind it looks like this:
Note, the only reason DA, NL/CRL, NPL, ECNL, DPL may be stronger is because they are more exclusive limiting teams to the top teams. The CSL, SCDSL, SDDA, Presidio are inclusive, thus, you have a wide variety of teams from low level to high level play. Both the NL/CRL, NPL will take teams from CSL, SCDSL, SDDA into their leagues.
Boys:
- DA
- National League / CRL (Draws top teams from CSL and SCDSL)
- NPL
- CSL
- SCDSL
- SDDA
- Presidio
- DA
- ECNL
- National League / CRL (top SCDSL, CSL, DPL)
- DPL
- SCDSL
- CSL
- SDDA
- Presidio
GunninGopher
SILVER ELITE
The rankings above may be valid for the top flight in each league, but there is a lot of overlap. SDDA Flight 1 fits somewhere between SCDSL F1/F2 and 'around' CSL Gold or Silver. SDDA Flight 2 a step down. Many Presidio flights will be better than Silver or Bronze CSL and SDCSL flight 3 and sometimes 2. That being said, a team can "grow out" of SDDA and have to play in Coast or SCDSL's top flight to find competitive fall league games. Playing up in SDDA usually doesn't help in the older age groups.
Also, NPL and CRL do get some teams from SDDA, just not many. The travel is a big consideration for San Diego teams. You must play CRL games at the CRL fields (Norco), and the only home games for SCNPL are if both teams are from San Diego. Other than that, SCNPL games are played in either San Bernardino or Orange County. Also, there are some teams that do both SCNPL and CRL, which is quite a lot of travel when you consider that National Cup and its travel is right afterwards.
Also, NPL and CRL do get some teams from SDDA, just not many. The travel is a big consideration for San Diego teams. You must play CRL games at the CRL fields (Norco), and the only home games for SCNPL are if both teams are from San Diego. Other than that, SCNPL games are played in either San Bernardino or Orange County. Also, there are some teams that do both SCNPL and CRL, which is quite a lot of travel when you consider that National Cup and its travel is right afterwards.
coachrefparent
GOLD
And the opposite as well. Sandbaggers that win their flight, but then claim that they lost "core" players, and stay in the same flight. Of course, they win again with the same players.
@GunninGopher,
You are absolutely correct, the strength of teams in a league overlaps and there isn't any bright line. Is CSL stronger than Presidio? On balance, yes. When my kid played on a CSL Bronze team (finished 4th in league) we played a few SD Tournaments and never lost to any of the Presidio AA-A teams we played (which was shocking to the Presidio parents). Does that mean there wasn't an AA-A team that could beat our CSL Bronze or a CSL Silver team? No, there were probably a few, but Presidio's next level is SDDA. Did the fact that a few years later, my kids Flight 2, SCDSL team routinely beat SDDA teams, mean that SCDSL is better, not necessarily, but on balance when you look at the strength of the programs leagues, SCDSL is going to have stronger teams.
If I'm trying to figure out how to group the various flights, levels, etc., I'm going to just look at the Cal South State/National cup level guide and call it good:
https://www.calsouth.com/en/state-tournaments/
You are absolutely correct, the strength of teams in a league overlaps and there isn't any bright line. Is CSL stronger than Presidio? On balance, yes. When my kid played on a CSL Bronze team (finished 4th in league) we played a few SD Tournaments and never lost to any of the Presidio AA-A teams we played (which was shocking to the Presidio parents). Does that mean there wasn't an AA-A team that could beat our CSL Bronze or a CSL Silver team? No, there were probably a few, but Presidio's next level is SDDA. Did the fact that a few years later, my kids Flight 2, SCDSL team routinely beat SDDA teams, mean that SCDSL is better, not necessarily, but on balance when you look at the strength of the programs leagues, SCDSL is going to have stronger teams.
If I'm trying to figure out how to group the various flights, levels, etc., I'm going to just look at the Cal South State/National cup level guide and call it good:
https://www.calsouth.com/en/state-tournaments/
So you are telling me Presidio has "AAA" and "AA-A" ... geez that is confusing, add a hyphen and congrats, your in the next level up.
Thanks for the info everyone.
Another question as I'm not familiar with the SD soccer scene but curious.
For the SD clubs (Albion/San Diego Surf/San Diego Soccer Club/Rebels are the ones I'm familiar with), I'm assuming they are spread out among the greater SD area. Do most families just pick the closest one to play for? Or the one they like the most within a half hour drive? How far are the clubs from each other (driving time)?
Most clubs I know in LA/OC have kids from the immediate surrounding areas. The only exceptions I really know of is TFA for boys and Socal Blues for girls where parents will drive far to have their kids on those teams based on their reputation (and maybe some recruiting).
Another question as I'm not familiar with the SD soccer scene but curious.
For the SD clubs (Albion/San Diego Surf/San Diego Soccer Club/Rebels are the ones I'm familiar with), I'm assuming they are spread out among the greater SD area. Do most families just pick the closest one to play for? Or the one they like the most within a half hour drive? How far are the clubs from each other (driving time)?
Most clubs I know in LA/OC have kids from the immediate surrounding areas. The only exceptions I really know of is TFA for boys and Socal Blues for girls where parents will drive far to have their kids on those teams based on their reputation (and maybe some recruiting).
The higher the level team, the greater the distance parents will (have to) drive. There are not many DA teams or ECNL teams, so parents will drive long distances for their kid to play on an elite level team. Elite level = more/better/higher level showcases and greater interest from college scouts. The lower level teams are localized, nobody (in their right mind) is driving 30-50 miles in traffic to have their kid play on a low level Flight 3 / Bronze / AA-C team.
I know kids/parents who are driving from Temecula to OC and SD, and parts of LA to play academy, and even on a Flight 1, LA Galaxy SD team.
I know kids/parents who are driving from Temecula to OC and SD, and parts of LA to play academy, and even on a Flight 1, LA Galaxy SD team.
Banana Hammock
SILVER ELITE
The four clubs that you mentioned are all within 30-45 minutes of each other, depending on traffic. These four definitely have the best teams in general. There are individual exceptions, but these are the best. Surf is north/coast and SDSC is north/inland San Diego, Albion is central and Rebels are south San Diego. There is no elite club in east San Diego, so those that live there will drive farther to play on those clubs. Over the last ten years, I have experience with three of the four mentioned, , there is probably 15-20% of the families drive 30-45 minutes.
Thanks. Good info. San Diego has some good soccer so just wanted to know how big of a radius they are pulling kids and how close the clubs were too each other.
RedCard
GOLD
Doesn't matter if it's SD, OC, or LA. Like @MWN said, if it's an elite team, you will find yourself driving in traffic a lot. Case in point, I live in the San Gabriel Valley (think the 210 and the 605). Since going into club soccer, my son's teams were silver, flight 1, back to bronze, silver, and silver (different teams). The practice and home games for those teams was no more than a 10 minute drive at worst (Pasadena, Arcadia, and Duarte/Irwindale). Now he's on a DA team where practice is in Pomona which is a good 40-50 minute drive in traffic and home games are at UC Riverside, so now we a crossing county lines. But since it's a DA team, we are more than happy to make that drive. Yeah, it's tough somedays especially with both myself and my wife working, but it gets done. But believe me, we won't make that daily trip is it was a bronze or silver team.
Add to that my daughter who was with Legends a couple of years ago for short time and that drive from the San Gabriel Valley to Chino was hard and if they changed practice to Silverlakes...oh boy.
Just be prepared to sit in traffic and bring a lunchbox with dinner if you don't leave near an elite club.
Banana Hammock
SILVER ELITE
LAGSD is located north of Surf, They compete for the same kids. There are a big club with many teams at every level. They are the result of several mergers over the last five years. I would amend my original statement and include them in the elite clubs of San Diego. I have a friend who takes his Kid to play on the top boys 2003 team and they travel 45 min - 1 hr each way. I will add that since they became a LAG affiliate, they have really grown.
outside!
DA
For us, the time to get from San Diego to on the field was the same for LAGSD and Surf. Getting into parking lot at Surf used to take a good bit of time. When Carlsbad Lightning merged with Carlsbad Wave they became the biggest club in the county, even before the transition to LAGSD. Not that any of this really matters. The players and the team matter more than the club.