Fieldsofgold
SILVER
How is FRAM ranked so high
How’s the 2023-24 season going?
- Thread starter CharlieMurfee
- Start date
Pro?
Keep it in perspective. NWSL drafted 56 players this year. Total. Everyone else is going off to be lawyers, accountants, scientists, saleswomen, or other things.
I’m very happy I get to watch some beautiful soccer, but there is no sense in telling girls that they’ll be able to do this for a living.
One of my bff's from old club team played college ball, got her degree and became a stay home mommy
Why not?
NWSL allows a min of 20 and max of 26 per roster and as of 2024 there's 14 clubs. This means on the low end there's 280 available positions and on the high end there's 346.
Socal (and CA) have a large number of nationwide talent This means there's a good chance that if you took the top 1-2 from each Socal youth team a good number would play professionally.
If NWSL had a homegrown rule SD Wave and Angel City would quickly dominate because they could pay big money for talent and sprinkle in local talent.
Let's just say there are 17 ECNL teams in SW (not counting GA teams). Your math says there would be 34 players per age group. Let's just look at four age groups, that's 34X4=136 in SW division. But they only drafted 56 players from College, all over the country and players from outside the country. Most of those that get drafted are getting paid 35K and will be replaced the next year by the next class.
An example of how hard it is to make it as a female soccer player. This is a Mac Herman finalist.
Along with Turnbow, Taylor Kornieck had to leave Wave FC because she wasn't getting play time.
San Diego Wave FC Midfielder Kelsey Turnbow Announces Retirement - San Diego Wave Fútbol Club
San Diego Wave FC midfielder Kelsey Turnbow today announced her [...]
sandiegowavefc.com
Kelsey Turnbow - 2021 - Women's Soccer - Santa Clara University
Kelsey Turnbow (10) Forward - AS A RS SENIOR IN 2021: First Team All-American ... Third Team Academic All-American … Honda Award Finalist … One
santaclarabroncos.com
About 6 weeks ago, my 17 yr old daughter got a call to go train with the Wave. Her response , “Thank you, but I have no interest in playing professional soccer…please give the opportunity to someone else.”Let's just say there are 17 ECNL teams in SW (not counting GA teams). Your math says there would be 34 players per age group. Let's just look at four age groups, that's 34X4=136 in SW division. But they only drafted 56 players from College, all over the country and players from outside the country. Most of those that get drafted are getting paid 35K and will be replaced the next year by the next class.
An example of how hard it is to make it as a female soccer player. This is a Mac Herman finalist.
Along with Turnbow, Taylor Kornieck had to leave Wave FC because she wasn't getting play time.
San Diego Wave FC Midfielder Kelsey Turnbow Announces Retirement - San Diego Wave Fútbol Club
San Diego Wave FC midfielder Kelsey Turnbow today announced her [...]
Kelsey Turnbow - 2021 - Women's Soccer - Santa Clara University
Kelsey Turnbow (10) Forward - AS A RS SENIOR IN 2021: First Team All-American ... Third Team Academic All-American … Honda Award Finalist … One
Raised this one right…off to college to get that degree. At least Ms. Turnbow above had the foresight to finish college. Smart lady.
I don't disagree with your numbers.Let's just say there are 17 ECNL teams in SW (not counting GA teams). Your math says there would be 34 players per age group. Let's just look at four age groups, that's 34X4=136 in SW division. But they only drafted 56 players from College, all over the country and players from outside the country. Most of those that get drafted are getting paid 35K and will be replaced the next year by the next class.
An example of how hard it is to make it as a female soccer player. This is a Mac Herman finalist.
Along with Turnbow, Taylor Kornieck had to leave Wave FC because she wasn't getting play time.
San Diego Wave FC Midfielder Kelsey Turnbow Announces Retirement - San Diego Wave Fútbol Club
San Diego Wave FC midfielder Kelsey Turnbow today announced her [...]
Kelsey Turnbow - 2021 - Women's Soccer - Santa Clara University
Kelsey Turnbow (10) Forward - AS A RS SENIOR IN 2021: First Team All-American ... Third Team Academic All-American … Honda Award Finalist … One
But why go though all the effort to be on a top team if your goal isn't to play professionally?
Youth only goes on for so long. If you were a top level athlete and in your prime it would be hard to turn your back on something you love. A big money job doesn't gloss over feelings of what could have been.
Not gonna happen. Surf bailed for the DA, and when the DA imploded, they came running back to ECNL. If they had never left ECNL, they would clearly have 2 ECNL teams in each age group—like Scott Gallagher, Real Colorado, and Concorde. I‘m thinking ECNL leadership has a long memory.
Before the Premier League, the English first division tried that. Only 3 non-UK born players in the first 11. Failed. Then MLS resurrected that rule, and it’s slowly going away.
Exactly what the women’s European teams are doing backed by large sums of money from the parent men’s club.
And that is one big reason ( of many reasons discussed on another thread), why the European women’s teams are better than or catching up rapidly to the USWNT.
NWSL clubs need to get their academies up and running yesterday and tie them into the youth clubs. If you want the most talented teenagers to be the future player pool of the USWNT, playing in an NWSL academy and bypassing the college game is essential. This is the European model, and it works, ala Spain and England women’s teams.
It was their sport and they wanted to compete but they developed more interest than soccer as they went through middle school and high school. Also, they played it because they enjoyed it not because they wanted to make money from it. It's a different life from playing soccer and trying to make a living being a soccer player. There are a lot of satisfying wonderful careers out there. My daughter doesn't want to do it for a living because the lifestyle is not for her. Getting traded and making 35K a year while being benched a lot isn't fun to her. She'd rather pursue another interest that makes more money and allows her to continue playing soccer for the combined local league. She would have to be on the women's national team in order to be financially comfortable and the stats on that are low. 1 player per age group across the USA gets this lucky because we have 18-38 year old players on the National Team.
ECNL only trains 1.5 hours for 3 days a week, so it doesn't take up anymore time than any other Club soccer team.
I think we've tried to force ourselves to become Europe and that's a mistake. We changed the age groups by year versus grades and that was a mistake. We take college out of the equation, and that's a mistake for USA women's soccer. Just like we are taking high school soccer out of the equation is a mistake. Our society is different and we need to think of how we build a system that works for our culture. Trying to be Spain or England is not going to happen because soccer is the ONLY sport in Europe.
If US Soccer wants to get back in, they need high school and college players/families/and cultures to love it. In order for them to love it, they need to be a part of it. We do have a great system that allows for easy transitions into other fields of work if sports doesn't work out but we want to end it for soccer players. How many more years will parents be willing to invest in soccer programs if college is not a genuine possibility?
Noticer
SILVER
One of my bff's from old club team played college ball, got her degree and became a stay home mommy
Here's the way I see it. If you think & are pretty confident you have a champion GOAT then you go for pro route. You follow the Trinity Rodman, Alyssa Thompson, Olivia Moultrie go pro before 18 route and skip college. If you don't have a GOAT then you make college a priority. For us it's college first since I do not have a GOAT.
The club path straight to the pro game in the USA (until the Academy system is developed) needs to be the path for the best of the best, usually identified at the age of around 15 years old…if the USA wants to stay top of the world. For these players, playing in college is not the best for their development. Look at all the one-and-done college players recently making the move to the NWSL. That trend will continue. However, passing up a degree at Stanford and hopping to the NWSL is, in my opinion, the dumbest decision you could ever make, but that’s for another discussion.
For the remaining 99.995 percent of female youth soccer players, taking the path thru the club system, HS soccer, and the college path is just fine. Yes, a small select of these players will play in the NWSL and possibly play in Europe. 95% plus of this group play club soccer to get recruited to play college soccer. And the benefits of sport stay with them through life.
However, I do disagree with your sentence where changing to age groups versus by grade was a mistake. I know parents who held kids back for an extra year of third or fourth grade so they would have a leg up in sports playing with other kids now in the same grade. Works when the kid is young. But if that developing kid turns pro, age is no longer a factor—you get to go up against some experienced players a decade older than you. And that is why players like Ms Turnbow and hundreds of unmentioned others leave the game for brighter pastures.
Yes but not if the NWSL deal & Sponsorship deal greatly exceeds the value of the Stanford 4 year degree given you have a GOAT and she is already in the USYNT path. Take the pro deal. If not then go for Stanford. College can wait & always be done online or after with the NWSL/Sponsorship money.
What people don't always understand is that playing in MLS Next doesn't make youth players ineligible for playing in college. Until you commit to playing professionally MLS Next players have the best of both worlds. They get to play against professional acadamies and they can still choose to play in college.
This is whats missing for youth girls either you're all in as a pro or you're playing in college. Assuming players want to go onto the next level. There's no middle ground for players that are probably good enough to play in the NWSL but not willing to go all in at a young age. If there was something like NWSL Next players could test the water to see if it's something the like.
This is whats missing for youth girls either you're all in as a pro or you're playing in college. Assuming players want to go onto the next level. There's no middle ground for players that are probably good enough to play in the NWSL but not willing to go all in at a young age. If there was something like NWSL Next players could test the water to see if it's something the like.
Playing with your school age should be allowed only within certain time frame parameters.
Growing the game in high school and college will help grow the game professionally and nationally.
Yes, we should maintain a pro path for young girls who are not interested in school at a young age and willing to give up all their friends and high school experiences.
However, it is a mistake to take away the college pathway.
We are not Europe and very different from Europe, we will not be able to compete with Europe if we try to be Europe.
Girls are different from boys, emotionally and financially (the pay gap is huge in pro sports).
If we embrace the differences and find creative ways to help improve as many players as possible within our culture, then we can beat Europe.
If we try to force the Europe route, you'll start seeing less participation soccer once middle school hits and less girls choosing to play soccer and watch soccer later in the life. Girls will start choosing other sports more like boys are.
What we'll end up with is a smaller pool of players for our national team and more players imported from Europe to NWSL, just like the men's game.
Which then leads to a smaller audience for NWSL.
Truer words have never been spoken. Good coaches of character don’t abandon respect and kindness. Coaches of bad character do. We need to call out the bad ones and encourage the good ones. Also, I will echo again the huge difference between boys and girls. We ask girls to take on masculine traits on the soccer field and that only can go so far. I asked my daughter to play like a boy on the field and to be a lady off the field. I was blessed that she pulled it off.
I do not think anyone is against the college pathway since 99% of girls playing soccer need to take that route. The argument is to have an academy pro pathway for the 1% eilte girl players. We need that here in the USA to develop elite pro players.
I must be misunderstanding the message because what I read indicates the desire to turn our current system to the European male system for ALL elite female soccer players. I think that's a mistake for the girls in the long run.
This should be ONE option for the girls who are willing to sacrifice their high school experience but we should continue another Elite soccer pathway for girls within the high school and college system for other elite soccer players who are not willing to give up their childhood high school years or college years.
If we build the high school experience and the college soccer experience, the net is cast wider and retain more athletic players that can develop into elite players through high school and college. The more elite players out there, the better our elite players will be.