This depends on the club. I think at 01 and up you will have a couple of very strong ECNL teams. The already committed/ HS factor will prevail. Or just so good it doesn't matter what league they are in: Blues Baket
GIRLS DAII
- Thread starter Kicknit22
- Start date
This depends on the club. I think at 01 and up you will have a couple of very strong ECNL teams. The already committed/ HS factor will prevail. Or just so good it doesn't matter what league they are in: Blues Baket
chargerfan
GOLD
Do they get a patch?
MakeAPlay
DA
Ouch!! Is that what they are charging now?
GoWest
GOLD
You may be right.
I'll probably venture off the path for a bit here but I hope to tie it together with a nice bow at the end.
I think it also depends upon the player, college program (athletic director, coach, etc) and where that program fits (or wants to fit) in the college post season "field of 64." Some kids think that post-commit means time to chill and relax and their college programs are just ok with that. Look at a few of the Big 10 women's soccer programs (and yes other conferences too) and look at the tenure of some of their coaches being mediocre at best FOR YEARS AND YEARS! Some schools and coaches just don't care.
Compare that to programs that are regulars in the NCAA tournament (or in and out more often over the last few years) where "just chilling" post-commit won't cut it or the scholarship gets cut.
So, what's my point? A post-commit player should be pushing herself to get on the very best team, in the most difficult and competitive club conference with the very best coaching, etc., to ensure they continue to improve on their way to a college program. In my book, that should be a given. That's why most on this board are passionate about calling out a "fraud league" designed to keep the cash flowing. No one here wants to see a family of limited means and time, etc., get duped.
So, laying out the best-to-worst leagues can be insightful for the player / parent looking to achieve (or not achieve) going forward. At the end of the day, US Soccer DA will continue to draw the very best of the best and the impact will hit hard against ECNL and other leagues starting August 1, 2017. Like it or not, it is what it is.
I think HS is inconsequential at this point because DA, ECNL, etc have made allowances for players desiring the HS experience.
As far as SW conference ECNL and the 2017-2018 season goes, yeah probably a few teams that are outliers and have no DA option will look more respectable because of the "lowering" of competition in the SoCal market. Not to take anything away from those clubs but seriously? I dont think anyone should be fooled.
I am curious, what 01+ ECNL teams / clubs do you see in the SW ECNL conference actually staying strong?
Simisoccerfan
PREMIER
12M people live in LA/Ventura/Kern Counties - 5 DA Clubs and 0 ECNL Clubs
4.5M people live in Riverside/San Bernardino Counties - only 1 DA Club and 1 ECNL Club
3.3M people live in San Diego County - 3 DA Clubs and 2 ECNL Clubs
3.2M people live in Orange Co - 4 DA Clubs and 4 ECNL Clubs
Some of the clubs are the same for DA and ECNL. DA has 4 teams per club. ECNL has 5 with many also having U18/19 Composite Team also.
So just based on the demographics it makes sense that the talent drops of quickly in San Diego and the OC where most of the posters are from. But in LA or in the I.E. there is a ton of talent not at the few DA clubs. Plus driving from the North to the Southbay absolutely sucks making the Galaxy and Beach tough options. There is plenty need for top "2nd tier teams" up here whether it is DPL, Premier or Tier 1. In fact these teams will likely be quite strong.
4.5M people live in Riverside/San Bernardino Counties - only 1 DA Club and 1 ECNL Club
3.3M people live in San Diego County - 3 DA Clubs and 2 ECNL Clubs
3.2M people live in Orange Co - 4 DA Clubs and 4 ECNL Clubs
Some of the clubs are the same for DA and ECNL. DA has 4 teams per club. ECNL has 5 with many also having U18/19 Composite Team also.
So just based on the demographics it makes sense that the talent drops of quickly in San Diego and the OC where most of the posters are from. But in LA or in the I.E. there is a ton of talent not at the few DA clubs. Plus driving from the North to the Southbay absolutely sucks making the Galaxy and Beach tough options. There is plenty need for top "2nd tier teams" up here whether it is DPL, Premier or Tier 1. In fact these teams will likely be quite strong.
Lambchop
GOLD
A better demographics review would be based on age. How many individuals are 18 and younger.
IntheknowSoccer
BRONZE
D2 is dead! Presidio members voted against it.
Kicknit22
GOLD
You say it's dead because Presidio voted against it? Do you think the DOC's will really throw in the towel? Doubt it. I believe this is only regarding the Fall league. I really don't believe this is a dead issue.
IntheknowSoccer
BRONZE
Wow, talk about a tangled web that's been weaved. Comes down this copy cat like web site complete with a fake press release run by sd clubs as a presido division.
LAG not funding or planning on participating, RSC might partially, others only some of the the age groups so these probable 6-8 team dpl divisions playing in LA, SD, & two states seem to go against the Presido charter and don't offer any real benefits.
Goal Nation is the rag that is up Surf, Albion, and Presidio's ass! The press release was a disservice to families to promote a division that was simply an idea not even close to reality .
Sigh.
Presidio is a low league.
There are these two kinda bigger kinda more important ones a little ways to the north. SCDSL an obvious no.
Coast is a yes- would bet big money on this.
IntheknowSoccer
BRONZE
I don't think the "idea" is dead, but the DPL, as we know it today, is dead. However, what's ironic is that those same DOC's who complained about ECNL are trying to create the same exclusivity.
We def do not need DA, ECNL, SCDSL, Coast, Presidio and DPL. Let the kids play in an open market and the cream will rise to the top.
Word on the street is Coast is working hard to pull it off for them. If they do, again no different then before with Presidio, it is just a division in CSL. With eligibility to showcases they already have access too.
If the Coach and Players are a fit for your player go for it! But don't go for it for any other reason then that.
Coast might pull this off, and I hope for the girls sake they don't need to drive out of state for league games, but Coast may want to tweak some of their rules:
- clubs participating being required to register their most competitive team in the age group (Section 1 of Coast's Rules)
- clubs have to reapply every year (Section 3.C)
- And all of that stuff about relegation & promotion (although I do like that they game themselves an out in that the board can essentially do whatever they want as respects to team placement).
bababooey
GOLD
I agree with your suggestion. These closed playing circuits (ECNL, DA, DPL, etc.) are useless. While there are some good teams in the SW division of ECNL at U14, there are some really poor teams. If the top ECNL teams felt that competition trumps all, then they should be playing the top Beach FC, Legends, LAGSB, LAGSD teams in their regular season games.
What is fun to watch are the DOC's and HC's trying to say one closed gaming league is better than the others. Until we get the pay to play system eradicated (which would be never) from the soccer landscape, the fight for our dollars will continue on.
As a parent of a DA2 player, I would be 100% happy if we stayed in SCDSL or played in CSL. There is absolutely no need for the DPL. The reasons given by the DOC's for the DPL in that Goal Nation article are laughable at best.
Lambchop
GOLD
DA2? So your son plays on a DA team? Your experience then is not on the girls side because the DA has not started yet, just clarifying.
bababooey
GOLD
Nope. My dd is DA2.
hydraulic42
BRONZE
I agree that there's way too much stratification and unnecessary politics in how youth soccer is "organized." Sometimes I wonder how it should all be organized if we could dump everything and start from scratch, e.g.:
- Make everyone play AYSO/rec until a certain age;
- have one main fall league for all clubs (like CSL used to be for LA/OC);
- keep at least one season soccer-free until a certain age, so kids can do other things (and work with the governing bodies of those sports to sync up the schedules).
IMHO, I think that a major flaw in the US Soccer system is that they try to control everything. Some of the top players in the world learned to love the game themselves and figured out the basics by themselves, and then eventually their country's system found them, etc. Here, it's assumed that the kids have to be drilled and drilled and molded from a young age or they'll not be good. They want creative players, but they don't want to allow the players to develop their own creativity. Someone said the other day about being able to play pickup games in the street. I mean, that's how all the best learned. Messi was discovered when he was juggling grapefruit in a market! Or lemons or something I can't remember right now. I don't think that we should be forcing these kids into practices and practices from 5 and up. Let them learn to love the game first. Let them go out and just play around with the ball, see what they can do. Experiment. Of course, this gets into the culture debate, but anyways.
The other day I was at the park, and a guy asked to use our ball. He had a little girl (no older than 5) and what looked like her brother with him. They kicked around and tried to juggle the ball for a little bit, all the while the man who originally borrowed the ball talked about how he used to be really good at juggling. Over the course of the next 20-25 minutes, I saw the two men play with the little girl, but every time she got the ball the drilled her and corrected her on her form. The passed the ball around her, and by the time they left, you could see she didn't want anything to do with the ball anymore. This of course isn't all cases, but it's just something that I saw recently and exemplifies how, even though rec practices are made fun for the kids and so on, none of it's worth it, like several have said on this forum, if the kids don't love the game.