ECNL Championship Draw

Lambchop said:
Not hating, just surprised a the format, a lot of money for for what you get. I guess if you have money to spare, good for you. We all know club soccer is expensive, a lot of the coaches that are attending (per the ECNL site) also attend the showcases out here.
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Look at it this way Lambchop.......for some parents spending large sums of money on the club soccer experience (traveling far and wide for their player) is really prepaying the cost of college tuition if their player gets serious scholarship money. It's a gamble for many parents. Do I spend lots of money while my player is U8 to HS Senior year for club soccer, long distance tournaments, privates, etc. and hope it pays off with scholarship money? There is no one answer that will apply to all parents and players.

I agree that going to Chicago for a four day tournament is a big ask from parents for what could be very little payoff for their players.
 
Soccer43 said:
there is a difference between a team with a few YNT players playing in the North American Cup and a low level team playing in the Showcase because they had a very poor season. On the top ECNL teams most players are great. On the middle and lower level ECNL players there are many players that are not better than players on CSL Premier teams and top flight SCDSL. Many players on ECNL teams get those spots because of politics, money, personal preferences of the coach, and other issues that have nothing to do with the ability of the player.

I always thought it would be interesting to see a tournament in So Cal that included the ECNL teams, the CSL premier teams, and the SCDSL top flight one teams. Oh, wait, that might be the DA now....
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My favorite is the coach who will take a player that does not belong on the team, but that coach thinks picking that lesser player will lead to the "great" player following the lesser player.
 
bababooey said:
My favorite is the coach who will take a player that does not belong on the team, but that coach thinks picking that lesser player will lead to the "great" player following the lesser player.
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or vice versa....the "great" player moves and packages a few teammates to ease the transition to the new club team. Unfortunately, with a coaching change the following year. The few teammates were cut.
 
Soccer43 said:
Any comments or thoughts about the playoffs coming up? Predictions on the final four in each age group?

http://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/ecnl-national-playoffs//
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The winner of the NA Cup and the Showcase Cup will respectively be the 33 and 49 "best" team in ECNL? Is that correct?

@Soccer43 said "Many players on ECNL teams get those spots because of politics, money, personal preferences of the coach, and other issues that have nothing to do with the ability of the player."

Could that also be said of some the YNT through 18u WNT campers / teams?
 
Paying for ecnl is from U14 to U17 basically.

So that's 4 years at roughly 6000 per year or 24k. Assuming your kid just played at some select club Those fees would be about 4000 over 4 years.

So we are really looking at about 20k extra for ecnl or GDA for the matter.

If your kid gets 5000 over 4 years in college than it's a wash and worth the money.
 
eastbaysoccer said:
Paying for ecnl is from U14 to U17 basically.

So that's 4 years at roughly 6000 per year or 24k. Assuming your kid just played at some select club Those fees would be about 4000 over 4 years.

So we are really looking at about 20k extra for ecnl or GDA for the matter.

If your kid gets 5000 over 4 years in college than it's a wash and worth the money.
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For a few parents, paying 5-6K in club soccer fees including travel, so their kids gain UCLA, Stanford, CAL, Duke, etc admissions as a preferred walk-on is a drop in the bucket for them.
 
NoGoal said:
Do you ever listen? You don't even know what you're posting about and ASSUMING! Maybe you don't know schools bring 2-3 coaches to showcases and each coach at most watches a half, sometimes 15 mins. Rarely will they watch an entire game, so they see as many prospects as possible. On top of that they are evaluting the players they want to watch who have contacted them and yes, the don't watch every player who sends them an email. It's similar to adults applying for jobs and they don't get called for an interview and some do, then some get a 2nd interview and then an offer is extended.

As for cost, the players playoff fees are already built into the travel fees. Again, you have a U14 DD and is why you are probably traveling to watch your DD play. It's not required for you to travel to Illinois to watch her play. Many Uolder parents don't travel to watch their DD's anymore, especially if they have already committed.
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Travel fees?? Maybe for those in the Champions league, don't know.??? Anyway, Champions league is a tournament/playoff, the other two groups are showcases right but they have a champion after single elimination. What I said, interesting format. Guess you have to have a champion in each group :). By the way, I am well aware of the coaches moving around and spending in most cases a limited amount of time at each game they want to see. I am also very aware that only the best and brightest go to the top 5. Academics, academics, test scores, test scores, outstanding skills, great player, YNT player, that's what the top schools want. Some girls just can't handle a rigorous academic institution, we all get that. Some won't be able to compete, get that. You are making too many assumptions about what some parents know.
 
Lambchop said:
Travel fees?? Maybe for those in the Champions league, don't know.??? Anyway, Champions league is a tournament/playoff, the other two groups are showcases right but they have a champion after single elimination. What I said, interesting format. Guess you have to have a champion in each group :). By the way, I am well aware of the coaches moving around and spending in most cases a limited amount of time at each game they want to see. I am also very aware that only the best and brightest go to the top 5. Academics, academics, test scores, test scores, outstanding skills, great player, YNT player, that's what the top schools want. Some girls just can't handle a rigorous academic institution, we all get that. Some won't be able to compete, get that. You are making too many assumptions about what some parents know.
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You are way to focused on winning. You seem to believe winning team = having highly recruited players. #fallacy

As for GPA, any highly regarded YNT player with an average 3.0 GPA can still get into a lot of the top schools. Not Stanford, but I have heard of exceptions being made at CAL and UCLA. Minimum needed for Stanford is only a 3.5 GPA for YNT players
 
GoWest said:
The winner of the NA Cup and the Showcase Cup will respectively be the 33 and 49 "best" team in ECNL? Is that correct?

@Soccer43 said "Many players on ECNL teams get those spots because of politics, money, personal preferences of the coach, and other issues that have nothing to do with the ability of the player."

Could that also be said of some the YNT through 18u WNT campers / teams?
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I am not sure that being number 33 or 49 of anything is very exciting - and yes, of course several of the YNT selections are not actually remarkable either. Many are one and done if you follow the camp rosters from camp to camp.
 
Soccer43 said:
I am not sure that being number 33 or 49 of anything is very exciting - and yes, of course several of the YNT selections are not actually remarkable either. Many are one and done if you follow the camp rosters from camp to camp.
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A player ranked #33 or #49 in the TDS national recruiting class....can be exciting. Attending nationally ranked #33 and #49 university can be too.
 
NoGoal said:
A player ranked #33 or #49 in the TDS national recruiting class....can be exciting. Attending nationally ranked #33 and #49 university can be too.
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The entertainment value of TDS is right up there with Casey Kasem's Top 40 LOL!
 
NoGoal said:
For a few parents, paying 5-6K in club soccer fees including travel, so their kids gain UCLA, Stanford, CAL, Duke, etc admissions as a preferred walk-on is a drop in the bucket for them.
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Some will do more than that. Think family donations to soccer programs. At the end of the day soccer is a non-revenue sport and the coaches have to raise additional funds. The rabbit hole is much deeper than many could imagine.
 
eastbaysoccer said:
Paying for ecnl is from U14 to U17 basically.

So that's 4 years at roughly 6000 per year or 24k. Assuming your kid just played at some select club Those fees would be about 4000 over 4 years.

So we are really looking at about 20k extra for ecnl or GDA for the matter.

If your kid gets 5000 over 4 years in college than it's a wash and worth the money.
Click to expand...

Here are some real numbers. We spent a little over $31k on club soccer from U10-U18 including everything (ECNL from U14-U18, ODP, Nike Manchester Cup, privates etc.). Depending upon the school you are talking about tuition is anywhere from about $20k-$70k. If my player had gotten a half scholarship from any decent school in the country we win on the math. And that doesn't include the life lessons, discipline, peer group, fun, bonding and memories. If she had gotten $5k a year over that time for a school with in state tuition and/or it was a school that was highly ranked and well respected then I would still feel like we won.
 
Soccer43 said:
I always thought it would be interesting to see a tournament in So Cal that included the ECNL teams, the CSL premier teams, and the SCDSL top flight one teams. Oh, wait, that might be the DA now....
Click to expand...

There used to be a tournament like that it was called National Cup. Unfortunately as with most things that happen when greed and ego get involved many of the involved parties went their seperate ways. I will tell you that at least on the girls side it was the usual suspects that won it every year at every age group. The only team that isn't currently one of the 8 SoCal ECNL teams to win one prior to the split of the leagues is Laguna Hills Eclipse.
 
bababooey said:
Look at it this way Lambchop.......for some parents spending large sums of money on the club soccer experience (traveling far and wide for their player) is really prepaying the cost of college tuition if their player gets serious scholarship money. It's a gamble for many parents. Do I spend lots of money while my player is U8 to HS Senior year for club soccer, long distance tournaments, privates, etc. and hope it pays off with scholarship money? There is no one answer that will apply to all parents and players.

I agree that going to Chicago for a four day tournament is a big ask from parents for what could be very little payoff for their players.
Click to expand...

I keep having to remind myself that there are mostly ULittle parents on the forum. There will be a lot of coaches and at least 15 or so will be watching most games and I have seen 80+ on the sidelines for games. College coaches recruit players not teams. You will be surprised at how many diamonds there are on teams that aren't at the very top of an age group. Some of the best players come from those teams that are in 6-10 ranking range in an age group. You might see a couple players that are pretty dominant that make a decent team really good because of their individual brilliance. It's definitely worth the money for 95% of the players. You just have to ask yourself 4 questions and be honest with yourself.

1. Is your player going to play at least 33-40% of the time?

2. Does your player have the grades and time management skills to play college soccer?

3. Does your player REALLY want to play college soccer?

4. Is your player will to put in the work to contact the coaches (with a little parent assistance)?

If the answer is yes to all 4 it is worth it and she will find a college that is a good fit. If not, get her on a good select team as club soccer and all the travel is a waste, unless of course you don't care about the $31-$40k you are going to spend on it (more power to you if you don't).

Either way good luck to you and your player.
 
NoGoal said:
You are way to focused on winning. You seem to believe winning team = having highly recruited players. #fallacy

As for GPA, any highly regarded YNT player with an average 3.0 GPA can still get into a lot of the top schools. Not Stanford, but I have heard of exceptions being made at CAL and UCLA. Minimum needed for Stanford is only a 3.5 GPA for YNT players
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Very true sir. Coaches recruit players not teams.
 
NoGoal said:
A player ranked #33 or #49 in the TDS national recruiting class....can be exciting. Attending nationally ranked #33 and #49 university can be too.
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I'm going to say that it is more exciting to go to a university from #33-#49 than to be a youth player ranked there. At the end of the day it is about the academics on the girls side. The player ranking thing sorts itself out in college.
 
MakeAPlay said:
I keep having to remind myself that there are mostly ULittle parents on the forum. There will be a lot of coaches and at least 15 or so will be watching most games and I have seen 80+ on the sidelines for games. College coaches recruit players not teams. You will be surprised at how many diamonds there are on teams that aren't at the very top of an age group. Some of the best players come from those teams that are in 6-10 ranking range in an age group. You might see a couple players that are pretty dominant that make a decent team really good because of their individual brilliance. It's definitely worth the money for 95% of the players. You just have to ask yourself 4 questions and be honest with yourself.

1. Is your player going to play at least 33-40% of the time?

2. Does your player have the grades and time management skills to play college soccer?

3. Does your player REALLY want to play college soccer?

4. Is your player will to put in the work to contact the coaches (with a little parent assistance)?

If the answer is yes to all 4 it is worth it and she will find a college that is a good fit. If not, get her on a good select team as club soccer and all the travel is a waste, unless of course you don't care about the $31-$40k you are going to spend on it (more power to you if you don't).

Either way good luck to you and your player.
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Great post so helpful! Thanks for all the insight
 
MakeAPlay said:
Very true sir. Coaches recruit players not teams.
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To put it in perspective for ulittle parents. As a comparison, YNT team rostered players (YNT caps) have around 35-40 players on average in each age group. There are 22,000 high schools, meaning there are 22,000 class valedictorians per year. Another reason why regarded YNT players with a 3.0-3.5 GPA get admission exceptions to top univerisites.
 
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