Ok thanks makes sense. Yes agree about scholarships. It’s not even something we even want. I just know many go to ECNL thinking of scholarships.
Better team vs. more play time
- Thread starter NotFromCali
- Start date
You'll pay far more in ECNL dues than a scholarship will ever reimburse you unless your kid is the 1%'er.
shirivelli
BRONZE
What is your ultimate goal in mind? Playing college, playing varsity at your local high school, for fun, and so on. If playing college, I suggest staying at your current big club and playing down at his age. The reason is that these big clubs have the college network, reputation, and recruiting pipeline to get your kid to college placement down the road if the kid is still good. Once you move out of this club and wants to rejoin at the top level down the road, the club politics would make it really difficult to join as there would be +20 kids at the summer tryouts for a handful of open spots. Again, unless your kid is somewhat exceptional, it would be hard to join later. These big clubs prioritize the talented players first and then their legacy and royal customers as bench if they are more for pay-to-play individuals with subpar skills.
Play your age level, get plenty of game time, and your team will be good as these clubs will attract top talents in the area. And your older kid and his team will play at the national playoffs with lots of recruiting exposure. But if your player is playing fun and enjoying, I am sure there are many local clubs at much lower price, and you don't need to think about all these.
How much are ECNL dues typically?
3k per year, more or less.
Travel‘s the hard part. 2-3 weekend events (airfare plus 3 day stay). For top teams, add in playoffs and maybe nationals. Each adds airfare plus 6-7 days hotel each. When you add it up, it’s easy to get to 5 roundtrip airplane trips, plus 20+ days of hotel and car rental.
Travel also varies widely by club. Some are flying all over the place, while other try to keep it local. The local ones are bound to be a lot cheaper. You can use SR to get a sense for how many out of state events they go to. Each one adds another thousand or two.
I despise this... and how accurate it is.
rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
I agree with most of this with exception of why it's hard to come back to a big club after leaving. It's not so much politics but more about how competitive and difficult it is to break into a big club's top team. I have seen players leave thinking that they can come back...but they haven't developed at a rate that surpasses other new players coming in. And if the player is not a complete stud then the club will wonder if they'll just jump ship again.
Moral of the story is that if you find a big club that does a decent job with development then stick it out and work your butt off rather than hopping around clubs trying to find the perfect scenario. I have seen parents literally club hop so much that they have closed all their doors and can no longer play in top league.
OP will be fine if he brings his kid back to the big club when the 2015s are going 9v9. If he misses that period of team building, it will be much more difficult to get on the top team. Coaches get pickier when the roster is close to full. They will leave the last 1 or 2 spots unfilled for the stud that may or may not show up.
Well... if your kid isn't at least "somewhat exceptional" they aren't going to play college anyway. My son left a big club (the old DA) to play flight 1 (before all the letter leagues) and had no trouble moving back to MLS Next when he was ready. Yes, it took a while for him to move ahead of some of the legacy players, but having to fight for your spot is good. Of the kids that stayed on his old DA team, very few are still playing high level soccer at all. In the end, it's more about talent and hard work than where you play. Or maybe I should say, the talent and hard work of the player are going to determine where they end up playing.
Spot on. The big clubs want you to believe that if you leave, you're screwing your future chances of playing for the club. That's part of their marketing scam. If you're "somewhat exceptional" you will be welcomed back with open arms (as long as you weren't a complete ass when you left). If your not, then your not college material.
IDK about LA but in San Diego I can't tell you how many DA/MLS Next kids switched between clubs back and forth during U12 to U17.
Desert Hound
DA
At the higher levels there isn't tryouts (ECNL)...after the 1st or 2nd entry yrs. You just call around and find a spot. My kid was on the biggest club top team. Didn't get a ton of time. Just called another ECNL and moved right over as a starter and never looked back. Clubs will always take good players... back, etc.
It is at the lower levels where there are tryouts and stress about a team.
It is at the lower levels where there are tryouts and stress about a team.
Sure if you are Messi moving here from Argentina. Most likely you will be marginally better in some areas and marginally worse in other areas compared to the player that’s already on the top team. After a few years of club soccer, you know all the top kids, there is no hidden talent waiting to be discovered in a geographic area. Who gets on the top team is usually who gets there first. But I suppose if you are willing to drive 1.5hr to practices, then you could be the new kid a coach hasn’t seen before. But then you are driving 1.5 hrs to practice 3 times a week.
If a big club is 5 min from the house and they are build a team for EA or ECNL, you get in on that team early.
I could not disagree more. People seem think that relative ability is fixed. Like Alex is better than Bob who's better than Charlie at U9, so as they age, they all improve the same and retain the same order at U17, but that's not been my experience at all. There's the puberty lottery: some kids will just get luckier than others. There's the fact that some kids just work harder, but also, the game at U9 is totally different than at U17 and different again in college (and again at the pro level). We've all see the kid who can dribble everyone and score 5 at U-little who never makes an impact at U-high-school because they can't see the field. Or the kid who had a banger shot and could score at will from distance against the tiny goalies who can't score now because they can't get their shot off in time. Or the opposite where you see kids who struggle at U-little who come on strong later. My son has a teammate who struggled for years because he was small and not fast enough to keep up with the big boys who may be one of the most talented kids in the age group now. Not to mention "horses for corses". Some kids do better in different coaching styles, play styles, ect.
I know coaches may rely on reputation when evaluating, but that's lazy. There _is_ hidden talent in LA where the system is such a mess that a lot of great players wallow at smaller clubs or sunday league and the better coaches are able to identify it when it shows up and develop it.
At the top level, everyone is good be that U9 or U17. Comparing top level to top level, the margin is small. All I am saying is for you to make the team that’s already established, your level needs to be higher than the starting players. It’s not easy to do and needs a bit of luck.
Wow that’s a lot of travel. Is EA travel as bad as ECNL?
Look at the specific club or team, not just the league.
Rebels and Surf are both ECNL Southwest. Surf travels all over, and Rebels did all their tournaments in socal.
If your kid is a superstar but money or time is an issue, I’d take a look at the smaller ECNL clubs near you.
There are also scholarships for insanely talented kids from lower income families.
My kid (in high school) has been playing UPSL with the adults. He (and I) are surprised how very different the game is. I had assumed it wouldn't be very different after the final big difference at the high school level which is the keepers grow into the larger adult goals and it's therefore it becomes almost impossible (well very hard) at the higher levels (and by this I mean flight 1s and letter leagues on the boys side where the competition forces the boy keepers to be competent if they want to keep their slots) to score except through creative play (cut backs, crosses/corners, breaking the defensive line) or penalties/perfectly placed DFKs. There are far fewer shots and defending the space and creative offense become much more important in the adult game. I was frankly surprised...I thought this would only happen on the pro, not the semi-pro level. At first I thought it might be a quirk (maybe its just the team) but I can see it across various teams I've watched. I can't really put my finger on why that it is but I'm circling around perhaps that much like the keepers grow into their goals and begin to become competent in their mid teens, the defenders might do the same in their late teens (a combination of frontal cortex development, body development, and skill progression) particularly if they've kept playing into adulthood.
The issue with ECNL on the boys side is there are far fewer teams than either MLS Next or EA. Therefore large swaths of areas are underserved. For example, while on the boys side the former Laufa and TFA service the downtown-downey-long beach triangle which has a large Latino community, ECNL has no such presence on either the boys or the girl side to serve that underserved community.
shirivelli
BRONZE
This is 100% correct. If your kid is Messi, all these aforementioned discussions are not needed here. However, all most of the cases at the top level, every one of the players are talented with motivation and working hard, so every little things really make a big difference when the majority of the players are on the same level set.
This assumes the concept of an "established" team. On the boy's side, if it exists, its short term. At the U13 and above level there is typically a fair amount of turnover from year to year. There is always opportunities, its just the Club's don't want you to think there is. The Clubs prey on the "fear of missing out".