Eagles DA?? Any thoughts?

MakeAPlay said:
We will not know who moved until August/September. Not to mention that on the mixed age group teams many of the top players from the lower age group may not make a team. Even if they do they may not play much due to substitution rules. I am one that believe that there are 30 elite players give or take per age group in all of SoCal. Adding more teams to spread those players around isn't going to concentrate the talent is will be the opposite. I would not be surprised if instead of having 3-6 elite players per team you are going to have 1-3. I just don't see this going off as cleanly as most believe it will. Split age groups is going to have a HUGE affect on the girls side I can guarantee that.

I am definitely going to watch a GDA game this year to see what I see.
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Great point! Also, here is something I was thinking about:

Why is US Soccer going to come forward with the new GDA with combined birth years after all of the fuss just barely a year ago about switching to age pure teams? It's too contradicting.
1) There are still players playing up no matter where you go. There are '03s playing on '02 teams, there are '02s on '01s at the ECNL level, at SCDSL, at CRL, etc.
2) YNT and WNT isn't "age-pure". There are 15 yr olds on the u17 there was 15 yr old MP on the U20s for ages... etc.
3) If GDA is supposed to be the "elite" platform/place to play, then why is it that the GDA teams are age combined but the rest of the teams in that club will not be?

There's more but that's the jist. Just a couple thoughts...
 
Simisoccerfan said:
My dd's opinion is exactly the opposite. Even though our HS is a top team, her and her friends know that the quality of soccer is not good and the chance of serious injury is greater. The general feeling is that quality of HS is going to be even weaker with DA. Many of the better girls are thinking about sitting out even if they don't make DA though I do know of a few ECNL girls not going to DA so they can play HS. The HS season is going to be wide open next year. Personally, I loved the HS experience for my dd but it is not about what I want. It is what she wants.
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My experience was the opposite. They know that HS soccer sucks (I hated it personally) but it is means something in that petri dish that our kids call high school. I tried to make my player sit out high school (and I even succeeded for 7 games her junior year). It didn't last long and one of her high school teammates is one of her closest friends in college and plenty of her old teammates go to see her play. She even went to a high school game this season and her old teammates absolutely love it.

I know right now the parents of the "top" players might think that soccer is everything. Coming from a parent with a player in college and in the ynt pool, the journey is everything. Make sure they enjoy it because I have seen plenty of players that had soccer as their entire focus and they get to college and all of a sudden they don't have the balance and they either flame out, quit or run into somebody that is simply better and then just like that their identity is gone and they are lost. Just look at the D1 transfer numbers.

Play good soccer, get good grades, enjoy the journey, help push them to the finish line. Good luck to you and your player.
 
Sandypk said:
03's and 04's don't really have to worry about HS soccer yet b/c the 04's are in 7th/8th grade and some 03's are in 8th grade.
The 03's that are going to HS will only miss their Freshman year of soccer to see what the GDA is like. Missing Freshman year of HS soccer is not that big of a deal....
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Except that the top players are on varsity as freshman and many become the key player on their team. That leads to many social rewards.

If you don't have a high schooler yet you are in for a surprise. Lots of things change once the estrogen kicks in....
 
Simisoccerfan said:
My dd's opinion is exactly the opposite. Even though our HS is a top team, her and her friends know that the quality of soccer is not good and the chance of serious injury is greater. The general feeling is that quality of HS is going to be even weaker with DA. Many of the better girls are thinking about sitting out even if they don't make DA though I do know of a few ECNL girls not going to DA so they can play HS. The HS season is going to be wide open next year. Personally, I loved the HS experience for my dd but it is not about what I want. It is what she wants.
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My daughter is in 8th grade, she knows the soccer quality will not be good, still can't be talked out of it.
So you daughter played HS or is playing HS?
 
PLSAP said:
Great point! Also, here is something I was thinking about:

Why is US Soccer going to come forward with the new GDA with combined birth years after all of the fuss just barely a year ago about switching to age pure teams? It's too contradicting.
1) There are still players playing up no matter where you go. There are '03s playing on '02 teams, there are '02s on '01s at the ECNL level, at SCDSL, at CRL, etc.
2) YNT and WNT isn't "age-pure". There are 15 yr olds on the u17 there was 15 yr old MP on the U20s for ages... etc.
3) If GDA is supposed to be the "elite" platform/place to play, then why is it that the GDA teams are age combined but the rest of the teams in that club will not be?

There's more but that's the jist. Just a couple thoughts...
Click to expand...


Exactly!! The thing that US soccer has going for them is that every 8-10 years they get a completely new group of customers to hustle.... It's like a guy hustling the shell game in Time Square. Tomorrow there will be a whole new batch of rubes.
 
MakeAPlay said:
Except that the top players are on varsity as freshman and many become the key player on their team. That leads to many social rewards.

If you don't have a high schooler yet you are in for a surprise. Lots of things change once the estrogen kicks in....
Click to expand...

Social acceptance and popularity are top priority at this age. A lot of girls are going to be bummed to miss out on high school soccer.
 
chargerfan said:
Social acceptance and popularity are top priority at this age. A lot of girls are going to be bummed to miss out on high school soccer.
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And a lot of girls who don't belong on elite teams but have been on them will leave for the high school smiles and giggles.
Remember US soccer doesn't care. They care about the elite athlete- the one who homeschools so she can train and make videos. Maybe you have the unicorn but most of us don't.
 
Has anyone read updates about the HS rule? Last I read, you can roster on a DA team, but you cannot play HS and DA concurrently. You rejoin the DA team at the end of the HS season. Is this wrong?
 
Also, don't forget, if you play HS soccer it's impossible to play on the national team, play professional soccer, or be elite. Oh wait..... I'm all for kids choosing to do what they feel but way too many mandated things going on here to find the next Mia Hamm or whatever. I agree the social aspect of HS sports is big to girls and can significantly change their overall HS experience.
 
MarkM said:
Has anyone read updates about the HS rule? Last I read, you can roster on a DA team, but you cannot play HS and DA concurrently. You rejoin the DA team at the end of the HS season. Is this wrong?
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I think that's right. You can't do both at the same time. How many DA coaches are going to let talented players miss their league games December through February though? Hard to find many...
 
soccer4us said:
I think that's right. You can't do both at the same time. How many DA coaches are going to let talented players miss their league games December through February though? Hard to find many...
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I get you. But ECNL coaches allow the same thing with discovery players. If a player is talented, is the DA coach really going to say go away for the year? Go play ECNL? There seems like way too many DA teams, meaning way too much dilution, for DA coaches to be overly rigid. We'll see. It will be interesting.
 
Striker17 said:
And a lot of girls who don't belong on elite teams but have been on them will leave for the high school smiles and giggles.
Remember US soccer doesn't care. They care about the elite athlete- the one who homeschools so she can train and make videos. Maybe you have the unicorn but most of us don't.
Click to expand...

I agree that they absolutely don't care. It is crazy if you asked me. At what point did they start dictating the direction of soccer development in the US (about when the world started catching up) and what other sport does this happen in and why in a country that absolutely abhors top down mandates do we allow it?

Smiles and giggles aren't that bad. When they get older those are called memories. It's about the journey as much as the destination. Injuries can happen at any time. At the end of the day unless a player is a purple unicorn among unicorns there is no real money in the sport for women yet. No reason to ask them to sacrifice their childhood. It was a tough decision for Pugh and she was already a lock.

Good luck to you and your player.
 
I agree with everything you said. Everything. I start this by saying I am appreciative of soccer for what it has taught my daughter! I am also a realist though and there have been some frank discussions. Right now my daughter can handle the pace and expectations but this is a fluid situation. I watch her physically as well as emotionally to assess if I am doing the right thing.
I would go a step further in your post and mention that I fully expect them to dictate everything because the clubs dictate my family not having any family time anymore, try to tell me my daughter can't play multiple sports, put silly extra activities on Sunday etc the list goes on.
I put my foot down. I don't sacrifice travel or two sports or a grandmothers' birthday for COCONUT EXPLOSION SHOOTOIT trophies for example...but I am the MINORITY. In this world of fast paced highly competitive soccer we have all been told we are expendable I believe. We choose to not care because my daughters grades will get her into any school she wants to go to I am sure but a lot of families don't have the same opinion.
I guess when US soccer did this it made sense because the clubs already pushed the envelope so why would you expect their governing body to?
 
Sandypk said:
03's and 04's don't really have to worry about HS soccer yet b/c the 04's are in 7th/8th grade and some 03's are in 8th grade.
The 03's that are going to HS will only miss their Freshman year of soccer to see what the GDA is like. Missing Freshman year of HS soccer is not that big of a deal....
Click to expand...
some 03 and 04 are still in 6th grade....red shirt kindergarteners
 
MarkM said:
Has anyone read updates about the HS rule? Last I read, you can roster on a DA team, but you cannot play HS and DA concurrently. You rejoin the DA team at the end of the HS season. Is this wrong?
Click to expand...
I am not sure, but I imagine if a coach lets a player get away with that, other players parents will not be very happy. I could see a coach letting the "elite" players do it and that would really start some trouble.
 
PLSAP said:
Great point! Also, here is something I was thinking about:

Why is US Soccer going to come forward with the new GDA with combined birth years after all of the fuss just barely a year ago about switching to age pure teams? It's too contradicting.
1) There are still players playing up no matter where you go. There are '03s playing on '02 teams, there are '02s on '01s at the ECNL level, at SCDSL, at CRL, etc.
2) YNT and WNT isn't "age-pure". There are 15 yr olds on the u17 there was 15 yr old MP on the U20s for ages... etc.
3) If GDA is supposed to be the "elite" platform/place to play, then why is it that the GDA teams are age combined but the rest of the teams in that club will not be?

There's more but that's the jist. Just a couple thoughts...
Click to expand...
$$$$$$
 
Sandypk said:
Where will Eagles get more 03 players from? Just wondering who will make that drive to Camarillo when there are more options for girls GDA in LA and South Bay? The 02/03 Eagles team was very good from U8-U11 and then they had a coaching change as well as the age change. Those two factors hit the Eagles 03 team hard. They lost a few 02's and replaced them with a few new 03's. For some reason, Eagles 02/03 went from fast/skilled players to 03's bigger more aggressive players. The new coach seemed to change the style of play and the type of girls who were being recruited. JMO
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For the geographically challenged, Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Newberry Park, Agoura, Calabassas, Malibu, and Simi Valley to name a few.
 
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