MakeAPlay
DA
Man I miss the Coopaloop!
ECNL Championship Draw
- Thread starter Soccer43
- Start date
Man I miss the Coopaloop!
Sheriff Joe
DA
I was a huge Laker fan in the 80s and coop was my favorite, no one played d like that guy. Quiet, unassuming and the ultimate team player. I miss the character, rivalries and loyalty of the old days.
GoWest
GOLD
True! I loved Magic and Kareem but also loved Kobe and Shaq. Really miss Tark the Shark and his Runnin' Rebels too since we're rolling down memory lane.
NoGoal
DA
I agree Coop was a great defender. Bruce Bowen was another great 1v1 defender.
Sheriff Joe
DA
After Magic got sick and quit, I lost my passion for Bball, so anything Bball after 1990 I don't know much about.
MakeAPlay
DA
Bruce Bowen played on those great Spurs teams of the late 90s and early 00s.
NoGoal
DA
If you like the Showtime Lakers. Watch the GoldenState Warriors play, they are a fun team to watch. Jerry West was a consultant for the Warriors and advised how to construct that championship team.
Sheriff Joe
DA
Yes, I have been watching the playoffs since the Warriors have been in the news, what a difference, pulling up for a 3 on a fast break, too funny.
NoGoal
DA
Yeah, the modern NBA is more about shooting 3's. I think the reasoning is to spread the floor. Shooting 3's at a 33% clip or greater (GSW ave. almost 40%) gets the team 99 points vs 2 pt shots at a 50% clip to get 100 points.
Not From Around Here
BRONZE
Sorry to take this thread back to youth soccer, but I can give you a north Texas perspective on Solar '03. They have been an all star team for 5+ years (SRSA). And I don't mean that in a bad way. They have been the best '03 team in our region since U9 or younger. Often, when a top player from another team was looking for a change, she would check out Solar. So it didn't seem like Solar was going to every team and poaching the top players, it seemed like they were always willing to add another top player or two each year. From the outside (my daughter has never played for them) it made sense to me - top players want to play on the top team and top team wants the top players.
When the '03s reached U12, Solar took a U13 D1 bye in our top league (LHGCL) and gave it to the 03s. So, the entire team was playing up against the best competition north Texas had to offer (this would be before the 02s hit ECNL). They came in 3rd place. The next year they were a U13 team playing up against the U14s and tied for first (granted the ECNL teams were not playing in LHGCL at this point). During this time, the top 03 team still playing in the 03 age group for LHGCL was another Solar team (Solar Hopkins). Also during this time, top girls continue to move there when they have the chance. A local independent team, Cosmos, finished in 4th place in D1 of LHGCL at U12. Their 3 best players moved to Solar the next season. Cosmos goalie eventually landed there as well. Again, moves like this didn't seem unnatural to me - these top quality girls had taken Cosmos as high as they could and earned a chance to play for one of the top teams in the country.
Fast forward to the start of U15 - they did get an influx of players, but with age pure (obviously some of the old '03s were now '02s) and the start of ECNL, it did not seem like Lebron going to Miami. I think 3-5 girls that moved there left Sting Hilton. The Solar parents mentioned above certainly know more than I do, but again it appeared to be a very natural move for those players. They were top players, from a top 5 team in the area that were not going to be able to stay with their coach because Hilton was not the ECNL coach. Sting had 2 top '03 teams Hilton and Gutierrez. So rather than stay at Sting and play for a coach that I assume they didn't want to play for, they took the opportunity to play for one of the top teams in the country.
I don't know if any girls from the Solar Hopkins team ended up on the '03 ECNL team, but what I am basically saying in this post is that Solar has been stacked at the 03 age group for years. Not sure about other parts of the country, but in north Texas, the rich get richer. Maybe the Texans and FC Dallas have not picked up as many of those top girls looking, but both programs have also benefited from top girls moving to top teams. I actually think Texans and FC Dallas have closed the gap on Solar '03 some over the past 2-3 years. But Solar is still the class of our region and congratulations to them for winning the national championship!
And oh yeah, they have two '03 birth year girls that are YNT players that play up with the '02 Solar ECNL team that advanced to the final four (I'm just saying the program is deep!).
Not From Around Here
BRONZE
Appreciate that.
Solar '03 is the gold standard around here in Texas and I feel like a lot of people (that means parents) resent them. I hate when my daughter's team loses to them, but that just serves as motivation to her and her teammates.
Also, turftoe9 posted a few pages back on this thread. Pretty sure that is a Solar parent that can chime in as well.
Also, also, I believe that 2-4 players from Liverpool Elite '03 have left that team to join Solar '03 DA. Again, very logical - the best girls from the best non DA team in our region leaving for a better opportunity. And yes, I think the other two DA programs here got a few LP Elite girls to join as well.
Good intel, thanks...what will be very interesting with DA and super teams is how long these so called teams will stay together? With the DA substitution rules, high level players sitting out for an extended period will not make happy players or parents.
GoWest
GOLD
Bingo! We stepped back from DA at least for a year to stay ECNL just to see what we see. DD will get a fast if DA though through DP for six games. We felt this was really the perfect situation until a year of DA has gone by to re-evaluate.
Totally agree that twill be quite interesting to see if "super teams" can retain their talent given the subbing rules.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
How is that any different than the 3-4 girls that constantly sit on the bench in ECNL right now with a roster of 18?
NoGoal
DA
It's different, because not all ECNL teams are super teams. Not every ECNL coach recruit players like the Bakers did.How is that any different than the 3-4 girls that constantly sit on the bench in ECNL right now with a roster of 18?
MakeAPlay
DA
I would go further and say very few ECNL teams are super teams. Not to mention there is reentry in an ECNL game so the 17th and 18th player at least get 5-10 minutes.
Not From Around Here
BRONZE
I know there are some differences in the rules between ECNL and DA, but for the '03s and '04s I don't see much difference between this past year and next year. In our area, the ECNL players and coaches pretty much moved "up" to DA. Same teams, new letters.How is that any different than the 3-4 girls that constantly sit on the bench in ECNL right now with a roster of 18?
My questions is, what's happening to the '02s? What are SoCal clubs doing to accommodate those very talented '02s that will not get a lot of playing time on (or maybe not even make) the '01/'02 DA teams? How are your clubs combining those 2 ECNL teams into 1 DA team? Honestly, I am not even sure how the north Texas teams are handling this.
LadiesMan217
GOLD
Talented 01/02 playing DA, others playing ECNL.
Not From Around Here
BRONZE
So, are your U17 DA teams a good split of '01s and '02s, or are they mostly '01s?