In AZ you do not have pro/rel. You have ECNL at the top, just like everywhere else. Sure you have some s**t leagues that put different teams into different brackets, just like everyone else, but that is not pro/rel since it does not have any impact on the top of the food chain. It’s just sorting the lower tiers who don’t matter. It’s pro/rel about as much as MLB and the minor leagues, meaning not at all. the
Furthermore, AZ pretty much sucks at soccer, especially once you get out of ECNL, at least on the girls side. I doubt there is a single U15 or higher girls team in AZ that doesn’t play ECNL that wouldn’t lose to top SoCal ECNL clubs 20-0. It’s BS if you think there is nearly the same level of development going in. At least AZ’s ECNL can keep the score in the single digits.
The other thing people like you and
@happy9 magat fail to comprehend is that one of the most important factors in development is commitment, and not just commitment of your own kid. You need the same high level commitment from the coaching staff and teammates. That never happens in cheapskate leagues. You never get dedicated committed coaches because you don’t get the income necessary to secure high level coaches, so you get daddy ball part time coaches, and idiots willing to work for some s**t per diem. But go ahead and trust your kid to someone willing to make $8 an hour or sometimes less.
The higher cost of ECNL means that players and families are also committed and serious about it, as they must for that kind of coin. Maybe everyone in AZ is a cheapskate who grew up ok with teammates skipping out all the time because it just isn’t that important to them, or their parents can’t focus on four practices a week because they have two jobs or are single parents, but that does not lead to good soccer develolment.
@happy9’s feelings about pro/rel prove exactly how dumb he is and why no one should believe anything he says. The mere fact that ECNL is highly successful and the vast majority (if not all) elite college girls soccer players come out of ECNL proves him wrong, no ifs ands or buts. The fact that the WNT in the ECNL era is the strongest it has ever been proves the same. The fact that ECNL killed off GDA in a few short years also proves the same. He can claim all he wants that everyone really learned all their development in AYSO when they were 9, bit we all know that’s BS.
@happy9 is just another dumb magat who is wrong about everything all the time. His perspective is based on his subconscious irrational belief in American Individualism. He thinks that it’s just as likely a kid will develop into being great simply based on one’s own efforts, with no help from others. You can go to a s**t team, play for free under a daddy coach, and still have the same odds of becoming great as if you spent your formative years training consistently under professional coaches with the best, most dedicated teammates around four days a week for six years. BS. If that were true, why aren’t there there college All-Americans who did not play ECNL? If a kid could become great without ECNL, why isn’t it happening ever? It is because ECNL is where the development really happens.
