ECNL Expansion In NorCal

Surf Zombie said:
Five additions announced yesterday, all from the ECNL-R league.

Two from FL and one each from VA, IL and southern CA.

ECNL Girls - Elite Clubs National League

The official ECNL Girls page for Elite Clubs National League
www.ecnlgirls.com www.ecnlgirls.com

ECNL staggering announcements for some additional new clubs?
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Six boys additions announced yesterday.
Two from FL, one each from OR, VA, IL and OH.
https://www.ecnlboys.com/2022/03/ec...e-best-with-six-new-clubs-for-2022-23-season/
 
H
SaydeeLu said:
What?? Weren't you the one who declared it would be Bay Area Surf and Placer for the girls in NorCal?? ;)
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Hearing it's a done deal for those 2 clubs. Announcement coming soon within a week. Have to say I think those 2 probably deserve it based on merit and club history. Tryouts just got more fun in the South Bay and Sacramento region.
 
soccer4us said:
H

Hearing it's a done deal for those 2 clubs. Announcement coming soon within a week. Have to say I think those 2 probably deserve it based on merit and club history. Tryouts just got more fun in the South Bay and Sacramento region.
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I've heard the same with the same timeline :)
 
I can't speak for Bay Area Surf. If this is correct I can't see the logic in the Placer decision. The talent pool in Sac isn't as deep as Bay area of Socal. When the DA folded all those girls went to Davis and San Juan, '06 and olders. For the older kids it would be a big leap of faith at that high school age to head to placer. Maybe for the youngers it might make sense and I'm sure they will start picking up kids that don't want to travel out of the Roseville area to Davis or SJ. If kids start leaving current ENCL teams for Placer then the ECNL league has just created 3 mediocre clubs in the Sac region. So Cal had teams that placed 3,4,and 5th last year that could have done alot of damage at Florida Nationals. 3,4,5th in Norcal after diluting SJ and Davis just doesn't seem like the same scenario we see in So Cal.
 
Orangeteam said:
I can't speak for Bay Area Surf. If this is correct I can't see the logic in the Placer decision. The talent pool in Sac isn't as deep as Bay area of Socal. When the DA folded all those girls went to Davis and San Juan, '06 and olders. For the older kids it would be a big leap of faith at that high school age to head to placer. Maybe for the youngers it might make sense and I'm sure they will start picking up kids that don't want to travel out of the Roseville area to Davis or SJ. If kids start leaving current ENCL teams for Placer then the ECNL league has just created 3 mediocre clubs in the Sac region. So Cal had teams that placed 3,4,and 5th last year that could have done alot of damage at Florida Nationals. 3,4,5th in Norcal after diluting SJ and Davis just doesn't seem like the same scenario we see in So Cal.
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I don't disagree necessarily but we can't have every club in a national league have to be "good". It's not realistic probably in any sport. Some will great, some good, and some will struggle a bit. My guess is the HS age teams won't change a lot. Maybe bottom end of ECNL team/top 2nd team players can move to placer if want more playing time or be on a ECNL team.

We will never have so cal depth no matter what. I don't see why San Juan would get diluted. They do well in majority of age groups. Davis is probably just far enough away from Placer for most not to get hurt too bad. If someone really wants to move, they are all close enough to make the drive.

FCBA will do well as long as they are OK financially(some rumors recently not in a great place as a club financially). I think this could effect Force player pool potentially. MVLA is a machine right now so I don't think they will lose much especially their talented ones.
 
soccer4us said:
I don't disagree necessarily but we can't have every club in a national league have to be "good". It's not realistic probably in any sport. Some will great, some good, and some will struggle a bit. My guess is the HS age teams won't change a lot. Maybe bottom end of ECNL team/top 2nd team players can move to placer if want more playing time or be on a ECNL team.

We will never have so cal depth no matter what. I don't see why San Juan would get diluted. They do well in majority of age groups. Davis is probably just far enough away from Placer for most not to get hurt too bad. If someone really wants to move, they are all close enough to make the drive.

FCBA will do well as long as they are OK financially(some rumors recently not in a great place as a club financially). I think this could effect Force player pool potentially. MVLA is a machine right now so I don't think they will lose much especially their talented ones.
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Force never got a boost from getting into ECNL last year, as a matter of fact they still lost players to FCBA. This will only make it worse for Force, that is struggling at all age groups except the 08's.
FCBA has definitely had financial problems, up to and including reducing practice days to reduce their overhead costs. There are also rumors of Deza coming back, which will only put a heavier financial burden on the club. The last year Deza was at Quakes, he ran a deficit of $300k+.
Good luck to all!
 
I'm all for relegation and promotion. I'm just quesitoning a specific location and it's population and talent distribution by adding another team. I think the business side of ENCL is the only winner on this one (for the specific location)

Davis and SanJuan didn't home grow their teams, those teams have recent Placer kids everywhere. When Placer was in the DA Davis and SJ were in ENCL. At that point, as a coach and a parent, the Sacramento market was a bit over saturated with 3 national level clubs. When the DA folded alot of the Placer kids who were on the DA teams went to Davis and San Juan. At the younger ages Davis and San Juan got players from Placer who wanted to play in the DA for Placer but moved because there was no DA. And traveling to Davis from Roseville - or anywhere that takes you over the causeway is no picnic so it for all these reasons I mentioned "dilute" earlier.
 
Orangeteam said:
I'm all for relegation and promotion. I'm just quesitoning a specific location and it's population and talent distribution by adding another team. I think the business side of ENCL is the only winner on this one (for the specific location)

Davis and SanJuan didn't home grow their teams, those teams have recent Placer kids everywhere. When Placer was in the DA Davis and SJ were in ENCL. At that point, as a coach and a parent, the Sacramento market was a bit over saturated with 3 national level clubs. When the DA folded alot of the Placer kids who were on the DA teams went to Davis and San Juan. At the younger ages Davis and San Juan got players from Placer who wanted to play in the DA for Placer but moved because there was no DA. And traveling to Davis from Roseville - or anywhere that takes you over the causeway is no picnic so it for all these reasons I mentioned "dilute" earlier.
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No doubt it is dilution. But dilution is a synonym for playing local.

I can imagine a truly elite national league. 24 teams and the top 500 players. Those would be some great games.

But where would the kids practice? If you really serve the top 500 kids, a majority of those players will live quite far from their local team. Maybe OC, SD, and Dallas could field a purely local team. Everyone else is looking at 60-90 minute commutes for their players, three or four times a week.

And, if they create a tiny elite league, picture the distances. How many families can afford the time and money to buy 10 plane tickets per year, just so Emma can get to league games? Then add in hotels and plane tickets for showcases and playoffs. That’s 14 round trip tickets per year, just for Emma. 14 more if the mom or dad want to watch. Her family can’t afford it.

Eventually, Emma is going to quit.

If you want Emma to actually play in your league, you need a little dilution.
 
dad4 said:
No doubt it is dilution. But dilution is a synonym for playing local.

I can imagine a truly elite national league. 24 teams and the top 500 players. Those would be some great games.

But where would the kids practice? If you really serve the top 500 kids, a majority of those players will live quite far from their local team. Maybe OC, SD, and Dallas could field a purely local team. Everyone else is looking at 60-90 minute commutes for their players, three or four times a week.

And, if they create a tiny elite league, picture the distances. How many families can afford the time and money to buy 10 plane tickets per year, just so Emma can get to league games? Then add in hotels and plane tickets for showcases and playoffs. That’s 14 round trip tickets per year, just for Emma. 14 more if the mom or dad want to watch. Her family can’t afford it.

Eventually, Emma is going to quit.

If you want Emma to actually play in your league, you need a little dilution.
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This was the DA from a few years ago. Not enought clubs within a resonable distance, long drives, flying to games, and financially straining. That was one extreme scenario. The middle ground is, or was somewhere else.
 
dad4 said:
No doubt it is dilution. But dilution is a synonym for playing local.

I can imagine a truly elite national league. 24 teams and the top 500 players. Those would be some great games.

But where would the kids practice? If you really serve the top 500 kids, a majority of those players will live quite far from their local team. Maybe OC, SD, and Dallas could field a purely local team. Everyone else is looking at 60-90 minute commutes for their players, three or four times a week.

And, if they create a tiny elite league, picture the distances. How many families can afford the time and money to buy 10 plane tickets per year, just so Emma can get to league games? Then add in hotels and plane tickets for showcases and playoffs. That’s 14 round trip tickets per year, just for Emma. 14 more if the mom or dad want to watch. Her family can’t afford it.

Eventually, Emma is going to quit.

If you want Emma to actually play in your league, you need a little dilution.
Click to expand...
Here's my thought of what DA should have been.
- Keep ECNL as is (work WITH ECNL)
Then something like the following
- Create 12 (8? 16?) regions in the US split primarily by geography and also by the timing of HS soccer season
- Within these 12 regions create 4 groups of 3 team pods each who share the same HS season
- During a pod's HS season, have each pod meet for three days of training and then games against each of the other teams in the pod with a day off in between (6 days + travel).
- The last two weeks of July, have all the teams meet and train for 3 days and play 4 or 5 games over 2 weeks.

This will give the USWNT an opportunity to get plenty of film on hundreds of girls against top-level competition with little disruption to the organization that is actually doing the bulk of the player development.

Also, there are ways to challenge players that don't require traveling to find better teams. There tends to be a fixation on games that count in the standings as being necessary for development. My impression is that this is generally overrated in terms of importance.
 
kickingandscreaming said:
Here's my thought of what DA should have been.
- Keep ECNL as is (work WITH ECNL)
Then something like the following
- Create 12 (8? 16?) regions in the US split primarily by geography and also by the timing of HS soccer season
- Within these 12 regions create 4 groups of 3 team pods each who share the same HS season
- During a pod's HS season, have each pod meet for three days of training and then games against each of the other teams in the pod with a day off in between (6 days + travel).
- The last two weeks of July, have all the teams meet and train for 3 days and play 4 or 5 games over 2 weeks.

This will give the USWNT an opportunity to get plenty of film on hundreds of girls against top-level competition with little disruption to the organization that is actually doing the bulk of the player development.

Also, there are ways to challenge players that don't require traveling to find better teams. There tends to be a fixation on games that count in the standings as being necessary for development. My impression is that this is generally overrated in terms of importance.
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I think DA was trying to create a higher level of year round training. Not just a couple gatherings per year.

I don’t think it’s possible. At some point, you have to admit that there are only 200 girls who qualify as “top 200”, and they don’t all live next to each other.
 
dad4 said:
I think DA was trying to create a higher level of year round training. Not just a couple gatherings per year.other.
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DA spread their resources too thinly for nothing. They failed spectacularly. Forget trying to control the training of every girl in a national league. US soccer doesn't develop youth players, clubs do. Looking at the "big picture", US Soccer should be focused on the girls who have the potential for the National Team. They should encourage the girls with national team aspirations and their clubs to train and develop the skills the national team believes are necessary. Encourage development but focus on evaluation. Bring in more girls than they get in their typical youth national team camps (less than 50?) and see how they do against the best competition.

dad4 said:
I don’t think it’s possible. At some point, you have to admit that there are only 200 girls who qualify as “top 200”, and they don’t all live next to each other.
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Agreed. This is why we have to be more creative than believing the only way to develop is by playing challenging games against teams in a league. For girls' soccer, ECNL is fine. Maybe US soccer can give monetary assistance to ECNL to expand in underserved areas where cost is a factor in having an ECNL team. This will expand the pool of players.
 
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