ECNL vs. DA turf war has created a 'toxic environment'

MakeAPlay said:
I think that she both are amazing athletes that play soccer. I do think that they could be and should be better (for different reasons). My only opinion when it comes to US Soccer is this:

1. They shouldn't have splintered the leagues
2. They should support ODP or some version of it, meaning: Have a pool of players from each state association practice regularly (maybe one weekend a month or so) and then put together a regional team for the 4 regions and have them practice quarterly and from those pools of players pick a YNT.
3. They should put funds into NWSL and these state and regional pools.
4. Players that are willing to go all in on soccer are more than welcome to but they shouldn't MAKE kids do it. Many of our WNT were multisport athletes. That is becoming much more difficult.

I think that you can train for a sport from an early age but not go all in. That should be saved for high school or later. North Carolina's keeper this year is also on the basketball team there. I just think that US Soccer should be interested in the whole person not just what they can get out of them. Nobody is going to argue that it is better for a young athlete to crosstrain.

So yes Alex Morgan might have been a slightly better soccer player by being a specialist at 10 but she might not have had the drive required (one sport burnout is real). Even Kobe Bryant played soccer. Bo Jackson played everything and even Frank Thomas played football at Auburn.

Good luck to you and your player.
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So many people assume that if you don't wear an "official" high school jersey you aren't playing another sport. My kids played many sports outside of high school - tennis, surfing, golf, karate, swimming, and riding. So interesting that people will quickly criticize a patch (ECNL or DA) but also don't realize the numerous options for our kids. They loved the flexibility of outside sports as did we and the opportunity to make friends outside of their high school and club friends.
 
Lambchop said:
So many people assume that if you don't wear an "official" high school jersey you aren't playing another sport. My kids played many sports outside of high school - tennis, surfing, golf, karate, swimming, and riding. So interesting that people will quickly criticize a patch (ECNL or DA) but also don't realize the numerous options for our kids. They loved the flexibility of outside sports as did we and the opportunity to make friends outside of their high school and club friends.
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I never criticize other outside sports (not even cheerleading that stuff is hard!). My younger child is an archer which is about as non-traditional as it gets. It's cool because it is one of the only true all ages Coed sports. It also eats up my early Saturday mornings.

Just let the kids play. Many of my fondest memories were playing sports.
 
Kicker4Life said:
Can’t say my experience has been the same as yours. I was always bitter at ECNL for not filling a LARGE geographical void yet having 4 Clubs that train writhing 10 miles of each other.

We’ve been fortunate. I never bit on the Sales pitch from other Clubs. We were lucky to have a Coach that cared about the kids and followed him from a tiny Club (Sand & Surf) to a bigger organization Beach. When the age change came, her Coach helped guide us in the changes and we were again fortunate to play for Coach Arrache whom she still plays for today.

My DD enjoys her life outside of soccer, plays beach volleyball and makes time to be a kid.

Everyone has their own path and as MAP said earlier, “there are many roads to Rome” so very true!

Did your add enjoy her time as a DP? Would you let her do it again? It was disappointing that the rules don’t allow for DP’s to participate in the Playoffs, but I can see their angle for not allowing it.
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You and I and our dds go way back. Keep in mind we lived in Temecula and were with Legends at the time (non ecnl). We used to see the old wise man (TB) at our games. Then we got the call. To be honest with you, that was the best call I ever received by a coach. No sales pitch with him. He took all his teams from U11-U18. If you kept up, you played another year. No politics. If you didn't measure up after playoffs, you got cut. That was pure competition and many parents whined and complained as did I. When Surf called now that was a different pitch. Her time as DP (not really that) sucked. She was eligible for playoffs but decided to go all in ECNL this year with a coach a few friends and she didn't want to be a "rent a player" for the DA playoffs this year. And let me be clear. I'm not saying if you go all in with the DA you don't have a life. It sucks that both our kids can't battle against each other like before. Plus I see some studs some haven't seen at ECNL. One kid I knew back in the day is 5 10' now. ECNL screwed Legends and Beach, no question. Not fair and frankly one of the reasons were talking about this crap.
 
Dubs said:
I'm not defending DA in any way, but ECNL schedule would be too much too. For my DD's ECNL team, they train almost as much and play more games. The only difference is that they shut down in winter for HS soccer. DD also runs track and XCountry, but if there is a conflict with those HS sports and her ECNL soccer team, it is 100% expected she come to the soccer which she does.
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A very good player on the Blues DA team just won the CIF State championship in a distance event. I think she is running and playing soccer at Oregon.
 
Kicker4Life said:
Can’t say my experience has been the same as yours. I was always bitter at ECNL for not filling a LARGE geographical void yet having 4 Clubs that train writhing 10 miles of each other.

We’ve been fortunate. I never bit on the Sales pitch from other Clubs. We were lucky to have a Coach that cared about the kids and followed him from a tiny Club (Sand & Surf) to a bigger organization Beach. When the age change came, her Coach helped guide us in the changes and we were again fortunate to play for Coach Arrache whom she still plays for today.

My DD enjoys her life outside of soccer, plays beach volleyball and makes time to be a kid.

Everyone has their own path and as MAP said earlier, “there are many roads to Rome” so very true!

Did your add enjoy her time as a DP? Would you let her do it again? It was disappointing that the rules don’t allow for DP’s to participate in the Playoffs, but I can see their angle for not allowing it.
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Curious Q for you. If DA never came would you have stayed at Beach and said no to ECNL clubs recruiting ur stud?
 
Ellejustus said:
ECNL screwed Legends and Beach, no question. Not fair and frankly one of the reasons were talking about this crap.
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I was not a fan of the closed system of ECNL and the impact it had on top level soccer in Socal. But ECNL started in 2009. Beach and Legends were young clubs, without top teams in every age group, and very short track records. While I think ECNL (more accurately Slammers and Surf protecting their recruiting pipelines) screwed parents in the South Bay/LA Basin and south San Diego by denying them a nearby club, there was no clear clubs to pick, initially. Legends and Beach emerged as the "Best of the Rest", and frankly benefited from the success they achieved in a USYS world without the ECNL clubs.

By the time 2014 came around, ECNL should have dropped Arsenal, Eagles and/or Strikers and added Legends and Beach. Partly because they were the best of the rest, but also because both accountability and opportunity are important components of maintaining competitive leagues.
 
Did ECNL come before SCDSL? My daughter got into club at u9 right at the time that club was going from a decent sized 1 location CSL club to joining a mega SCDSL club and we were told it was to get into the better league and have better opportunity for it's top players to play in ECNL. Within the next couple years that club swallowed up a whole lot of other clubs and I noticed that in our area there was hardly any more CSL teams. I don't know the history of ECNL and SCDSL but seems like they are partners in some way and both have a large hand in changing the landscape of socal soccers good ol days to what it is now long before DA screwed it up even more.
 
ToonArmy said:
Did ECNL come before SCDSL? My daughter got into club at u9 right at the time that club was going from a decent sized 1 location CSL club to joining a mega SCDSL club and we were told it was to get into the better league and have better opportunity for it's top players to play in ECNL. Within the next couple years that club swallowed up a whole lot of other clubs and I noticed that in our area there was hardly any more CSL teams. I don't know the history of ECNL and SCDSL but seems like they are partners in some way and both have a large hand in changing the landscape of socal soccers good ol days to what it is now long before DA screwed it up even more.
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SCDSL started after ECNL for many reasons. CSL required member clubs put their top teams in the CSL (so ECNL clubs had a conflict), CSL limited each club to 3 teams per age group, CSL had/has relegation and promotion that made it hard for coaches to underperform and keep teams together...there were many factors. Some people will tell you about the ogre of GS and invites to CSL Premier, but that was about control, not merit, most of the time. Some top clubs had been angling to leave CSL for some time.

In the end, the ECNL clubs needed a new league, and they convinced Beach, Legends and a few others to follow, many who later got absorbed or disappeared, to join with them and create a new league where coaches picked their brackets, clubs could control their schedules, there would be no Sunday games (yea, they actually said that), results would not be posted nor scores kept for younger age groups, ENCL teams would participate and top teams would get at least 2 games against ECNL competition, and you would smile so hard you would be whistling merry tunes out of your ... well maybe not that last one.
 
Ellejustus said:
Curious Q for you. If DA never came would you have stayed at Beach and said no to ECNL clubs recruiting ur stud?
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Great question! I don’t think we could make it work logistically. We committed to LB for 2 seasons and that about broke my wife and that was only a 40 min commute. The closest ECNL team at that time was 2x’s further away.
 
Ellejustus said:
You and I and our dds go way back. Keep in mind we lived in Temecula and were with Legends at the time (non ecnl). We used to see the old wise man (TB) at our games. Then we got the call. To be honest with you, that was the best call I ever received by a coach. No sales pitch with him. He took all his teams from U11-U18. If you kept up, you played another year. No politics. If you didn't measure up after playoffs, you got cut. That was pure competition and many parents whined and complained as did I. When Surf called now that was a different pitch. Her time as DP (not really that) sucked. She was eligible for playoffs but decided to go all in ECNL this year with a coach a few friends and she didn't want to be a "rent a player" for the DA playoffs this year. And let me be clear. I'm not saying if you go all in with the DA you don't have a life. It sucks that both our kids can't battle against each other like before. Plus I see some studs some haven't seen at ECNL. One kid I knew back in the day is 5 10' now. ECNL screwed Legends and Beach, no question. Not fair and frankly one of the reasons were talking about this crap.
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Just to be clear ECNL didn'st screw Beach or Legends. They had no track record and in the case of Legends, they didn't want to jump in at the beginning and when they did the second expansion it was either take Blues and Eagles or take them and keep one of those more deserving clubs out. The only club that got screwed by ECNL was Laguna Hills Eclipse as they had recently won a USYS National Championship and that was the litmus test for entry (although Legends didn't have a championship at that time).

Good luck to you and your player.
 
MakeAPlay said:
Just to be clear ECNL didn'st screw Beach or Legends. They had no track record and in the case of Legends, they didn't want to jump in at the beginning and when they did the second expansion it was either take Blues and Eagles or take them and keep one of those more deserving clubs out. The only club that got screwed by ECNL was Laguna Hills Eclipse as they had recently won a USYS National Championship and that was the litmus test for entry (although Legends didn't have a championship at that time).

Good luck to you and your player.
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The screwing came later when a few of the 9 clubs consistently voted against letting another Club gain entry.
 
In the LA South Bay, a good PVSC/Exiles/Fram/South Bay/Force U11-U13 team might find Blues coaches on the sidelines (at least they were up front about it) and Slammers coaches stopping parents on their way to the parking lot after the game. That pre-dated ECNL, and is one of the reasons ECNL exclusion helped Beach more than they admit. They became the big fish.
 
Dos Equis said:
In the LA South Bay, a good PVSC/Exiles/Fram/South Bay/Force U11-U13 team might find Blues coaches on the sidelines (at least they were up front about it) and Slammers coaches stopping parents on their way to the parking lot after the game. That pre-dated ECNL, and is one of the reasons ECNL exclusion helped Beach more than they admit. They became the big fish.
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I’m in the South Bay. LD from Blues would drive out from OC and find out where our girls would train. He then stalk our parents after practice. He also admitted that he liked to get our players and had very little competition in getting them. I also know when MQ was the girls DOC for South Bay Force he lost many players to ECNL.
 
Dos Equis said:
In the LA South Bay, a good PVSC/Exiles/Fram/South Bay/Force U11-U13 team might find Blues coaches on the sidelines (at least they were up front about it) and Slammers coaches stopping parents on their way to the parking lot after the game. That pre-dated ECNL, and is one of the reasons ECNL exclusion helped Beach more than they admit. They became the big fish.
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Beach and Legends should thank the ECNL teams for their oligarchy. Beach and Legends got to have 5o teams in each age group and for the most part they only had to worry about each other and Carlsbad Elite as competition in National Cup once the ECNL teams pulled out. These newbie parents don't understand that prior to the ECNL teams leaving it was rare for anyone outside of those 10 clubs to make a semifinal of national cup. Every year that my daughter participated in national cup it was 4 ECNL teams as the semifinalists and Arsenal would end up winning it every year.
 
MakeAPlay said:
Just to be clear ECNL didn'st screw Beach or Legends. They had no track record and in the case of Legends, they didn't want to jump in at the beginning and when they did the second expansion it was either take Blues and Eagles or take them and keep one of those more deserving clubs out. The only club that got screwed by ECNL was Laguna Hills Eclipse as they had recently won a USYS National Championship and that was the litmus test for entry (although Legends didn't have a championship at that time).

Good luck to you and your player.
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They would say that and the perception was there. I heard many rumors why no Legends. Maybe JH had bigger plans???
 
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