Looking at the quality of Rebels 2008 girls commitments, maybe they are not pushing their players to get committed early for the sake of saying their players are "committed."
wait what? - I thought all the top GA teams were moving to ECNL? That was the rumor.. i recall the word "inevitable" being used.
Think you mean to say ECNL is a better platform in SOCAL.. US Club soccer (parent of ECNL) owns SOCAL. Between ECNL, ECRL and NPL (all part of US Club Soccer group) they have a dominant position. The rest of the country is not the same way. Other leagues, mostly in the USYS organization are either equal to or bigger. In AZ we do not have NPL we have USYS based state cup competition.. with Pro/Rel. USYS is in all states where US Club is not. Your local USYS league is CALSOUTH.
"There are 3x as many boys teams as girls and the partnership with MLSN will (soon) pressure clubs to go GA and not ECNL for girls."
AZ is primed to go crazy very soon. There's clubs with MLSN + ECNL. There's also been a clear preference for MLSN over other options. Might be a situation where in a single move AZ has its own league for both boys and girls.
We do have the state leagues in USYS/Arizona Soccer association plus all the letter leagues. They tried to bring in US Club Soccer and NPL two years ago, dividing the state league in half. That didn't last long and NPL is no more. Now it seems like all the clubs that were EA are getting MLSN2 the DPL clubs are going GA2. There is a consolidation going on and hopefully it all works out. other than State leagues and the extra curriculars there (E64) there will be 2 camps US Club Soccer (ECNL/ECRL) and GA/MLSN (MLSN, MSLN2, GA, DPL). The split in the state league caused a lot of issues but hopefully that is resolved now and we get back to high level non travel games.
OR... MLS and GA consolidate like DA was and all the top talent goes there. ECNL has exploited the loss of DA to their own benefit not allowing all the former DA teams to join and picking and choosing based on politics and grudges. When GA got created to give those teams a place to go ECNL actively tried to kill the league off through threats and intimidation. When clubs got MLSN and still maintained ECNL boys teams as second teams.. ECNL came up with administrative reasons to kick them out as they were insulted to not get the first team talent. Get what you give.
Is it just me, or are hubris and arrogance always the cause of leagues/clubs that disintegrate?
I have NO affiliation with Rebels but they definitely are doing a very good job with player recruitment. Take a look at the link below:
rebelssandiego.com
It was actually the other way around. ECNL existed before girls DA and USSDA tried to kill off ECNL but ended up folding. After DA collapse ECNL did not have to try to kill off GA as ECNL was already in the dominant position...all the top clubs were rushing to get into ECNL. I know how that feeling is when you're on the outside looking in as our club was not initially accepted into ECNL. And it sucks if you have players at that level. The only way to truly consolidate is under the US Soccer umbrella...but they tried and failed so I doubt we'll see that happen anytime soon.
Yes, the girls for some reason seem to get the short in of the stick in soccer
Well put, and especially the bit about US Soccer consolidation. US Soccer is truly the villain in all of this: an organization with an uncompromising combination of incompetence and impotence
This is true and good advice from my experience at least. My two cents on your last point which isn’t related to the title of this thread. One thing about the better league you are in is the leagues showcases get a better turn out of colleges attending but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t play in those showcases. My daughter played in a DA showcase and an ECNL showcase but by sophomore hs year she was on a DPL team with a club that didn’t have GA at the time and she moved there for the coach, to play close to 90 minutes a game, and play a position best suited for her to showcase her skills. She ended up with D1 offer she couldn’t turn down, a couple other D1 visits with potential offers and some D2’s and 3’s all off of open to everyone silverlakes and surf showcases. Her college coach at the small athletic conference, 1AA football, told her he doesn’t care about the club or league you play in if you can play you can play. She started there after the first couple of pre season games and made 2nd team all conference freshman and sophomore years. Her story and the coach may be the exception to the rule and for sure most if not all power 5 conference schools wouldn’t of come out to her fields at those showcases to watch her play without ECNL or GA on her profile but yeah if she went to their ID camps and tore it up then I believe they wouldn’t have cared what league she plays in.
No idea. But there seem to be several that have announced internally but GA hasn't posted on Instagram.
