Girls Development Academy

Again you make some very valid points. I really like the regional academy idea a lot. I am not really that experienced with Albion. They have decent teams but the only elite team I ever remember them having was the team that Noah Kooiman brought over from Arsenal (they were the first U14 ECNL national champs). They fell off as several of their best players (Leah Pruitt, Julia Bingham, Marissa Everett, Ayana Robles) left for ECNL clubs that were closer once he took the team down south. That was a real shame.

I agree that teamwork matters. Maybe the problem is that there really should be separate competitive tracks for the truly elite players and the really good players. GDA is going to have a bunch of really good players. Even in SoCal only a handful per age group are truly elite and that is just the truth. Just look at the 2016 graduating class. Lots of players went on to have good first years of college but less than a dozen had a significant impact on the national scale and even fewer are still in the YNT pipeline. GDA isn't going to solve this issue in SoCal. With so many choices the teams are only going to be weaker than the top ECNL teams are now.

No worries. As you said, your player only has one season left and mine isn't a youth player any longer. Good luck to you and yours.
I agree with the notion that GDA SoCal Conference will be watered down. ECNL has 8 SoCal clubs, Strikers and Arsenal had a hard time fielding competitive teams. GDA has what 14 clubs? Even if we add, Legends, Beach, and Carlsbad into the count....that would total 9 competitive clubs minus Arsenal and Strikers. There are 5 additional clubs that isn't needed in SoCal.
 
MAP, I have no "anti-Surf" agenda. I am not in favor of monopolies however. The problem with one club controlling an area with a population as large as San Diego's is that if there are coaching problems with a team, there are no nearby alternatives. In any age group, there are more than one teams worth of elite level players in San Diego county. The club with the monopoly also has less incentive to treat players well. Like ALL clubs, Surf has had issues with coaches and some teams/age groups were more effected than others. While Surf is currently the strongest club overall, at some age groups other clubs have stronger teams. LAGSD is the largest club in San Diego county. Does it really make sense to exclude them from elite level play?. Albion serves south San Diego better than either and with that being a prime growth area for young player, it also does not make sense to ignore. Even though it shares many of the same problems as ECNL, GDA is going to happen. GDA will have its problems, but I think for elite players in SoCal, it will be the best alternative in the near future. With only one more year of club soccer, it doesn't matter much anymore to us. Besides, if I were the ruler ECNL, GDA and DA would all be one big organization where the right group of players with an inspired coach could build a team to take on the world. Oh, and none of that would start until about U15. Youngers don't need to travel that far.

Residential academies are not a bad idea, but I think regional may be better. If SoCal had a regional residential academy, I bet it could turn out teams superior to the current youth "National Teams". Team work matters.
I am pretty sure that you are more altrustic about the whole issue than most here. So far from what I have seen, the Albion inclusion is not so good for the majority of San Diego area players. There just aren't enough kids/parents for this. will see. I suspect this will be a problem across the country. Maybe this is best, a lot of mid level and unconnected clubs will probably have to change their modle.
 
Never said you had anything against GDA...I said you were attempting to promote ECNL. Rather than admit when you are wrong, you lash out at me. Sadly, you still have not learned...


Most of the country will be served by GDA. Approaching 90%. It's not about land mass. It's about population density. Get it? Land mass does not participate in the sport...humans do. So I'm not sure why you keep saying GDA will be underserving the country.

As for my player's situation, who knows if she will even be offered a spot on an Academy team? Not sure if she is good enough. And if she is offered a spot, who knows if she will take it? She only has 1 year left, and she may want to play out her high school career. It is her call. Not mine. She has never chased a patch..quite the opposite.


I am not promoting ECNL; I am merely making the point that US Soccer did not care for our girls until ECNL found a void and filled it. Now they feel the sense of urgency to take over because the ladies won the World Cup o_O????

It's okay for you to be label hungry especially if you haven't had one before. I know a lot of parents that chase them. Needless to say I perhaps I was wrong about geography and lesson needed is comprehension.
 
I am pretty sure that you are more altrustic about the whole issue than most here. So far from what I have seen, the Albion inclusion is not so good for the majority of San Diego area players. There just aren't enough kids/parents for this. will see. I suspect this will be a problem across the country. Maybe this is best, a lot of mid level and unconnected clubs will probably have to change their modle.


What did you hear about Albion? I don't know anyone at that club currently but they are the only DA team in that area. They don't have elite teams this year but it seems like they could pick up from area clubs.
 
It's okay for you to be label hungry especially if you haven't had one before. I know a lot of parents that chase them. Needless to say I perhaps I was wrong about geography and lesson needed is comprehension.

Well, from those sentences, it is obvious that a basic English lesson is required. Good luck with that.
 
Well, from those sentences, it is obvious that a basic English lesson is required. Good luck with that.

I guess we both have some work to do. I can admit that I didn't proofread. But, if that's the only grammatical error that you found in all of my posts, I guess my Ph.D was well earned.

Remember your areas of remediation are geography and comprehension okay. :D
 
I get it you are a Legends homer but that doesn't make your point valid. The ECNL is made up of clubs that had success in producing not only USYS championships but college and national team players. Or to put it very slowly for you those players that were on the many successful U20(U19) WNT's and the full WNT played mostly for ECNL clubs. Please look this stuff up so you don't sound silly to those that actually do the research.

Now here is a tangent. How are your Trojan's looking?

Where is the success of the ECNL era? You do well to point out the past but you didn't pay attention to the original post. I see zero success from the formation of ECNL. We have gone backwards! Korea and Japan run circles around us, and Mexico outplayed us! U20 disaster...u17 disaster x2...World Cup champs yes but you can't credit ecnl for that one although I bet you might.

Do you mean the Trojans that are sizing up their fingers? Good luck this spring!
 
Where is the success of the ECNL era? You do well to point out the past but you didn't pay attention to the original post. I see zero success from the formation of ECNL. We have gone backwards! Korea and Japan run circles around us, and Mexico outplayed us! U20 disaster...u17 disaster x2...World Cup champs yes but you can't credit ecnl for that one although I bet you might.

Do you mean the Trojans that are sizing up their fingers? Good luck this spring!

Okay let's get your facts straight. First let me point out the fact that the first class to actually go through the ECNL from start to finish just graduated high school last year and they for the most part didn't compete in the U17 or U20 WWC (they were U18/19). A couple played up but it wasn't an age pure competition for them so it's a stretch to judge the success of the development platform with incomplete information.

Second, as I clearly stated the shortcomings in both WWC age groups had more to do with coaching and player selection than it had to do with a league. They put together a U20 team good enough to make it to the semi finals with the clear knowledge that some of the preferred players had taken themselves out of contention. There were some of the best players on the team but not all of them. They had two years to build a team and with the federation calling the shots they failed.

Third, the U17's epic failure had everything to do with horrendous coaching and player selection. Not to mention that they were lulled into thinking that they were invincible by their success against a schedule of mostly cupcakes.

Blaming a league for the failures of the federation are either just plain dumb or in the worst case malicious and insincere. To think that the perpetrators of the failure are going to fix it from the top down with the GDAis laughable and Trumpian.
 
Do you mean the Trojans that are sizing up their fingers? Good luck this spring!

Yeah those same Trojans. Congrats they successfully kickballed and pummeled their way to the national championship! Weird how you complain about it from the national teams but for your precious Trojans it is perfectly acceptable to play rugby/kickball. I will be watching them very closely next year and let's see if they can do better than their 3-4 record against the other California schools.
 
Where is the success of the ECNL era? I see zero success from the formation of ECNL.

Do you mean the Trojans that are sizing up their fingers? Good luck this spring!

USC has a lot of ECNL players, especially those who contributed a lot during this past championship season.

Morgan Andrews-FC Mass. Stars
Kayla Mills-Slammers
Sammy Prudhomme-SC Blues
Alex Anthony-Real Colorado
Julia Bingham-Slammers
Katie Johnson-Arsenal
Savannah Levin-Slammers
Leah Pruitt-Arsenal/WCFC
Nicole Molen-Real SoCal
Amanda Rooney-Albertson Elite

And almost all of USC's incoming 2017 class are ECNL players, but I don't credit ECNL for their development. That belongs to the youth clubs they played for and why I don't blame ECNL players losing in the U17 and U20 WWC.
 
Where is the success of the ECNL era? You do well to point out the past but you didn't pay attention to the original post. I see zero success from the formation of ECNL. We have gone backwards! Korea and Japan run circles around us, and Mexico outplayed us! U20 disaster...u17 disaster x2...World Cup champs yes but you can't credit ecnl for that one although I bet you might.

Do you mean the Trojans that are sizing up their fingers? Good luck this spring!

I agree with what you say, but I put partial blame on the ODP system that doesn't scout, select, or train the proper youth players. Years and Years of political games selecting by the recommendation of coaches have assisted in providing years and years of unsuccesful youth NT results.
 
Yeah those same Trojans. Congrats they successfully kickballed and pummeled their way to the national championship! Weird how you complain about it from the national teams but for your precious Trojans it is perfectly acceptable to play rugby/kickball. I will be watching them very closely next year and let's see if they can do better than their 3-4 record against the other California schools.
How disrespectful you were in this post to a Natty. The way you described it was low-key Hater. A Natty Map you dissed a Natty?
 
I agree with what you say, but I put partial blame on the ODP system that doesn't scout, select, or train the proper youth players. Years and Years of political games selecting by the recommendation of coaches have assisted in providing years and years of unsuccesful youth NT results.
Careful, Swoosh's DD was a Cal-South ODP team and YNT player.
 
I agree with what you say, but I put partial blame on the ODP system that doesn't scout, select, or train the proper youth players. Years and Years of political games selecting by the recommendation of coaches have assisted in providing years and years of unsuccesful youth NT results.

The proper players? Wow.
 
I agree with what you say, but I put partial blame on the ODP system that doesn't scout, select, or train the proper youth players. Years and Years of political games selecting by the recommendation of coaches have assisted in providing years and years of unsuccesful youth NT results.
Um, let me guess either your DD didn't get an Cal-South ODP invite or was cut during tryouts.
 
How disrespectful you were in this post to a Natty. The way you described it was low-key Hater. A Natty Map you dissed a Natty?

A hater? You are very mistaken. If my player had even considered that school they would have happily had her trust me compadre. Yes they kickballed their way to a Natty. There are several players on the Trojans that I personally like but the team doesn't play soccer and if it wasn't for Sammy Jo saving their ass in PK's we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

I trust my eyes and when I saw them play in person this year they were clearly overmatched and played extremely physical. Their record against teams from their home state was 3-4. That is 3 wins and 4 losses against the teams that they are competing against for recruits. They beat Stanford (literally they beat the crap out of them) which was their signature win and they succeeded in doing the same to several other teams.

They did what they had to do to win but did you ever watch them play this year? Do the ends justify the means in your eyes? If so then you are going down a rabbit hole that won't lead to a great place.
 
Careful, Swoosh's DD was a Cal-South ODP team and YNT player.
I am discussing the process in selecting the ODP teams. It's more exclusive than inclusive due to Coaches making the recommendations. I am sure there are wonderful players on the ODP, but the results translate that it's a broken system.
 
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