Girls Development Academy

NoGoal said:
Even Mallory Pugh turned down a pro contract and she was on the US WNT roster. Instead she took the UCLA college scholarship to enjoy being a college student athlete. IMO, she and her family made a very wise decision, because part of her compensation would have been a player bonus estimated at 170K, if the team won the Olympics. Which the team didn't.
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I remember the debate well. She has an excellent support system around her and like most soccer girls she is really smart and an excellent student. Her parents are outstanding people and are very good at managing the circus surrounding their teenager.
 
"Isn't their forward enrolling early at Santa Clara too?" - MAP
Didn't want to leave this unanswered, but yes, she did leave at end of first half of ECNL season and did not travel to Silverlake.
Also, have been busy with the U18 WNT.
 
clarino1 said:
"Isn't their forward enrolling early at Santa Clara too?" - MAP
Didn't want to leave this unanswered, but yes, she did leave at end of first half of ECNL season and did not travel to Silverlake.
Also, have been busy with the U18 WNT.
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My player saw her in camp with the U18's although that was before the end of the year. I believe that she has matriculated to the U19's. She will do well at Santa Clara.

Thanks for the update.
 
MakeAPlay said:
http://equalizersoccer.com/2017/02/27/girls-da-launch-means-crossroads-for-many-players/
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"According to its website, 1,224 of 1,346 ECNL seniors graduating in 2016 will go on to play soccer in college. And 969 (79 percent) of them, are signed to NCAA Division I programs. In addition, ECNL players account for more than 80 percent of the total U.S. Soccer Youth national team player pool.

It’s difficult to understand why U.S. Soccer would create a developmental program for girls when the ECNL already serves that purpose; several top club coaches in the Washington Metropolitan area said an alliance might be more beneficial, as this setup is sure to dilute rosters. Plus, a decade in, and the USMNT is still waiting for the academy to spring the next superstar. The USWNT has seen wave after wave of them. And 18-year-old Mallory Pugh, who reportedly remained loyal to her high school squad despite her busy schedule and national team call-ups, seems to be leading the next one—last summer she became the youngest player in U.S. history to score in the Olympics, according to U.S. Soccer’s website"

"As with the boys’ academy, there is sure to be a learning curve with the girl’s program over the next few years. But for now, young girls stand at a crossroads in their respective soccer careers, and it’s hard to know which is the best path to take.

“If you take away camaraderie, the aspect of playing for your team, from the girls side…I think if you gave the top players in the country the choice of playing at a high level for ECNL and the ability to play high school, or the ability to play at an equivalent level at the academy, you’ll lose kids because they want to play for high school,” Wiese said. “I think high school soccer is much closer to the [team-oriented] college soccer environment.”

That last sentence is one of the reasons my junior DD is not interested in DA at the moment.
 
younothat said:
"According to its website, 1,224 of 1,346 ECNL seniors graduating in 2016 will go on to play soccer in college. And 969 (79 percent) of them, are signed to NCAA Division I programs. In addition, ECNL players account for more than 80 percent of the total U.S. Soccer Youth national team player pool.

It’s difficult to understand why U.S. Soccer would create a developmental program for girls when the ECNL already serves that purpose; several top club coaches in the Washington Metropolitan area said an alliance might be more beneficial, as this setup is sure to dilute rosters. Plus, a decade in, and the USMNT is still waiting for the academy to spring the next superstar. The USWNT has seen wave after wave of them. And 18-year-old Mallory Pugh, who reportedly remained loyal to her high school squad despite her busy schedule and national team call-ups, seems to be leading the next one—last summer she became the youngest player in U.S. history to score in the Olympics, according to U.S. Soccer’s website"

"As with the boys’ academy, there is sure to be a learning curve with the girl’s program over the next few years. But for now, young girls stand at a crossroads in their respective soccer careers, and it’s hard to know which is the best path to take.

“If you take away camaraderie, the aspect of playing for your team, from the girls side…I think if you gave the top players in the country the choice of playing at a high level for ECNL and the ability to play high school, or the ability to play at an equivalent level at the academy, you’ll lose kids because they want to play for high school,” Wiese said. “I think high school soccer is much closer to the [team-oriented] college soccer environment.”

That last sentence is one of the reasons my junior DD is not interested in DA at the moment.
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It is a true statement. She does almost everything with her teammates. I was against high school soccer but I am glad that she did. It is much different socially than a club team.
 
younothat said:
"According to its website, 1,224 of 1,346 ECNL seniors graduating in 2016 will go on to play soccer in college. And 969 (79 percent) of them, are signed to NCAA Division I programs. In addition, ECNL players account for more than 80 percent of the total U.S. Soccer Youth national team player pool.

It’s difficult to understand why U.S. Soccer would create a developmental program for girls when the ECNL already serves that purpose; several top club coaches in the Washington Metropolitan area said an alliance might be more beneficial, as this setup is sure to dilute rosters. Plus, a decade in, and the USMNT is still waiting for the academy to spring the next superstar. The USWNT has seen wave after wave of them. And 18-year-old Mallory Pugh, who reportedly remained loyal to her high school squad despite her busy schedule and national team call-ups, seems to be leading the next one—last summer she became the youngest player in U.S. history to score in the Olympics, according to U.S. Soccer’s website"

"As with the boys’ academy, there is sure to be a learning curve with the girl’s program over the next few years. But for now, young girls stand at a crossroads in their respective soccer careers, and it’s hard to know which is the best path to take.

“If you take away camaraderie, the aspect of playing for your team, from the girls side…I think if you gave the top players in the country the choice of playing at a high level for ECNL and the ability to play high school, or the ability to play at an equivalent level at the academy, you’ll lose kids because they want to play for high school,” Wiese said. “I think high school soccer is much closer to the [team-oriented] college soccer environment.”

That last sentence is one of the reasons my junior DD is not interested in DA at the moment.
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I get all bothered when people refer to ECNL as a development program :). ECNL is a competition platform. The clubs/coaches are the development platform utilizing the ECNL competition platform to drive and further develop via game play. It is that simple. All the stats are impressive but they should be since most of the best girls play under the ECNL competition platform. To me ECNL is just a label of the league my DD is playing and her level of play. I do not expect anything more from ECNL other than providing a high level of competition. I expect development from the coach and play time.
 
Sorry if this has been posted somewhere earlier in this thread, but I'm just looking for confirmation of the following, and also asking some questions.

Of the 14 Southwest DA clubs, the top team of each club will of course play in the DA. But the second teams will play, where? I've heard the second teams for Slammers, Surf, Blues, and West Coast will play ECNL.

Are the second teams for Albion, Beach, Eagles, Galaxy, LAGSD, Legends, LA Premier, Pateadores, RSC, and SC del Sol all playing in Academy II?

My understanding is that Academy II is a Southwest-specific enterprise and thus this is the only area of the country creating this second Academy league. Academy II will play 9 games in the fall and 9 in the spring. Academy II will be on hiatus over the winter so that players can play HS soccer. Unlike the DA, there will be no showcases. Also, as they are required to play by the DA rules and will be carded in the DA only, they cannot play in any tournaments that have multiple games in one day. So, in short, Academy II means you play 18 games and that's it.

How much parity will there be among the Academy II teams? Certainly Legends and Beach should dominate and the clubs building a DA from scratch should be at a disadvantage, right? And if you were a strong player on the Legends/Beach Academy II team with aspirations of playing in college, will the 18 game/no showcases/no tournaments schedule be enough to get you noticed by college coaches?
 
glen_dandy said:
Sorry if this has been posted somewhere earlier in this thread, but I'm just looking for confirmation of the following, and also asking some questions.

Of the 14 Southwest DA clubs, the top team of each club will of course play in the DA. But the second teams will play, where? I've heard the second teams for Slammers, Surf, Blues, and West Coast will play ECNL.

Are the second teams for Albion, Beach, Eagles, Galaxy, LAGSD, Legends, LA Premier, Pateadores, RSC, and SC del Sol all playing in Academy II?

My understanding is that Academy II is a Southwest-specific enterprise and thus this is the only area of the country creating this second Academy league. Academy II will play 9 games in the fall and 9 in the spring. Academy II will be on hiatus over the winter so that players can play HS soccer. Unlike the DA, there will be no showcases. Also, as they are required to play by the DA rules and will be carded in the DA only, they cannot play in any tournaments that have multiple games in one day. So, in short, Academy II means you play 18 games and that's it.

How much parity will there be among the Academy II teams? Certainly Legends and Beach should dominate and the clubs building a DA from scratch should be at a disadvantage, right? And if you were a strong player on the Legends/Beach Academy II team with aspirations of playing in college, will the 18 game/no showcases/no tournaments schedule be enough to get you noticed by college coaches?
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I believe that SC Del Sol removed DA II information from their website. Correct me if I'm wrong. DA II sounds like a bust out of the gate. Why would anyone want to give up so much ? Again, it's a SoCal only thing.
 
glen_dandy said:
Sorry if this has been posted somewhere earlier in this thread, but I'm just looking for confirmation of the following, and also asking some questions.

Of the 14 Southwest DA clubs, the top team of each club will of course play in the DA. But the second teams will play, where? I've heard the second teams for Slammers, Surf, Blues, and West Coast will play ECNL.

Are the second teams for Albion, Beach, Eagles, Galaxy, LAGSD, Legends, LA Premier, Pateadores, RSC, and SC del Sol all playing in Academy II?

My understanding is that Academy II is a Southwest-specific enterprise and thus this is the only area of the country creating this second Academy league. Academy II will play 9 games in the fall and 9 in the spring. Academy II will be on hiatus over the winter so that players can play HS soccer. Unlike the DA, there will be no showcases. Also, as they are required to play by the DA rules and will be carded in the DA only, they cannot play in any tournaments that have multiple games in one day. So, in short, Academy II means you play 18 games and that's it.

How much parity will there be among the Academy II teams? Certainly Legends and Beach should dominate and the clubs building a DA from scratch should be at a disadvantage, right? And if you were a strong player on the Legends/Beach Academy II team with aspirations of playing in college, will the 18 game/no showcases/no tournaments schedule be enough to get you noticed by college coaches?
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It was *my* understanding from the recent Pats Academy tryouts that the DA Reserve/II team would play in the usual showcases and play in SCDSL flight 1 "or equivalent"
 
According to our club there will be two silver lakes showcases and a Vegas one. I don't have the details yet since National cup is still going on. I contacted the USDA girls via phone and DAII is something they are looking at in other region's but currently in the southwest as previously stated.
 
glen_dandy said:
Sorry if this has been posted somewhere earlier in this thread, but I'm just looking for confirmation of the following, and also asking some questions.

Of the 14 Southwest DA clubs, the top team of each club will of course play in the DA. But the second teams will play, where? I've heard the second teams for Slammers, Surf, Blues, and West Coast will play ECNL.

Are the second teams for Albion, Beach, Eagles, Galaxy, LAGSD, Legends, LA Premier, Pateadores, RSC, and SC del Sol all playing in Academy II?

My understanding is that Academy II is a Southwest-specific enterprise and thus this is the only area of the country creating this second Academy league. Academy II will play 9 games in the fall and 9 in the spring. Academy II will be on hiatus over the winter so that players can play HS soccer. Unlike the DA, there will be no showcases. Also, as they are required to play by the DA rules and will be carded in the DA only, they cannot play in any tournaments that have multiple games in one day. So, in short, Academy II means you play 18 games and that's it.

How much parity will there be among the Academy II teams? Certainly Legends and Beach should dominate and the clubs building a DA from scratch should be at a disadvantage, right? And if you were a strong player on the Legends/Beach Academy II team with aspirations of playing in college, will the 18 game/no showcases/no tournaments schedule be enough to get you noticed by college coaches?
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From what I have heard around DAII you are mostly correct.
  • Top team will be DA
  • Depending on the club 2nd team will be either ECNL or DAII
  • DAII is being marketed and pushed as 2nd team as it allows for the girls to move up/down more easily
    • This is similar to the PDA concept on the boys side. Clubs will stack the majority of the DA team with older boys while the younger age PDA team will be a feeder to the DA team the following year.
  • The unknown is where ECNL/EGSL and DAII will intersect and compete. For teams that have a DA but not in ECNL it is an easy choice. The challenge will be for Slammers, West Coast and other DA teams that are in ECNL and how they balance the 3 or 4 options.
  • I was under the impression that the DA II teams will be able to attend showcase/tournaments aligned with the DA as well as outside (Surf cup, National cup, etc.)
 
DJB said:
From what I have heard around DAII you are mostly correct.
  • Top team will be DA
  • Depending on the club 2nd team will be either ECNL or DAII
  • DAII is being marketed and pushed as 2nd team as it allows for the girls to move up/down more easily
    • This is similar to the PDA concept on the boys side. Clubs will stack the majority of the DA team with older boys while the younger age PDA team will be a feeder to the DA team the following year.
  • The unknown is where ECNL/EGSL and DAII will intersect and compete. For teams that have a DA but not in ECNL it is an easy choice. The challenge will be for Slammers, West Coast and other DA teams that are in ECNL and how they balance the 3 or 4 options.
  • I was under the impression that the DA II teams will be able to attend showcase/tournaments aligned with the DA as well as outside (Surf cup, National cup, etc.)
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You heard a lot or marketing and wishful thinking.
http://usclubsoccer.org/2016/02/24/us-club-soccer-statement-on-u-s-soccer-girls-development-academy/

USSF runs DA , US club soccer (member association) is behind the prep academy concept some refer to as DA II but they are different org all together (different registration, guidelines, etc you can't just easily move players between the two for example)

US club wants to get a bigger footprint in SC and try to appeal to other players or clubs that maybe looking at options outside of usys /cal south or other leagues.

DA is a framework: 10 month program, 30 games + showcases & playoffs, 3-4x training a week, no HS play, player mandates, no outside comp, etc.

US club soccer wants to pick or choose what suites them from the framework and call it something its not. One of the reasons you don't see any real actual info posted anywhere on either of those org sites about a new league, clubs have tried to put there own spin on this or claim this or that but so far no go.

There is around 8 clubs interested in this new prep league so they can market something to players that may look elsewhere for higher level play but the deadlines are approach for SCDSL and CSL league apps so don't be surprised if these 2nd or 3rd prep teams actually end up back there.

Until you see real info posted this new league is no more than marketing
 
mahrez said:
You heard a lot or marketing and wishful thinking.
http://usclubsoccer.org/2016/02/24/us-club-soccer-statement-on-u-s-soccer-girls-development-academy/

USSF runs DA , US club soccer (member association) is behind the prep academy concept some refer to as DA II but they are different org all together (different registration, guidelines, etc you can't just easily move players between the two for example)

US club wants to get a bigger footprint in SC and try to appeal to other players or clubs that maybe looking at options outside of usys /cal south or other leagues.

DA is a framework: 10 month program, 30 games + showcases & playoffs, 3-4x training a week, no HS play, player mandates, no outside comp, etc.

US club soccer wants to pick or choose what suites them from the framework and call it something its not. One of the reasons you don't see any real actual info posted anywhere on either of those org sites about a new league, clubs have tried to put there own spin on this or claim this or that but so far no go.

There is around 8 clubs interested in this new prep league so they can market something to players that may look elsewhere for higher level play but the deadlines are approach for SCDSL and CSL league apps so don't be surprised if these 2nd or 3rd prep teams actually end up back there.

Until you see real info posted this new league is no more than marketing
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I think you'll see DA2. US soccer just wants everyone to sweat a little so they know who the boss is!
 
I keep hearing about DAII as if it were all set and actually a true option for those that don't want to give up HS sports. Is this really just wishful thinking on the Southwest Region group, or is it a done deal?
 
Kicknit22 said:
I keep hearing about DAII as if it were all set and actually a true option for those that don't want to give up HS sports. Is this really just wishful thinking on the Southwest Region group, or is it a done deal?
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Ussda doesn't run programs just for one region nor will they disregard part of their framework, I seriously doubt you will see them offer something counter to there primary program for 2nd level teams. Just cost to much money to do something like that for one thing.

Maybe another org like us club soccer will offer something eventually but calling it DA II is marketing non-sense.
 
younothat said:
Ussda doesn't run programs just for one region nor will they disregard part of their framework, I seriously doubt you will see them offer something counter to there primary program for 2nd level teams. Just cost to much money to do something like that for one thing.

Maybe another org like us club soccer will offer something eventually but calling it DA II is marketing non-sense.
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@younothat Thank you for all the posts and information you provide about DA!
 
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