Jump from Flight 2 (2014) to Pre-ECNL (2015)

[jstbelieve44]

My son (2015) is currently playing up with a 2014, Flight 2 team. We like the coach and he gets decent playing time. He recently got an offer for a 2015 Pre-ECNL team at a good club. Is it normal though to get an offer for a Pre-ECNL team after just one try out? I'm not sure how they can evaluate a player after just 1.5 hours, or if they just saw that he's currently playing up with 2014 and coming from a good club. In any case, do you think it's too big of a jump from a Flight 2 2014 team to a Pre-ECNL 2015 team? We are conflicted because we don't want to take him from a team he knows where he gets decent playing time and put him on a team that may be too advanced for him. On the other hand, will playing his age be better for him? Pre-ECNL coach said they will cap roster at 12 players and he'll coach the boys for 2 years. How do we respectfully ask the coach about playing time, or do we just take the gamble?

 

[NorCalDad]

The "pre" teams don't really mean much. What matters is who's on the team at U13. I actually can't stand it when clubs list their teams as "pre-ECNL" or "pre-MLS". Those clubs would drop players faster than you can blink at U13. So take that piece with a grain of salt. That said, playing for a 1st team at U10 (or I guess U11 for next year), under most circumstances would be better than playing on a flight 2 team up a year.

All that said, I feel like a broken record on these types of questions. 99% of the time the answer should be "Well, what does you kid want to do?" Far too often parents are driving these decisions and not the kids. Obviously parents have input (cost, driving, etc), but the kid needs to steer where they want to go otherwise they will lose interest altogether.