On top teams but doesn’t want to play in college

L

Lou789

SILVER
Are there kids on MLS next teams or ECNL teams that don’t plan on playing in college or hoping to go pro? They just want to play on the best team possible?

If a kid is a great player and wants to be on the best team possible, and asks to tryout for better teams and makes an MLS team, but doesn’t want to play in college, what other choice is there but to play on that team if they want to play club? The level of play on other leagues is not challenging enough.

Is the commitment though on the MLS next and ECNL going to take away from academics in high school? Can a player play MLS next and play on the HS team too?
 
I know there's a few on my daughters ECNL team that are thinking that way. it seems like the kids balance both pretty well, but definitely they are more focused academically, and good players to boot. Sometimes it doesn't always match up with what school they are a fit for academically and what fit they are for soccer.
 
Lou789 said:
Are there kids on MLS next teams or ECNL teams that don’t plan on playing in college or hoping to go pro? They just want to play on the best team possible?

If a kid is a great player and wants to be on the best team possible, and asks to tryout for better teams and makes an MLS team, but doesn’t want to play in college, what other choice is there but to play on that team if they want to play club? The level of play on other leagues is not challenging enough.

Is the commitment though on the MLS next and ECNL going to take away from academics in high school? Can a player play MLS next and play on the HS team too?
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Technically an MLS Next Player cannot play on the high school team, but some people can get around it (like quitting the team for the season, though there's no guarantee they'd take you back). Everything is situational in MLS Next but yes generally the practice schedule is very demanding, and both MLS and ECNL have travel requirements out of state which means missing some school days. There are kids on MLS Next teams that don't plan on playing in college but just want to play on the highest levels (remember grades and SATs remain a factor) but (especially if you have to travel long distances in traffic to get to practice) having to do homework in the car can impact your academics.

So it's doable, but if you are on the academic route to a highly placed college picking MLS Next or ECNL is not the most efficient path if you aren't on the sports track. Reason why is colleges, unless you are on the sports route, don't really give you credit for hitting the MLS Next or ECNL level beyond checking the extracurricular sports box, and in fact it might be a small negative if you don't wind up playing varsity HS sports. You'd get the same credit for playing flight 1. Of course, some kids are geniuses and having such a demanding sports schedule would not impact their academics, along with a full AP course list, but then I always question why didn't they skip a year.
 
Lou789 said:
Are there kids on MLS next teams or ECNL teams that don’t plan on playing in college or hoping to go pro? They just want to play on the best team possible?

If a kid is a great player and wants to be on the best team possible, and asks to tryout for better teams and makes an MLS team, but doesn’t want to play in college, what other choice is there but to play on that team if they want to play club? The level of play on other leagues is not challenging enough.

Is the commitment though on the MLS next and ECNL going to take away from academics in high school? Can a player play MLS next and play on the HS team too?
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I believe a part time MLSNext player can play high school. Full time kids can't. Don't quote me.*

*That would be really odd if you did quote me.
 
I imagine there aren't too many kids that are talented enough to play at that level but don't want to progress to the next level (or are being told to by their parents) since it is a big time commitment. I'm not sure about the boys side but on the girls side the clubs have a break during high school soccer season. I've heard some club coaches don't like their players playing high school soccer and will penalize those who do. As far as interfering with academics, it's one of those things that the club coach will expect from their players...the rigors of practice, playing, studying, etc. is all part of these kids getting used to the workload that they'll see in college, especially so if they want to play college soccer.
 
soccerdad904 said:
I imagine there aren't too many kids that are talented enough to play at that level but don't want to progress to the next level (or are being told to by their parents) since it is a big time commitment. I'm not sure about the boys side but on the girls side the clubs have a break during high school soccer season. I've heard some club coaches don't like their players playing high school soccer and will penalize those who do. As far as interfering with academics, it's one of those things that the club coach will expect from their players...the rigors of practice, playing, studying, etc. is all part of these kids getting used to the workload that they'll see in college, especially so if they want to play college soccer.
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This is a great point. At the higher levels you don't get to tell the coach I'm going to miss practice because I have to study for my AP test. On the other hand, if you don't want to play pro or college, and are aiming for a higher level college (including the top UC schools) on the academic track (meaning you are carrying a significant load of honors and AP classes) I don't know why anyone would put themselves through that when the colleges don't really give you any more credit for higher level club sports than a flight 1 club and in fact look more favorably on varsity sports participation. In my day I interviewed quite a few higher sports kids who decided to step down junior year to focus on academics once recruiting was off the table, but the issue with them was by then generally other kids had been focused on other activities longer
 
Grace T. said:
This is a great point. At the higher levels you don't get to tell the coach I'm going to miss practice because I have to study for my AP test. On the other hand, if you don't want to play pro or college, and are aiming for a higher level college (including the top UC schools) on the academic track (meaning you are carrying a significant load of honors and AP classes) I don't know why anyone would put themselves through that when the colleges don't really give you any more credit for higher level club sports than a flight 1 club and in fact look more favorably on varsity sports participation. In my day I interviewed quite a few higher sports kids who decided to step down junior year to focus on academics once recruiting was off the table, but the issue with them was by then generally other kids had been focused on other activities longer
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Wisdom right here. Great post.
 
Our club does not allow MLS Next kid to play in public HS, but supposedly has some exception for private schools, i.e. kid will lose his HS scholarship if he doesn't participate in sports.

To Grace's point, below is the 2023 UC admission stat for one of the well-known private high schools in OC. Roughly 10% of applicants get into UCLA (and UCB), but the average admitted GPA is very close to 4.0 unweighted.

You can decide which path to a top school is the lesser of the two evils: 1) Grinding through the MLS Next rigor for four years, or 2) Grinding through 8-10 AP classes through HS. There are bright and driven kids who can/try to do both, but most do so at the expense of necessary sleeps in our experience.

Best of luck.

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Lou789 said:
Are there kids on MLS next teams or ECNL teams that don’t plan on playing in college or hoping to go pro? They just want to play on the best team possible?

If a kid is a great player and wants to be on the best team possible, and asks to tryout for better teams and makes an MLS team, but doesn’t want to play in college, what other choice is there but to play on that team if they want to play club? The level of play on other leagues is not challenging enough.

Is the commitment though on the MLS next and ECNL going to take away from academics in high school? Can a player play MLS next and play on the HS team too?
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How old is your kid? If they're not high school age, it will sort itself out when they get to high school. Everything changes when MLS Next kids reach high school age (particularly if they have no desire to play soccer in college).

The grind with MLS Next isn't so much the 4 practices a week, its 4 practices a week for 10-11 months and all the games and travel on the weekends. Just FYI, MLS Next doesn't give a shit about academics, and schools don't excuse absences for MLS Next events, despite MLS Next's letter you can submit to the school claiming that your child will be the next Messi because they play MLS Next. This is how little MLS cares about academics: MLS Next Fest is typically scheduled during the week right before or during 1st semester finals and the playoffs are scheduled near or during 2nd semester finals. Games are usually scheduled on the weekends of the SAT tests.
 
watfly said:
How old is your kid? If they're not high school age, it will sort itself out when they get to high school. Everything changes when MLS Next kids reach high school age (particularly if they have no desire to play soccer in college).

The grind with MLS Next isn't so much the 4 practices a week, it’s 4 practices a week for 10-11 months and all the games and travel on the weekends. Just FYI, MLS Next doesn't give a shit about academics, and schools don't excuse absences for MLS Next events, despite MLS Next's letter you can submit to the school claiming that your child will be the next Messi because they play MLS Next. This is how little MLS cares about academics: MLS Next Fest is typically scheduled during the week right before or during 1st semester finals and the playoffs are scheduled near or during 2nd semester finals. Games are usually scheduled on the weekends of the SAT tests.
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That is a big crazy. So I see what you mean

is ECNL friendlier towards academics?

Aren’t the playoffs for EA also roughly same time as MLS next? I thought I read it was around same time.
 
my dd played da/ecnl. plays power 4 now. and that was a lot of practice, a lot of travel and a lot of money. it definitely helps prepare you for a glimpse of what that life is truly like at the next level. it's a grind. everyday. if she didn't have the aspirations to play college soccer during her youth, past the 10th grade, i wouldn't have kept her at ecnl. there are other avenues to keep playing.
my son plays mls next, he is 15 turning 16 yrs old. practice is 5 days a week. and the residency is tailored to soccer, not school. you more or less fit school in with soccer. online, and fridays off because they are travel days and walk through days. you have to love it or it will consume everything in you. once again, i wouldnt support playing at that level if he didnt have goals and aspirations to play at the next level, whatever that may be. once again, there are other avenues to keep playing.
 
Lou789 said:
That is a big crazy. So I see what you mean

is ECNL friendlier towards academics?

Aren’t the playoffs for EA also roughly same time as MLS next? I thought I read it was around same time.
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I have very little knowledge about ECNL and none with EA.
 
ecnl takes long breaks, so yes, they tend to be way friendlier towards academics. they assume your kid is going to play high school, so you get almost 3 months of no ecnl games.
mls next, doesn't care about your academics. you play 11 months of the year. July is the one month off. where my son is, you could never play high school, that isn't an option. you have mls fest right before finals of winter break, games every weekend, and mls flex in may right before end of year and finals. it's tailored to the mls academies where they have much greater flexibility with school, which is typically always online.
 
Messi>CR7 said:
Our club does not allow MLS Next kid to play in public HS, but supposedly has some exception for private schools, i.e. kid will lose his HS scholarship if he doesn't participate in sports.

To Grace's point, below is the 2023 UC admission stat for one of the well-known private high schools in OC. Roughly 10% of applicants get into UCLA (and UCB), but the average admitted GPA is very close to 4.0 unweighted.

You can decide which path to a top school is the lesser of the two evils: 1) Grinding through the MLS Next rigor for four years, or 2) Grinding through 8-10 AP classes through HS. There are bright and driven kids who can/try to do both, but most do so at the expense of necessary sleeps in our experience.

Best of luck.

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pitchplease said:
ecnl takes long breaks, so yes, they tend to be way friendlier towards academics. they assume your kid is going to play high school, so you get almost 3 months of no ecnl games.
mls next, doesn't care about your academics. you play 11 months of the year. July is the one month off. where my son is, you could never play high school, that isn't an option. you have mls fest right before finals of winter break, games every weekend, and mls flex in may right before end of year and finals. it's tailored to the mls academies where they have much greater flexibility with school, which is typically always online.
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Ok excuse these questions below if it sounds ridiculous or silly. I have no clue about this. But here it goes:

So if MLS next doesn’t care about academics, is the goal for those kids to go pro over getting a scholarship? Because if it’s so unfriendly towards academics, those kids must generally not do as well as their classmates. Do soccer scholarships not care how well you do in HS?
 
Some of this depends on the demographics of the team. Only about half the kids on my son's MLS Next team planned to go to college at all. The others will try out at academies or lower division teams in MX, but if they don't make those, that's it. It's a day job and Sunday league...

Also, a significant portion of kids on mls and ecnl aren't strong enough to make good college teams anyway. They will have to choose between playing for a not great school or getting in academically.
 
Yak said:
Usually 3 or 4 days a week for both
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If you are an mls futures or reserve player you may be required at some clubs to also double up your practices with the second team. If you are an mls keeper it’s likely 4-5 days with keeper training.

Lou789 said:
Ok excuse these questions below if it sounds ridiculous or silly. I have no clue about this. But here it goes:

So if MLS next doesn’t care about academics, is the goal for those kids to go pro over getting a scholarship? Because if it’s so unfriendly towards academics, those kids must generally not do as well as their classmates. Do soccer scholarships not care how well you do in HS?
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Sports scholarships do care how well you do in hs. My nephew is a d1 prospect in football that just had his offer withdrawn by what’s probably the top school on the west coast because of his grades. The other thing is sometimes they funnel academic scholarship money as a way to make up for the lack of athletic scholarships. The issue is if you are recruited on the sports route you go into a different admission pool which is on the lower end of academic admissibility. The sports recruitment route however is different than the academic route. The academic route does not give you credit for playing higher level club, only for playing a sport. There’s also a performing arts route into certain colleges as well as a donor/celebrity route (separate from legacies)

The thing you are missing is the non academy mls next clubs exist to basically serve as scrimmaging partners for the mls academies including the bench players and those in the u16 (u17 now?) dead zone. So everything revolves around the needs of the academies. Reason this is necessary is the us is large and clubs didn’t want to have to fly teams every weekend.
 
Grace T. said:
. The other thing is sometimes they funnel academic scholarship money as a way to make up for the lack of athletic scholarships.
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In the case of non-scholarship schools, that can happen, but according to my son's professional counselor that is extremely rare for scholarship sports. Regardless, its not relevant on a go forward basis because for most sports the new reduced roster rules will have scholarships for all rostered players. (I.e. football is going from 85 scholarships and 120+ rosters to 105 scholarships and 105 roster spots) The era of the preferred walk on spots looks to be over.
 
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