Say bye-bye-bye to Girls and Boys DA

[keeprunning]

The U.S. Soccer Federation has decided to shut down the U.S. Soccer Development Academy program for both boys and girls, effective immediately, multiple sources told The Athletic on Tuesday.

Current MLS clubs and academy directors from some of the non-professional clubs that were part of the inaugural Development Academy season in 2007 have already been informed of the decision to shut down the league.

Sources said that U.S. Soccer could announce the shutdown as soon as Wednesday. The federation’s reasons for shutting down the DA, which includes hundreds of boys and girls teams ranging from the under-13 to under-19 age groups, were not immediately clear. Rumors of the change first appeared last Thursday from Glenn Crooks, New York City FC’s radio play-by-play announcer and a contributor to ProSoccerUSA.

The 2019-20 DA season was cut short due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, and the sources confirmed that it will not resume at any point. Under normal circumstances, the 2020-21 season was set to kick off in September.

All 26 current MLS teams, including the league’s three Canadian clubs, participate in the boys’ DA. It’s not clear what will happen to MLS academies now that the DA is no more, though, for a number of years, a segment of MLS teams have pushed to break away from the DA to start their own, MLS-only academy league. The main reason for this was due to their perception that the DA did not offer a strong enough level of competition.

U.S. Soccer founded a girls’ DA in 2017. In recent months, multiple clubs left the girls’ DA to join the Elite Clubs National League, a competing organization founded in 2009 by directors of coaching for multiple clubs across the country, and includes many of the nation’s top clubs. There is also a boys’ branch of the ECNL, though it is far less robust than the girls’ division

 

[Ansu Fati]

Looks like there’s going to be a war in the SGV between LASC and LA Surf over who gets into ECNL.View attachment 6818

not applicable to girls side? or is it? unclear. does LASC have boys teams too?

 

[GT45]

With all this guessing on who’s going to ECNL, read this...looks like this new LASC (Some of the Old LA Surf DA/SoCal Academy) is going ECNL sooner than later..


To The Families of Strikers FC ECNL & Los Angeles Soccer Club,

We hope all of you are safe and healthy as you read this. The past few weeks have been incredibly challenging for our families and communities, stressing all aspects of our home, work and school lives. Activities we took for granted in February now seem like distant memories. Whatever your family’s individual situation, we hope that you are well, and being kind to yourself as you manage through this once-in-a-generation event.

While it is impossible to know for certain how long this period will last, when we’ll be able to resume “normal” life, and what that life will look like in the weeks and months ahead, we wanted you to know that we have not stopped looking for ways to improve our organizations, the opportunities for our players and the community at large. The last month has, in fact, been a rare opportunity to focus on how we can make our clubs and our community stronger when we come out of this tremendous period of uncertainty.

It is along these lines that we are proud to announce a working partnership between Los Angeles Soccer Club and Strikers FC ECNL to expand Girls ECNL’s footprint into the San Gabriel Valley. The partnership brings together two incredible organizations each focused on player development and leadership on and off the field, fostering a sense of club citizenship and ownership by our players and families, and creating strong ties to the communities we play in. Both Strikers and LASC will continue to operate under their own identity while working together to bring some of Southern California’s strongest coaching talent under the same roof, creating a bridge between two talented player pools in Los Angeles and Orange County.

As we move through this period of uncertainty, we want all of you to know we will have an even stronger program waiting for the players when they return to the fields. Additional details will follow in the weeks ahead, but for now, continue to be safe, focus on family and know that our community will rebuild stronger than ever before.

Sincerely,

Rob Fisher, Strikers FC ECNL
Matt Bradbury, Los Angeles Soccer Club

With all this guessing on who’s going to ECNL, read this...looks like this new LASC (Some of the Old LA Surf DA/SoCal Academy) is going ECNL sooner than later..


To The Families of Strikers FC ECNL & Los Angeles Soccer Club,

We hope all of you are safe and healthy as you read this. The past few weeks have been incredibly challenging for our families and communities, stressing all aspects of our home, work and school lives. Activities we took for granted in February now seem like distant memories. Whatever your family’s individual situation, we hope that you are well, and being kind to yourself as you manage through this once-in-a-generation event.

While it is impossible to know for certain how long this period will last, when we’ll be able to resume “normal” life, and what that life will look like in the weeks and months ahead, we wanted you to know that we have not stopped looking for ways to improve our organizations, the opportunities for our players and the community at large. The last month has, in fact, been a rare opportunity to focus on how we can make our clubs and our community stronger when we come out of this tremendous period of uncertainty.

It is along these lines that we are proud to announce a working partnership between Los Angeles Soccer Club and Strikers FC ECNL to expand Girls ECNL’s footprint into the San Gabriel Valley. The partnership brings together two incredible organizations each focused on player development and leadership on and off the field, fostering a sense of club citizenship and ownership by our players and families, and creating strong ties to the communities we play in. Both Strikers and LASC will continue to operate under their own identity while working together to bring some of Southern California’s strongest coaching talent under the same roof, creating a bridge between two talented player pools in Los Angeles and Orange County.

As we move through this period of uncertainty, we want all of you to know we will have an even stronger program waiting for the players when they return to the fields. Additional details will follow in the weeks ahead, but for now, continue to be safe, focus on family and know that our community will rebuild stronger than ever before.

Sincerely,

Rob Fisher, Strikers FC ECNL
Matt Bradbury, Los Angeles Soccer Club

That letter says nothing of the sort. Nice reach though. All it says is they will share a player pool (and coaches). Strikers is the ECNL club, but LASC is obviously willing to share their player pool with them.

 

[sdb]

Another article, doesn't seem to be from any on the record sources.

Youth soccer braces for demise of Development Academy

The DA might be DOA.U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy, billed as a pathway to professional soccer for the nation’s top youth players, appears poised to cancel the remainder of the 2019-…

www.sandiegouniontribune.com

 

[oh canada]

I dunno I'm no soothsayer but these pie in the sky wild rumors keep coming out of the woodwork.

Until the c19 situation get more under control there are big risks for these organizations and I think they will be very cautious going forward.

Announcements now about +- leagues, teams, clubs seems premature and not in good taste to publicize or promote givin the current situation. There are likely to be some casualties or a shake up but it's anybody's guess.

One thing for sure is airline travel is not going to return to normal in time for fall so travel leagues or what you knew before is gone, done for a while. The recent report I read about the airlines is it will take at least 5 yrs for them recover if they do.

Totally agree...I browse through these posts no more than once per day and based on most of them I read, there still doesn't seem to be a realization how things are going to be different in the future. I've always been a "glass half full" person but there's optimism and reality. Very smart and objective people are concerned that social distancing could last until there is a vaccine! LA County schools will be closed through summer. Colleges are cancelling all summer camps--not just soccer. Talks are beginning that the college Fall semester may have to begin online as well. No professional sports league will operate this summer with fans in the seats. Univ. of Cincy is the first of potentially many to eliminate their men's soccer program to save money. Labor Day weekend youth soccer tournaments are far from certain (how are clubs going to generate $$?). Not to mention the millions of folks trying to make ends meet with only unemployment checks to pay for basic necessities.

I get that this is a "hot" rumor and we all like to call out US Soccer for their repetitive ineptitude (they deserve it), but whether your son/daughter is going to play in a different soccer league next year is not the most important issue right now...rather, it's will there be any organized soccer to play in the next 6 months to a year? That is truly still up in the air and becoming more of an unlikelihood as each week passes with beaches and parks completely closed. Are you seriously going to give your club more money soon without knowing for sure whether your kid's team is even going to practice this summer, let alone play any games?

Apologies for the splash of cold water, but the depth of this DA rabbit hole is starting to become a blinder to what's still ongoing outside the safety of our Corona-free living rooms.

 

[EOTL]

How many of these clubs that do all these things you mention play on public property, served by public utilities/emergency services and defended by the US Military? Wait, wait, I know the answer, all of them. Ignoring large parts of the population of possible future top players is bad for business also.

It sounds like you have a really good understanding of how things work.

 

[chiefs]

Another article, doesn't seem to be from any on the record sources.

Youth soccer braces for demise of Development Academy

The DA might be DOA.U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy, billed as a pathway to professional soccer for the nation’s top youth players, appears poised to cancel the remainder of the 2019-…

www.sandiegouniontribune.com

Thanks for posting....Massive lawsuits will hit USSF for many reasons, this article just spells out one.....

 

[Copa9]

Totally agree...I browse through these posts no more than once per day and based on most of them I read, there still doesn't seem to be a realization how things are going to be different in the future. I've always been a "glass half full" person but there's optimism and reality. Very smart and objective people are concerned that social distancing could last until there is a vaccine! LA County schools will be closed through summer. Colleges are cancelling all summer camps--not just soccer. Talks are beginning that the college Fall semester may have to begin online as well. No professional sports league will operate this summer with fans in the seats. Univ. of Cincy is the first of potentially many to eliminate their men's soccer program to save money. Labor Day weekend youth soccer tournaments are far from certain (how are clubs going to generate $$?). Not to mention the millions of folks trying to make ends meet with only unemployment checks to pay for basic necessities.

I get that this is a "hot" rumor and we all like to call out US Soccer for their repetitive ineptitude (they deserve it), but whether your son/daughter is going to play in a different soccer league next year is not the most important issue right now...rather, it's will there be any organized soccer to play in the next 6 months to a year? That is truly still up in the air and becoming more of an unlikelihood as each week passes with beaches and parks completely closed. Are you seriously going to give your club more money soon without knowing for sure whether your kid's team is even going to practice this summer, let alone play any games?

Apologies for the splash of cold water, but the depth of this DA rabbit hole is starting to become a blinder to what's still ongoing outside the safety of our Corona-free living rooms.

With so many colleges dependent on the revenue generated by their football teams to support other sports, what will happen if the college season is scrapped? If the college depends on these funds for soccer, how many soccer programs will be discontinued?

 

[MakeAPlay]

Several players on dd DA players play other sports, namely track and golf. These players have worked hard for years to work on their soccer skills and have college commitments so why would they take a chance on some unskilled player trying to take them out just to take them out? There are plenty of ways to support your high school through participation in school government and clubs.

My kid's experience was this. She played other sports (she was actually named Orange County athlete of the year her senior year and is very proud of that). She committed to the school that she just graduated from as a sophomore and played 4 years of varsity high school soccer. Was there a large skill gap on her team? Somewhat. She had 4 other players who went on to play D1 college soccer on her team. She was in student government and in a few clubs. If my daughter can have it all so can yours and others. We never saw anybody try to take her out while playing high school soccer so I am not sure that is an actual thing.. She played ODP and won two ODP National Championships. She just finished college in December after her 4th and final college season and she already graduated last June and has two college cup appearances, an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16 appearance to go along with 92 starts in 92 games played. She is now a professional player in the NWSL and is in the process of studying for the LSAT ( a good use of her quarantine time for sure). She remembers more about her high school team than about her club teams and her college team has created a group of friends for life.

I only went to about a dozen high school games of hers over her 4 year career. I rarely missed a club game and only missed one of her college games. I used to think that high school soccer was a waste of her time. She proved me wrong. Good luck to you and your player.

 

[Ellejustus]

My kid's experience was this. She played other sports (she was actually named Orange County athlete of the year her senior year and is very proud of that). She committed to the school that she just graduated from as a sophomore and played 4 years of varsity high school soccer. Was there a large skill gap on her team? Somewhat. She had 4 other players who went on to play D1 college soccer on her team. She was in student government and in a few clubs. If my daughter can have it all so can yours and others. We never saw anybody try to take her out while playing high school soccer so I am not sure that is an actual thing.. She played ODP and won two ODP National Championships. She just finished college in December after her 4th and final college season and she already graduated last June and has two college cup appearances, an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16 appearance to go along with 92 starts in 92 games played. She is now a professional player in the NWSL and is in the process of studying for the LSAT ( a good use of her quarantine time for sure). She remembers more about her high school team than about her club teams and her college team has created a group of friends for life.

I only went to about a dozen high school games of hers over her 4 year career. I rarely missed a club game and only missed one of her college games. I used to think that high school soccer was a waste of her time. She proved me wrong. Good luck to you and your player.

I heard that story before. Thanks again for telling us like it is. I'm glad you let her decide too. Good dad moment for you bro One of my greatest sports accomplishments as a dad was was not manipulating her into staying in the GDA and letting her decide as well. I still remember the day she got back from that GDA Showcase in NC, "Dad, I made my decision. I want to play HS Soccer." I told her today she chose wisely and that some tough competition is coming in the near future in both HS Soccer and club. More news should be coming down soon

 

[whatithink]

Thanks for posting....Massive lawsuits will hit USSF for many reasons, this article just spells out one.....

I assume you mean clubs in GDA who don't get ECNL suing, but what would they be suing for? What would be the basis of "massive lawsuits"? They maybe hired some people and may need to let them go. They may have bought some equipment but hey ho. Their coaches may have had to get higher grade badges, but so what - they are now more qualified. Genuinely, I don't see what the basis would be and certainly don't see any "massive" settlements. Its not like they were all free (were any?) and even if some were subsidized, that money came from non GDA parents in the club or tournaments or sponsors.

You couldn't make up the NCFC stuff in that article and if you did, nobody would believe you.

 

[Jose has returned]

Blues is a BEAST of a club!!!!!

Blues isn't what they were but still the Blues but might want to scroll down to LAFC slammers there is the top dog

 

[whatithink]

I would normally agree with this assessment, except participation in the boys ECNL likely swings in favor of Beach and Legends. I would bet 90% for Beach and 80% for Legends (lower only because of the Arsenal input). Surf and RSC are not locks -- depends on how they handled their exit from ECNL. As you said, ECNL rewards loyalty.

I expect most other Socal clubs are going to be left out. Would not be surprised if they add another AZ (Tucson) club.

No more than 5 clubs will be added to SW ECNL if this goes down, my bet would be 4. Just a prediction.

AZ-Tucson has no strong girls programs, so I can't see how they would get a spot. They have the boys ECNL team, FC Tucson, but they are probably the weakest of the AZ boys teams.

RSL-AZ does have boys ECNL, and boys DA (08-06), so may have the best chance of an ECNL girls spot, but I'd expect Rising & Arsenal wouldn't be happy with that. It would be ironic in Phoenix - Del Sol & Sereno (RSL) were the ECNL clubs and kept Rising (Blackhawks) & Arsenal out for years ...

 

[sdb]

I assume you mean clubs in GDA who don't get ECNL suing, but what would they be suing for? What would be the basis of "massive lawsuits"? They maybe hired some people and may need to let them go. They may have bought some equipment but hey ho. Their coaches may have had to get higher grade badges, but so what - they are now more qualified. Genuinely, I don't see what the basis would be and certainly don't see any "massive" settlements. Its not like they were all free (were any?) and even if some were subsidized, that money came from non GDA parents in the club or tournaments or sponsors.

You couldn't make up the NCFC stuff in that article and if you did, nobody would believe you.

Insider trading!

 

[Desert Hound]

AZ-Tucson has no strong girls programs, so I can't see how they would get a spot. They have the boys ECNL team, FC Tucson, but they are probably the weakest of the AZ boys teams.

RSL-AZ does have boys ECNL, and boys DA (08-06), so may have the best chance of an ECNL girls spot, but I'd expect Rising & Arsenal wouldn't be happy with that. It would be ironic in Phoenix - Del Sol & Sereno (RSL) were the ECNL clubs and kept Rising (Blackhawks) & Arsenal out for years ...

FC Tucson is not strong. That is not a good addition to girls ECNL.

So some inside funny on Blackhawks (now Rising) and Sereno (now RSL)
- for years del Sol and Sereno (both ECNL) would take the best girls from the other clubs once the entry year for ECNL started.
- then DA was announced. del Sol jumped to DA and Sereno stayed ECNL. So a Blackhawks coach told the girls don't go to DA tryouts (lots of girls were going to tryouts, so the club was concerned), and told the parents there is a good chance this new DA league will fold in a few years. He preached loyalty to the club. A month later he jumped to Sereno to coach an ECNL team. Wouldn't it be funny if he was right about DA.
- So he jumps to Sereno. Sereno gets a go getter guy in charge and gets DA and a deal where the MLS RSL club helps fund the club. Wouldn't it be funny if he got the club to leave ECNL to get DA only to lose DA and maybe not get ECNL again.
- And another entertaining one. Once Sereno got DA (they later became RSL) he (the director) called all the parents together for a meeting. He proudly proclaimed that RSL was one of just a few clubs that has both DA and ECNL. A parent asked about DPL. He told everyone DPL isn't even legit. Not a league and to be happy that RSL has ECNL which is a great top national league. The following week ECNL took it away from RSL. So there was another meeting the following week. He proudly told the parents about the pathway and the club is very lucky to have both DA and DPL. A parent asked about ECNL. He said ECNL is a 2nd tier league not worth their time and DPL is perfect for those kids wanting to work into DA OR for those who wanted to play HS.

Always kind of fun to remember the things the track suit salesmen told parents.

Now my chuckle is related to the sales various clubs/coaches do. Unfortunately in all of this kids get caught up in all this crap and that part sucks big time.

 

[Ellejustus]

FC Tucson is not strong. That is not a good addition to girls ECNL.

So some inside funny on Blackhawks (now Rising) and Sereno (now RSL)
- for years del Sol and Sereno (both ECNL) would take the best girls from the other clubs once the entry year for ECNL started.
- then DA was announced. del Sol jumped to DA and Sereno stayed ECNL. So a Blackhawks coach told the girls don't go to DA tryouts (lots of girls were going to tryouts, so the club was concerned), and told the parents there is a good chance this new DA league will fold in a few years. He preached loyalty to the club. A month later he jumped to Sereno to coach an ECNL team. Wouldn't it be funny if he was right about DA.
- So he jumps to Sereno. Sereno gets a go getter guy in charge and gets DA and a deal where the MLS RSL club helps fund the club. Wouldn't it be funny if he got the club to leave ECNL to get DA only to lose DA and maybe not get ECNL again.
- And another entertaining one. Once Sereno got DA (they later became RSL) he (the director) called all the parents together for a meeting. He proudly proclaimed that RSL was one of just a few clubs that has both DA and ECNL. A parent asked about DPL. He told everyone DPL isn't even legit. Not a league and to be happy that RSL has ECNL which is a great top national league. The following week ECNL took it away from RSL. So there was another meeting the following week. He proudly told the parents about the pathway and the club is very lucky to have both DA and DPL. A parent asked about ECNL. He said ECNL is a 2nd tier league not worth their time and DPL is perfect for those kids wanting to work into DA OR for those who wanted to play HS.

Always kind of fun to remember the things the track suit salesmen told parents.

Now my chuckle is related to the sales various clubs/coaches do. Unfortunately in all of this kids get caught up in all this crap and that part sucks big time.

It never ends. I had a similar story too. ECNL one day and then DPL the next.

 

[EOTL]

Thanks for posting....Massive lawsuits will hit USSF for many reasons, this article just spells out one.....

What’s up with your fixation over lawsuits? There aren’t going to be massive lawsuits against USSF as a result of disbanding the DA. It never promised anyone DA would last forever. You also apparently never read the mandatory arbitration agreements with class waivers that USSF has made everyone besides union workers sign ever since it got hit with the concussion class action many years ago.

 

[jpeter]

It never ends. I had a similar story too. ECNL one day and then DPL the next.

Tomorrow that will be something else.

/Sidebar

ECNL has bylaws and clubs apply for membership. clubs don't just get in because they want to or due to another league not playing. Voting happens on each application for membership. At this point the 20-21' season process was already done. Will they open that back up?

 

[Hawkeye]

Tomorrow that will be something else.

/Sidebar

ECNL has bylaws and clubs apply for membership. clubs don't just get in because they want to or due to another league not playing. Voting happens on each application for membership. At this point the 20-21' season process was already done. Will they open that back up?

Depends on whether ECNL and its partner US Club want the opportunity to build and control the whole competitive youth soccer pyramid or if they’d rather peel off a couple more DA clubs and let the rest spin. ECNL and it’s clubs have some degree of bitterness towards the DA clubs, many of them were perfectly happy to leave ECNL in the lurch when GDA could have killed it (and probably would have if the folks running US Soccer were not so incredibly incompetent and inflexible on things like the no hs rule and their dumb licensing and staffing requirements). But we’re also in the middle of a pandemic, there’s a lot of uncertainty as to what the fall will look like, and giving all the DA clubs a home would (a) provide an option for more locally concentrated leagues and less travel, which may be necessary and certainly will be less burdensome on struggling families; (b) creating a two tiered ECNL league and more showcases (the DA dates and venues should be available), which means more $ for the people running ECNL; (c) attracting a bunch of usysa clubs by creating regional leagues with some kind of pro/rel into the second tier of ECNL and some kind of tournament that includes non-ECNL teams; and (d) working with us soccer provide scouting and education support and to turn pdp into an odp like platform pool of players who could be in the mix for ynt spots.

 

[EOTL]

My kid's experience was this. She played other sports (she was actually named Orange County athlete of the year her senior year and is very proud of that). She committed to the school that she just graduated from as a sophomore and played 4 years of varsity high school soccer. Was there a large skill gap on her team? Somewhat. She had 4 other players who went on to play D1 college soccer on her team. She was in student government and in a few clubs. If my daughter can have it all so can yours and others. We never saw anybody try to take her out while playing high school soccer so I am not sure that is an actual thing.. She played ODP and won two ODP National Championships. She just finished college in December after her 4th and final college season and she already graduated last June and has two college cup appearances, an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16 appearance to go along with 92 starts in 92 games played. She is now a professional player in the NWSL and is in the process of studying for the LSAT ( a good use of her quarantine time for sure). She remembers more about her high school team than about her club teams and her college team has created a group of friends for life.

I only went to about a dozen high school games of hers over her 4 year career. I rarely missed a club game and only missed one of her college games. I used to think that high school soccer was a waste of her time. She proved me wrong. Good luck to you and your player.

In my experience, the parents who’ve been dogmatic in their belief that there’s one right way to make a great soccer player tend to have daughters who are neither great soccer players nor particularly successful at much of anything. Have any of the anti-HS folks here ever had a daughter play and make a meaningful contribution in the PAC-12 or ACC? Or go to med, law or business school? If so, please stand up.