Say bye-bye-bye to Girls and Boys DA

Some have said that there will be two pools of ECRL. One side the 2nd team of the current ECNL teams and dependent upon commitments from former DA clubs a second ECNLRegional pool that will play one another. If this is true and they can form a second ECRL pool if they have the ability to attract 7-8 clubs from the former DA and maybe throw in a club like Rangers or SDSCLUB here in the SW you could have a strong ECNL Regional pool of former DA clubs/Strong Clubs and their top teams all competing and trying to win the pool to be promoted for the next year. Within a few years time you’d have the ECNL national pool being the strongest A teams in the SW and then the ECNLRegional teams the next strongest Clubs A Teams for the next 10-12 strongest clubs. If it truly becomes a promote/relegate league they could promote/relegate by age group. Because all the clubs could say they are an ECNL club$! And all the club$ could wear the ECNL patch and make everyone happy! The second teams of last years ECNL teams that made up the ECRL pool might even have to wear ECRL patches. (Just speculation) No info on how composite plays into this new format. Once again this is all speculation dependent upon how many strong former DA clubs they can convince to play ECRL. But if it’s truly a separate pool they might have a lot of success rolling this out nation wide with 5-6 of the existing ECNL regions. And they way things are looking they could have several months to finalize these regions if we don’t end up competing this fall:(
 
DPLLove said:
Some have said that there will be two pools of ECRL. One side the 2nd team of the current ECNL teams and dependent upon commitments from former DA clubs a second ECNLRegional pool that will play one another. If this is true and they can form a second ECRL pool if they have the ability to attract 7-8 clubs from the former DA and maybe throw in a club like Rangers or SDSCLUB here in the SW you could have a strong ECNL Regional pool of former DA clubs/Strong Clubs and their top teams all competing and trying to win the pool to be promoted for the next year. Within a few years time you’d have the ECNL national pool being the strongest A teams in the SW and then the ECNLRegional teams the next strongest Clubs A Teams for the next 10-12 strongest clubs. If it truly becomes a promote/relegate league they could promote/relegate by age group. Because all the clubs could say they are an ECNL club$! And all the club$ could wear the ECNL patch and make everyone happy! The second teams of last years ECNL teams that made up the ECRL pool might even have to wear ECRL patches. (Just speculation) No info on how composite plays into this new format. Once again this is all speculation dependent upon how many strong former DA clubs they can convince to play ECRL. But if it’s truly a separate pool they might have a lot of success rolling this out nation wide with 5-6 of the existing ECNL regions. And they way things are looking they could have several months to finalize these regions if we don’t end up competing this fall:(
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They already do wear a ECRL patch........I am not sure about the rest of your posting but I do appreciate the morning reading..... :)
 
Bernie gets it. Sounds like a great Doc to me and a smart one :) Great read for everyone.

COMMENTARY
Bernie James on the DA's collapse: 'To just abandon everyone creates panic and problems for everyone involved'
Crossfire Premier, based in Redmond, Washington, 15 miles east of Seattle, joined U.S. Soccer’s Boys Development Academy upon its inception in 2007. It began fielding teams in the Girls ECNL upon its launch in 2009, and in the Girls DA when it started in 2017. Bernie James has been Crossfire Premier’s Director of Coaching since 2003.
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SOCCER AMERICA: U.S. Soccer has pulled the plug on the Development Academy. Crossfire Premier had already left the Girls DA before this season …
BERNIE JAMES: The moment it changed for us was when some of our best girls quit the DA in their junior and senior years to play high school and ECNL at our club rather than play DA for free. That really opened our eyes.
I called Jared [Micklos, then the DA director] a number of times telling him that this was going to be a real problem. And their answer was always the same. "You need to change the culture."
We're doing our best, but when some of your best girls quit free soccer -- we were paying approximately $7,000 per kid a year for DA travel -- then I think that program is not the right program for us. That model wasn't working for our girls, at least at our club.
SA: On the boys side?
BERNIE JAMES: Like I've said many times, the Boys DA at the older ages had been a phenomenal league. It was the best boys league competition without question, until they started fiddling with it. Until people who have no idea about American soccer – about travel distances and so forth -- started screwing with it. It was an expensive league, especially for us, but a really good league. Believe it or not, I loved the DA in the older age groups. That will never change. I just hated the way they started running it.
SA: Like when last year shortly before the season they tiered the oldest age group?
BERNIE JAMES: In August, when we had no other options of course, they told us our closest games are going to be 900 miles away when we have three DA partners [Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps] within 150 miles that are awesome teams -- that we're competitive with because we won the division the last couple of years.
I don't think there's any pro sports team in this country that has their closest game 900 miles away. Once they tiered it, once they listened to the Dutch guy or whoever was in charge, they ruined it. I knew that if that was going to continue we were going to have to leave. You can't have your closest game 900 miles away.
SA: Crossfire Premier, which had been also fielding teams in the Boys ECNL, will now also field its top teams, its former DA teams, in the Boys ECNL. But shortly after U.S. Soccer’s announcement, MLS announced it would start a development league and include non-MLS clubs. Will that affect Crossfire?
BERNIE JAMES: Everything MLS does affects us one way or another. But honestly, I can't trust them or U.S. Soccer -- and they seem to be the same thing -- after what they did to us last year, and then how they left us and all the other clubs hanging with no plan.
We've been in it 13 years, put in millions of dollars, and we heard nothing until they sent out the email to everyone. We were sending out weekly updates to our players and families trying to ensure we're on top of this thing and trying to get things going. And we got nothing from U.S. Soccer.
To just abandon everyone creates panic and problems for everyone involved. I'm sure it's a problem for MLS clubs, and they just answer quickly with some makeshift plan I don't what it is.
SA: Are you open to playing MLS youth clubs?
BERNIE JAMES: We'd be happy to play any team in practice games and be part of a practice game schedule.
youth-celebration-crossfire.JPEG

SA: Even before the pandemic problems, clubs complained that the DA had too many restrictions on issues like outside play. So perhaps not having U.S. Soccer be in charge of the top youth leagues is a positive, because club coaches are in a better position to guide the players they work worth daily, instead of being dictated to by Chicago …
BERNIE JAMES: Or Holland. ... Let's be serious. If you do a good job, the players come to you. If you do a poor job, they leave. It's the same in the food business. If you keep making terrible hamburgers, people don't come to you. I think that takes care of itself. …
American soccer isn’t going to improve by having young players wear heart monitors at practice, or with filming and video review. We’re overkill in America with those kinds of things. You get better by playing six hours a day in the street, and when you're older applying those skills you acquired in a more organized environment.
SA: It was clear on girls side before the coronavirus outbreak that the Girls DA was going to struggle because so many clubs were already moving to the ECNL. But U.S. Soccer said it was pulling the plug on both DAs because of financial problems caused by the coronavirus outbreak …
BERNIE JAMES: Regardless of if it was that or U.S. Soccer realized that the federation shouldn’t be running a youth league and are using this pandemic as an excuse [to get out], the least they should do is have an exit strategy and a plan for the clubs, work with ECNL and other organizations to absorb it and have it well thought out.

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...ign=23586&hashid=HgQcUF3AUkQhka4F2net6MXz-ic#
 
Con......
SA: How is Crossfire handling the pandemic interruption?
BERNIE JAMES: We're just like every American group. We just have to wait, be patient, do the right thing. But we've had nothing but positive feedback from our parents and players. We send the players all kinds of video and online stuff to do and try to keep them busy since they're not in school either. And we've had a great response to that, like most other clubs probably have. But there's only so much we can do right now and we're looking forward to getting back on the field ...
Hopefully in a month or two, we can have small group training in the summertime and it will be great to get back out there. It will be different, for sure. But we're going to make the most of it.
Our families are absolutely wonderful. We haven't had one complaint about anything we've done or anything we've tried to do. Crossfire has been a great family.
And we've been able to pay our coaches. We haven't had to let anyone go for financial reasons. They're contracts run out in May. New contracts start in June. We're committed to paying them through September even if we never practice. When things start getting desperate and we have absolutely no money left, we have to start looking at the drastic measures.
Maybe there will be games in September with very few spectators. That's what we're hoping for. Probably no tournaments in the summer. I hope we have a tournament or two, but we're planning on having none. It's something we have to go through.
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Bernie James joined the NASL's Seattle Sounders straight out of Bellevue (Wash.) High School in 1977. He moved to the Edmonton Drillers and made 74 NASL appearances in 1980-82. His 24 years of pro ball included 10 seasons in the Major Indoor Soccer League. A defender, he finished his career in 2000 after seven seasons with the A-league Seattle Sounders. James played for the USA's 1979 Pan-American Games team and earned two caps in 1988. He started coaching youth soccer in 2001 and became Crossfire Premier's director in 2003.
SA: However the recovery from the pandemic unfolds, I would think clubs will be limited on travel. How much of a challenge will that be for Crossfire, to play highly competitive games locally?
BERNIE JAMES: The Seattle area is a hotbed for soccer. We have great competition here. And believe it or not, some of the academy teams we played are not as good as some of the local teams. So, we're going to have great competition here with some great clubs in the area.
We're not going to be making a lot of money because we're not going to have tournaments in the summer, but we're not going to be spending a lot of money because there's not a lot of travel coming up.
We'll just have to put up with it. Deal with it. Local competition is great. It’s what we were doing 13 years ago. We're fine with going back to that. I'm sure when travel opens up, we’re going to be ready to go.
SA: How important is the travel, to showcases, for example?
BERNIE JAMES: The players who are very disappointed right now are the juniors and seniors who were looking forward to a great year to wrap up a college deal.
Lots of seniors have already committed to colleges. If you’re good enough, they’ll find you. But for the middle of the road ones who aren’t going to a UCLA or North Carolina, showcases are very valuable. That’s why they have them, whether it’s the Disney Showcase, ECNL, or DA.
A showcase in the east is where players get exposure to East Coast colleges. You don’t need to take seven flights a year, but for juniors and seniors, and sophomores on the girls side, a couple flights to showcases can be really important.
We might see players going to community colleges or taking a gap year.
SA: Generally speaking, besides the disappointment of the juniors and seniors you refer to, what do think the attitude of the players will be?
BERNIE JAMES: Most get involved to play sports, they love soccer. To me, the bottom line is keep them busy, keep them out of trouble, keep them healthy, and then they kind of get out of it what they put into it. The ones who get serious about soccer and excel, if it’s a college soccer scholarship, or getting into a college you normally wouldn't get into, or playing professionally, that's just icing on cake. …
Not having national championships right now I don't think is nearly as big a deal as all the other problems we're facing.
I think they'll just adapt as they always do. And we'll adapt and have soccer in some form. As long as those kids have those beautiful fields down there, they’re going to play no matter what leagues they are in or who's running them.
 
EOTL said:
For those who weren’t around three years ago, I think it’s time to start from the beginning, when I first posted four things that can reduce the risk of ACL injury and made Simi a crazy man. They were:

1. Strength/fitness training. Simi didn’t go nuts over this one. Can we agree to move on?

2. Don’t let your child play soccer if you have a history of ACL injury. Simi went apes**t over this, although genetic predisposition (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435909/) combined with playing the sport with the highest risk of ACL injury (
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3867093/) is playing with fire.

3. Don’t play GDA. Forcing 14 teenage girls every game to play a full 90 minutes in the highest risk sport is dangerous and unnecessary. This has generated the most hate, including from you, but is hardly controversial. In game fatigue is very much a factor (https://fitforfutbol.com/2016/02/th...y-and-sleep-on-performance-injury-likelihood/) and not just with ACLs, but pretty much any injury. Shoot, studies show even the risk of concussion in sport is higher when fatigued (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18373290/) although running hard doesn’t make your brain bouncier inside your skull. The sub rules weren’t the only ones that made GDA unsafe, but let’s move on for the sake of time.

4. Put your daughter on the pill. Simi lost his freakin’ mind at this point, presumably due to a hard-wired subconscious religious fear that his daughter might have premarital sex or something. His neurosis aside, this one is almost certainly the most effective way to reduce risk of ACL injury. (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.da...Pill-prevent-career-ending-knee-injuries.html). FYI, I cited a news article rather than the study itself, but only because the title almost seems like an FU to science deniers like yourself.

Finally, in response to your question about how many Blues players have torn their ACLs, the answer is that I don’t care, because anecdotal “evidence” is not evidence. Because that number doesn’t answer when or how they happened, and therefore doesn’t answer anything. It doesn’t compare to other clubs. It doesn’t put it in context with the number of kids in the club. It is only your way of deflecting the actual scientific facts that you don’t want to hear. But fine, keep up your schtick. I’m obviously ok rolling around in the muck with all you anti-vaxxer, climate change-denying bottom feeders, especially now that it’s a moot point and all you GDA sycophants lost.
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Thank you.

I agree with 1-4. Can even go further with #3 and put in a maximum number of minutes played per player. Extend it to youngers so you don’t trash your mini-superstars like PSV does.

Disagree on 5. You can’t solve a problem without data. Mandatory reporting of all ACL tears is a good place to start, especially if you index it so the biostatisticians can try to identify patterns.

Why do you think I am anti-vaccine climate change denier and all that? I’m a math geek from Berkeley. I get my vaccine and climate data from Science News, not Breitbart.

Happy to have a grown up discussion on injuries. start a new thread?
 
From the Spot said:
I would have to assume the hierarchy would be ECRL, GAL, and then DPL? So for ECRL in '20-'21 are you going to see Legends or Beach's top team (former DA team) playing LAFC or Strikers second team?
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Seems like it and does not make much sense. One would have to assume that the former DA clubs, at least the ones caught flat footed and left out of ECNL, are trying to figure out a way to create a competing entity. They had what they thought was the golden ticket and I don't think they will take the evening of the playing field well.
 
From the Spot said:
I would have to assume the hierarchy would be ECRL, GAL, and then DPL? So for ECRL in '20-'21 are you going to see Legends or Beach's top team (former DA team) playing LAFC or Strikers second team?
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Probably. But I'm sure coaches will pull players from the ECNL team to play on the ECRL team so they can show dominance.
 
Looks like they are just back where they used to be. My dd never played NW, but enjoyed the Tx competition for sure. Big fast and athletic just as advertised.
 
Kicker4Life said:
That’s pretty likely. However with a lot of the talent migration some current ECNL players may get pushed down to the 2nd team.
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pokergod said:
Seems like it and does not make much sense. One would have to assume that the former DA clubs, at least the ones caught flat footed and left out of ECNL, are trying to figure out a way to create a competing entity. They had what they thought was the golden ticket and I don't think they will take the evening of the playing field well.
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So under this scenario, if LAFC's 2nd team were to win ECRL would they be promoted up to ECNL?
 
From the Spot said:
So under this scenario, if LAFC's 2nd team were to win ECRL would they be promoted up to ECNL?
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Let's not get ahead of ourselves :). While there was a suggestion for merit-based membership in the future, I don't think there has been any confirmation of a promotion/relegation scheme, expansion (i.e. promotion only), timing of such promotion ('21, '22, etc), club promotion, or individual team promotion within each age group.
 
Messi>CR7 said:
Let's not get ahead of ourselves :). While there was a suggestion for merit-based membership in the future, I don't think there has been any confirmation of a promotion/relegation scheme, expansion (i.e. promotion only), timing of such promotion ('21, '22, etc), club promotion, or individual team promotion within each age group.
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I think we can all agree that no matter what happens the clubs really care about the kids and will do the right and logical thing going forward. That is what allows me to sleep like a baby at night.
 
I’m hearing a lot of chatter about beach and legends and what I’m hearing is that they were not given any kind of guarantee that they will be brought into ecnl ever and that if ecnl can screw them over more they will. Surf, Real so cal were allowed in immediately so I feel answers were given pretty quick. Beach and legends are big clubs with good teams and players but I just don’t know what kind of future they hold for players looking to go to college. Plus like some mentioned, ecnl is an “all-in” league. So if they do pro/rel does that mean you have to perform well across the board in every age group? Seems like a beach and legends are getting the short straw here. Feel bad for the families. Time will tell.
 
hugyourkids said:
Same decision by my DD. Very proud of her for making such a hard decision. Good luck to your daughter and her team.
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good luck to your and your girls. most of my friends with olders seem to be staying put. they don't want to transfer teams in a pandemic and want to see how this plays out before moving so that they don't move twice in two years. the exceptions to the rule are ones that had pre-existing issues with coach or club and now have no reason to stay, quite the minority. my friends with youngers that were travelling long distances to play for DA clubs are looking to make moves since there is now no reason and local ecnl clubs are available. i think that this fundamental change in soccer happening during a pandemic will result in less turnover than more if teams were up and playing practicing right now.
 
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