SoCal Schedule
- Thread starter sandiegofutbolguy
- Start date
superfly10
BRONZE
Pretty incredible what SOCAL has done.
No F3 in the GU16 division for example. So allowed teams from F3 last year to jump to flight 1 to create brackets of 10 plus teams and combining regions. I'm sure some of those Beach teams going to love traveling to Santa Clarita.
When SCDSL broke off, it was apparently to create a league with the most elite clubs, now you got organizations like Whitier Area Youth Soccer which has been recreational with some signature level teams.
Such a money grab for SOCAL (yes its always been that way but they aren't even try to hide it anymore). It's a joke.
No F3 in the GU16 division for example. So allowed teams from F3 last year to jump to flight 1 to create brackets of 10 plus teams and combining regions. I'm sure some of those Beach teams going to love traveling to Santa Clarita.
When SCDSL broke off, it was apparently to create a league with the most elite clubs, now you got organizations like Whitier Area Youth Soccer which has been recreational with some signature level teams.
Such a money grab for SOCAL (yes its always been that way but they aren't even try to hide it anymore). It's a joke.
It’s not really their fault at the older ages. It’s that high schoolers either go letter league or they drop out for because they’ve got other things (like robotics tournies, band concerts, jobs or boyfriend girlfriends). And for letter league on the boys side there mls1, mls2, ea, ea2, encl, ecrl, n1l, usl, upsl, e64(still around?). F1 is really f6 now when all is said and done.
My favorite is that the new ayso select teams (in direct competition with the spun of united teams) in addition to playing each other will be competing in coast to get club experience.
This is the real/stupid problem: all the different leagues, and competing exclusively within the league brackets.It’s not really their fault at the older ages. It’s that high schoolers either go letter league or they drop out for because they’ve got other things (like robotics tournies, band concerts, jobs or boyfriend girlfriends). And for letter league on the boys side there mls1, mls2, ea, ea2, encl, ecrl, n1l, usl, upsl, e64(still around?). F1 is really f6 now when all is said and done.
My favorite is that the new ayso select teams (in direct competition with the spun of united teams) in addition to playing each other will be competing in coast to get club experience.
This is going to be immensely frustrating, I think, for current and upcoming seasons for my situation (and many others, I think). My son's team is starting in EA2. The team could play EA or maybe ECNL-RL/MLSN-AD level (competitive in their last tournament with those level teams), but instead will play a mostly "wasted" season against teams in EA2 spanning ECNL to Flight 3 level of actual ability, because league level is determined per club, and the club itself is only in EA2. The team could be playing N1L with a much better/narrow band of local competition, but the club is pushing for club league advancement, so the kids are going to suffer with these arbitrary divisions which make no sense whatsoever from a competitive perspective.
This whole landscape is stupid. US Soccer needs to step in, put the hammer down, and force letter leagues to allow cross-league seasonal competition with no penalties for teams or clubs (and/or manage the entire competitive schedule independently). The various "pathway" leagues should be pathways to exposure and advancement for kids; right now they are just traps and barriers for kids, where clubs feel like they are forced to play along. It's infuriating.
It makes so much more sense now as to why I see a lot of "league-less" teams playing in high level tournaments and brackets: that's the only way to have optimal competition for kids now. The leagues are straight up antithetical to what's best for the kids.