Changing Landscapes - Chicagoland

You guys must be participating in reindeer games that I'm not invited to, and none of you seem to be willing to name the potential partner/affiliate. So let me just speculate wildly, and you can all tell me why I am wrong.

FC-1

Decent location and pretty sure they have explored other options in the past to thwart the gravitational pull their top players feel from FCU, but to no avail.

FCU better be lobbying USSF hard for a change in high school rule.

 

Side question - Is Eclipse allowing both/either ECNL teams to participate in High School Soccer? I believe Eclipse, Hawks, and Sockers all had club rules against High School soccer pre-GDA, and I kind of remember seeing information that when Hawks and Eclipse got a second ECNL team they were looking at allowing one team to play high school and the other to not play high school.

 

Hawks announced one team would be 10 months and one would be 6 and allow high school. No idea what actually happened.

I had a friend on the inside who reported that in Eclipse's presentation last summer (spring?) to parents explaining why the jump to ECNL, they claimed one reason was they had an issue with a league (GDA) that was so strict as to not allow high school aged kids to make the decision to play hs on their own. In the same breath, however, they stated that in the past n-years of ECNL participation they never had a girl play high school.

So which is it? No idea. But looking at the posted schedules it looks like the older teams, excluding one or two B teams, have no games scheduled in the spring. My friend says there is no communication. Maybe a couple tournaments/showcases?

He did tell me he thought many of the older A team players (U17 and U19) would take off to play hs. Looking at the standings in other regions it is pretty clear that most ECNL clubs accept hs season as time off from club.

 

I have heard that players in that area that currently play academy are looking for the option to play high school and would prefer to stay closer to home than oak brook. From what I have heard it would be a location that to start would pull kids from current academy programs and top non academy teams for in the area for u13-18 supplemented by a local club for the younger ages. From what I have heard it would not be FC1 as the local club.

 

This is sounding less and less like a real rumor, and more of a self-serving trial balloon floated by some u-little rec club coach that sees the problems at Eclipse (and FCU), has some contacts, and nothing to lose... and you all are giving it the helium it needs, albeit in our tiny insignificant anonymous nerd forum.

That said, it's an absolute no-brainer for Eclipse, if they can find a few coaches and fields.

 

We shall see. Any sort of announcement would need to be made in early 2019 in order to drum up interest for tryouts.

 

Not sure if relevant, but Lincolnshire just approved a 20-acre sports complex with indoor soccer field.

 

How many players are the SMP money making marketing machine going to take credit for ? Some kids played 2 or 3 games for them and suddenly they are so proud of them committing to so and so College.

https://www.fcunitedpremier.com/site/news/details.aspx?ArticleID=3750

https://www.fcunitedpremier.com/site/news/details.aspx?ArticleID=3766

 

Congrats to all the kids, to the parents, and to whatever extent appropriate their trainers and club. For most of the kids in that picture, they hustled and will now play in college due to their own hard work and perseverance. I don't think FCU is much different than >90% of the big clubs out there that like to suggest they had a whole lot to do with it.

That said, I just hope SMP spares the internet any more of FCU's interview posts with recent commits where they ask the kids "So what landed you that commitment:
a) Our incredible coaches and their commitment to developing you as a player, or
b) Our never-ending efforts to help you every step of the way in your college recruitment, or
c) All of the above ?"

Speaking of big clubs... Can someone please leak the identity of the club that may become a northern Eclipse affiliate hinted at in last week's rumor?

 

Well that would certainly be on FCU's doorstep. ...awkward...

 

The rumor I heard involved a club with a few staff members that recently worked for FCU.

 

You must be referring to Spartan FC. Insightful guess on many levels.

 

Whomp, whomp.
I think post #1006 was also insightful.

 

I seriously do not get this at all - are we saying new Eclipse outpost that will take on FCU players not commited to DA for ECNL B teams?[/QUOTE]
Eclipse gains field space in the north to compete for players with FCU. And think about the underlying motives for any dance partner in the north. illinisoccer in his post clearly sees what I see.

 

Let's lead Sherpa here...

1. When you hit quote and want to parse the previous message you can't delete all that HTML mumbo-jumbo preceding the quote or else you end up with a message that is hard to read like what you did above.

2. I think Volk is pointing out that there doesn't appear to be much secret sauce at Spartan to make it any more attractive than any other Northshore program. In fact, others, would probably make better partners. I actually kind of like the idea of 425 Elite. That would be particularly insulting/annoying to the SMP brass.

I don't think there is a whole lot of marketing genius needed to make an ECNL offering in the Northshore successful -- the desire to play high school is high, and the need to play DA in order to play in college is nil (if ECNL is an option). There is certainly demand for FCU's DA program, but those are customers looking for a pathway to play in college, it's not people rushing in for the coaches or facilities.

This won't come down to a Northshore club pitching its plan into this echo chamber. It will happen if Eclipse thinks it is their idea, with a club of their choosing.

 

From what I have heard the two reasons why they are even discussing a north location with them are:
1. There are FCU Academy girls that want to play high school in the spring so they are interested in doing ECNL since that platform allows kids to do that. A northern option would be preferable to driving south or playing USYSA

2. The Former GDA director coached many of the players as academy, pre academy or ODP players. The timing of his dismissal was strategic as all those players were already locked in to FCU GDA for this year and no coaching options were available at other clubs.

Still not sure if this will happen. I will ask my source after I coach my U5 rec game this weekend.

 

I don’t think it has anything to do with the quality of that club. All to do with the quality of the location.

 

I thought Snower left under a pretty dark cloud. Would Eclipse really hire him?