So two ECNL teams per birth year, but a North and West version? Or one team? Or depends on what they get at tryouts?
Will TC have tryouts for their 05 top team? I know FCU did not a few years ago - coach stated that they did not want to disrupt the flow of the team. Heard CSA may be doing the same for 06/05 top teams as well.
FC United have abused the Academy names and bent the rules for the last few years, they held ID clinics for their "Academy Program" in the Winter and into early Spring. They then told all their current DA and Pre DA (plus others from outside) that we had all made they "Academy Program" and had no need to attend normal tryouts as long as players paid a substantial deposit and registered to accept their spots (mid April), they would then be placed accordingly at a placement event (June). They then continued to recruit players for DA and also added more players from normal club tryouts and then made as many Pre Academy teams as they could. However, instead making teams A,B,C and so on they formed relatively evenly matched teams to be able to play them all in events like State cup etc and also grab as many players as they can. Their Directors told a lot of lies to players in order to get them nailed down for another year or give up their deposit. Wonder what US Soccer would say about that, as I believe their rules state that payments can not be taken until a later date etc
Apparently Margaret Fisher (Admin FCU) was at the meeting as well... I think this works out for Sockers as far as retention is concerned - which was looking like a real problem. Only one team at two totally different locations will mean that only the top players are gonna make it. So I imagine Eclipse will end up being pretty strong across the board any players not at the top will simply not make those teams. This could put Eclipse in a good place if they play a good hand - good coaches, enough resources, value...
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. Have you also heard the one about FCU supposedly asking for GDA deposits even earlier this year to get ahead of the ECNL threat? Adding to things I've heard about last night's meeting: Spartan teams are known for building out of the back, so philosophies about the beautiful game are very much in line with Eclipse. Eclipse is calling their Oak Brook ECNL teams 'east'. According to Rory, coaches for the ECNL north teams could come from Spartan staff... but they have also started a national search for the very best candidates... regardless, they will definitely tell you for sure who the coaches will be before they ask for a check.
FCU - Lose players across the board (meaning all age groups). As another poster mentioned, they have been handing out DA spots for 2 years now with prepayments in order to keep players on board. However they still go through the normal recruiting process in which those kids promised a spot get the boot. I think parents have caught on. Eclipse - Loaded the B teams in Oak Brook last season. The 06 team rostered 26 players with promises of ECNL play but only commited the 18. From what I am told they brought in $50K plus per age group by just taking in multiple teams of B players. That said - I think they benefit from expansion in terms of quality. yeah they are going to lose players - but only those who likely have no business in the ECNL to begin with. So in the end it will cost them revenue based on loss and the cost of expansion. But if they get it right - they could easily have bragging rights to the best teams in the area - which they sort of do already. Sockers - They will pick up the left overs from Eclipse. 1/3 of those players will likely go back to where ever they came from - TC/Galaxy/CSA. But the rest will head north to Palatine where the koolaid is on re-fill 24/7. Those B players will be lured in with thoughts of playing on a national team when in reality they will just fill in the gaps of existing players on pre-academy teams who are having to play up in order to make one decent team. In the end - it's still a mess. More chips and dents on the GDA platform. Nice time to be a top player in two watered down top leagues
So the letter to eclipse families indicated the players will be able to select the location and the teams will be competing against each other in the ecnl. Hard to think many of the current top team ecnl players will go to Northbrook. They must be banking on bringing over lots of FCU players for the high school ages and building the younger ones from within. Spartan does have the top u11 team in the state so when those girls hit u13 they will have a better side than oak brook (if this lasts 2 years)
So interesting conversation with parents from the St Charles/Geneva area last night... Apparently Strikers and Campton are merging but neither are not announcing it until tryouts are done. I was told by folks down in that area that they are holding off an announcement until after tryouts because both clubs have some bad blood and they are worried that kids will just leave for TC/Galaxy or CSA - or atleast expand their tryouts to those clubs. Camptons fall from grace on the girls side is odd - I know CSA brought on many players from that club but there has to be much more. They are so top heavy with management and paid staff. Not sure how that continues unless they merge with Strikers. My guess is that Strikers actually merges into Campton based on the boys DA license.
They won the A division. Last year they finished pretty high in the boys 2N. They are very good. I think they won like 3 tournaments in the fall.
They must be pretty good to qualify for 2N as girls. But honestly - a lot of the smaller clubs often have the better teams from u12 down.
Very true. Bloomingdale lightning is the second best team. After those two it is the usual suspects. SFC has done well with these last 2 arrangements to set a path for their players to the highest level instead of what you normally see at smaller clubs which is coaches doing everything they can to hang on to good players instead of encouraging the player to challenge themselves at the highest level.
Yeah - I admire clubs that are crazy enough to put the girls in the boys league. 2N is very respectable - those girls are definately an asset and frankly I would not be surprised if that was not a factor. I know that part Dino Delveski move for Eclipse was to get one of his girls teams which was (I think) u15 at the time. Three of those girls were part of the first team my kid played with at Sockers at u9 (she was 6 but they had no younger teams). Those girls were incredible!
Anyone know if SFC/Eclipse North will have a solid boys program? Everything so far seems to be very focused on the female teams.
They are going to offer boys. The quality will likely depend on the staff they bring in and what players will come because of them. Not sure there is a name out there to accomplish that. Maybe PG that was at Spartan and FCU. Without the draw of academy or ecnl, it is going to hard to pull top talent.
Even though I am typically a "glass half empty" kind of guy, I would suspect that not announcing anything is more of a factor of waiting until they are sure they can come to an agreement than trying to hide something before tryouts. I am sure there are some difficult points to agree upon that will take some time. Off the top of my head I would expect having two indoor facilities to be a huge issue. If they merge which do they get rid of? I doubt either side wants to get rid of their indoor facility but realistically that is the first thing they should do. Also I agree Campton is "top-heavy" so what do you do with merging permanent staff. I do not believe families have bad blood between the clubs, rather, club management had bad blood, and Campton's management has mostly turned over so that should be less of an issue than in the past.
This is an interesting post, 100% non-factual, but interesting non the less. I also live in St Charles/Geneva, and I am very close to this subject on a number of fronts. I have ties to all three clubs in this area; Campton, Strikers & CSA. It is important to note that perception isn't a reality. Campton & Strikers have had talks to merge operations, nothing has been finalized to this point, and there's much more to it than merging rosters; facilities, membership, finances, governance, staffing, uniforms, etc. The reason for nothing being announced has zero bearing on TC/Galaxy or CSA... although those aforementioned clubs would love to think that. A merger would be great for the FV community, but this being said, Campton is going from strength to strength over the past 18 months since it change leadership, and Strikers will continue to be an important presence within the community, as it has for the past 20+ years.
giggsy - you quoted my post saying is 100% non factual,but then basically made similar statements. Did you read my post? So this: "I would suspect that not announcing anything is more of a factor of waiting until they are sure they can come to an agreement than trying to hide something before tryouts. I am sure there are some difficult points to agree upon that will take some time." is 100% non factual? even though you are stating "nothing has been finalized to this point, and there's much more to it than merging rosters; facilities, membership, finances, governance, staffing, uniforms, etc."
I was actually replying to VolklP19 hearsay. I didn't read your post until after... but you're on the right path.