BC is going on his 3rd season so roughly 2017. RC came over with Magic North when they were acquired by Sockers in 2011/2012. Yeah - great work on a PA team for 06 and yes - so frustrating why they don't go back to their older model. My guess is that many of the boys teams/clubs complained. They could get by that by having the girls train 2 days with the boys and play interleague games vs them. They moved away from that - at least the training part about a year after they bounced out of the NISL.
the 2008 won Platinum in Fall with the same teams in "Plat 1" It looked like the Plat level was split by region - not by seeding. http://nisl.bonzidev.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=Mjk4MDYz 2008 also won the Chicago Cup - which encompassed all 2008 teams http://nisl.bonzidev.com/sam/standings/ss/schedule.php?v=3&divisionID=NDI0MzE5 2004 you are right - that was the previous year. My mistake on that reference. Still took 2nd in ENPL and NPL. 2006 - non DA program for Copa Reynaldos. Would not let them in the DA bracket for some reason despite resume but still great teams in that division. At the time Weston won the Presidents Cup US and were "rated" on US youth soccer" as #1. that is the only reference but I 100% get your point. Still not on Got Soccer. All in all my point was, I was seeing a lot of Naperville Clubs being referenced and not Eclipse when the other clubs don't have this type of resume.
Agree with you on the NTC's. From all the local non-DA clubs Eclipse has to have sent the most kids. Credit to them. I think what's also happening is there's another layer growing on the youth pyramid and it's the professional path. More and more kids getting looks both domestic and overseas and many even getting amateur contracts. It's been pretty tight-lipped but I know Sockers had 3 guys that moved into pro environments from their DA last year: Hagan, Penn and Liu. Was told that 5 or 6 more are currently in Denmark or Sweden trialing. Fire DA have had a handful of guys go on trials overseas too but their complication is the Fire first-team path. Or lack thereof lol. What's most exciting to me is that these players are no longer caught up in the rat race of chasing tournament trophies and who-beat-who and the dreaded GotSoccer points. Get the best kids into better environments around older and better players even if it means giving up the best player on the team.
Please don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of what they're doing. I know one of those 2008s and he's a little baller. IMO Eclipse has the top teams in Naperville at the U8-12 ages for what it's worth. It's hardly ever an indication of where they'll all be at U19 but its still a remarkable achievement.
Training schedule was released Monday for us. MCL schedule also released. We know the tourneys we will play in and more. It's really nice to get all this information prior to the start of the season. I've heard FCU is pretty good at getting information into the hands of parents as well - at least schedules. Who else can start planing for madness this early?
Still one of my 14-year-old's favorite games, a one-goal loss to Stavaru when one of their teams (I think was maybe u12) showed up at a downstate tournament. Those kids could play, and my son's team held on by its fingernails. Would be curious to hear how parents ruined it, if that's the case.
Kid fractured her ankle Saturday - out for 4-6 weeks (BOOOOOOOOO!). Looks like I get a break on gas and some time back IWSL seeding is donw. Galaxy, Northwind, Eclipse, Chicago Fire Jrs and Empire showing well at the younger ages. Empire seems to be getting some strides in the south.
Thanks - she's frustrated. Mom wanted to take her to the movies and she loudly said no - that she wants to go to her game - even though she cant obviously play. I liked that!
Crusing through IWSL - lost of new one team clubs out there - seems to have grown - Schneider SA, Millennium FC, Nido Aguila... When is it time for the league to set standards? Is it something that needs to be done? Do the leagues owe it to the kids to ensure that they are getting decent training, trainers, resources and more? Just seems like the wild wide west when it comes to IWSL and YSSL. I can only assume that NISL is no different. Thoughts?
Be careful what you are assuming. Millennium is from downstate and they are looking for more competition, they are playing 8 away games up here, even though they will have home listed, they agreed to play here. Nido is a club that has been around over 10 years and has been renamed. I have no clue about their quality, but you can't assume they are bad because they have one team. As a parent who has been around and had a bad experience at a big club, you should know better. The coach is what matters, not how many teams a club has.
Not harsh - just a shit delivery. Most people would simply educate in order to open a discussion. You seem to take it personal. Hope that helps any confusion.
Nope, not personal, just blunt. Seemed silly to call the leagues the wild west, when you know that they are the wild west for a lot of other reasons than one team clubs.
Sure there are other reasons - we could discuss those as well. Should a club have just one team - regardless of the coach? Does that coach have indoor resources? Other trainers? I keep getting the scene "I bet your a real big Lee Marvin fan" from you. As opposed to the info you provided - which again, was good.
Nothng to get so worked up about. I see Volk's point tho. The cycle I unfortunately see most commonly: 1) Coach at larger club is unhappy about whatever and breaks away bringing their kids with them to start a new club with few teams. 2) New club is very small and lacks resources. Faces challenges like field space outdoor and indoor, coaching staff availability and scheduling, etc.. 3) New club slowly erodes as the player experience with less resources isn't to the members liking. 4a) New club folds and coach goes back to a larger club and the cycle begins again. 4b) New club merges with another club and the cycle begins again. 4c) New club is actually stabilizes and grows over time. Very rare. Of course there's always exceptions other reasons why this stuff happens. I feel like it just goes down this way more often than not. The next big thing is smaller clubs combining for different competition platforms like Rush and IP. I think a GPS program is starting with FC Lake County, Chicago City, Lombard. The difference with these is they aren't full "mergers" since they all still have their own BoDs or owners but wear the same shirt and combine pools for certain events to give opportunities to stronger players that otherwise wouldn't have them because their location team isn't as strong. I guess its good from purely an access to competition and experience standpoint. Try as hard as they want it will never be the best from a developmental standpoint. Not enough consistency or frequency. Many state associations have restrictions of who/where/when you can start a new club. Obviously Illinois doesn't because just like when it comes to state politics its all about that almighty dollar in the Benders pocket. How else could you afford that nice red Porsche parked in the first spot by the door in Arlington Heights?? That's def a different conversation lol.
Yes - this is what I was getting at. Do we start to look at guidlines, requirements that are dictated by leagues in order to ensure these clubs provide a good soccer experience. Sure the ones I mentioned may be doing just fine - but the point is that there are plenty out there that you outlined which are just run by a soccer-dad or a coach who thinks they can do it better. Sockers u10 boys played one of these teams at SC one winter way back when. For some reason the idiot keeping score tracked all 31 goals that the Sockers boys posted on this small club team. We were up next and all us parents were just wondering if the parents on the small team were going to demand their money back? Heck I started a club for 2 seasons a very long time ago - I should have never been allowed to do that! The E & D never came close to preparing me for what I needed as a coach or in terms of how to run a club. I sucked!