Let me guess.....the a-hole coach is Rory, but you wished Nesci was coaching. Therefore, instead of Eclipse you daughter is playing for Sockers. Am I right?
Tough choices. But even excellent stand-alone teams are vulnerable to instability and fragmentation these days. Your dd needs to get to the top showcases from now thru U-17 and in order to do that she probably needs the support and validation of a reputable club so I'd go with the ECNL club team. There is an excellent book coming out that makes this point pretty convincingly and has lots of helpful data on the recruiting process.
Interesting that you dissed this comment "players develop themselves if just allowed to play the game all the time" when in the thread "How to judge a coach" ? the last line of your last post..."They play the game and learn"...seems to be in total agreement with what I said...??
Something to be said for all three, but I recommend a high caliber club (unless the team is USYS National League). Helpful book on precisely this question from a Parent's perspective available thru Kindle/amazon -- "It's all about the club: A Parent's journey through the wilderness of girls' youth soccer." check it out.
The senior striker at our school got a scholarship offer at North Carolina in the summer between her sophomore and junior years.....and did this without playing a single minute of ecnl.....she did it by impressing at the N.C. summer soccer camps.....so far at our high school she has 28 goals in 10 games this season.....maybe Anson and his staff actually do know what they're doing..Maybe kids should just go to the soccer camps of the schools they want to go to.....thus saving their parents a ton of $$ with all this 'ecnl' crap...
It is....my player figured it out for herself....took her game to them, impressed the heck out of the North Carolina staff at their own camps and got a scholarship....if you can actually PLAY this game then this is the way to go....pick a school....go to their summer camps....get your scholarship...
Chiming in late here.............but you cannot dismiss the impact that ECNL has had on girls soccer. We are just back from the Dallas National Event and the amount of coaches/recruiters and the caliber of the schools if extremely impressive. Not to say that an exceptional player out there NOT playing for an ECNL team won't get looked at, they most certainly will. But adding ECNL to your resume will definately not hurt, if you have a choice. Ego trip or not.
Ummmmmm....NUMBER TWO OF COURSE! Why would anyone even debate it? Your kid is GOOD TODAY right? What about tomorrow? A GREAT COACH will teach your kid about tomorrow's game and have her well prepared. "A national-level club with a good team and a good coach" is a waste of money if you have a GREAT COACH looking to work with your kid. #1 is good too. However, know there are teams who play older girls on a younger team. Allowed? Heck NO! Is it done to win games? YES!
I really have to disagree with this one! To a point maybe, but no. Kids need to be coached and getting GREAT COACHES early is vital. Just my opinion.
Welcome on board and grow a thick skin....I am ambivalent about club soccer, it has it's good and bad points. I am very much against negative, verbally abusive so called 'coaches' and the clubs who hire them, those who care little about anything other than transferring your money to their pocket. Globally the very best players historically learned to 'play the game' by....playing the game... and it was only when they had demonstrated sufficient skill, balance and the rest at a young age that they were picked up by the pro clubs in their neighborhood. IF one has developed the talent to show something by the age of 10 or so then one has a chance to become great....not just average but GREAT.
I just know How it is where I am from New york city. Or at least tge way it used to be here in NYC.the best coaches here want to coach for a well know club. Why, they have more money behind them to spend on tge team not the coaches. They get invited to invitational tournaments like the Dallas Cup and tournaments out of the country. They are placed in their leagues best divisions. Besides coaching for their club. Some coaches are chosen by their league to coach one of their leagues select teams. I did that we only looked at players who were playing in the leagues best division in each age group for those select teams. Older players here knew that fact. So they would gravitate to the clubs who have teams in the leagues best division. The clubs I coached for we're clubs that had the kind of long reputation that been around for over 50 years or more. Also they had an adult team. But things have changed a bit now. A club in the old days never made money. They always lost money they were not in it to make money. They were in it to promote the game here in the US. Coaches here back then were never paid to coach youth soccer. It was something we did because we loved the game and wanted to pass on to the players to give back to the players what was given to us. The clubs then were started by people who owned things like bars, restraunts that is where their money came from for the club those businesses. Most clubs only charged the youth players a token fee. Most players families had no money. If they did not pay that 50 or 60 dollars a season. Their kids still played and were never asked a second time.
Playing for a good club can give the outstanding players more of an opportunity to play bigger tournaments and get better exposure but playing for great coaches gives the players more of an opportunity to improve their game. It's a double edged sword, with the goal being to find a great club with a great coach. Good luck. It isn't easy.
Eventually, great players will get there, as long as they keep looking if they think their current team is lacking. My son's current team has an okay coach, his teammates are nice for the most part, the goalies are excellent, but the fees are high and the tournaments are weak. His best opportunity was on a great team, with a great coach, then the coach had a falling out with the club, was fired, and then the new coach decided to merge the team with another, and cut my son with no warning. He was upset, and almost quit soccer, but the new coach was not good so he was almost relieved in a way. The club was great by the way, but was too dedicated to being a family-oriented club, which went against retaining great coaches. Point being, if you are sure that the great coach is staying with the club, and the team will stay together, go to that program. A top team can be decimated quite easily, especially if it is a parent coach who wants to get his daughter onto a "top team". This happened with several top five in the US boys teams in my son's age group; in one case, the coach moved with three players to one top club, three players went to another top club, and then there were 12 players who had nowhere to go. They went through all the motions of tryouts and talking about their plans for "next year". The team folded and there was no next year for those 12 players, who then had to shop around well after tryout season. Being on a youth soccer team is like any job. There are times that the situation is perfect - you love the job, you love your responsibilities, you like your boss, you like your co-workers. Anything less than that, either start looking or prioritize. If your child is over 10 years old, they should have some say in where they end up playing.
(2) more options - Pick one OPTION A - Stay on current team which will be playing U16 Regional League top division and in state top division. This would be playing up 1 year. Great coach but lots of dual sport athletes and 1-2 practices per week off-season versus 3-4 days per week off season for other teams. Team plays good soccer but does resort to raw athletic talent when playing against top regional competition and strays away from a "strong possession" style of play. OPTION B: Move back to age group, U15, top team in state (not an ECNL team, ECNL teams "in reasonable drive range" at her age group are pathetic for some reason), great coach, full training year round. Regional league but starting at the bottom division as this is their first year as a team doing regional league. Play the best looking soccer I have seen in terms of first touch, speed of play, ball movement, off-ball movement. That said, I have only seen them against in state competition where they kill everyone.
This 'amount of coaches/recruiters and the caliber of schools is extremely impressive' is a crock....who gave you this list of the coaches/schools in attendance ?...chances are some lowly assistant or some local contact is the person 'representing' this 'impressive' school....the head coach, at this time of year, is running his summer camps on campus and using his top assistants to do so....ecnl is way overrated.
I would personally keep my kid away from a team with a lot of dual-sport athletes and a lot of "raw talent" vs. soccer ability. I want a team where most if not all players want to play soccer in college. I'm also shocked that regular season practices are 3 - 4 times per week; I know of only one U16 boys team in our area that has 3 practices per week and is not academy. I know of no boys teams in the area that regularly have four practices per week. You are lucky there are two choices. Right now, we either pay 3,000 dollars we don't have to keep my son on a B team or join no team and hope for an opportunity to guest and/or join another team. There was another choice, but it was 5,000 dollars, and that is really right out.
Thanks RHRH, I may have mis-typed, the 3-4 days per week is off season training which is October - mid-march in my "neck of the woods." The team her age group has (3) days per week of team training in the off-season and (2) days of open training / Futsal that can be attended as drop in sessions for no additional charge. Tend to agree on training/playing with dedicated soccer players but in many cases the dual sport athletes that are committed to soccer outside of practice are the best soccer players on the field. Top athlete & Skills to boot is tough to beat. That said they are typically outside defenders, wings and sometimes forwards, not really middle of the field players.
You let your kid decide. At 13, they start to seek independence and selecting a soccer team is a great lesson in life. Playing on the wrong U14 team will not set her back. In fact, it will teach her some great lessons on what to look for in a coach, team and league. Even in ECNL the U14's are not really a factor. I think it has been great for my kid just so she can adjust to the play, however, a great player can just as easily adjust at 15. I also make my daughter communicate directly with the coach. This has been a real chore! I have shown up to the fields only to find that practice was cancelled and she did not check her email. We have almost missed changes in practice schedules and bus trips. But the lessons she is learning is helping her become her own player. She is not relying on mommy and daddy to keep her schedule, to pack her bag or to be her voice with the coach. My kid was sick and I made her explain to the coach why she had to take herself out of the game. It led to a very productive dialogue that has strengthened their trust. Had I interjected with the coach, he would have just thought I was being the papa bear trying to protect his girl. Having her explain to him directly helped him understand her and she has started to realize that coaches aren't just guys to impress. They are there to help her develop and they can't do that if she is not at 100%. It has been very hard to pull back and let her take the lead but I am seeing positive results and have confidence she will have a great relationship with her coach by the end of the year. He does not even know my name on the other hand and I am fine with that. I can't play for her so I really have to let her stand on her own two feet.