Back in the 2000s when I played, there were two levels of regular youth soccer, recreational and competitive. You had recreational players who played in town or at most the neighboring towns, and competitive players would travel around. That was it. I didn’t keep up with specifics over the years, but it’s gotten obscene at this point. Didn’t ECNL used to only be girls, and DA was boys, then NPL was both? It’s absolutely ridiculous now. Not enough to have MLSN, now there’s multiple levels of MLSN. Not enough to have ECNL, now there’s also ECNL-RL, and it’s boys and girls. But then boys also have Elite Academy, and girls have Girls Academy. Plus there’s NPL. And they claim that the different leagues prepare players for different futures. Then there’s all these divisions within the lower competitive levels. State premier, gold, silver, bronze, etc. A local club just numbers their teams based on what level they play, and a few age groups have 3 and even 4 teams within it, playing in different divisions. It’s such a ridiculous cash grab. I’m not sure who’s fault it is, probably the parents needing to have their kid in a “competitive” sport even if their skill is barely above recreational. You ask me, there should be MLSN for boys (and have the actual team academies separate, only playing each other), and ECNL for girls (maybe parter them with NWSL) as the top leagues. Then you have NPL for both as the “high” competitive level, and one “low” competitive level. Everyone else plays recreational.
And the Pointed Man said: “A point in every direction is the same as no point at all.” A fine movie, but an even better album.
I think I've "made it." To the point where I'm comfortable. I was doing the U19M whistle season opener for our state's MLSNEXT 'Homegrown' (Tier 1) club this morning and I give a yellow for a late, reckless tackle against the away team. I hear "Soft, that's soft! C'mon ref" in Spanish. I look up and he has a wry smile, I flash one back at him. It was the Executive Director of the Home Team. They didn't win (1-4) but after the game he met me in the parking lot and we greeted each other with a grasp/handshake/hug combo like we hadn't seen each other in years (I saw him 3? months ago) and wished each other well for the start of the season. That is why I officiate. In a competitive environment, my crew does well enough that even the ED of a club knows they're losing and getting cautioned, they're still in good hands and trust me to do the job at hand. (In hindsight, probably should have gotten that game eval'd -- it was a good game.)
Yes, we're so "Elite" at the youth level that it's trickled down to the USMNT with a trouncing from South Korea last night at home and a culture where you have to beg players to play over the summer.
Recreation levels have dropped significantly nationally since 2000. Club level used to be competitive back then, but many are glorified recreation leagues now. Yes, it was not that long ago that ECNL was girls only. With all of the changes and "mergers" the past few years alone, they are not even hiding that youth soccer is a cash grab and has nothing to do with "player development". No one can be shamed any more.
Yeah, my area has a handful of recreational teams in each league that are U14, U16, and U19. Everything else is “competitive”. I guess when you have 2 or 3 different levels of “competitive”, it makes sense that there’s barely any rec teams. And that’s not even including the lettered leagues. Oh, and of course then you even have ECNL level teams who play league games against non-ECNL opponents, usually NPL or similar, and you can hardly even tell which team is which…
it’s been an evolution over time I youth sports. Once upon a time, club was really about higher level play. But clubs realized they could make money as parents would still r Writs checks at lower levels of play—whether for the experience or from delusions of college scholarships. (My son played high school hoops at a reasonably high level—but he wasn’t a player on his HS team getting scholarship offers; in a club game, I was listening to other parents talk about how important it was their kid got a scholarship. I bit my tounge from explaining I there wasn’t a single kid on the court we were on that was going to get a scholarship. Despite the misleading seating section reserved for college coaches, all the scouting was going on at the courts with the higher level play. But delusional parents on our court thought they were investing in college for their sons.]
Colorado Soccer · U.S. Soccer has launched the Green Badge Initiative for the 2025–2026 season and we’re proud to support it here in Colorado. #RespectTheCall campaign. This badge is a visual reminder to show respect, patience, and encouragement for our youngest officials. What’s the Green Badge Mean? For all referees under 18 Worn all season, even if they turn 18 mid-year Part of the ongoing #RespectTheCall campaign
Basically, yes. In most countries, you have recreational-ish, then professional academies. No in-between. We have that giant middle tier that other countries somehow manage to do without. (I'm sure the top division of a youth "rec" league in Barcelona or Milan has a quality level that doesn't exist in 99% of US travel team.)
Be careful about saying that there isn't much recreational soccer in a large US city. There are lots of places rec soccer is played like AYSO and Park Districts or Parks Departments. I played "House League" which is organized by a competitive club. I pretty commonly see adult pickup games, sometimes organized around an ethnic community, with no refs.
Clubs come and go. Leagues come and go. Call it what it is. It is still just recreation and travel. Many many more leagues making their case that they are the best, but they are all watered down.
Hearing people call it “travel” confused me. But the nomenclature is probably different depending on area of the country. But even with all the different competitive “levels” we have, I only distinguish them myself as the separate letter leagues (MLS, ECNL, EA, GA), then NPL, then “competitive” (the rest)
when you use 'recreation' it is mainly describing the large portion of what I call 'travel'. Most towns/town clubs have 'recreation' or in-house types of leagues. the separate leagues, along with some east coast crap like EDP or NEAL etc. become 'premier' leagues.
Wait, you lump 'travel' in with 'recreation'? Travel always indicated that you had to try out and make the team. That morphed into saying 'select' at some point which is more accurate, but it was still interchangeable with 'travel'. "Recreation" is pretty distinct as being 'if you sign up you're on a team' and games are in-town with minimal exception. All the letter leagues are 'travel', 'select', or ..... just not recreation and all claim a certain level.
My club sponsors rec programs that are yes essentially sign up and play. We also have community-based Travel teams that include tryouts, and play against other clubs around the area (or for the top Travel division, around PA-West [which means some ridiculous drives for yoof games]). Kids in my town/club may also play on competitive clubs/teams, with coaches in man-buns and 3/4-length pants.
You forgot to add "and talk with furrin accents, cause that means they know what they're talking about"
I don't. But it seems several on here when they refer to some matches that they call 'recreation' in mind is a 'travel' match. In our basic level of travel in this area, there are various levels. Some are teams that have had tryouts, others are basically teams without tryouts. They tend to occupy the lower divisions. Then there is the hybrid of the two where 'tryouts' are held but basically everyone will make the team or are ranked for more than one team. No club is going to turn down parents willing to pay. To me, recreation is the town club where every week the games are played at the same location, no travel required.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that's all.”
As someone that used to run a large youth program, I agree that this is still the traditional definition of what "recreation soccer" is. Kids who are playing on the same fields each week in the same community. Having said that, I'm seeing travel programs with as much as SEVEN flights in certain age groups, with the bottom 2 or 3 resembling your traditional town "recreation soccer league". In some cases, it's WAY worse that the rec divisions that we had in our town, which were actually quite competitive considering it was not travel. I would have no problem with people considering this recreation soccer as well since club leagues originally only had a flight or two in every age division over 20 years ago and now anyone can join since everything is about the money.