Does anyone have thoughts on the NISL Select program? It looks like it has been opened up for U11 this year and I'm just wondering if it is a well run program and worthwhile to tryout. I see it is run out of Soccer City, are the coaches from Sockers?
in the past I have heard its poorly organized. Anything Nisl does is unorganized. my kids club in the past left NISL and started doing YSSL instead
Are you familiar with the ODP program? If so this basically the US Club version of ODP (which is run by USYS), just a lot smaller in scale. If not, both models are pay to sign up and do some trainings. Then they select some kids for games played against other states, which you are also charged for. Neither one is particularly amazing training but it can be fun to get out of your club bubble and meet some new people, maybe measure your talents against other kids. We did ODP for a few years, and NISL for one and it was a good experience, but lost significant value as kids got older and moved to better teams and stopped participating. Overall I’d say U11 is a good time to try it out so long as you don’t mind the cash and have reasonable expectations. I don’t think the coaches all come from Sockers but rather from various teams in NISL, which might include a couple Sockers guys.
Appreciate it, but it really isn't my app. I agree that Mark and his team have put in some tremendous work on this, and have changed the youth soccer world for the better.
I also think the FCU as a club may be off more than they would be if they had all their teams categorized under that one FCU club correctly in SR. Last time I looked they had some under Trevian, and others in a different version of FC United club name. It is calculating the team ratings based on the games assigned to the team entity - but the team needs to be in the right club for it to influence the club rating. If anyone's curious, they could look at all of the top teams for FCU within SR, and make sure that they actually are all of FCU's top teams, and those aren't scattered within other club entities.
How do you think the change from birth year back to the way it was a few years ago will effect the area ECNL and GA clubs?
It’s of course hard to say what will happen at each club even if the change passes. Will the clubs “make” impacted existing players move teams or keep people together for continuity? If they make people move teams does that provide impetus for some folks to just try a new club at that point? In essence how exactly does the deck of players get shuffled around. Overall my guess is not much changes on a relative basis but some of the individual local teams with gaudy records may be less dominant due to changed chemistry. Of course non local teams will be dealing with the same thing so maybe the divisional standings are also reasonably the same.
There are rumors/leaks out this week that they will be delaying the implementation until Fall 2026 - still unclear whether ECNL or others will go ahead early.
This is a personal attack - all of yall posting them may lose access to this forum. Stop ********ing immediately.
It would be nice if families had more time to adjust, and it would also give high school-aged players a chance to figure things out. I was talking to a mom about the shift from grad years to birth years and how some teams are telling players they won’t make changes. She made a great point: it’s nearly impossible for most clubs to make those promises because of the cascade effect. Here’s why: the 06/07s will have a mix of 07s who haven’t graduated yet, and those players will likely push down into the 07/08 teams next year. The younger 08s will move into the 2027 grad year, joining the older 09s. Then, the younger 09s (2028 grad year) will combine with the older 2010s, and so on. This ripple effect means promises of teams staying together often won’t hold up because the movement from the older groups will force adjustments at every level to make room.
I apologize for being late stepping in. I've deleted several posts, and I'll echo what @dark knight says--the personal attacks have to stop immediately. I apologize again for being so lax in overseeing this thread.
I really think that larger clubs where kids are looking to play college need to enforce the change. Frankly, if my child was a younger birth year, I would want my child to continue to "play up" to get exposure to colleges earlier. Then in their junior year, I would then let them play their actual grade because most recruiters aren't looking at the seniors anymore. This will cause chaos if clubs allow parents to dictate what they want.
Whatever is decided in terms of it being a go or not (plenty of reasons on both sides to prefer BY or SY), announcing the change and then deferring it for another year doesn't seem to benefit anybody. Those in favor of no change still know that their existing team will likely be significantly impacted in a year (and this will impact retainment and recruitment right now), and those in favor of the change know that the team they are looking forward to will now be delayed a year (and this will impact retainment and recruitment right now).
Looks like Camptons facebook page has been completely hijacked. Way to keep your eye on the ball https://www.facebook.com/camptonunitedsc
Looks like they have teams playing as recently as last weekend (link), so it sure appears they are around. The hacked FB page is comical - I sure hope that's an AI bot, or someone is spending way too much time finding/posting memes.
Nationals and Galaxy had friendlies this weekend. Does anyone know the scores of those games? Thank you!
I see a lot of talk on the ECNL and GA leagues - is USYS Elite 64 / Elite 64 regional on the radar? I know that a lot of people have complained about too many leagues diluting the talent..
There’s nothing inherently wrong with those leagues, but they often don’t garner as much attention because the most serious and dedicated players (along with some of the most intense parents) tend to compete in the top two leagues:ECNL, which is widely regarded as the best, and GA, which follows as the second strongest. USYS leagues, while competitive at younger ages, generally become less impactful at the high school level. However, there are a few strong teams nationally within USYS that could hold their own against ECNL or GA teams. That said, it’s common to see some of these non-ECNL/GA teams overhyped, only to underperform when matched up against the top-tier teams from the leading leagues. For players aiming to play in college—especially at the Division 1 level—moving out of USYS leagues and into ECNL or GA as early as possible is the best path forward.
Here in Kansas City, we heard from a club director (non-ECNL) that it would likely be 2026, but my daughter plays ECNL, and their club has plans to go ahead with it in 2025.
I don't know the scores but I heard this: Galaxy vs ECNL: 2012: L 2011: T 2010: L 2009: L 2008: W 2007/06: L Galaxy vs RL 2010: W 2009: W 2008: W 2007: T
Wonderful summary here. Having an '04 and now an '09, there was not nearly as much emphasis on the importance of ECNL with my older daughter and the GA was too new. Back then, there were still a lot of girls from USYS getting looks from college coaches and it's just simply not as much right now. A lot of teams left the USYS so there isn't the same amount of competition as there once was. My '09 did just fine with USYS in her early years and we felt the competition was great. As she got older, she wanted something more and most of the girls in her USYS club went to ECNL or GA teams.