Seems reasonable, but I wouldn't discount the 09's much yet, they are currently 7-3-3, and take a look at the teams they have beaten.
While results shouldn't be the end all be all of it, they most certainly have to play a part otherwise why do we play the game? Looking at the results throughout each of the clubs (ECNL HS ages at least) gives us a picture of who competes at the highest level and who develops (or at least recruits) the best players. Many other things likely should be taken into consideration (coaching, facilities, structure) but does ECNL really care about those things? I'm not privy to a lot of that as it sounds like you are - can we please have the info on new teams as you mentioned from a few weeks ago - As for GA teams being able to compete we'll never really know until everyone comes under one umbrella. So we'll never really know! I feel like there are ways to do promotion and relegation but those clubs at the top may not want that to happen.
Agree with some things and respectfully disagree with others. All good. The promotion and relegation thing will always come back to two things.... putting wins above all else. And I don't agree with that for the vast majority of age groups for kids, especially 14 and under. And club resources. Many many of the clubs throughout the country cannot support two clubs playing in two separate leagues at the same time. That is a resource issue that will never go away (for most clubs) and will always make promotion nearly impossible. I can safely say in Wisconsin there is not a single club who could manage multiple teams in multiple leagues mainly based on coaching numbers. As for the GA teams thing. We can agree to disagree here. For the most part, Nationals and the other GA clubs that joined the ECNL this year (even though I don't think two are even in season yet) gave us our answer. Is it 100% certain. Of course not. But you're right, we'll never actually know. I gotta hunch though. I was told that a influx of GA teams coming over again this winter/spring was incredibly highly probably most unlikely. Pretty sure nothing in Chicago changes. The ECNL wants to focus on promoting RL teams up (good news for Libertyville though), and is telling clubs specifically that multiple teams within a club that finish top 1-3 consistently have the best shot. Those people (ECNL leadership) really do believe that as of right now, there is very minimal difference between the GA and the RL. Call it stubborn, call it over confidence, call it whatever or a mixture of it all, they won't do it just to do it. They feel very strongly that letting those teams in will not improve the ECNL. I still disagree with some of that. If you're asking if the ECNL cares about club structure, facilities, and coaching the answer is yes. That pain in the ass application process makes that well known. Also throw in club history, willingness to work well with others and not do dumb shit (looking at a certain club in Naperville area), and even recruiting history are all part of who gets in. Agree with the winning point you made, I just don't know how to win at all costs, while developing every kid on a roster in youth sports.
I meant more because of their place in the the standings, they won't be in the Champions League stuff. Not that they're not capable. I thought it was top 4-5. I could very well be incorrect though.
I don't think it's one extreme or the other. Both are wrong. Clubs need to have winning teams to retain kids. Kids (and their parents) need to enjoy being there and see value, on all levels of their teams, or the club won't succeed. If coaches/teams are focused on winning above all else and sacrificing everything else you need to do to retain kids/families as they grow in the club, it will fail sooner or later. If instead they focus too little on winning and due to that the teams *aren't* winning, the unavoidable fact is that there will be increasing attrition. Clubs sell success, and everything that goes along with it. If they don't have good teams at the top, it gets awful hard to keep them smelling like success. Pro/rel has several advantages, including the ability of a team that is overperforming its peers at its current level to compete at a higher level the next season. Without it, there is no guarantee that winning the championship means much, other than they can try and do it the next year. While if the team isn't already playing at the highest level, those kids whose talent rewarded them with the championship, will start looking for higher quality teams/leagues. There are plenty of examples of pro/rel working well and providing opportunities for individuals and teams, while there are plenty of examples where it didn't work well, and gave the wrong incentives for a club to improve each of their teams along the way. The 09s are 6th in bracket right now, that's true, but they have also played 13 games with only 3 losses. I'd check back in another 10-15 games to see where things stand.
Illinois has hired a new head coach for the women’s team. She comes from Grand Valley State with a pretty impressive record in her 3 years in charge. Her predecessor has been successful at Iowa. Hopefully she can make connections with the top talent in the state as recently most of those girls have gone to other Big Ten or ACC and SEC schools.
She's a heck of a coach and GVSU is considered one of the best D2 programs out there. That's a dang good hire by them especially being that there are only 2 more P4 jobs still open.
The Illini AD has been on a roll with coaching hires. Revived the women’s basketball that was dead for two decades. Hopefully the same will happen with soccer. This state is too talented not to have a quality team in Champaign.
Men's hoops is also in a better place than it had been in a while. The football program's respectable again, too, which is a tough one to achieve in Champaign. I've been to the new soccer stadium a few times and it seems nice to me, but do you have any sense how the facilities stack up against the schools they compete with to recruit in-state players?
Yes plus track & field was revived from the dead by a great hire. Illinois’ facilities are as good as anyone’s. The facilities arms raced has kind of cooled off as all of the Big Ten, SEC and ACC have outstanding facilities thanks to the big money contracts from football and basketball. Soccer has nice fields to train on, go inside to the football practice field in the winter, and have access to outstanding strength and conditioning staff.
Does anyone pay much attention to the "Pre-ECNL" Age groups yet? I was surprised to see Eclipse from IL not in any of the leagues, and their 2013 girls just completed an MWC sessions going undefeated and like 48-0 goal differential. I think their only. non win was against Chicago Inter's 2013 team.
I don’t follow Pre ECNL closely, but I looked and found that Eclipse, Inter, and Rockford sent Pre ECNL teams to the Fall National Showcase in St. Louis this past September. It appears that Eclipse sent two teams for the 2013 age group. Here are the results: - 2013 Inter: 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss - 2013 Eclipse-A: 1 win and 2 losses - 2013 Eclipse-B: 0 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw - 2013 Rockford: 0 wins and 3 losses
Wow not as good as expected for Eclipse! IIRC the MWC games happened after that showcase, so either something clicked for that squad or the competition in the MWC was subpar.
They show as the #2 2013G team in IL. But still only #122 nationally, so it's not surprising they'd run into significantly stronger teams when travelling.
I don't mean this in a rude way, but at those levels, it just means so little. There is an eternity of things that will happen to all of those teams and everything is very fluid. A team good be good in fall and go crazy in spring.