Lots going on for the ladies in Reg II at the top clubs. Magic has been building quality teams with TY leading the way. They have never had anywhere near the amount of good teams for the girls as they have today. SK is bringing in many new faces for Sockers FC in Naperville and SCH continues to pull in some of the best players around to add to their top NPL and ECNL teams. Eclipse is sustaining and building at the older ages but not blowing the doors off at the younger ages. Fire on the other hand - 63 teams in the IWSL which is huge! And while they are more quantity than quality, they do have some solid top teams at the lower ages - more than any other club out there. Question is - are Magic and Fire only the best of the rest - just like Campton and Galaxy when it comes to developing players who are just going to leave for Eclipse and Sockers to get time on an ECNL team? Or will Fire and Magic have a go at it and try to get into ECNL play altogether?
The Fire and Magic are pretty far down the pecking order on the girls side. FC United is well established as the top club outside ECNL. Their feeder club, trevian, does a great job developing at a young age. NSA and Team Chicago are next along with Campton. Fire West has some excellent u8-u11 teams but it seems like a lot of their girls leave at older ages to the better clubs. Fire South is improving. If they ever form a single club from all their locations then they maybe be able to keep more players and challenge. The Magic seems really up and down depending on the age and location. They added a staff member from the Galaxy to step up their presence in Naperville. We will see how that goes as the competition in that area is fierce.