The ECNL "All In Thread"

Discussion in 'Youth & HS Soccer' started by VolklP19, Mar 26, 2019.

  1. Ellejustus

    Ellejustus New Member

    None
    United States
    Apr 6, 2020
    Socal
    Amen!!!
     
  2. Smsoccer

    Smsoccer New Member

    Manchester City
    United States
    Apr 6, 2020
    AMEN BROTHER!!!
     
  3. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    Could you integrate MRL into this? Move the bottom feeders into Prem1 and Prem2. If a Prem1 team wins it all - they advance to ECNL/GDA as a team. Then you would have a more unified platform/pyramid. GDA and ECNL will have to bend some rules to make this happen but at the same time MRL could adopt some concepts to improve their own programing - such as coaches education.

    This could also help to eliminate some travel at the lower ends - thusly reducing costs.
     
  4. illinisoccer

    illinisoccer Member

    Aug 15, 2005
    Chicago, IL
    Doesn’t work for scheduling. ECNL and DA are club vs club weekends. Also no chance Eclipse or other clubs with 2 teams in ECNL are going to allow their weaker team to drop out of the platform
     
  5. GotSoccerIsDumb

    Fire
    United States
    May 30, 2019
    Stumbled on the ECNL BoD, which you can find in their handbook: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ya76luba477yqi/2019 - 2020 ECNL Member Club Handbook.pdf?dl=0

    Note the fact that there's only one woman and she doesn't actually work in their league. I've included their club affiliations.

    ECNL Board of Directors:
    At-Large: Christian Lavers (FC Wisconsin)
    At-Large: Mike O’Neill (PDA)
    At-Large: Doug Landefeld (MI Hawks)
    At-Large: Sarah Kate Noftsinger (ATL United Dir. of Marketing)
    Mid-Atlantic Conference: Jay Howell (Richmond Utd)
    Midwest Conference: Rory Dames (Eclipse)
    Northeast Conference: Jason Dewhurst (FC Stars)
    Northwest Conference: Patrick Urizo (Mustangs)
    Ohio Valley Conference: Doug Bracken (Ohio Elite)
    Southeast Conference: Campbell Chapman (GSA)
    SouthwestConference: Tom Amick (Heat FC)
    Texas Conference: Kenny Medina (Sting)
     
  6. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    ECNL would be better served without clubs running the board IMO.
     
  7. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    What is the official stance on womens pay in soccer from the ECNL?

    Oh and who changed the birth date all the way down to rec?

    ECNL is not perfect but I fail to see how they have adversely impacted so many players for no reason at all.
     
  8. GotSoccerIsDumb

    Fire
    United States
    May 30, 2019
    5 of them also have two teams from their club in the league. It’s all about money and control. Is anyone beginning to see why there’s still clubs that want the DA? Take the federation out of the picture and I guarantee they’ll just start a new league.
     
  9. GotSoccerIsDumb

    Fire
    United States
    May 30, 2019
    Well considering all their higher ups and major benefactors profiting off a girls sports in the ECNL are men, if they came out and stood for equality would you really believe them? One thing to talk, another to do. Girls DA higher ups are women. Unfortunately it’s not the whole federation but it’s the part of the federation that they control. To me that speaks louder than any words.

    And for birth year, what’s stopping you or anyone else from running a rec league in school year? You run the league, you make the rules. Design your teams in school year and call the divisions “red” “Dortmund” “daisys”, whatever. They can technically be a U12 birth year division and consist of a blend of U11/U12 which is what most rec leagues do anyway. So what’s really the problem? How has birth year devastated the soccer landscape? Because when the teams got adjusted some kids can’t play with their classmates anymore? They just got the best opportunity to make new friends and if their old
    teammates lose touch then they weren’t good friends to begin with. Many youth sports aren’t broken down by class year. Most football, wrestling, hockey leagues are broken down by size (featherweight, bantamweight, etc.) and they’ve been fine. It’s had no impact on college soccer because talent determines where you end up and talent has no age requirement. If the only way you can get onto college soccer is by changing the age rules you shouldn’t be in college soccer. If you play “competitive soccer” just to be with your friends you’re doing it wrong.
     
  10. Ellejustus

    Ellejustus New Member

    None
    United States
    Apr 6, 2020
    Socal
    It's over bro. Sorry, but that GDA league was a joke and full of one big lie. We can develop your Sally into a World-Class Soccer Player. World-Class, my ass!!! ECNL is a private business with some dudes that saw a need to help girls get into college and they built a successful company. Dumb dumbs from GDA forced birth age change on all of us, no HS Soccer ((except for the rich private school kids)) and used the YNT List as the carrot to sucker everyone over. ECNL is top dog again and CL has all the leverage now. He will make a top tier league that is truly Elite with Elite soccer players and everyone will know who the top teams are. No more watered down soccer. Teams in ECNL do not have a guarantee for next season to be top tier. That G D A league was weak and had no defense. Hat tricks every weekend with scores like 14-0, 11-1, 7-0, 10-0, 9-1 every weekend. Socal will be #1 again and we won;t have to travel that much. ECNL SW Conference will be incredible. I would suggest ECNL do a better job and add a few more woman. Enjoy the new leagues if that is the choice for some of you.
     
  11. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    I am affraid it does not work that way.
     
  12. GotSoccerIsDumb

    Fire
    United States
    May 30, 2019
    Why not? What would happen if you designed age groups U8/9, U9/10, U10/11, and so on, then designed your teams in school year? You wouldn’t be breaking the birth year mandate because players would still be playing in their birth year, it those birth years are just blended in division.
     
  13. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    Because you have leagues that have clubs that follow rules that have parents that complain when they find out we are not following the same processes. A good chunk of running a club is managing parents and working with other clubs. If you have 20 plus clubs and not everyone is on board - you cannot just make changes that impact play.

    Rec play especially depends on working together with other communities - playing nice and agreeing on a set of standards that everyone follows.

    Additionally, if you don't have the numbers - it makes it very hard (either way) to extend teams.
     
  14. William49

    William49 Member

    Nov 11, 2015
    Chicagoland
    The rest of the world...and by that I mean an overwhelming, super-majority of modern, industrialized countries...use birth year to determine school-age eligibility for their children. From there, all non-school based youth developmental programs in those countries are designed to comport with their children's school schedules.

    In other words, If for some reason those countries decided to move their school eligibility date to March 1st, all of their other programs, including soccer, would also move to March 1st.

    The reality is there's only one country in the world that uses birth year to determine youth soccer eligibility: The United States.

    The Schaumburg Rec. program has done this for 35 years. Why? Because many of District 54's elementary schools operate multi-age classrooms, i.e. 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th.
     
  15. VolklP19

    VolklP19 Member+

    Jun 23, 2010
    Illinois
    Thats also a huge program I would imagine. The communities around me (less 2 which run inter-league programming exclusively) are very small.
     
  16. William49

    William49 Member

    Nov 11, 2015
    Chicagoland
    Oh, absolutely. It's because that program is so large that they can comply with best practices, which from a developmental standpoint is keeping kids in the same peer groups that they're being socialized to, 7 hours-a-day/9 months-a-year.
     
  17. The Stig

    The Stig Member

    Jun 28, 2016
    A little thought experiment.

    USYS works with its member leagues to develop a hierarchy.

    USYS brings GA in to sit on top as the "National League" at the top of a Pro/Rel pyramid.

    USYS then kicks out NPL and ECNL clubs from participation in their leagues unless the clubs put their top team in the most appropriate USYS league.

    How long does ECNL last?
     
  18. upper left

    upper left Member

    Crystal Palace
    Uruguay
    Jan 27, 2018
    https://www.change.org/p/the-ecnl-board-tophat-acceptance-in-ecnl

    This appears to have been written by some current TopHat players. Gotta feel bad for the players. Arguably the best girls club in the country, in the biggest city in the southeast, and they have to travel hundreds of miles to find a team to play after getting the silent treatment from ECNL.

    There is a lot of bad blood down there, and TH really burned the bridge they left behind when selecting GDA over ECNL a couple years ago. So, TH getting shut out was neither surprising or upsetting to most. However, it does show how petty, selfish, and insecure ECNL leadership can be. Good businessmen (yes, all men), but not necessarily great champions of developing the sport.
     
  19. ytrs

    ytrs Member+

    Jan 24, 2018
    What did TH do to burn that bridge? Genuine question as I am not aware.
     
  20. illinisoccer

    illinisoccer Member

    Aug 15, 2005
    Chicago, IL
    Pretty sure all they did was pull out of the ECNL and put their teams in GDA. Other clubs stayed loyal by entering their second team in the ECNL while they were competing in the GDA.
     
  21. ytrs

    ytrs Member+

    Jan 24, 2018
    Surf and Real So Cal did the same thing as TH and were invited back.
     
  22. SoccerPop314

    SoccerPop314 Member

    Fire
    United States
    Apr 24, 2020
    My limited knowledge of girls top level soccer, it seems the Girls Academy League (formerly GDA) seems to be more interested in maximizing development of soccer players. ECNL seems more like a money grab that just focuses on revenue generation by promises of college exposure and fielding as many teams as they can.

    As of right now I'm favoring the Girls Academy League when my daughter gets to that age.
     
  23. ytrs

    ytrs Member+

    Jan 24, 2018
    Well that is quite the shallow assessment. GA does not even exist yet. It is not the former DA. Many of the top DA clubs are now ECNL clubs. Other non-former DA clubs are in the GA. GA is a new concept that was created a couple of weeks ago, and being led by the clubs themselves, not US Soccer. Talk about a leap of judgement ... or agenda. I have had kids in ECNL for 4 years. It is a tremendous league. Great competition, great organization, great platform. Player development comes down to individual coaches, not leagues.
     
  24. Hitcat

    Hitcat Member

    Chicago Fire
    Germany
    Feb 7, 2020
    I stand by my assessment that ECNL depending on the region actively keeps clubs out. ECNL is "top dog" yet 21/22 players on the USWNT came from ODP. We'll see 4 yrs from now but I'd be shocked if you had more than a single ECNL player.
     

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