I believe they (USL2 staff) work with the coaching staff of the various schools. The schools want/need/require their kids to play in the Summer league. So, I believe they are heavily involved with placing their kids with a USL2 team.
They also hold open tryouts. Here are a couple of examples of announcements I have seen in the past few months. Many of them have already passed. The tryouts are often during winter break or spring break for many schools or right after school ends in May https://www.sfglens.com/tryouts https://www.goballardfc.com/tryouts/ https://azarsenalsc.org/usl-2/arizona-arsenal-soccer-club-usl-2 https://www.vcfusion.com/usl2-tryouts https://www.montereybayfc.com/mbfc2-tryouts/ https://www.fctucson.com/open-tryout/
They can go tryout if they are local to the team or willing to travel. The USL2 teams often schedule the tryouts around school breaks so the kids can attend. A lot of it is based on college coach placement and there is a recruitment process too. Similar to the college process players send highlight videos, full matches and stats/accolades to the coaches. The best USL2 teams do a great job recruiting and you can tell because a lot of their rosters are a mix of local kids and kids from all over the country/internationals as well.
It's all over the place. No team builds their roster the same. Most good USL2 teams are done by December, at the latest. Most good USL2 teams don't value open tryouts, even the bad ones don't value the tryouts either.
USL2 also isn't the only way for college kids to get game action over the summer. Sometimes you can get more regular playing time with a good UPSL team. It's hit or miss, but some of the UPSL teams are pretty strong in the larger metro areas.
There's a lot more out there than UPSL, and a lot more quality in clubs and operations. You have NPSL as well, but several regional leagues bring much more quality than UPSL can bring -- especially as a whole.
As I said, it's hit or miss, but I would definitely not dismiss it out of hand with that kind of broad brush statement. In LA, for example, LAFC Academy and LA Galaxy Academy both enter teams in UPSL Premier. You see a lot of MLS and even USL academies doing that nowadays to provide more game time for the U19/MLSNP players and to try to get them experience playing against the older, more physical, players, that they used to see when they had their reserve teams in USL Championship. It probably depends upon your region as to whether the league and other teams are well organized, but the pro academies wouldn't put their players there if they thought there was a lot of nonsense going on. I know D1 players from area schools who played with UPSL teams because they wanted to stay in the area and VC Fusion and Redlands FC were too far away.
At one point there were around 8-12 MLS academies in UPSL. Of course they are going to be more quality. Have you seen the turnover rate in UPSL? That high of rate isn’t great — not for quality and not for legitimacy. I know clubs that entered and played 1-2 games before dropping out. I also know some MLS academies are stepping away from UPSL, and rightfully so. One I saw was up 15-0 at halftime one game. In the end, PLAYING is the most important aspect. Go where you can play. People want to prop a league over another, but it doesn’t matter if the player isn’t playing. Sure, training is good, and training at a high level is great, but players still need match experience in the “offseason.”
I definitely agree with the last point. Every year I see players hook up with a summer team and get very little playing time on those teams.
A lot of good players playing in the Northwest USL2 Conference. Kids from all sorts of conferences. Ballard and West Seattle look tough.
I believe usl2 clubs do not need to find a roster. Obviously it comes to them. This is why it's starting to quickly get watered down. I think primarily it's a function of the players college level, resume, video, and geography. If your D1 and send resume to your home team, your in. If your D2 your going to send resume to several teams and find a spot I don't know if there are are "private" tryouts for college players but the open tryouts, any open tryout for that matter is nothing but a money grab. I'll say 1 in 10 chance at an open tryout. Our experience... Usl2 clubs only want college players. My son is 19, D1 talent but playing UPSL previous, was in a USL-A program, trained with a USL2 in top 5 of power rankings at the time... I had to beat the door down to get a trial after a really strong usl2 open tryout. Lastly, I think new usl2 teams coming online, getting m Grant money from local municipalities to pay for franchise fee... In this case, ethnicity and ties to community are important... We opted for NPSL opportunity. All D2 players as far as I know. Couldn't compete with top teams in a USL2 conference but maybe third...for sure , middle of table minimum. Professionally run and organized. Some of the new usl2 teams are run extremely bad, similar to UPSL....no business plan to put butts in seats and transient rosters Why would you get into a money loser if you can't at least develop players,??! As mentioned above...UPSL is a shit show. It's a high end mens league. Players are scrambling... Owners are idiots. With all of this I am speaking from first hand experience directly or knowing coaches,directors or personnel. Independent leagues by and large are doing it the best. Support NPSL, mwpl, NISA, find a team you can connect with and root for, tailgate and have a pleasant night !!!
Saw tha West Seattle Junction had almost 1000 fans at the match with drums beating and chants going. It seems that the NW Conference has many teams that are connected with breweries which is a good thing I guess.