Girls Academy League Kickoff

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You must be from lycoming. Yup.

Nope, from a school your kid couldn’t get into.

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First of all, what do you mean when you said “that’s when we can compare”. Who are you referring to? Parents? There is no “we” when your daughter is playing soccer. This is her sport not yours. As far as playing ECNL teams that is not going to happen. As a general rule ECNL teams “stay In their own lane” in National or Regional tournaments especially for the high school age groups. In College showcases that is what attracts the coaches seeing ECNL teams playing regionally. That is how they can judge those players they identified previously.

You can be as pedantic as you'd like, but "we" are mostly parents, I think; people on this site.
My daughter's team plays in a very good EDP league and "we" regularly play ECNL teams in tournaments and showcases. Never played a GDA or GAL team though.

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At some point, the GAL will realize that it’s better to let their teams play in non-GAL tournaments and showcases, than avoid them. That’s when we can compare. For now, they are a little afraid of what they might discover.

They may need to let them play out of necessity. Most families would probably rather drive a few states over then get on a plane to fly to CA.

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You can be as pedantic as you'd like, but "we" are mostly parents, I think; people on this site.
My daughter's team plays in a very good EDP league and "we" regularly play ECNL teams in tournaments and showcases. Never played a GDA or GAL team though.

Other poster is correct - by HS very few teams play in non ECNL events. They don't' even have much time in their schedules for it. Its' primarily only the younger teams that don't have as many events. You also might have played the NPL level teams, the R teams as they're now called. In other words, B teams.

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They may need to let them play out of necessity. Most families would probably rather drive a few states over then get on a plane to fly to CA.

I think you are correct about necessity. Someone on the NJ GAL thread posted that their GA team will play at the EDP tournament in Nov.

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Nope, from a school your kid couldn’t get into.

Yup. Chumpy college coach. Probably played high school soccer

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Yup. Chumpy college coach. Probably played high school soccer

You think I didn’t play high school soccer?
Weird

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At some point, the GAL will realize that it’s better to let their teams play in non-GAL tournaments and showcases, than avoid them. That’s when we can compare. For now, they are a little afraid of what they might discover.

No they will never realize this. They are wise. If local travel level clubs or low premier teams win or keep it close (and they will against many GAL clubs) why would anyone waste time and money to get their kid to one of those GAL clubs? Typical national league play ..... Play no one outside our organization and maintain our illusion of all superiority and aloofness! Their motto is, if you can't beat em, don't play em.

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No they will never realize this. They are wise. If local travel level clubs or low premier teams win or keep it close (and they will against many GAL clubs) why would anyone waste time and money to get their kid to one of those GAL clubs? Typical national league play ..... Play no one outside our organization and maintain our illusion of all superiority and aloofness! Their motto is, if you can't beat em, don't play em.

They're not the only league that does that, but in this case it's a very wise move. Losing to Level 2 EDP teams that charge half the money and a fraction of the travel costs isn't a good look.

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They're not the only league that does that, but in this case it's a very wise move. Losing to Level 2 EDP teams that charge half the money and a fraction of the travel costs isn't a good look.

I know .... See ecnl as well .... Ecrl does usually play local games and I am shocked at how many stupid parents bring their kids to those teams a year or so later after their small club team just drubbed them. Lots of stupid people out there that believe bigger is better, higher cost and a sleeve patch are the true badges of quality.

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I know .... See ecnl as well .... Ecrl does usually play local games and I am shocked at how many stupid parents bring their kids to those teams a year or so later after their small club team just drubbed them. Lots of stupid people out there that believe bigger is better, higher cost and a sleeve patch are the true badges of quality.

My kid's ECNL team played in an EDP tournament last year (and is scheduled to do so again this year) and play in Jeff Cup. The truth of the matter is, the level of play and level of college coach attendance is much higher at the ECNL showcases and the bells & whistles are just cool.

That being said, my kid's team played GDA teams at EDP last year and will probably see them again this year even though they're in GAL. They've also had some friendlies with GAL teams, so it's not really a GDA or GAL thing, it's a club thing.

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My kid's ECNL team played in an EDP tournament last year (and is scheduled to do so again this year) and play in Jeff Cup. The truth of the matter is, the level of play and level of college coach attendance is much higher at the ECNL showcases and the bells & whistles are just cool.

That being said, my kid's team played GDA teams at EDP last year and will probably see them again this year even though they're in GAL. They've also had some friendlies with GAL teams, so it's not really a GDA or GAL thing, it's a club thing.

What age group are you talking about. My daughter plays ECNL and her team has not played in any non ECNL tournaments or showcases or tournaments without ECNL brackets since she started high school.

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What age group are you talking about. My daughter plays ECNL and her team has not played in any non ECNL tournaments or showcases or tournaments without ECNL brackets since she started high school.

You do realize that almost none of those college coaches that are at those ECNL showcases are there to see your kid, right? It always cracks me up when I hear parents say "there were 100 college coaches at my kids game". So what. The question should be how many were there to see your kid? Those coaches know before they watch a game, who they are looking at. They are not randomly there to just watch. Yes, once in a blue moon, when they are at a game to watch player A, player B may catch their eye, but generally speaking, that doesn't happen. Get your head out of your a@#. Your kid can and should know beforehand who is coming to watch them so this whole "there's a ton of coaches thing" is really nonsense.

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What age group are you talking about. My daughter plays ECNL and her team has not played in any non ECNL tournaments or showcases or tournaments without ECNL brackets since she started high school.

Like I said, that might be a club thing...because all the HS aged teams at my kid's club played an EDP tournament last year that was ECNL, GDA & EDP and they were slated to play USYS-NL teams at Jeff Cup (in the top bracket) before Covid cancelled everything.

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You do realize that almost none of those college coaches that are at those ECNL showcases are there to see your kid, right? It always cracks me up when I hear parents say "there were 100 college coaches at my kids game". So what. The question should be how many were there to see your kid? Those coaches know before they watch a game, who they are looking at. They are not randomly there to just watch. Yes, once in a blue moon, when they are at a game to watch player A, player B may catch their eye, but generally speaking, that doesn't happen. Get your head out of your a@#. Your kid can and should know beforehand who is coming to watch them so this whole "there's a ton of coaches thing" is really nonsense.

Yes, writing to coaches ahead of time may get them to a game for a particular player, but it does happen quite frequently that other players get contacted by multiple coaches after the fact as well. Especially at earlier ages when the recruiting slate is still open (i.e. sophomore year).