U.S. Soccer set to launch girls DA in 2017, relegating ECNL to 2nd tier

[Unregistered]

Has there been an official announcement?

Not yet. And even they announce something this week it won't include club details. Clubs are still in the process of applying/being evaluated. They have their ideas already on most of the ones they want but have to go through the "evaluation process" to make it look legit and possibly find a diamond in the rough. At best any announcement will only cover overall structure, maybe regions

[Unregistered]

Buddy, I'm in favor of the league. But again, there is nothing about MLS teams; new or old having to work with the NWSL. Atlanta's priority is MLS and Kate was hired because she is a tremendous administrator.

The NWSL will only go places if it's carried by US Soccer and that their prayers are answered by getting MLS to help.

You provide no facts.

I provide facts.

My guess is you are a product of the FL educational system...

I am providing facts and you are not open to accepting them. You must have gone to a fundamentalist school. Seriously, you think Kate was hired because of her administrative prowess? ROFL. The country is filled with people with MLS experience and Kate is not one of them. So they take the youth league commissioner and you don't see a connection. Pull your head out of your jackass and enjoy the sunshine with the rest of us. Time will bear out everything I have said. I guess you will say it was a coincidence when Atlanta, Miami and LA all start NWSL teams. Completely unrelated to their acceptance to becoming MLS partners. Riiiiiiggghht.

[Unregistered]

I heard at least one FL ECNL club was invited to join the new DA but to join it has to drop out of the ECNL league. Anyone else hearing anything?

[Unregistered]

I heard at least one FL ECNL club was invited to join the new DA but to join it has to drop out of the ECNL league. Anyone else hearing anything?

HM told us that FKK has the girls DA.

[Unregistered]

HM told us that FKK has the girls DA.

Will it be free? Why tryout for FKK DA vs OC ECNL?

[Unregistered]

Will it be free? Why tryout for FKK DA vs OC ECNL?

There will be no free GDAP. Beyond the occasional need based scholarship reduced fees will be the best you get.

Don't forget this is TS and it's all anonymous. I wouldn't believe much of anything until there's an official announcement - which was supposed to be two weeks ago. There's also rumors that many desired ECNL clubs are banding together and saying no, weakening the GDAP plan. There are still talks going on and applications to evaluate. Net/net we won't know until we know.

[Unregistered]

The writing is on the wall. The ECNL clubs can band together all they want. It will be the equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot. But, like the other poster implied, if DA is not free or significantly reduced then what is the point? Or, maybe this is another gimic to drive the cost of girls soccer up and then siphon the money from their side to pay for boys soccer.

All ECNL did for soccer was drive the cost up. The coaching and training is not any better than any other non ECNL club. It offers better competition and that is it.

[Unregistered]

The writing is on the wall. The ECNL clubs can band together all they want. It will be the equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot. But, like the other poster implied, if DA is not free or significantly reduced then what is the point? Or, maybe this is another gimic to drive the cost of girls soccer up and then siphon the money from their side to pay for boys soccer.

All ECNL did for soccer was drive the cost up. The coaching and training is not any better than any other non ECNL club. It offers better competition and that is it.

Yet it's where college coaches shop first and often. Most clubs have college coaches so they have lots of great connections. That's the draw for talent. Since that's where much of the talent goes, that's where the college coaches go. ECNL isn't perfect but it is highly competitive, much more so than most other leagues. And parents happily pay for that.

A big issue with DA trying to incorporate ECNL teams is college coaches can't coach ten months a year. So then who will coach the teams? Where are all these "highly qualified"/licensed coaches going to come from? Then there's the no HS play issue, won't be free, no pro path (realistically)....many things working against girls DA. It may take over the #1 spot over time but I think it will be a long process. They have to prove themselves.

[Unregistered]

Yet it's where college coaches shop first and often. Most clubs have college coaches so they have lots of great connections. That's the draw for talent. Since that's where much of the talent goes, that's where the college coaches go. ECNL isn't perfect but it is highly competitive, much more so than most other leagues. And parents happily pay for that.

A big issue with DA trying to incorporate ECNL teams is college coaches can't coach ten months a year. So then who will coach the teams? Where are all these "highly qualified"/licensed coaches going to come from? Then there's the no HS play issue, won't be free, no pro path (realistically)....many things working against girls DA. It may take over the #1 spot over time but I think it will be a long process. They have to prove themselves.

It is where the well off talent goes and if that is what the college coaches want, that is where they will find it. Can we please have Lower and middle class club national league? The LMCCNL?

[Unregistered]

http://soccerparenting.com/2016/02/1...-of-u-s-soccer


Kevin Payne:

Absolutely. Then the marketplace responded and it looked at it and it said, “We should do the same thing on the girls’ side,” and organically ECNL started. I actually helped Carin Gabarra start the women’s or the Girls’ Player Development Taskforce. There was a lot of conversation at the beginning about should there be a DA, should we be pushing for a DA, or was the ECNL fulfilling that role?

At the time that committee concluded that ECNL was fulfilling the role. It has continued to conclude that including as recently as I think last summer. The Federation’s task force on Women’s Player Development concluded that there was no need for a Development Academy because the ECNL really was fulfilling that role.

I don't know what the differences will be if they start girls DA.

I’m planning a meeting with the Federation including April [Heinrichs] in a week or two and they’re going to explain to me and to Christian Lavers what the differences will be. That’s important.

The other big missing factor though that the DA make some sense the way it was structured, was MLS. There is no … The NWSL is not MLS. The NWSL is NOT going to be spending even hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases, let alone millions, on trying to provide a completely free experience for the best women soccer players of the country.

Another big difference is that I think, while I believe that we need to be very aware of the fact that other countries really have caught us in women’s soccer and we need to be focused more on the same kinds of development challenges that we face on the men’s side. Having said that, I think that women’s soccer and NCAA it’s probably the best development program in the world. There may be, people that know more about this may disagree with me, but there’s a lot of money being spent on women’s soccer. The facilities are generally good. The coaching is good, the competition’s good.

It’s not completely analogous on the men’s side and the women’s side. There’s a lot of differences.

[Unregistered]

http://soccerparenting.com/2016/02/1...-of-u-s-soccer


Kevin Payne:

Absolutely. Then the marketplace responded and it looked at it and it said, “We should do the same thing on the girls’ side,” and organically ECNL started. I actually helped Carin Gabarra start the women’s or the Girls’ Player Development Taskforce. There was a lot of conversation at the beginning about should there be a DA, should we be pushing for a DA, or was the ECNL fulfilling that role?

At the time that committee concluded that ECNL was fulfilling the role. It has continued to conclude that including as recently as I think last summer. The Federation’s task force on Women’s Player Development concluded that there was no need for a Development Academy because the ECNL really was fulfilling that role.

I don't know what the differences will be if they start girls DA.

I’m planning a meeting with the Federation including April [Heinrichs] in a week or two and they’re going to explain to me and to Christian Lavers what the differences will be. That’s important.

The other big missing factor though that the DA make some sense the way it was structured, was MLS. There is no … The NWSL is not MLS. The NWSL is NOT going to be spending even hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases, let alone millions, on trying to provide a completely free experience for the best women soccer players of the country.

Another big difference is that I think, while I believe that we need to be very aware of the fact that other countries really have caught us in women’s soccer and we need to be focused more on the same kinds of development challenges that we face on the men’s side. Having said that, I think that women’s soccer and NCAA it’s probably the best development program in the world. There may be, people that know more about this may disagree with me, but there’s a lot of money being spent on women’s soccer. The facilities are generally good. The coaching is good, the competition’s good.

It’s not completely analogous on the men’s side and the women’s side. There’s a lot of differences.

The two sides have decided they're not going to play nice. too bad the girls are going to be cannon fodder in the upcoming battle for supremacy

http://www.socceramerica.com/article...y-in-2017.html

[Unregistered]

The two sides have decided they're not going to play nice. too bad the girls are going to be cannon fodder in the upcoming battle for supremacy

http://www.socceramerica.com/article...y-in-2017.html

Or girls just might have choice. Choice is a good thing.

[Unregistered]

If this is true then every club soccer program will have ECNL the 2nd tier to the DA and the DA programs will have to release the rights on ECNL with the respected club current. Good that is very good for every club out there ECNL for all ! Who cares about DA !

[Unregistered]

If this is true then every club soccer program will have ECNL the 2nd tier to the DA and the DA programs will have to release the rights on ECNL with the respected club current. Good that is very good for every club out there ECNL for all ! Who cares about DA !

Sucks for BU who fought so hard to try and get ecnl. Now they have it and proof that doesn't matter anymore

[Unregistered]

OC will have GDA and ECNL. Too much money and a new state of the art training facility make it a no-brainer for US Soccer. They are not going to give it to a community club that shares fields with little league baseball in Bithlo.

WFF/TBU is another potential GDA club in Florida.