Girls Development Academy in NJ

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How was thebreception of the GDA move at the clubs that are being added in 2019-20? Did current players buy in? Did new players join? Are you jumping in enthusiastically or are you cautiously optimistic or maybe running away?

If you want to join in on the conversation bring up a topic for discussion related GDA. I am sure the informed will educate us all.

(Lets try to be civil and not attack clubs or teams)

[Unregistered]

How was thebreception of the GDA move at the clubs that are being added in 2019-20? Did current players buy in? Did new players join? Are you jumping in enthusiastically or are you cautiously optimistic or maybe running away?

If you want to join in on the conversation bring up a topic for discussion related GDA. I am sure the informed will educate us all.

(Lets try to be civil and not attack clubs or teams)

I' ll start before the DA bashers chyme in. For the most part lots of excitement and eagerness to try DA for many. Still lots of concerns because parents hear mostly negative things about DA. Funny thing is most people hear negative things from those that havn't even played DA. Not playing HS is still topic of concern but many I know from STA and CSA feel DA is worth it.

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I' ll start before the DA bashers chyme in. For the most part lots of excitement and eagerness to try DA for many. Still lots of concerns because parents hear mostly negative things about DA. Funny thing is most people hear negative things from those that havn't even played DA. Not playing HS is still topic of concern but many I know from STA and CSA feel DA is worth it.

My daughter is graduating out of GDA this year, and my youngest will be starting on an ECNL team this coming fall. We found that there was very little advantage to playing in the GDA that she did not get playing for her old ECNL team. We were told that we would have better training and more meaningful games, but that was really not the case. High School was not an issue for my older daughter as she went to a private school and her HS team could barely get enough numbers to form a team. My younger daughter will be attending our local HS with her friends and looks forward to playing with her friends that she goes to school with, who she has never played with yet.

In all, our experience was no different than ECNL. Our older daughter committed to the college she will be attending as a freshman while playing in ECNL, so again for us, GDA was a disappointment, only because the promise of better practices and more meaningful games were not the case.

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as I sit in the Denver airport, I would suggest people rethink decisions about joining the DA. Teams from the East Coast did not fair well and the big news here is that the big West Coast clubs are not happy with the competition they are playing at these showcases. Rumors of players and clubs pulling out are running crazy here. I spoke to an east Coast coach who said it was a waste to travel out here when she could have seen the same talent at PDA.

Maybe I’m just angry that my daughter missed 3 days of school only to play an hour and a half of soccer. Her last game was canceled and she had off yesterday. Total waste of money and time

[Unregistered]

as I sit in the Denver airport, I would suggest people rethink decisions about joining the DA. Teams from the East Coast did not fair well and the big news here is that the big West Coast clubs are not happy with the competition they are playing at these showcases. Rumors of players and clubs pulling out are running crazy here. I spoke to an east Coast coach who said it was a waste to travel out here when she could have seen the same talent at PDA.

Maybe I’m just angry that my daughter missed 3 days of school only to play an hour and a half of soccer. Her last game was canceled and she had off yesterday. Total waste of money and time

Not a DA Parent, but ECNL... we too have had terrible weather showcases. PDA last May missing out on a whole day of play and the South Carolina in the Fall.. only 1 game played in an entire weekend! .. So the weather doesn't just affect DA Games, but ECNL as well... Many coaches were complaining at PDA last May as well- that it was a waste of time.

[Unregistered]

as I sit in the Denver airport, I would suggest people rethink decisions about joining the DA. Teams from the East Coast did not fair well and the big news here is that the big West Coast clubs are not happy with the competition they are playing at these showcases. Rumors of players and clubs pulling out are running crazy here. I spoke to an east Coast coach who said it was a waste to travel out here when she could have seen the same talent at PDA.

Maybe I’m just angry that my daughter missed 3 days of school only to play an hour and a half of soccer. Her last game was canceled and she had off yesterday. Total waste of money and time

I dont get it. Was the name of the "east coast coach" Dom from MF?

If the quality of your kids team is below par, maybe time to rethink the sport itself. How are the girls on these teams going to compete for spots in D1 colleges when they can't compete against a single west coast team?

Have you been a part of any showcase which was called off due to inclement weather? ECNL PDA last year? Or maybe the ECNL winter showcase?

[Unregistered]

Not a DA Parent, but ECNL... we too have had terrible weather showcases. PDA last May missing out on a whole day of play and the South Carolina in the Fall.. only 1 game played in an entire weekend! .. So the weather doesn't just affect DA Games, but ECNL as well... Many coaches were complaining at PDA last May as well- that it was a waste of time.

Yes weather can happen. But if you are driving to PDA the sting of cancelled games isn't nearly the same as flying to CO. DA events are also stretched over more days, requiring more missed work and school, along with more hotel nights, car rentals and food.

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https://www.socceramerica.com/public...tml?verified=1

Quick insight on how ECNL is pressuring clubs to drop out of GDA.

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Lorne Donaldson on how the ECNL vs. Development Academy turf war has created a 'toxic environment'
by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Apr 26, 2019
Lorne Donaldson is the Executive Director of Coaching of Real Colorado, one of the few clubs that compete in both the girls ECNL and the girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Real Colorado's rate of sending players into the U.S. national team program ranks it among the top clubs in the nation. Donaldson also serves as assistant coach to Hue Menzies of the Jamaican women's national team, which will be making its first Women's World Cup appearance this summer.

SOCCER AMERICA: Your club, Real Colorado, is one of a handful that fields teams in both the ECNL, launched in 2009, and the Girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which started in 2017 and is now in its second season. How do you manage both?
LORNE DONALDSON: I think we have a good staff and our management is good. We really have no problem. We have the fields to do it. And we have the players because the kids want to play for us because it’s a good environment.
We have a good pool of players, and it’s going to get better if they allow us to stay in both leagues. But who knows what’s going to happen now? I think there are going to be some decisions coming up.
SA: You may not continue fielding teams in both the Girls DA and the ECNL?
LORNE DONALDSON: The ECNL wanted us to get out of [the Development Academy]. There are some clubs already out of the ECNL. They have been kicked out.
The ECNL thinks that at the clubs that play both ECNL and DA, your top players are playing in the DA and the second-string players are playing in the ECNL. They [the ECNL] want all the top players. The ECNL is saying, you can’t do both. You can just do one.
SA: So what do you think will happen next season (2019-20)?
LORNE DONALDSON: I don’t know yet for sure if we’re going to be in both. Three or four days ago, I told them if we come to the ECNL, we want two teams [in each age group]. They have to go and discuss it.
SA: Because if you leave the Girls DA, about half the Real Colorado players who now play in the Girls DA and ECNL will no longer be playing in one of the nation’s elite girls leagues?
LORNE DONALDSON: Yes. If we're only going to play ECNL, we can’t just take one team. It doesn’t make any sense. We would like to see both teams in if we’re going to do it. We have the environment to do it. But that’s a discussion with the ECNL.
SA: And if it comes down to making a choice between the two?
LORNE DONALDSON: Then most likely we would stay in the DA. We will lose our ECNL group.
SA: As it is now, for the last two seasons, how is it decided which Real Colorado girls play in the DA and which play in the ECNL?
LORNE DONALDSON: I’m not going to try to sugarcoat. Most of the better players wanted to play in the DA. But there are some very good players, and a few top players, who decided they wanted to play ECNL because they wanted to also play for their high school.
And there are DA players who still want to play high school. They still talk about it and they want to play.
[Editor’s note: U.S. Soccer does not allow DA players to play high school soccer.]
SA: So an advantage of being a club with both DA and ECNL teams is that players have a choice, and the ones who want to play high school still have access to high-level club competition …
LORNE DONALDSON: Yeah. It’s actually created an environment for us where you can service people better. But again, how long is it going to last?
It’s OK to have two leagues, but you got to try and get them under the same umbrella and moving in the same direction. If you have them under the same umbrella, and the guys are working together, and you cross-play, and you do stuff like that, then the soccer is going to be good again. But right now, it’s a sad state of affairs.
SA: Instead it's been a turf war?
LORNE DONALDSON: I think what has been created with the ECNL and the DA is a toxic environment for these kids. It’s actually no fun right now. The game is no fun.
We haven’t changed anything at our club that we were doing five or six years ago. We’re still doing it the same way, but there seems to be a lot conflict between the leagues. It’s on the top. And they can’t work it out.
It’s created a very poor environment if you look across the spectrum, across the board. A lot of fussing. People are mad at each other.
SA: Some of the top girls clubs in the nation are split between the two leagues, so they don’t play each other anymore …
LORNE DONALDSON: Our top teams used to go play teams like the Slammers, PDA, Michigan Hawks, Stars of Massachusetts and Eclipse [which play in the ECNL]. Those were great games. Those are the games people want to see. When you throw the best games out, it’s no longer any fun. There has to be a way for the top clubs to play each other.
SA: That reminds me of a complaint I heard from a DA coach who told me he can’t play his very strong neighbor club because it’s ECNL, and instead travels hours to play a weaker club. It doesn’t seem too complicated to allow those teams to play each other. Why doesn’t that happen?
LORNE DONALDSON: Ego. And everyone wants to be the top dog. And both groups think their league is better. And they don’t realize that they’re killing the game and driving kids away. There are kids who are turned off from the game because of this stuff. We have to get back to where kids will enjoy the game.
And one league has a lot of restrictions.
SA: The DA?
LORNE DONALDSON: The DA. You’re not supposed to manage the club the way you used manage it even though you’re smarter than the people who are making the rules.
Most of the people making the rules have never run a club in their lives. But they’re making the rules that a lot of times don’t make sense.
SA: Such as?
LORNE DONALDSON: The biggest one is the high school [ban]. You tell me why a kid can’t play high school soccer? If they still want to go play high school and be a part of that, I don’t see anything wrong with that.
We have a lot of kids who, when they go play high school, they come back better and more confident because they’ve played against bigger, faster players. They get more playing time.
Leave it up to the clubs to figure it out. Our top-level players, if they don’t choose to play high school, they train with the boys. The environment is already there for the elite players. The top players, going back to Mia Hamm, they could play high school.

[Unregistered]

My daughter is graduating out of GDA this year, and my youngest will be starting on an ECNL team this coming fall. We found that there was very little advantage to playing in the GDA that she did not get playing for her old ECNL team. We were told that we would have better training and more meaningful games, but that was really not the case. High School was not an issue for my older daughter as she went to a private school and her HS team could barely get enough numbers to form a team. My younger daughter will be attending our local HS with her friends and looks forward to playing with her friends that she goes to school with, who she has never played with yet.

In all, our experience was no different than ECNL. Our older daughter committed to the college she will be attending as a freshman while playing in ECNL, so again for us, GDA was a disappointment, only because the promise of better practices and more meaningful games were not the case.

For the most part clubs had the same trainers and players as pre GDA so it isn't surprising that you didn't see it as being that different than what you had in ECNL. Fortunately for your D giving up high school wasn't an issue but it is for many girls. I feel for the ones who have given it up and have not just mediocre experiences like yours but flat out bad ones. It's just been a mess.

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r/e Real CO post above - very big club that can pull off having quality GDA and ECNL teams. Many clubs cannot do both well. In an ideal world clubs could play who they want. But the leagues have decided battling it out over market share matters more than doing what is best for players and even the clubs.

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Not a DA Parent, but ECNL... we too have had terrible weather showcases. PDA last May missing out on a whole day of play and the South Carolina in the Fall.. only 1 game played in an entire weekend! .. So the weather doesn't just affect DA Games, but ECNL as well... Many coaches were complaining at PDA last May as well- that it was a waste of time.

College coaches complaining? Please - they have a huge hand in how this mess has developed. Stop encouraging these ridiculous "national" leagues and far flung showcases then and encourage sensible regional events. Tell the leagues and clubs that you want to attend regional events and not "national" nonsense.

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I dont get it. Was the name of the "east coast coach" Dom from MF?

If the quality of your kids team is below par, maybe time to rethink the sport itself. How are the girls on these teams going to compete for spots in D1 colleges when they can't compete against a single west coast team?

Have you been a part of any showcase which was called off due to inclement weather? ECNL PDA last year? Or maybe the ECNL winter showcase?

No, my daughter is a 7th grader. I'm not even sure why they would have 7th and th graders skip school to attend this event, but we were led to believe it was necessary

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No, my daughter is a 7th grader. I'm not even sure why they would have 7th and th graders skip school to attend this event, but we were led to believe it was necessary

Why would a college showcase be necessary unless your kid was ready to start looking at deciding about college? There are some 7th graders that seem to do it but they must be unlike any 7th grader I have ever met.

When your kid is ready to focus on college and college soccer - then join a high level team and attend showcases if her plans include college soccer. If she is pressured to go in 7th grade, maybe just come up with some rock solid conflict why you have say no thanks this year.

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PDA Blue parent.

Bunch of things have changed from GDA when we went back to ECNL:
- switch in coaches (now we have more college coaches across blue teams that were AWOL during fall)
- competition in ECNL is slightly worse than in GDA, and we have to stay overnight for games
- teams never play out the back any more - everyone punts
- teams dont play 4-3-3 against us, they end up playing 5-4-1 parking the bus
- doesnt feel like our D and goalie have much work unless they just pass
- showcases + tournaments with slightly more travel
- number and quality of coaches is about 25% less

[Unregistered]

PDA Blue parent.

Bunch of things have changed from GDA when we went back to ECNL:
- switch in coaches (now we have more college coaches across blue teams that were AWOL during fall)
- competition in ECNL is slightly worse than in GDA, and we have to stay overnight for games
- teams never play out the back any more - everyone punts
- teams dont play 4-3-3 against us, they end up playing 5-4-1 parking the bus
- doesnt feel like our D and goalie have much work unless they just pass
- showcases + tournaments with slightly more travel
- number and quality of coaches is about 25% less

Troll. You are not a PDA Blue parent. Nice try though