Seacoast United to join GDA

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One issue nobody has discussed yet is girls giving up their HS teams to play. I think we are underestimating their desire to play for their HS teams & be with their friends if the programs are good. I think some girls capable of playing GDA will stay playing their HS programs. If anything the girls on bad HS programs will leave to play GDA.


Girls and boys are different about these things. I can see my daughter choosing to stay with her HS program over playing GDA because her two best friends play too.

100%! There are going to be plenty of girls and families not interested in GDA. The problem is that some will be. If the NPL teams remain in existence, they will become weaker if half the team runs off to GDA.

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100%! There are going to be plenty of girls and families not interested in GDA. The problem is that some will be. If the NPL teams remain in existence, they will become weaker if half the team runs off to GDA.

I think the girls and their families need to realize that getting pounded in GDA vs. playing competitive HS soccer and staying the course with NPL and letting those teams get stronger is a better option all around.

I have seen two NPL girls teams play this spring and they are mediocre / middle of the road NPL level teams. I have seen girls play for the SU NPL teams that are not on any of the rosters too.... just saying.

Even if you combines the two NPL teams I have seen into one talent pool, there is not enough talent to compete at the GDA level... MA, CT, & NJ will crush a SU GDA team right now.

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I think the girls and their families need to realize that getting pounded in GDA vs. playing competitive HS soccer and staying the course with NPL and letting those teams get stronger is a better option all around.

I have seen two NPL girls teams play this spring and they are mediocre / middle of the road NPL level teams. I have seen girls play for the SU NPL teams that are not on any of the rosters too.... just saying.

Even if you combines the two NPL teams I have seen into one talent pool, there is not enough talent to compete at the GDA level... MA, CT, & NJ will crush a SU GDA team right now.

Agreed. I am very concerned that a lot of NPL families won't see it. Especially at the U13/U14 level. They'll just think, wow, GDA! We must be GOOD!

Any idea what they're doing with the U12 group for next season? They typically put together a team they call NPL, pooled from several locations, although it plays in the premiership at U12 until moving on to NPL at U13. I don't know if those girls got offers yet. No kid in the group for me but just wondering what the future is looking like.

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Honest question (not critical), does anyone know why this announcement is being made so late in the season (relatively late). Details just nailed out, offer just made for Seacoast to join, etc? Just curious if anyone knows?

I think it's obvious. A bunch of truly elite clubs (Michigan Hawks, Concorde, Eclipse, PDA) have bailed on GDA after one year. It is a failed and dying experiment. The people in charge of GDA aren't willing to admit that yet, so they are lowering the standards of who they let in. They've gotten down to Seacoast, but it took til May to get there. Every club above Seacoast (and there are many) was already asked and turned it down.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry about the state of girls youth soccer in our country.

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I think it's obvious. A bunch of truly elite clubs (Michigan Hawks, Concorde, Eclipse, PDA) have bailed on GDA after one year. It is a failed and dying experiment. The people in charge of GDA aren't willing to admit that yet, so they are lowering the standards of who they let in. They've gotten down to Seacoast, but it took til May to get there. Every club above Seacoast (and there are many) was already asked and turned it down.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry about the state of girls youth soccer in our country.

Yup. And those of us at Seacoast are going to pay the price. I think they filled a need. A solid club for decent girls who weren't looking for ECNL or GDA. Now they're just another mess.

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Ok - if memory serves me correctly, Morgan Andrews played DA... wait... nope. Oh yeah Rachel Hill played DA... wait... nope. Gabbi Brummett played DA... oh I forgot she didn't play DA either.

See my point! They all played HS soccer in NH and played major DI and Hill and Andrews currently play professional in the NWSL and Brummett played in all 18 games this year at Duke.


SU families need to wake up and see that this is an unnecessary move to GDA and that NPL is fine. Look at the boys side of DA to see how this has not worked. Most of the boys DA players go DIII for college and would still play DIII if they played HS soccer instead.

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What are SU parents supposed to do now? The top teams will be asked to move over up GDA and they wing have enough to have an NPL team too?

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What are SU parents supposed to do now? The top teams will be asked to move over up GDA and they wing have enough to have an NPL team too?

Maybe they are expecting a lot of North Shore MA girls to join. Maybe with they have now on npl team it wouldn’t work for DA, but get some from MA who wouldn’t travel to Epping otherwise and maybe you could get a decent team together.

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So the closest girls GDA team is the Boston Breakers u16/17 team. They are 19-8 with 96 goals scored and only 44 against.

If your daughter is legitimate GDA talent they are not coming to SU vs. Boston Breakers.
If they are legitimate NPL talent they are playing for FC Stars....

This is going to be ugly for SU. These girls will get humiliated in their games.

Just look at the boys DA from SU right now - U18/19 are last in the standings with a 4-18-2 record and have 13 goals for / 71 against. The U16/17 boys are last with a 3-19-2 record with 21 goals scored / 69 against.


This area has enough talent to support NPL level programs, not Academy level.

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Maybe they are expecting a lot of North Shore MA girls to join. Maybe with they have now on npl team it wouldn’t work for DA, but get some from MA who wouldn’t travel to Epping otherwise and maybe you could get a decent team together.

Well that sounds reassuring - not.

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So the closest girls GDA team is the Boston Breakers u16/17 team. They are 19-8 with 96 goals scored and only 44 against.

If your daughter is legitimate GDA talent they are not coming to SU vs. Boston Breakers.
If they are legitimate NPL talent they are playing for FC Stars....

This is going to be ugly for SU. These girls will get humiliated in their games.

Just look at the boys DA from SU right now - U18/19 are last in the standings with a 4-18-2 record and have 13 goals for / 71 against. The U16/17 boys are last with a 3-19-2 record with 21 goals scored / 69 against.


This area has enough talent to support NPL level programs, not Academy level.

Sounds like Seacoast will be the east coast version of Burlingame in the GDA. If you don't know what that means, look at the GDA standings for the west coast divisions and keep in mind Burlingame folded halfway through the season and half their games were recorded as 0-3 forfeit losses. The games they actually played rang up appalling scores like 0-9, 0-10, and worse.

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Well that sounds reassuring - not.

I’m simply pointing out that you really don’t know what the makeup of the team would be for next year. It could draw some players in.

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Sounds like Seacoast will be the east coast version of Burlingame in the GDA. If you don't know what that means, look at the GDA standings for the west coast divisions and keep in mind Burlingame folded halfway through the season and half their games were recorded as 0-3 forfeit losses. The games they actually played rang up appalling scores like 0-9, 0-10, and worse.

I believe you are correct. The saddest part is that most of our NPL players are not pretending to be anything they're not. They don't think they're high level elite players. But Seacoast wants to put them in GDA to make themselves feel good and there are a few parents kidding themselves that will blindly follow along.

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I believe you are correct. The saddest part is that most of our NPL players are not pretending to be anything they're not. They don't think they're high level elite players. But Seacoast wants to put them in GDA to make themselves feel good and there are a few parents kidding themselves that will blindly follow along.

^^^^this^^^^^

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If Seacoast’s top team can’t even compete with BBAs 2nd team now how will this work????