Local Girls Premier Soccer League/Club Pyramid

[Unregistered]

You are wrong. It is my friend who made this ( and has never been to this website, so I asked if I could take it and post it here). Their daughter plays New England NPL, and I think the point was a snapshot as it is for 2017/18. This does not mean that GDA will not eventually become the top of the pyramid next year or a few years down the road, but as it stands moving forward this coming year only. You can certainly argue their choice and do your own pyramid, but you are completely wrong that there was some agenda behind it, other than to provide info.

Let everyone else argue about agendas. Still an excellent post and would also love to see one for the boys side.

[Unregistered]

The agenda isn't too transparent here. Definitely someone from an ECNL club clinging desperately to the idea that their league is still important. The fact is this drawing is flawed because the entity that governs all soccer in this country has specifically said that the GDA is on the very top of the pyramid all by itself. That's their call to make. Putting the ECNL on the same footing with GDA is nothing but wishful thinking. Sure there are some very good teams and players that are bound to stick with the ECNL but they are not in all that much different a position now than the top NPL teams are. They are both secondary leagues and how much they cut into the space occupied by the GDA is nothing but a marketing exercise.

Welcome back, BTNT! Why so defensive?

[Unregistered]

Let everyone else argue about agendas. Still an excellent post and would also love to see one for the boys side.

Just posted a few posts ago. Go to last page 👍🏻

[Unregistered]

The agenda isn't too transparent here. Definitely someone from an ECNL club clinging desperately to the idea that their league is still important. The fact is this drawing is flawed because the entity that governs all soccer in this country has specifically said that the GDA is on the very top of the pyramid all by itself. That's their call to make. Putting the ECNL on the same footing with GDA is nothing but wishful thinking. Sure there are some very good teams and players that are bound to stick with the ECNL but they are not in all that much different a position now than the top NPL teams are. They are both secondary leagues and how much they cut into the space occupied by the GDA is nothing but a marketing exercise.

Please, until GDA can prove it's the top they are both equal! They haven't even played a game yet, Keep believing what you want bro!

[Unregistered]

Boys Version:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B72...ew?usp=sharing

Hey thanks! This is very handy!

[Unregistered]

Hey thanks! This is very handy!

Pyramid guy rocks!

[Unregistered]

Pyramid guy rocks!

Pyramid guy appreciates the mostly positive feedback, and has already noticed that there were a few things that got cut off his final version the boys pyramids (for instance, NEFC got cut off of the U12 DA list somehow). He promises to fix these later and share the new link then.

[Unregistered]

The agenda isn't too transparent here. Definitely someone from an ECNL club clinging desperately to the idea that their league is still important. The fact is this drawing is flawed because the entity that governs all soccer in this country has specifically said that the GDA is on the very top of the pyramid all by itself. That's their call to make. Putting the ECNL on the same footing with GDA is nothing but wishful thinking. Sure there are some very good teams and players that are bound to stick with the ECNL but they are not in all that much different a position now than the top NPL teams are. They are both secondary leagues and how much they cut into the space occupied by the GDA is nothing but a marketing exercise.

Wow, what an A-hole you are. And who has an agenda?

[Unregistered]

Wow, what an A-hole you are. And who has an agenda?

Not the poster but there's plenty of folks on this site with agendas - clubs, coaches, parents and a certain poster who keeps telling us we're all wasting our time and money on our kids playing soccer unless they're at the very tippy top of the pyramid

[Unregistered]

Not the poster but there's plenty of folks on this site with agendas - clubs, coaches, parents and a certain poster who keeps telling us we're all wasting our time and money on our kids playing soccer unless they're at the very tippy top of the pyramid

Yes you are if you are spending tens of thousands hoping to land at some place like Caltech like the poster in the other thread was bragging about. But hey everyone is bound to be so impressed that with that guy have a college soccer player that they won't give a hoot that that guy is paying the college tuition so his kid can be on a team that went 0-17 last year.

[Unregistered]

Wow, what an A-hole you are. And who has an agenda?

Ok douche bag, why don't you just keep on pontificating out your arse how everyone needs so much elite level soccer so their kid's can end up on the field at some D3. That makes a whole lot of sense now.

[Unregistered]

I was once a newbie to the world of premier soccer in MA, and I know how much a graphic like this would have helped me back then. Came across this, and figured I'd share for those who are having trouble making sense of the all the leagues/clubs for next year.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzq...ew?usp=sharing

Good theory.

[Unregistered]

Don't you mean good fiction?

[Unregistered]

The pyramid itself is probably a pretty fair illustration although we're all still making (educated) guesses at the DA vs. ECNL comparison, which will also then have a ripple down on the other leagues. E.g. ECNL could fall from favor and then push NPL down further, or folks could decide the leagues are similar level and NPL get a boost based on less travel.

The bigger point is why someone even has to go to the trouble of making this pyramid. The landscape is so confusing and only continues to get so. The clubs are the biggest proponents of this as all they need to do is sell their league as opposed to their coaches, training methodology, support network etc. We also have the ridiculous notion of leagues claiming responsibility for development. ECNL crows about stats on D1 commits but 10 years ago the stats would have been the same (if not higher) from USYS and the Regional League system. 20 years before that it would have been ODP. If DA wins out and less commits come from ECNL, is it now failing players developmentally?

The easiest solution now for parents (and probably part of the reasoning behind this pyramid) is to look at the leagues, tryout at the top and then work your way down until you find a team that will take your child. Given that there's probably at minimum 150 Girls playing NPL or higher then it's not too difficult to find a club that will take you, or you'll find a tier within that club. Stars can give you DA, ECNL or NPL (and USYS!) all you need to do is land in the top 60. This goes all the way down I'm sure to NEP clubs selling against clubs in the NSL which is why we've seen the continued sprawl of the super club since the dawn of the NEP.

Of course its probably fair to say that Stars and NEFC are the top two clubs in the girls right now and in NEFC's case given their exclusion from ECNL for many years, you can certainly say they were probably doing some good things in building their teams in the face of stiff competition. You're only in the league right because you are the best? It's a pretty safe litmus test. But whose to say that will still be the case in 5 years yet it's unlikely that anyone will be able to challenge them.

The trouble with this glass ceiling is it only creates more confusion, not less. The idea of consolidating the pathways does the exact opposite. It only rewards those who are doing things right in the given moment that the league is formed. As time moves on there's no mechanism to assess whether success is based on the recruiting advantage or continued quality coaching and development. The Scorpions have an ECNL spot based on past glories but are they really deserving right now? They are struggling (relatively) but what would it be like if they didn't have ECNL. The argument against Promotion and Relegation through tiers is that coaches start playing for results instead of developing players. In theory this makes sense but not in practice. Everyone is chasing league position or wins over rivals regardless of the level. I haven't seen any major improvements in level of play in the lifetime of the Boys DA or Girls ECNL.

Let's imagine an alternative universe where the Boston Breakers remain partnered with Scorpions, or even start their own youth programming. What happens to NEFC then? Do they settle for what they have as a dominant NPL team and risk losing their best players even though it's clear that they can compete versus ECNL/DAP teams? Do their coaches get fed up and move over and bring the players with them? Or, do they gather up a load of teams across the Northeast and try and create another league to compete?

This is where we're headed next. Sooner or later the next level of teams down SSS, GPS, Seacoast will get fed up of playing B teams and NEP teams and breakaway to some new North Atlantic Super League under a new governing body and we'll need another pyramid to explain that.

All the while parents pay more and drive further and we can only have hypothetical arguments over who the best team in the State is because none of them are able to play each other.

[Unregistered]

Don't you mean good fiction?

Yes, exactly.