GDA info session Tonight

[Unregistered]

Based on the info session feedback, GDA is already a farce. Granting waivers, letting top players play high school, presumably not practicing with the GDA team. This goes against the mission of establishing GDA in the first place... instilling a strict US soccer based discipline with structured training. What good will this be for anyone of these girls? Weaker players wont get anything out of practicing against their weaker counterparts for a half a year. This is OW 3rd tier NPL wrapped in a new label with a red, white and blue bow.

[Unregistered]

I'd think these waivers would cause a lot of grief/resentment in a club, esp if they step outside of the spirit of the rule and offer them to public school kids. That's not right.

Everyone has a choice. Oakwood is being up front which is all I ask as a parent. Don't BS me. Remember the boys had 2 years where they played hs and the girls don't have that option so Oakwood will ease into the process for the first 2 years rather than give the ultimatum. So if you are top player who is a rising junior/senior you are going to stay and if you're not a top player...well once again you have a choice. If the other big clubs are thinking they will land a top 1-3 Oakwood kid, it won't happen. Not after what I saw and heard last night.

[Unregistered]

From a business standpoint they have to - the younger players will be the ones who will have to chose down the road. The waiver option will only last 1-2 years at the most because all the GDA clubs will trying to hold onto the better players. Once they're out of the system it will no HS all the way

I heard there will be no waivers for the younger 2 teams. Heard that waivers will be granted this year and next with none after that.

[Unregistered]

Based on the info session feedback, GDA is already a farce. Granting waivers, letting top players play high school, presumably not practicing with the GDA team. This goes against the mission of establishing GDA in the first place... instilling a strict US soccer based discipline with structured training. What good will this be for anyone of these girls? Weaker players wont get anything out of practicing against their weaker counterparts for a half a year. This is OW 3rd tier NPL wrapped in a new label with a red, white and blue bow.

Your jealousy is obvious.

If your kid is not a stud, enjoy playing fall while the studs are in high school or go play FSA ECNL. The decision isn't complicated.

[Unregistered]

Everyone has a choice. Oakwood is being up front which is all I ask as a parent. Don't BS me. Remember the boys had 2 years where they played hs and the girls don't have that option so Oakwood will ease into the process for the first 2 years rather than give the ultimatum. So if you are top player who is a rising junior/senior you are going to stay and if you're not a top player...well once again you have a choice. If the other big clubs are thinking they will land a top 1-3 Oakwood kid, it won't happen. Not after what I saw and heard last night.

Glastonbury High is saved!!

[Unregistered]

I heard they're only going to grant waivers to select players these initial couple years to help get this off the ground. No waivers for the 2 younger teams will be given.

They still give waivers after nearly 10 years on the boys side. This is a fact of life. They will have to give it to GHS (public school kids) on those older two teams for sure, and if they are only giving 10 (no chance, it will be more), this will be a major cause of contention. As I said before, OW parents will have to learn the hard way and it will only happen in the first year that parents who opted for GDA and are awarded it will then be displaced come November when the real players return. Offering a kid that skips HS a GDA spot as a placeholder is really bad form on the part of any club. Even if they get it off the ground this year, these policies will leave such a bitter taste in so many people's mouths that it will kill OW in the future; factor in that the placeholders that play in the fall will a.) play in no showcases during that time and b.) get little to no recruiting as it is during the college season. OW has to be very careful not to slit their own throat here.

[Unregistered]

That giant sucking sound you hear is all the OW studs rescinding their applications to play FSA ECNL.

[Unregistered]

MD is crushed. He had at least 6 verbal commits....

[Unregistered]

Your jealousy is obvious.

If your kid is not a stud, enjoy playing fall while the studs are in high school or go play FSA ECNL. The decision isn't complicated.

It is totally a farce. Either you observe best practices or you don't. No following them is an admission that your best practices do not work ...... kids are flat out better that play HS. If you can't train kids to be better than the policy is ineffective. It's either 4x practices per week for 10 months or it is the same as every other club but they recruit players better. Which is it?

[Unregistered]

It is totally a farce. Either you observe best practices or you don't. No following them is an admission that your best practices do not work ...... kids are flat out better that play HS. If you can't train kids to be better than the policy is ineffective. It's either 4x practices per week for 10 months or it is the same as every other club but they recruit players better. Which is it?

Don't be a whiner. It's not a change that can happen overnight. For the success of the club and the programme, you have to ramp up over a period of time.

[Unregistered]

That giant sucking sound you hear is all the OW studs rescinding their applications to play FSA ECNL.

Yep, each team will retain 5 of them now that won't go to ECNL. I can't wait to see the quality on the bottom half of those GDA rosters that are not granted waivers. This is not different yet than anyone thought; GDA is caving in to the whims of the kids and parents despite their dogma that the additional two months and training are critical ..... hypocritical is more like it.

[Unregistered]

It is totally a farce. Either you observe best practices or you don't. No following them is an admission that your best practices do not work ...... kids are flat out better that play HS. If you can't train kids to be better than the policy is ineffective. It's either 4x practices per week for 10 months or it is the same as every other club but they recruit players better. Which is it?

They are not practicing 4x per week. Made that clear too.

[Unregistered]

They are not practicing 4x per week. Made that clear too.

so this is really just a watered-down GDA-Lite. Obviously full-blown GDA is not what the customer base wants, but OW trying to jam the square peg into that round hole.

[Unregistered]

Your jealousy is obvious.

If your kid is not a stud, enjoy playing fall while the studs are in high school or go play FSA ECNL. The decision isn't complicated.

It's really not intended for HS girls to get the waivers. These are set aside for prep school girls. There will still be top players having to find a new club or make the decision to skip high school. You people are acting as if top HS players get these waivers...not happening

[Unregistered]

Don't be a whiner. It's not a change that can happen overnight. For the success of the club and the programme, you have to ramp up over a period of time.

You said it yourself. This is being done to save the club. In the end you will have the same OW team, same coaches but much stiffer competition as other surrounding GDA clubs don't have to side step the rules or gradually develop their teams.