I've seen many posts about clubs joining, adding extra teams, parents saying it's a second team and this and that. In the end, is this league good enough to play college soccer or is it just a way to keep kids entertained.
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There are over a thousand college programs. Roughly broken down to 250-350-450 for D1-2-3 respectively. GA and ECNL cannot fill all those slots, so yes NAL can get you a chance at college soccer. It will all depend on setting proper expectations though. If your goals match the realistic level of placement then you are in a good spot. If not, either your expectations or your spot need to change. -
^^ This. "Playing college soccer" is a massively broad description. There are teams at the bottom of really all divisions that would get trounced by a decent high school team. There are teams at the top of D1 that are filled with NT and professional capable players. And, there is everything in between.Originally posted by Guest View Post
Narrow down what "playing college soccer" means and then we can discuss further. Take a sampling of college rosters of various levels and look at their bios to see where their players come from.Comment
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Let's say to play a top college program, since this is a second team, we could say playing here should open opportunities to be recruited to a top school as club are offering this league a a top league. I just want to understand the opportunities a player could recieve from playing here as all club are going crazy adding extra teams.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Thanks for a Great answer, but would a D1 program recruit from this league?Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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It it's helpful, my daughter was on an NAL team (only last year moved to an ECRL team) and she was having multiple college coach (D3) conversations and coaches who were expressing interest (vs. just email blast invites to camps). As others have stated, it depends on what level your daughter wants to compete at, but following the regular process (creating a player profile, reels, touch points with coaches, attending ID camps for schools you are definitely interested in) is even more important (in my experience) at the NAL level because you aren't getting the same level of exposure as the higher level teams. I did a review at one point lists of college commits across some area clubs at all levels (GA, DPL, NAL, Impact, ECNL, ECRL, etc.) and there were many commits at the levels below the top ECNL/GA teams (across a variety of college divisions). It is definitely possible as long as expectations are realistic and you/your daughter is willing to put in the effort for outreach, etc.!Comment
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No, not from what I've seen for college commitments over the last few years by level in the NE area.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Even saying D1 is a little too broad. Stanford and Bryant are not the same. An NAL player will have to work a little harder to get the attention of any D1 coach but it can and has been accomplished. If they are a shooting for P4 ish teams…no, NAL is not the pathwayComment
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Extremely unlikely. Just by looking over rosters for my D's team, which is a borderline NCAA tourney team in the northeast, the roster is made up of GA, ECNL, and international players. There's always a chance, but the sad truth is if there is a great player in a league like that, colleges just don't recruit from there. It comes down to economics - they need to view as many potential players as possible in the least amount of time available to them. And, they need to view them in as close to a competitive environment as what a college program is. As an alternative, you will need to bring your game to them (through ID Camps for example). Anything is possible, but it would be an outlier vs. common.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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I have 5 graduating seniors this year on my prep school team moving on to college soccer. All five play NAL. They all committed to great college programs (Bowdoin, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Middlebury, Tufts). They all had multiple offers from D1 and the top D3 schools. All committed prior to starting their senior year. This is similar to the past several years with non MLS Next players. Based on my experience, our NAL players are having the same outcomes as our MLS Next players, so I wouldn’t shy away from NAL. I think the key is to play for a top NAL team with a very good coach. Our non MLS Next players over the past 3 years committed to:
Bowdoin (3)
Milddlebury (2)
Tufts (3)
Colgate (2)
Northeastern (1)
Hobart (1))
Johns Hopkins (1)
Hamilton (1)Comment
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In the example above, it's the prep school getting them in front of schools, not NAL. I'll bet my right testicle on that.Comment
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a lot of these school recruit the prep school kids too as they need to be able to pay full tuition at Bowdoin, Middlebury, tufts etc as only economic need is met.Originally posted by Guest View Post
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This is helpful. Prep School + NAL would open different doors since for these players would be harder to play MLS since they have to play for their school. But for a player that plays HS+ NAL the options would be limited ?Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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Yep, so basically, NAL as a stand-alone program wont get you to a top college.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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I think it's important to draw a distinction here between NAL Boys and NAL Girls. This being TS, I'm guessing the OP is talking about girls. NAL Boys is a true 2nd tier league, especially in the Northeast, with many talented players. NAL Girls is stuck in the 2nd tier mixer on the girls side and depending on who you ask could be as low as the 6th best league for recruiting after ECNL, GA, ECRL1, ECRL2, DPL. Even NAL people wouldn't argue it's higher than 3rd best, and that would just be inviting a firestorm.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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