The Rise of NEFC: Anatomy of Creating a Juggernaut

[perspective]

The only things similar about the DAP and ECNL is that they both consist of most of the best clubs in the US,

It may be wrong to compare the two, but the above (in common) is no small thing.

[perspective]

#44 above was nicely done.

My former antagonism with DAP largely was about kids using DAP with the Bolts to gain an advantage with high D3s, given the degree of divergence from the stated DAP "mission" and given the overkill factor since most of those kids could have landed at the same or similar D3s without the DAP notch in the belt. And you're right, the new rule regarding high school play really was and is a killer for Bolts, despite protestations that all the kids forced into the dilemma gladly embraced DAP with no regrets.

[perspective]

I contend that the fact that people like Perspective completely ignore them always make this an NEFC vs Stars thing actually shows how disconnected they are from what is currently going on in the whole environment.

As far as my personal feelings about the Stars go, I feel that they made a series of fairly important BUSINESS miscalculations that opened up the doors for clubs like MPS and NEFC to leapfrog past them in terms of size and that more so than anything has impaired the Stars ability to keep on pace with their prior success. I think their move into the ECNL and then their support of the ECNL's decision to pull away from the state cups did more harm than anything anyone here on TS could do because they ended up conceding away the very thing that made them special and that opened up the door for NEFC to step in. What I have seen since then is they just haven't been able to accumulate the depth in their player pool that NEFC and MPS now have and are using the old recruiting mindset of team building to keep their teams relevant. I have always believed that what all of the ECNL debate was actually all about was about was recruiting players. It came down to pitching the benefits of that league, which they alone had access to, so players would jump ship and join their club. Honestly if they didn't need the players, does anyone honestly think we would have had any of that ECNL discussion at all? It was always about selling roster spots. As someone correctly pointed out, their efforts to hold on to their status as the top club Massachusetts essentially entailed destabilizing all of the other clubs because they were trying to lure away their best players.

As a parent in one of those other clubs with a kid on a team that was being targeted, you are damn right I pushed back those efforts, especially when I could see that the logic they were using to recruit players was flawed. Unfortunately it has become far easier to label debate over opinions as an agenda driven attack, rather than discuss the relevant points.

As the poster known as Perspective, I've edited above what I wanted to comment on from this post.

The 1st paragraph is a great example of the sloppy, irresponsible, distorted, and apparently meant-to-deceive posting that really does drive me crazy. I have ignored MPS and by doing so I have therefore made the Stars vs NEFC thing bigger than it is??? I haven't seen you writing a lot about MPS in the past 18 months. Maybe I missed it. Usually your argument has been that I elevated the argument and made things worse for Stars by responding to you, and that if I hadn't responded the topics would just die a natural death. Well, yeah, you got me there, except even then you would have kept at it and kept starting new threads about the same with the same basic targets (with MPS nowhere in your conversation). And this tactic of yours smacks a little of blaming the victim....if the target just took their medicine and didn't speak up then the abuse wouldn't be nearly as bad. That's the very twisted kind of logic you have become famous for.

No qualms with the first part of your last paragraph, which I separated, but the 3rd part strikes me as very weird. You admit that you "damn right pushed back," but then your next sentence states that it became easier to label debate over opinions "an agenda driven attack." You can't say with a straight face that in "pushing back," you had no agenda or were agenda-neutral. Just the sheer force and magnitude of your posting -- not even counting the hugely biased content -- betrays what you wrote above.

[perspective]

Whether he is willing to admit it or not he has been quite prolific in his own right and it is not my fault that his message always ends up supporting the primary elements of the Stars marketing message claiming that they and the ECNL represent "THE" defacto solution for the elite soccer player. The fact is, my daughter is right at the level where all of that discussion is relevant and I am living the very things that EVERYONE seems to want to pitch to sell their club. I will flatly tell all of you (not just him) that NONE of these clubs around here have the answer at the elite level and are simply pitching a fantasy to sell roster spots. I don't care if you are talking about NEFC or the Stars, I see the whole environment as being broken.

I'm separating this post as well.

Yes, I FULLY admit I have been prolific. I'd you to acknowledge the same. You would easily chop my motivation in half with that simple admission, but I think you WANT me to keep going because apparently you feel I actually have enhanced your agenda despite your protestations, slurs, and threats. And you are free to say I contributed to some perception of Stars being the only real choice for the elite player, but the truth is (and you know this) I have gone to great lengths to endorse the opposite. I only urged you to give credit where due and to occasionally tip your cap, including to players who have been affiliated with those organizations. The last part is pretty bogus. You only started including your club in your most recent critiques of the "environment" over the past 3 or so weeks, and you've only done that as a strategic ploy to remove that aspect of potential comeback critiques exposing your position as highly biased. Clearly you don't now believe that NEFC is one of the worst offenders, or do you? And how are your family teammates and club officials and coaches taking to your inclusion of NEFC as part of the problem? And how are they responding to your very open pronouncements that your team and teammates aren't good enough to properly challenge your kid? In short, how exactly do you get away with what you do on this site??? Are there truly no repercussions beyond having to deal with a nitwit like me??

[perspective]

Going back to the original topic. What created NEFC was their message of change. At its core it was part marketing savvy and part expansion. They simply took a page from the MPS playbook and morphed it into a slightly different marketing message that had a little bit broader appeal than what MPS was selling and then used mergers and acquisitions to put themselves into convenient locations so they could build up a fairly sizable youth academy. Where all the discussion about club politics misses the mark is the youth academies are what actually drives the success of the clubs and not the elite level. I think what NEFC did was realize that 99% of what drives a youth academy is convenience so by expanding into as many locations as they did they created a pretty big player pool. I also think that their arguments against cost actually resonated with youth academy families who did not quite understand club soccer yet and were wary of the extreme costs they heard were looming on the elite path. The truth was most of the people I was surrounded by at the time could have cared less about college recruiting and winning championships. What they wanted was a convenient carpool and a reasonable cost. All that the theoretical discussions about destination teams and id processes actually did was scare a lot of people away from the extreme end of club soccer to the more moderate pitch that NEFC was offering. That was what the juggernaut was all about. If people want to blame me for making that happen they really ought to look at themselves as well because they were just as involved in those conversations as I was.

Again, where logic appears failed...you start by trumpeting "a message of change" as the reason for NEFC's climb, but then immediately reference marketing savvy (is that different than hype???) and expansion. And then merger and acquisition. That doesn't sound like fundamental change or reform. That sounds like big business and all the things you usually act like you are railing against (when it's someone else).

Your analysis about location and expansion as creating a bigger pool and all that seems pretty reasonable. No question NEFC has become a very large and successful enterprise. But apparently this has happened due to doing a lot of things you have suggested you detest. And while you are championing the "moderate" pitch that appeals to the masses you also are very keen on your club being perceived as every bit as elite as any other club, so you seem to want it both ways. And you don't seem to focus on HOW MANY teams NEFC has which presumably are used to help pay for the more elite teams, and perhaps NEFC at this point has even eclipsed MPS in the regard of having 6-8 to 8-10 teams per age group. Do you send out a regular newsletter to these NEFC customers warning them that all they really need for D3 college soccer is a high school roster spot without any club soccer???

[Unregistered]

As you have hinted, the key is not the club or national organization that is most important. Whoever has the best cadre of coaches eventually gets the best teams.

Whoever does the best marketing eventually gets the best teams.

[Unregistered]

I made the post about the ECNL and DAP not being the same thing a couple of posts above.

But there is an interesting parallel.

The DAP was formed either the year after or two years after the many of excellent Bolts players left with FO for the Blazers. It really wasn't the marketing against the DAP.

The Bolts boys program is one of the oldest around, but their peaks were with EK and FO, and with those two departures the club had to retool and figure out how to recover.

The DAP really didn't dig deeply when choosing clubs. They chose clubs based on national reputation, by staff recognition, teams that were winning State Cup and teams that were producing national team players. They didn't see the behind the scenes stuff of big portions of players leaving.

So the Bolts were dealt a blow they really haven't recovered from. They had an initial bump from the DAP award. But they treated the young teams as financial aid for running the older teams, not as a feeder system. Coaching and organization at the younger age groups was severely lacking for a few years. During that time, FO built the Blazers.

MPS and NEFC lost players initially, but then focused more on their youth and more on the marketing message.

Bolts became second to the Revs quickly, but the real nail in the coffin for the Bolts was the high school player thing. The Bolts recruited on the basis of college soccer not pro play, and when the DAP players became unable to play for their high schools, the other clubs capitalized.

The parallel is on the girls side.

Stars helped found the ECNL, they had really taken the mantle of best girls club in Massachusetts already. The ECNL wanted to expand in New England.

I think again it was a season or two after PM and BB left Scorpions that Scorpions got the ECNL spot.

ECNL chose clubs by the same criteria. They wanted the best teams and the national team players. Scorpions had those at the time. PM and BB took the entire foundation.

The Scorpions have not taken the Bolts rout of just assuming players would come. They just hired the wrong people at the older age groups. FM rededicated himself to the younger kids, and they rebuilt the club from the ground up.

They underestimated the time it would take though. These are the prime ECNL years (U14-U17 since U13 is developmental and U18 is players on their way out) and they are still a couple of years away from having a team that can compete. They are 4-5 years away from having a competitive club across the age groups.

And they didn't have coaches strong enough to raise the levels of their older teams and also recruit like crazy to rebuild them. They were young and inexperienced.

In those senses, it is pretty similar. If you want to play in the DAP, you mostly play for the Revs, if you want to play in the ECNL, you mostly play for the Stars.

NEFC, and MPS, have grown with some credit to the decision making and execution at Bolts and Scorpions.

FM created his own mess. By being an arrogant jerk, he helped to fuel NEFC. Now this once fledgling club is kicking his ass all over the place. Be nice, be approachable and succeed. Be an ass, difficult and indifferent and people will revel in your demise.

[Unregistered]

Whoever does the best marketing eventually gets the best teams.

Isn't that what TS is really all about? Why else would you coaches spend as much time here pushing your leagues and clubs? The interesting thing is how upset some of you get when your sales pitch gets answered by another sales pitch. Some of act like petulant little children.

[perspective]

Yes, I FULLY admit I have been prolific. I'd like you to acknowledge the same. You would easily chop my motivation in half with that simple admission, but I think you WANT me to keep going because apparently you feel I actually have enhanced your agenda despite your protestations, slurs, and threats. And you are free to say I contributed to some perception of Stars being the only real choice for the elite player, but the truth is (and you know this) I have gone to great lengths to endorse the opposite. I only urged you to give credit where due and to occasionally tip your cap, including to players who have been affiliated with those organizations. The last part is pretty bogus. You only started including your club in your most recent critiques of the "environment" over the past 3 or so weeks, and you've only done that as a strategic ploy to remove that aspect of potential comeback critiques exposing your position as highly biased. Clearly you don't now believe that NEFC is one of the worst offenders, or do you? And how are your family teammates and club officials and coaches taking to your inclusion of NEFC as part of the problem? And how are they responding to your very open pronouncements that your team and teammates aren't good enough to properly challenge your kid? In short, how exactly do you get away with what you do on this site??? Are there truly no repercussions beyond having to deal with a nitwit like me??

Given the other thread currently raging...maybe you've happened to see it....this unanswered posts seems particularly apropos. Is it fair to deduce that all of the questions posed at the end above are going intentionally unanswered?

[Unregistered]

Given the other thread currently raging...maybe you've happened to see it....this unanswered posts seems particularly apropos. Is it fair to deduce that all of the questions posed at the end above are going intentionally unanswered?

Again Perspective, you attack NEFC like they are the only ones posting on here. You really are a sick twisted individual. Start balancing your rhetoric as you are constantly slanted one way.

[perspective]

Again Perspective, you attack NEFC like they are the only ones posting on here. You really are a sick twisted individual. Start balancing your rhetoric as you are constantly slanted one way.

The questions were quite straightforward...and in the context they were replying to, entirely fair.