ECNL-DA club jumping season is upon us

[Unregistered]

Can the ECNL please go ahead and announce the next DA defection already to get everyone's mind off the virus?????

[Unregistered]

Can the ECNL please go ahead and announce the next DA defection already to get everyone's mind off the virus?????

Maybe Stars could just rebrand the regional teams to be ECNL pink and ECNL purple.

[Unregistered]

DA should have been created to be a 10-12 team (per age group) national league, maybe even combining age groups, u16/17 u18/19. Only the truly elite players who have been identified by US soccer and are in the actual player pool and have been called into camp. ECNL should have stayed a 40 team league. They would be second tier and funnel players to DA. These players are your power 5 level player, not elite, but good. It makes sense for them to travel around the country battling for a power 5 scholarship and roster spot. The rest of the players that are interchangeable, should stay in local league, if they have greater ambitions and are late bloomers then they can work their way through the system through ODP which would become relevant again.

3 different paths to the top. No watering down of talent, similar ability level, and all with an opportunity to play, compete, and be seen. US soccer should track all the DA players, the ECNL players who are on the bubble of a national team call up, and those girls that dominate the ODP state/regional/national level. Everyone gets an opportunity.

The way it’s set up now is an absolute joke. National team players playing with girls who can’t make their high school varsity team as freshmen and girls traveling all over the country to end up at a mid major school that they could have gone to if they would have just stayed in their local league.

Logistics would make this difficult but there are a lot of national team girls who have moved away from their families, drive 2 hours to practice, and made huge sacrifices to get this far, so it’s doable. Again, just for the national team girls does it make sense. For the vast majority, the local league, couple out of state showcases a year, and a shot at ODP is totally sufficient for a girl to move on to college soccer.

If this was the format, college coaches would go back to scouting local leagues, ODP events, state championships, etc. They wouldn’t just scout DA and ECNL because unless you are a power 5, you probably couldn’t get any of those girls any way.

[Unregistered]

[QUOTE=Unregistered;2671673]DA should have been created to be a 10-12 team (per age group) national league, maybe even combining age groups, u16/17 u18/19. Only the truly elite players who have been identified by US soccer and are in the actual player pool and have been called into camp. ECNL should have stayed a 40 team league. They would be second tier and funnel players to DA. These players are your power 5 level player, not elite, but good. It makes sense for them to travel around the country battling for a power 5 scholarship and roster spot. The rest of the players that are interchangeable, should stay in local league, if they have greater ambitions and are late bloomers then they can work their way through the system through ODP which would become relevant again.

3 different paths to the top. No watering down of talent, similar ability level, and all with an opportunity to play, compete, and be seen. US soccer should track all the DA players, the ECNL players who are on the bubble of a national team call up, and those girls that dominate the ODP state/regional/national level. Everyone gets an opportunity.

The way it’s set up now is an absolute joke. National team players playing with girls who can’t make their high school varsity team as freshmen and girls traveling all over the country to end up at a mid major school that they could have gone to if they would have just stayed in their local league.

Logistics would make this difficult but there are a lot of national team girls who have moved away from their families, drive 2 hours to practice, and made huge sacrifices to get this far, so it’s doable. Again, just for the national team girls does it make sense. For the vast majority, the local league, couple out of state showcases a year, and a shot at ODP is totally sufficient for a girl to move on to college soccer.

If this was the format, college coaches would go back to scouting local leagues, ODP events, state championships, etc. They wouldn’t just scout DA and ECNL because unless you are a power 5, you probably couldn’t get any of those girls any way.[/QUO

You forgot the biggest issue in all of this . MONEY$$$$$ where will the funds come from? You have lots of people banking off the system that we have now. Also , the days of HS and ODP are no longer relevant .

[Unregistered]

The ECNL will not be adding a team from New England to the Northeast division. They will go to Maryland or Penn. NEFC and Penn Fusion have zero chance of ever getting into ECNL. I would go with Pipeline or Beadling

[Unregistered]

NEFC and Penn Fusion have zero chance of ever getting into ECNL.

Why not?

[Unregistered]

Same travel, even lower quality competition.

Having daughters play over the past 8 or so years in the ECNL, our recent trip to PA was the worst. I am not sure what happened to FC Bucks and FC Delco, but we would have been better off staying at home and scrimmaging. Those two clubs are terrible now, and not worthy of being in the ECNL. Not sure what happened, but it’s evident something is wrong with the PA ECNL clubs. It’s disappointing that we can’t just play games in New England again. It hurts not having NEFC and SSS in the league. Scorpions, Stars, NEFC, SSS, Seacoast, Oakwood, CFC and FSA are all better than the MAJORITY of teams we face outside our area. So much time and money could be saved. We are at the end of the road with our kids, but having experienced it, the ECNL and GDA could be done better on a local level for many reasons.

[Unregistered]

Why not?

Those two clubs begged to get into the ECNL. Got the chance, and then burned league.

[Unregistered]

Why not?

Pride and fear of mixed branding message.

[Unregistered]

The ECNL will not be adding a team from New England to the Northeast division. They will go to Maryland or Penn. NEFC and Penn Fusion have zero chance of ever getting into ECNL. I would go with Pipeline or Beadling

Penn Fusion is about 15 minutes from FC Delco. What about PA Classics who are an hour or more away from Bucks & Delco?

[Unregistered]

Penn Fusion is about 15 minutes from FC Delco. What about PA Classics who are an hour or more away from Bucks & Delco?

HMMS is a huge club in PA that have done well in Region I for years. HMMS would be the top choice coming out of PA. I don’t see PA Classics leaving the GDA unless something happens with the BDA. FC Delco are on the verge of collapse, so hard to say what will happen in the Philadelphia area.

Baltimore Celtic, Premier and Pipeline are three clubs that would fit well in the ECNL. Pipeline have ties to DA. As for the person that wrote about Beadling, that won’t happen with Riverhouds in the league now.

[Unregistered]

FC Delco-Penn Fusion merger would be a monster club.

[Unregistered]

FC Delco-Penn Fusion merger would be a monster club.

Penn Fusion was a venture started by Spirit Soccer Club of Downingtown (United Sports Center) with help from a lessor club West Chester SC. Spirit United SC, as a club, pulled out of Penn Fusion after a few years and did a complete take-over of FC Delco. FC Delco had pretty much folded and needed Spirit United to take them over so they didn't get the boot from the DA. Girls were never a factor. Spirit (Penn Fusion) thought they were going to end up with DA, GDA and ECNL, and that Penn Fusion, FC Delco and Spirit would all join together. That never happened, as ECNL didn't allow for both DA and ECNL, so Spirit United and FC Delco took the BDA and became Continental FC, and now back to being called FC Delco, and Spirit United lost it all! FC Delco is a youth farm system for the Philadelphia Union DA. It's a place for the Union to store DA players. The FC Delco has direct oversight from Philadelphia Union DA, which don't care about the girls side of the club and it shows in a huge way. West Chester Soccer Club just fell into Penn Fusion. Spirit United built it well, and West Chester has maintained it and is growing it. So there can never be a merger as the Union wouldn't want it.

[Unregistered]

DA should have been created to be a 10-12 team (per age group) national league, maybe even combining age groups, u16/17 u18/19. Only the truly elite players who have been identified by US soccer and are in the actual player pool and have been called into camp. ECNL should have stayed a 40 team league. They would be second tier and funnel players to DA. These players are your power 5 level player, not elite, but good. It makes sense for them to travel around the country battling for a power 5 scholarship and roster spot. The rest of the players that are interchangeable, should stay in local league, if they have greater ambitions and are late bloomers then they can work their way through the system through ODP which would become relevant again.

3 different paths to the top. No watering down of talent, similar ability level, and all with an opportunity to play, compete, and be seen. US soccer should track all the DA players, the ECNL players who are on the bubble of a national team call up, and those girls that dominate the ODP state/regional/national level. Everyone gets an opportunity.

The way it’s set up now is an absolute joke. National team players playing with girls who can’t make their high school varsity team as freshmen and girls traveling all over the country to end up at a mid major school that they could have gone to if they would have just stayed in their local league.

Logistics would make this difficult but there are a lot of national team girls who have moved away from their families, drive 2 hours to practice, and made huge sacrifices to get this far, so it’s doable. Again, just for the national team girls does it make sense. For the vast majority, the local league, couple out of state showcases a year, and a shot at ODP is totally sufficient for a girl to move on to college soccer.

If this was the format, college coaches would go back to scouting local leagues, ODP events, state championships, etc. They wouldn’t just scout DA and ECNL because unless you are a power 5, you probably couldn’t get any of those girls any way.

Generally, college coaches know who is attracted to their program and where they fit in skill-wise. They also have limited travel budgets so they target the events they attend. Contrary to popular belief regional or national ECNL and DA tournaments are not one-stop shopping for the vast majority of them. It defies logic that a college coach from New England or the Northeast in general would have to fly out to a national event in Colorado or Arizona to scout a prospect who lives a 2-3 hour drive of their campus. These events are done more for club bragging rights than sensible recruiting for the majority of programs. But if you see the top 100 D1 programs on the sidelines, then every coach feels like they should be there regardless of whether it’s the best way for their program.

[Unregistered]

Generally, college coaches know who is attracted to their program and where they fit in skill-wise. They also have limited travel budgets so they target the events they attend. Contrary to popular belief regional or national ECNL and DA tournaments are not one-stop shopping for the vast majority of them. It defies logic that a college coach from New England or the Northeast in general would have to fly out to a national event in Colorado or Arizona to scout a prospect who lives a 2-3 hour drive of their campus. These events are done more for club bragging rights than sensible recruiting for the majority of programs. But if you see the top 100 D1 programs on the sidelines, then every coach feels like they should be there regardless of whether it’s the best way for their program.

When the majority of the top kids play at one site, you go, one stop shopping. As a coach of some very good ECNL teams, I’ve had kids end up playing all over the country. Most of my players don’t stay local.