ECNL Composite league going away?

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We were told the ECNL Composite division/team is being phased out. D was on a Comp team and now it looks like the club will have two regional teams.

I haven’t seen any news of this from ECNL. Anyone shed any light? D is not prarticularly interested in playing regional league for next year...

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Never understood composite lol.

[Unregistered]

Never understood composite lol.

Original intent was for overflow of talent given many orphan players after clubs went birth year. Problem hasn’t gone away. Still plenty of orphan players. Half of D’s team is graduating, other half graduates in ‘22.

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Original intent was for overflow of talent given many orphan players after clubs went birth year. Problem hasn’t gone away. Still plenty of orphan players. Half of D’s team is graduating, other half graduates in ‘22.

Except that the oldest division is already called Gu18/19, and accommodates that.
THEN there is a Composite 18/19. Phase out makes sense, just call them what they are - ECNL-R

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Except that the oldest division is already called Gu18/19, and accommodates that.
THEN there is a Composite 18/19. Phase out makes sense, just call them what they are - ECNL-R

The reason the oldest is U18/19 is because of birth year change. That doesn't change the fact that before that it wasn't a U18/19 team, it was a U18 team. It's an issue with the birth year vs. graduation year. So... a bunch of U19's graduate and a bunch are left over and graduate the following year. The team below them already has a full roster, so where do the holdovers go? Regional when they were playing ECNL before? This isn't a hard concept to grasp and was always an issue with birth year vs. school year, only now it seems ECNL wants to screw over the current crop of 03/04's... who also got screwed in the birth year change a number of years ago and lost a whole year with NCAA recruiting black out due to covid.

As to your statement above about them being regional: D's team consistently beat Regional team in scrimmaging and did very well in conference against other Comp teams. The quality of team/player/competition for Regional is definitely lower than what we saw on Comp and, if we're being honest, some of the ECNL National teams. Of course this can vary from club to club, but Regional is a step down and at least to us, not worth the cost for the final year.

[Unregistered]

The reason the oldest is U18/19 is because of birth year change. That doesn't change the fact that before that it wasn't a U18/19 team, it was a U18 team. It's an issue with the birth year vs. graduation year. So... a bunch of U19's graduate and a bunch are left over and graduate the following year. The team below them already has a full roster, so where do the holdovers go? Regional when they were playing ECNL before? This isn't a hard concept to grasp and was always an issue with birth year vs. school year, only now it seems ECNL wants to screw over the current crop of 03/04's... who also got screwed in the birth year change a number of years ago and lost a whole year with NCAA recruiting black out due to covid.

As to your statement above about them being regional: D's team consistently beat Regional team in scrimmaging and did very well in conference against other Comp teams. The quality of team/player/competition for Regional is definitely lower than what we saw on Comp and, if we're being honest, some of the ECNL National teams. Of course this can vary from club to club, but Regional is a step down and at least to us, not worth the cost for the final year.

I understand BY issues. My D is an 02 ‘21 - so yeah, i get it.
The ECNL 18/19 team combines the 02-03 players. There are no “Holdovers”.
The strongest players make an ECNL roster - blue and white at Stars - just like every year and the other 02-03 are asked to move down. As the whole league adopts this it makes ECNL-R stronger and the level of play aligns.

[Unregistered]

The reason the oldest is U18/19 is because of birth year change. That doesn't change the fact that before that it wasn't a U18/19 team, it was a U18 team. It's an issue with the birth year vs. graduation year. So... a bunch of U19's graduate and a bunch are left over and graduate the following year. The team below them already has a full roster, so where do the holdovers go? Regional when they were playing ECNL before? This isn't a hard concept to grasp and was always an issue with birth year vs. school year, only now it seems ECNL wants to screw over the current crop of 03/04's... who also got screwed in the birth year change a number of years ago and lost a whole year with NCAA recruiting black out due to covid.

As to your statement above about them being regional: D's team consistently beat Regional team in scrimmaging and did very well in conference against other Comp teams. The quality of team/player/competition for Regional is definitely lower than what we saw on Comp and, if we're being honest, some of the ECNL National teams. Of course this can vary from club to club, but Regional is a step down and at least to us, not worth the cost for the final year.

This is obviously true for THIS year because you have composite teams AND regional teams. So this year, that totals SIX U18/19 teams (ECNL blue and white, composite blue and white, and ECNL-R blue and white). So of course, as you said, the Composite teams (team 3&4) this year are better than the ECNL-R teams (team 5&6). But next year if they eliminate the entire composite division you will only have 4 total teams, so the ECNL-R's will become the 3&4 and therefore be much stronger. It should also lift that whole division of ECNL-R since other clubs will have the same situation.

Also should add that the composite division is not very good in the New England bracket...which is why the 2 Stars teams are crushing everybody.

Finally, the top 2 teams in this age bracket will certainly be the regular ECNL Blue and White, which should both be excellent teams next season. I'm sure the ECNL-R will also be good.

[Unregistered]

Exactly. Composite is no longer needed.
All BYs covered in regular structure for 18/19s.

A parent may not like where their player gets placed when the BYs consolidate, but thats an age old issue at every age group and the root cause of many families hopping clubs

[Unregistered]

Exactly. Composite is no longer needed.
All BYs covered in regular structure for 18/19s.

A parent may not like where their player gets placed when the BYs consolidate, but thats an age old issue at every age group and the root cause of many families hopping clubs

Yes that merge for the coming season is going to be interesting. Not only do you have 2 fewer teams, you also have the new coaching assignments. I think you are right. There are going to be a lot of players unhappy with placement for sure. At this point everybody knows the drill and nothing is promised. But it stinks if you made it all the way to senior year in the same club/level and now are possibly scrambling to re-locate for one season.

[Unregistered]

Yes that merge for the coming season is going to be interesting. Not only do you have 2 fewer teams, you also have the new coaching assignments. I think you are right. There are going to be a lot of players unhappy with placement for sure. At this point everybody knows the drill and nothing is promised. But it stinks if you made it all the way to senior year in the same club/level and now are possibly scrambling to re-locate for one season.

Well, there is definitely consolidation, but we were told the club would just have multiple Regional teams now instead of an ECNL, Comp and Regional at the U18/19 age group. The problem I see with that is zero visibility into the depth the of the 2 Regional teams and more specifically the one offered. D liked her Comp team and players and they performed well. Now it is blown up. Like I said previously, not terribly happy given this is her last year of club. Regional is a similar level as NPL/DPL/EDP and if that's the case, why stick around as there are plenty of options in that 2nd tier, not to mention GA.

[Unregistered]

ECNL should just go back to school year. No more trapped kids, no more weird recruiting issues.

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Absolutely. The pandemic is ending so they need to come up with something for the annual chaos. Change the ages again. That sounds about right.

[Unregistered]

Absolutely. The pandemic is ending so they need to come up with something for the annual chaos. Change the ages again. That sounds about right.

Birth year makes absolutely no sense for club soccer. It creates problems & offers no benefits.

Without composite, a whole bunch of Juniors are going to find themselves playing ECNL-R in a prime recruiting year. No one benefits from birth year. It just causes unnecessary chaos.

[Unregistered]

ECNL should just go back to school year. No more trapped kids, no more weird recruiting issues.

That would make sense so it will never happen... I swear the norm today is to overcomplicate everything and do the exact opposite of what makes sense.

Like the NCAA blackout ending June 1. How many seasons are mostly over by June 1? What was the difference between May 1 and June 1? Total *****hattery.

[Unregistered]

Birth year makes absolutely no sense for club soccer. It creates problems & offers no benefits.

Without composite, a whole bunch of Juniors are going to find themselves playing ECNL-R in a prime recruiting year. No one benefits from birth year. It just causes unnecessary chaos.

Agree 100%. For my D, D1/2 recruiting will be done by end of July based on the conversations with coaches. If she decides D3 (or no soccer in college), she doesn't need to play ECNL-R her last year, literally you could play anywhere and there are plenty of teams and options at that 2nd/3rd tier.