| To: The GA Family From: Skip Gilbert, USYS CEO To All: When the Girls Academy launched in 2020, US Youth Soccer (USYS) put aside all competitive differences to our National League, an elite competitive environment established 15-years ago, consisting of 13 conferences, over 3,500 teams and 80,000 players to show unbridled support. Specifically, we built a national registration process to allow the GA to register its players in one fluid motion, through USYS to their respective State Association. Our goal was to support the GA off the field so they could create an elite environment to allow the players to succeed on it. We also hoped that given our 48-year history, that the GA would want to utilize many of our programming assets to complement their on-field efforts. For example, USYS offered all GA teams the opportunity to partner with our National League, to join forces with our National League P.R.O. and USYS National Showcase events, which would have provided incredible showcasing opportunities for all teams. We offered our Olympic Development Program (ODP). ODP has been active since 1977 and provides over 40,000 players each year an opportunity to take advantage of a high-performance training experience that helps every player elevate their game on and off the field. We opened the door for teams to enter our State Cup Tournaments. The State Cups represent the first-round action for our prestigious National Championship Series (NCS). The NCS is a competition that has earned its place as the premier National Championship in youth soccer since 1974. Finally, we are launching this fall, the National League Elite 64. This top-tier platform of the National League will invite the best 64 clubs across 8 geographic conferences to compete together. Every game will be a recruitable moment. Once the season begins this fall, only teams in the National League will have the right to be promoted into Elite 64. The National League will embrace a promotion/relegation system allowing USYS to live-up to its principles that every team must "Earn Your Place" and regardless of skill level, every team will "Have A Home". Our vision is to bring communities together through the power of soccer, making life-long fans of the game. As a part of that vision, we operate under four core priorities. One, to create programming that provides any child the opportunity to learn and love our game. Two, to create pathways that support any level of skill to encourage all players to stay playing straight through their teenage years. Three, to invest in player development platforms that will allow every player the ability to elevate their game to the highest level possible. Four, to invest resources behind the acquisition, retention and development of coaches, and referees while creating a learning center to help parents embrace positive support techniques and sideline behavior. Unfortunately, the GA has taken a stand to discourage any team or player from taking advantage of the USYS portfolio of assets and most recently, mandating that no club accept our invitation to join the USYS National League Elite 64. As I write this, the GA Board is planning to meet Wednesday to decide if they as a league should remain a part of the overall USYS Family or move over to a separate sanctioning body. To me, this simply does not appear to be a true partnership. Because of this, and beginning with the fall 2022 season, should the GA remain within the USYS Family, we will make one change in our offered support. We will no longer recognize the GA as a national platform. As such, we will no longer offer the GA a single registration process but ask that each team register directly with our National Network of State Associations. This is the same process that is embraced by tens of thousands of teams and over 2.3 million players every year. While we value the GA and what they are bringing to the sport, we must remain fair and consistent to the 2.3 million other players that do utilize our vast resources. Again, since most teams within the GA already had a direct relationship with its State Association, registering direct through them will not be a burden and will not impact any specific player. Have a great spring season and feel free to reach out with any questions. My email address is sgilbert@usyouthsoccer.org. |
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DPL is not going to die (right away).
GA will card using another mechanism.
USYS Elite64 is now exactly the same as USYS PRO, and thus entirely pointless.
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It's basically the B league for GA. Run by yet another organization. US specialty sports.Originally posted by Guest View Post
Some GA clubs choose NPL for their second tier. Whatever.
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Not new, already running in some areas. Not very good, a definite "whatever " leagueOriginally posted by Guest View PostComment
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The fact that so few know what the hell all these leagues are and what umbrella they are under shows just how f-d up US youth soccer is.Comment
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Wow, learn something new every day, how desperate is this GA to prove themselves as a “top” platform? They should truly merge with USYS and give ECNL a run for its money. Instead the opposite is happening…..sad.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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This is about perfectly spot on. Complete failure of an effort by US Youth here. If I were on their board, I’d be telling quite a few to start prepping their letters of resignation. Mr. Gilbert would be fired after that joke of an email.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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So many things wrong with that email. USYS keeps putting out more and more selections for clubs to move to hence they water down their own leagues. Why would GA want to be apart of NL Pro or Elite 64 when the GA is a league already? That would just exhaust players and parents with more games hours away and more tournaments that are stay (pay) to play in far off places. And what is USYS's response to this slight, they won't card as a league but each club will have to card themselves...ow no. And seriously how can they call Elite 64 an elite level league when PSA and CSA are the chosen clubs in this area? It also seems like he doesn't know about his own products since Elite 64 is club v club but he talks about teams being relegated or promoted.
If USYS really wanted to compete on a national level with success like ECNL they would have embraced GA as the top club v club league instead of this Elite 64 garbage.
For people wondering DPL is a league that has been around for awhile out west. They expanded nationally with the collapse of the DA and took in some 2nd and 3rd teams. https://dpleague.org/members/Comment
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Well that’s because it is indeed about the Benjamins and not about true development or the kids. If GA and USYS truly cared they would have merged and challenged ECNL. Instead they are both distant seconds. Sad is an understatement.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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