ECRL League

[Unregistered]

We had to make the decision back in May and at the time there was actually only 1 player committed. Out of the gate he told us he had 4-5 players that were getting a lot of interest and were top recruits for their top choices and they'd probably get first round offers. BUT that didn't necessarily mean they'd commit right away, especially since none of them had actually spoken to the college coaches yet and the added uncertainty of Covid (it ended up being 10 players in the last few months).

Every player would be rostered for 6 out of 7 scheduled showcases. If she was rostered for a showcase that required heavy travel & hotel, she would be rostered for every game in the event. If it was a showcase that was more localized, she might not be rostered for every game in the event, but if that was an issue because of a coach's schedule (this was before we knew how extended the dead period would be) or if she was *this close* to an offer, etc. he would move some things around to make it work. PT was up to her...every player would get at least half a game, if she wanted more she'd have to show him that on the field. He said once the first "round" of players committed, he would revisit and adjust accordingly to focus more on the players that were still "in the hunt" (yes, he actually said in the hunt, lol).

He talked about what type of response some of the girls on the team had had so far and what to expect moving forward. He shared the list of schools that had come to see the team recently, it was impressive, but he warned us not to get too starry eyed and was honest about the percentage of programs that had contacted him about players, the percentage that he had a good feeling about (had shown up multiple showcases, multiple games at same showcase, Head Coach showed up, etc.) but hadn't contacted him directly and how some were probably not interested. He assured us that the team would draw the coaches, but she had to do the heavy lifting of playing to the best of her ability.

He discussed his role as a coach, my kid's role as a student athlete, our role as parents and her teammates' role in the process. Even though my kid had been emailing coaches and showcasing for over a year, for the first time it felt real. Her GA team had not had the same quantity or quality of college coaches, nor had we discussed in such detail what was to be expected or involved in all of this. My kid was all in and that's basically all we needed to make the decision. So far, so good.

I guess the moral of the story here is to have a coach be honest and up-front with you, and that s/he has a credible plan on how to manage a >18 player roster over a season. Sounds like a great coach.

[Unregistered]

Even though my kid had been emailing coaches and showcasing for over a year, for the first time it felt real. Her GA team had not had the same quantity or quality of college coaches, nor had we discussed in such detail what was to be expected or involved in all of this. My kid was all in and that's basically all we needed to make the decision. So far, so good.

One note about this. You said your D is an 04, which makes her a U17 now, right? For D3 coaches in particular, there is a huge jump in college coach attendance at showcases at U17 compared to U16 and under. Most D3 coaches do the majority of the scouting at U17 because of limited budget as well as a need to see academic fit before diving in too far with a player. I remember when D was a U16, the team would get less than a dozen coaches showing up at their games at Jeff Cup. As a U17 on the same team, they got 75+ coaches showing up for their Jeff Cup games. So some of what you are seeing might just be a factor of age.

[Unregistered]

posts 297 and 299 a both excellent. Parents of players entering HS need to understand the process is multi faceted but much of it depends on the players and families. Unless you're on the NT radar YOU HAVE TO MARKET YOURSELF. Some players will have to hustle more than others.

To be a good marketer you need to plan ahead of time. Although it feels young, families should visit several schools well before recruiting really starts, even 8th grade but definitely freshman/early sophomore year. Students need to think about what type of school they want - size, location, majors etc. It doesn't have to even be definite target schools - just seeing some close by schools on school vacations or weekends can help students start to think about what they want. Do some investigation on test scores and grades, keeping in mind that you're much more appealing to a coach if they don't have to push your through admissions, if they even are able to do that at all (many can't especially D3). You want your student at a school where they will be challenged, not struggle. Your club is zero help here nor should they be - they're not academic advisors.

Once you have a long list of school targets (that is the priority after all) then start looking at the soccer piece - do players who actually play (not just bench warmers) have a resume like yours? What types of majors are they? Is there a lot of turnover? Investigate the coach too - have they been there forever and might retire soon? If the team's record is poor there's a possibility of getting fired soon. Conversely a highly successful coach might move up. Don't just rely on your club coach to give you accurate soccer fit info. They don't know everything and certainly may not know much about some programs further away.


Don't wait until halfway through sophomore year to do the above. Have a plan.


Finally: your student will need to take the SAT/ACT before their HS peers. Plan for that too, especially girls with their earlier timeline. Decide which type you prefer, take loads of practice tests, get a tutor or take a course. Investigate test dates as test sites fill up fast. Going into a coach's office with scores and transcripts that fit the school gives you a huge leg up. They're usually honest if you have a shot with admissions or not. Schools will then give an early read at some point, varies by type of school when that happens.

Also excellent and insightful thoughts from a parent with experience. I started taking my daughter in 9th grade to those schools on her list after checking with the coaches if those colleges were attainable. We would go a day earlier for the clinics and tour the school. It’s funny that those colleges she really liked she seemed to play better at those clinics. Those who want to play D1 in college have to start the college process sooner because most recruiting for their year is concluded by mid junior year. For D3 as the previous poster said colleges need to see your GPA/Test scores. In picking a college to be a student-athlete the best advice my daughter got from a coach was if they got injured and had to stop playing and just be a student would they still want to be at the college. That caused my daughter to think long and hard about her decision.

[Unregistered]

One note about this. You said your D is an 04, which makes her a U17 now, right? For D3 coaches in particular, there is a huge jump in college coach attendance at showcases at U17 compared to U16 and under. Most D3 coaches do the majority of the scouting at U17 because of limited budget as well as a need to see academic fit before diving in too far with a player. I remember when D was a U16, the team would get less than a dozen coaches showing up at their games at Jeff Cup. As a U17 on the same team, they got 75+ coaches showing up for their Jeff Cup games. So some of what you are seeing might just be a factor of age.

With all due respect, we were really just focusing on D1 schools. We were drawing on the comparison of the 2 team's U15 Spring and U16 Fall/Winter seasons. There was a stark contrast between the two in both quantity and quality and we've seen a great increase in interest in our kid since making the switch, even though she is on a team with a 20+ roster.

I've read a lot on these threads that coaches don't shop leagues or teams and that it's all about the individual player and in some cases, I'm sure that's true, but in our experience playing with a stronger team that had a solid standing in ECNL definitely helped. A lot of it had to do with her coach too who got the ball rolling for her with some schools she was interested in that she hadn't connected with, that had shown interest in other players on her new team.

Like I said early on, I'm not looking to bash her former team or league or club and perhaps in different times with traditional recruiting rules and prevalent ID clinics, maybe she would have achieved similar results with her old team eventually...but with so much uncertainty, this was our best option even though it was a bigger roster.

[Unregistered]

I would like to know where all of these showcases were happening in the last 12 months.

[Unregistered]

An example of why RL is a waste of time and money.... this past weekend my kids 2006 ECNL team/ club (FCB) was having an ID clinic - they told the RL team they were not invited to come to the clinic. Keep in mind the ECNL coach is brand new this year, the ECNL team did not have tryouts, and the two teams practice at completely different locations - which are 1/2 hour away from each other. So there is no way the ECNL coach knows whether there is any talent on the RL team. Moral of the story ... most clubs look down on and do not even give the kids on the RL team a chance... not even letting them come to the ID clinic. If ECNL really wanted to make RL attractive to people they would change the way many clubs do things and make the RL team fell a little more valued. At most clubs there is no reason to have your kid play on second team.

[Unregistered]

An example of why RL is a waste of time and money.... this past weekend my kids 2006 ECNL team/ club (FCB) was having an ID clinic - they told the RL team they were not invited to come to the clinic. Keep in mind the ECNL coach is brand new this year, the ECNL team did not have tryouts, and the two teams practice at completely different locations - which are 1/2 hour away from each other. So there is no way the ECNL coach knows whether there is any talent on the RL team. Moral of the story ... most clubs look down on and do not even give the kids on the RL team a chance... not even letting them come to the ID clinic. If ECNL really wanted to make RL attractive to people they would change the way many clubs do things and make the RL team fell a little more valued. At most clubs there is no reason to have your kid play on second team.

Very true! I only know two girls who moved from RL to ECNL - by switching clubs! It's absurd and sad that they had to go try out at a different club in order to get on an ECNL team. They were both good enough for the ECNL team at their old club but, as mentioned above, nobody ever noticed them.

[Unregistered]

An example of why RL is a waste of time and money.... this past weekend my kids 2006 ECNL team/ club (FCB) was having an ID clinic - they told the RL team they were not invited to come to the clinic. Keep in mind the ECNL coach is brand new this year, the ECNL team did not have tryouts, and the two teams practice at completely different locations - which are 1/2 hour away from each other. So there is no way the ECNL coach knows whether there is any talent on the RL team. Moral of the story ... most clubs look down on and do not even give the kids on the RL team a chance... not even letting them come to the ID clinic. If ECNL really wanted to make RL attractive to people they would change the way many clubs do things and make the RL team fell a little more valued. At most clubs there is no reason to have your kid play on second team.

That is certainly a bad situation. But not all clubs do that. At WC, there are examples of age groups where the ECNL and ECRL teams have the same coach, examples of ECNL and ECRL having joint practices and scrimmages, etc. Agree that its rare to see ECRL players permanently promoted to ECNL, but at the better clubs, there are definitely opportunities for ECRL players to play up with ECNL when there are needs. I would assume clubs like PDA, Penn Fusion, FC Stars etc do that more than what you described above.

[Unregistered]

Very true! I only know two girls who moved from RL to ECNL - by switching clubs! It's absurd and sad that they had to go try out at a different club in order to get on an ECNL team. They were both good enough for the ECNL team at their old club but, as mentioned above, nobody ever noticed them.

Yes, this is true. I know 3 girls who did this; moved from ECRL team to ECNL at another club. Also knew 2 girls who moved from ECRL to GDA. Promotion from within the club is almost impossible. Also know a handful of girls from ECNL teams who were demoted to their ECRL teams.

[Unregistered]

An example of why RL is a waste of time and money.... this past weekend my kids 2006 ECNL team/ club (FCB) was having an ID clinic - they told the RL team they were not invited to come to the clinic. Keep in mind the ECNL coach is brand new this year, the ECNL team did not have tryouts, and the two teams practice at completely different locations - which are 1/2 hour away from each other. So there is no way the ECNL coach knows whether there is any talent on the RL team. Moral of the story ... most clubs look down on and do not even give the kids on the RL team a chance... not even letting them come to the ID clinic. If ECNL really wanted to make RL attractive to people they would change the way many clubs do things and make the RL team fell a little more valued. At most clubs there is no reason to have your kid play on second team.

The reality is most ECNL clubs (even within the club) look down on ECRL. They would rather take on a player from the outside for some reason. Crazy stuff, you would think they would be more loyal to already paying customers.

[Unregistered]

The reality is most ECNL clubs (even within the club) look down on ECRL. They would rather take on a player from the outside for some reason. Crazy stuff, you would think they would be more loyal to already paying customers.

I don't know if it's "looking down" versus being a real assessment of ECNL and ECRL players' skills and ability (and commitment). In general, I think movement on ECNL rosters happens at the top of the roster; you only add players to a roster if you think they would clearly be in the top half of the roster, and then you bump a player from the bottom. For players being considered who would be in the bottom half of the roster, you give the benefit of the doubt to the players already on the roster (ie. you don't bump a current player off the roster in exchange for another player who is not clearly better). This kind of assessment would be true for ECRL players too. If the top ECRL player is similar to the bottom ECNL player, does that ECNL player deserve to get bumped? I would say not (unless the ECNL player has an attitude problem or bad parents).

The exception to this might be by position. For example, if the top ECRL player is a defender, and the ECNL roster is shallow at defender and plentiful at forward, it might make sense to bump a forward lower on the ECNL roster in exchange for a defender high on the ECRL roster.

[Unregistered]

I don't know if it's "looking down" versus being a real assessment of ECNL and ECRL players' skills and ability (and commitment). In general, I think movement on ECNL rosters happens at the top of the roster; you only add players to a roster if you think they would clearly be in the top half of the roster, and then you bump a player from the bottom. For players being considered who would be in the bottom half of the roster, you give the benefit of the doubt to the players already on the roster (ie. you don't bump a current player off the roster in exchange for another player who is not clearly better). This kind of assessment would be true for ECRL players too. If the top ECRL player is similar to the bottom ECNL player, does that ECNL player deserve to get bumped? I would say not (unless the ECNL player has an attitude problem or bad parents).

The exception to this might be by position. For example, if the top ECRL player is a defender, and the ECNL roster is shallow at defender and plentiful at forward, it might make sense to bump a forward lower on the ECNL roster in exchange for a defender high on the ECRL roster.

Not talking about “bumping” existing ECNL players. Club holding a clinic to attract outside talent rather than looking at their own RL team, and doesn’t even allow their own RL team players to attend clinic. Reality is clubs will take equal or lesser talent from outside their own club rather than promote an RL player. I’ve seen it plenty of times. You would think out of loyalty if two players are equal and one is on the RL team and another is from outside club that you would take your own RL player - it rarely happens.

[Unregistered]

Not talking about “bumping” existing ECNL players. Club holding a clinic to attract outside talent rather than looking at their own RL team, and doesn’t even allow their own RL team players to attend clinic. Reality is clubs will take equal or lesser talent from outside their own club rather than promote an RL player. I’ve seen it plenty of times. You would think out of loyalty if two players are equal and one is on the RL team and another is from outside club that you would take your own RL player - it rarely happens.

I agree that some clubs handle this poorly. My post was regarding what most clubs do in terms of ECRL/ECNL evaluations, and that there are a few clubs who handle this differently (better). All I did was describe what the better ECNL clubs do regarding their ECRL teams. Not all clubs handle this poorly as you described.

The club you described clearly doesn't care about the ECRL team.And I know EMSC outsources their ECRL team to another club (Farmingdale SC) and keeps it completely separate as well (except giving ECNL players at the bottom of the roster opportunities to get more playing time by playing with ECRL teams).

[Unregistered]

I don't know if it's "looking down" versus being a real assessment of ECNL and ECRL players' skills and ability (and commitment). In general, I think movement on ECNL rosters happens at the top of the roster; you only add players to a roster if you think they would clearly be in the top half of the roster, and then you bump a player from the bottom. For players being considered who would be in the bottom half of the roster, you give the benefit of the doubt to the players already on the roster (ie. you don't bump a current player off the roster in exchange for another player who is not clearly better). This kind of assessment would be true for ECRL players too. If the top ECRL player is similar to the bottom ECNL player, does that ECNL player deserve to get bumped? I would say not (unless the ECNL player has an attitude problem or bad parents).

The exception to this might be by position. For example, if the top ECRL player is a defender, and the ECNL roster is shallow at defender and plentiful at forward, it might make sense to bump a forward lower on the ECNL roster in exchange for a defender high on the ECRL roster.

Well you might say not “looking down” but by the comments made by parents/players it is. And the lack of opportunity reflects it.

[Unregistered]

Well you might say not “looking down” but by the comments made by parents/players it is. And the lack of opportunity reflects it.

It might be true at that particular club, but not sure you can say it is true at all ECNL clubs. That's all I'm saying.