ECNL RL vs. GA

[Guest]

I would definitely be upset if I paid money to play poor competition or not have enough players to play against competition. Both of those scenarios sound deflating to spend money.

I would not do GA for this reason with my daughter. ECNL-R I believe is 1 less trip than GA and more local. All this said, living in the NW if I had a kid that was not able to make an ECNL team or I did not want to drive to Portland for ECNL teams, I would have my kid join a USYS team and compete in OYSA and seek Friendlies with older girls teams and boys teams. Invite local college coaches to the OYSA games against a decent competitor or a strong friendly. Then travel 2x a year to well attended Tournaments and write college coaches at those tournaments to watch you and capture highlights.

In all disclosure, I have an ECNL playing kid, and “No” the competition in Colorado was not ridiculously weak like the other poster said, but even if it was, ECNL is the right place for one of my kids. We only pay for this much travel for this one kid because it made sense, they needed the competition and a robust college scholarship was and now has become the reality. We only pay for “largely” local soccer for our other kids because they are not as dedicated or talented.

Weigh the spend against your kids dreams and abilities before paying for anything but local ball. This is true for all club sports spend now, not just soccer.

Are you really this stupid?

[Guest]

Are you really this stupid?

This past weekend OYSA has shown they are the top league.

[Guest]

Are you really this stupid?

Nope. Saved money on one kid in the long run by going ECNL and the others I am not overspending for the experience they need, which is friendships, athletics and teamwork, plus maybe small amount of college money at community or lower playing D2, D3, NAIA. Smart is as smart does.

[Guest]

Thank god the season is over. Great trip to Spokane. Scored zero goals all weekend, gave up 18 between the two games.

So which club next year? Certainly after this venting you are moving on, but I don’t think too many of those 2008 kids (judging by the scores of their games) could make an ECNL RL team. NWE competitive team?