ECNL swings back at DA

NoSpinZone wrote:

timmyh wrote:

Indeed.  And probably so does Lonestar.  I still think it might make sense for one of the big 4 (almost has to be Sting, right?) to drop DA and focus entirely on ECNL.  Would they attract the bulk of the elite talent that isn't willing to make the DA commitment, or would those players be fine playing on the DT/FCD/Solar 2nd teams?  Is there a play to be made like the Challenge and Albion did (we'll drop out, but we get a say in local membership)?  

Sting has a strong tradition and recently was top girls club in the country.  They have strong teams, why is it a few on here think they will be the ones to drop out?

Sting placing through fall in ECNL from u14-u18 is: 1,4,2,4,5
Texans placing: 3,7,6,9,9

I realize Texans are connected w US Soccer, but do they really care about the girls side?  I really probably know very little, but I would guess Texans would drop DA.  Make fun as you wish.

From my perspective, I don't think anyone will drop out (and to be clear, nor have I heard anything that Sting is even considering it - indeed they are one of the very best girl clubs in the country). I'm just wildly speculating that it might be in somebody's best interest to zig rather than zag and that, to me, Sting might have the most to gain long term by doing so.

One more rumor to add to the mix...ECNL has told clubs that in order to start a DA team in 2017 and keep your ECNL membership, you must have 4 of your 5 ECNL teams finish in the Champions League this year.  That's apparently the standard for how they will decide which clubs will have enough depth for ECNL to allow them to put their 2nd team in ECNL.
If true...then which NTX teams look likely to make the cut and have both DA and ECNL?

Edit to add: perhaps source wasn't correct that this is for this year, but will be the standard for 2017-18 in order to be not be removed from the league in 2018-19. That intuitively makes more sense to me. ECNL says, "you can do both next year, but if you are putting your top team in DA, here's the ongoing standard for keeping your ECNL spot."

NoSpinZone wrote:
I realize Texans are connected w US Soccer, but do they really care about the girls side?

tangent alert and stereotyping alert:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Iran#Sports

timmyh wrote:One more rumor to add to the mix...ECNL has told clubs that in order to start a DA team in 2017 and keep your ECNL membership, you must have 4 of your 5 ECNL teams finish in the Champions League this year.  That's apparently the standard for how they will decide which clubs will have enough depth for ECNL to allow them to put their 2nd team in ECNL.
If true...then which NTX teams look likely to make the cut and have both DA and ECNL?

Edit to add: perhaps source wasn't correct that this is for this year, but will be the standard for 2017-18 in order to be not be removed from the league in 2018-19. That intuitively makes more sense to me. ECNL says, "you can do both next year, but if you are putting your top team in DA, here's the ongoing standard for keeping your ECNL spot."

The ECNL site currently shows 84 ECNL member clubs not counting the newly admitted ones.  At U14 there are 16 champions league spots.  Its obviously not possible for all the ECNL members that are also DA members to make the CL at U14.   What are there 70+ DA members that are ECNL members?.  So that basically means they have to make one of the 32 CL spots at every age group U14-U18?  Can you see the conflict there with now forcing clubs to do whatever it takes to make CL?  Doesnt seem well thought out.

I think there will be enough talent in NTX for DA and ECNL. The Composite and JDL teams appear on the face of it to be set up with the specific goal of creating the next tier and making sure they are developed to a level that allows them to be competitive at ECNL when some of the current talent moves. There will only be 23 kids on the roster across two age groups and DA teams will attract talent to a club. The clubs that have stayed in have the depth to cover DA.

In terms of development when High School soccer coaches are paid close to what High School Football coaches are paid US Soccer will be unbeatable for both genders and a significant revenue source.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/special-reports/article97411927.html

Am I the only one that feels like my Tax money is being hijacked by a vocal minority to the detriment of my family? Girls Basketball has a similar problem. Select is better than High School but there's very little money for anyone.

The US should be proud of Title 9 and the leadership role it has in Women's Sports. It could be better of course. Money really does make a difference but the next generation will build on the work done by this one.

timmyh wrote:One more rumor to add to the mix...ECNL has told clubs that in order to start a DA team in 2017 and keep your ECNL membership, you must have 4 of your 5 ECNL teams finish in the Champions League this year.  That's apparently the standard for how they will decide which clubs will have enough depth for ECNL to allow them to put their 2nd team in ECNL.
If true...then which NTX teams look likely to make the cut and have both DA and ECNL?

Edit to add: perhaps source wasn't correct that this is for this year, but will be the standard for 2017-18 in order to be not be removed from the league in 2018-19. That intuitively makes more sense to me. ECNL says, "you can do both next year, but if you are putting your top team in DA, here's the ongoing standard for keeping your ECNL spot."

I heard this as well from Director level staff at FCD and Solar, but it was 3 teams in Champions League -- they both look to be in decent shape to make that happen.

newbiefornow wrote:

In terms of development when High School soccer coaches are paid close to what High School Football coaches are paid US Soccer will be unbeatable for both genders and a significant revenue source.

Honestly, I cannot see this happening in my lifetime and I'm not that old. Soccer is just not in the ethos of American sports like it is in other countries. Just ask you buddies at work. How many of them ever watch a soccer game outside the Olympics or World Cup?

newbiefornow wrote:In terms of development when High School soccer coaches are paid close to what High School Football coaches are paid US Soccer will be unbeatable for both genders and a significant revenue source.

So your theory is that there are no decent high school coaches because they don't get paid enough compared to HS football coaches? If that's the case I suggest you homeschool your kids, because I can tell you their English teacher is probably making less than the football coach as well.

High School soccer is doing fine in most places outside of Texas. In fact high school achievements are a common thread among the top female players in our country. They all have something along the lines of "Parade All American", "All State", etc. on their resumes. Read the backgrounds of the players and you will see that their club team is usually an afterthought behind HS and National teams.

Here in Texas we parents have been brainwashed by the ECNL and the clubs involved to think that one league is the only path to success and have diminished the value of HS soccer. Funny thing is that now the DA comes along and throws a wrench into the whole thing.

Parents love to talk about development but what they really mean is "how can my DD get a scholarship?". Be honest, if A&M walked up to your 13 year old DD and offered her a scholarship today would you concern yourself with how she developed moving forward?

db10 wrote: Be honest, if A&M walked up to your 13 year old DD and offered her a scholarship today would you concern yourself with how she developed moving forward?

No, I would be very happy to accept that.

As a matter of fact, there were a couple of top national players from Solar just committed to UT when they were around 14 years old. Why Solar and their parents don't concern?

Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

"I'm told the landscape next year will in all likelihood be:

DA Frontier Conference - Sting, FCD, Dallas Texans, Solar, Lonestar, Real Colorado, Colorado Rush, FC Kansas City, Sporting Blue Valley, Dash North, Dash South (yes, two)
ECNL Texas Conference - Sting B, FCD B, Solar B, D'Feeters, TSC Hurricane, Classics Elite, Albion, Challenge

Small chance the Dallas Texans get to stay in ECNL, too. Also small chance Lonestar pulls a Texas United (pulls out because there's more money in ECNL - less costs to meet increased standards, more players on teams equals more $$$, and it they can make an agreement to shut out other local clubs from joining and offering a local competitive alternative).

So as currently projected, the DA conference will likely have 11 teams and the ECNL will have 8 teams. Both very viable, high quality leagues. Slightly more travel with the DA as there's a road trip once a year to each of KC and Denver."

Verbal commitment means little.. Just saying.. Its official when they sign. I know UT wouldn't de-commit but anything can happen.  As far as continued development, why wouldn't you? As easy as you received that scholarship, it can easily be taken away. Why settle. My thoughts

Son_ofa_Pitch wrote:Verbal commitment means little.. Just saying.. Its official when they sign. I know UT wouldn't de-commit but anything can happen.  As far as continued development, why wouldn't you? As easy as you received that scholarship, it can easily be taken away. Why settle. My thoughts

Agree! Title 9 has made the competition for talent crazy!. Good thing for girls wanting to play sports in college. Horrible for programs to run the gauntlet of recruiting. Ms. Kelly days are numbered at UT: https://www.hornfans.com/threads/time-to-fire-soccer-coach-angela-kelly.100565/
And no, they do not have to honor the verbal (although a hickey to the program when word gets out, but will just blame prior coach). Have seen it go poof with a coaching change multiple times. If you are stud of studs, usually not a problem. Where it is a problem is when you are a decent '17, '18, and all of those spots are gone at your choice college. In my opinion, it is ridiculous to try and predict at 13-14 years old, what type of players they will be at 19-20. But it is the game we created.

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

You cheating on us timmyh? There are no other texas forums like this one.

tpitty wrote:

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

You cheating on us timmyh?    There are no other texas forums like this one.

If you aren't following the Lonestar drama on the STX Western District board, you are consistently missing out on some high quality humor almost every day.  It's almost worth going through all 1000 pages.  You think this place is crazy?  Those guys are absolutely bonkers.  It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

timmyh wrote:

tpitty wrote:

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

You cheating on us timmyh?    There are no other texas forums like this one.

If you aren't following the Lonestar drama on the STX Western District board, you are consistently missing out on some high quality humor almost every day.  It's almost worth going through all 1000 pages.  You think this place is crazy?  Those guys are absolutely bonkers.  It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

You rang?

Soapbox_mom wrote:

timmyh wrote:

tpitty wrote:

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

You cheating on us timmyh?    There are no other texas forums like this one.

If you aren't following the Lonestar drama on the STX Western District board, you are consistently missing out on some high quality humor almost every day.  It's almost worth going through all 1000 pages.  You think this place is crazy?  Those guys are absolutely bonkers.  It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

You rang?

Soapbox_mom, until you post text messages that purport to out a coach as a potential pedophile, then you've got nothing on the STX Western board. And, sadly, I don't think it was a troll.

You think this place is crazy? Those guys are absolutely bonkers. It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

That might be the funniest thing I've ever read on here.

ForReal wrote:

Soapbox_mom wrote:

timmyh wrote:

tpitty wrote:

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

You cheating on us timmyh?    There are no other texas forums like this one.

If you aren't following the Lonestar drama on the STX Western District board, you are consistently missing out on some high quality humor almost every day.  It's almost worth going through all 1000 pages.  You think this place is crazy?  Those guys are absolutely bonkers.  It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

You rang?

Soapbox_mom, until you post text messages that purport to out a coach as a potential pedophile, then you've got nothing on the STX Western board.  And, sadly, I don't think it was a troll.

LOL Soapbox.

That part about purportedly hacked pedo messages isn't very funny at all, but otherwise you could make a comedy movie about that place. There's tales of match fixing that were ultimately proven correct, rampant infidelity, fired coaches, criminal arrests, leaked recruiting documents and strategies, and about a couple hundred page tale of a family who's child didn't make their ECNL team (they left the club and were ultimately successful) so the dad tries to burn the place down and Lonestar staff goes way over the top, retaliates and tries to damn near ruin the family.
It's enthralling.

I should probably make them aware of the jevin situation.

My theory is that when you have well compensated professional coaching for a large number of people in a large number of venues that's free to the people getting the coaching it's easier to develop talent than when you don't.

ECNL is strong in several states. Texas is a leader in women's Sport including Soccer. That's a great testament to this state. One of the many reasons I like Texas is that people here are willing to put their money behind what they believe in and will organize and just get it done.  

You're point about teachers is well taken. We should pay teachers more than coaches in High School but for reasons that are the subject of heated debate we don't.

Women's sport will continue to develop and I hope (more than believe) it will reach parity with men's sport especially in Schools. I'd like to think that more folks in Texas are of the opinion that Girls should participate in Sports for the same reasons Boys do and with the same benefits for their education and development.

The DA will be more competitive and Girls are competitive. That's a good thing. It seems pretty obvious that US Soccer is using it to control a bit more of Soccer in the US. The clubs didn't initiate the DA but have responded to it. Money isn't everything but in Sport it sure buys a lot of talent and develops it.

US Soccer has a budget for DA, not nearly enough but it's cool that they want to spend it on the Women's game. Would it be better spent on ECNL scholarships based purely on merit? Their goal is pretty narrow (it's US Soccer). They probably figured DA was the best use of their money. Mean time I'm going to see who's on our local school board.

OLJW wrote:You think this place is crazy?  Those guys are absolutely bonkers.  It's what would happen if a soap opera and a trainwreck had a baby and an internet troll peed on it.

That might be the funniest thing I've ever read on here.

you have no idea..the forum only conveys half of the crap that rolls downhill here

The JDL forum is much more lively. Especially since the new Champions League section was added.

Hey, we have new acronyms too. USC League, united soccer club broke away from us youth to create their own new league.

Between all of the levels and leagues we have here, my kid could have played in 13 different levels/leagues (i may be forgetting one or two). All of that and we still struggle to compete outside of stx.

d4
d3
d2
wd-alpha
wd-challenger
wd-prime
scl
plw
nl
ecnl
usc-w
usccl
tcl

timmyh wrote:Copied and pasted from another texas soccer forum:

"I'm told the landscape next year will in all likelihood be:

DA Frontier Conference - Sting, FCD, Dallas Texans, Solar, Lonestar, Real Colorado, Colorado Rush, FC Kansas City, Sporting Blue Valley, Dash North, Dash South (yes, two)
ECNL Texas Conference - Sting B, FCD B, Solar B, D'Feeters, TSC Hurricane, Classics Elite, Albion, Challenge

Small chance the Dallas Texans get to stay in ECNL, too. Also small chance Lonestar pulls a Texas United (pulls out because there's more money in ECNL - less costs to meet increased standards, more players on teams equals more $$$, and it they can make an agreement to shut out other local clubs from joining and offering a local competitive alternative).

So as currently projected, the DA conference will likely have 11 teams and the ECNL will have 8 teams. Both very viable, high quality leagues. Slightly more travel with the DA as there's a road trip once a year to each of KC and Denver."

And now Lonestar declines the DA. More money to be made with ECNL.
Is this DA thing falling apart before it ever gets off the ground?

Everyone asks "what's wrong with American soccer"...Here you have it. Multiple leagues run by multiple organizations.

Will you please point to the source where it reflects the Lonestar Club Declining the DA?