ECNL is it delivering on the hype?

[Unregistered]

Your hypotheticals just don't make sense. And yet you keep putting them out there.

32 teams (8x4) cannot play for a national championship. Too many teams, too many games, not enough days.

A B team that "beats the heck out of all the teams in their region", is very unlikely to "sit in the middle of the pack" in the B standings. They would likely have 8-10 wins in conference. To be in the middle of the pack they would need to lose all of their showcase games. For this to happen you would need a horribly weak conference with horribly weak A teams.

Not sure what you are getting at with the "yet you keep putting them out there". You must be thinking I posted before, but I just came into this string and threw the comment out there as a parent quite confused with this years rules and my kid on a B bracket team My hypotheticals in the post will prove or not over time. But, again, really don't know why there has to be brackets. If B is a current season qualifying bracket, then I get it. But it is hard to have anything to work for if our past year is always going to determine the whole next season. It just would be nice to have more mid-season migration and possibility that a really good U15 or U16 B team, could actually see something more important in the current season, versus having to wait until next year to play at the A bracket.

[Unregistered]

OK, so here is a question about the A/B bracket and what games count toward flight standings: In the national showcase events, a team in the A flight should only be playing other A flight teams and all those games should count for their national standings in the A flight right? So, what happens when an A flight team goes to a national event and plays a team from the B flight, who is not in their conference? Doesn't this fly in the face of everything ECNL was built for, to play top competition from around the country? We are traveling over a thousand miles away to play a team from the B bracket at a national event. This seems like the opposite of the ECNL promise. Combine that with the regional play, and it doesn't seem any different than USYSA regional play combined with Disney/final four tournaments. Actually, I take that back. It is worse. In USYSA we would only be playing other premier teams from the region. In ECNL regional games we are playing teams that would be sitting at the bottom of their first division teams in USYSA.

[Unregistered]

OK, so here is a question about the A/B bracket and what games count toward flight standings: In the national showcase events, a team in the A flight should only be playing other A flight teams and all those games should count for their national standings in the A flight right? So, what happens when an A flight team goes to a national event and plays a team from the B flight, who is not in their conference? Doesn't this fly in the face of everything ECNL was built for, to play top competition from around the country? We are traveling over a thousand miles away to play a team from the B bracket at a national event. This seems like the opposite of the ECNL promise. Combine that with the regional play, and it doesn't seem any different than USYSA regional play combined with Disney/final four tournaments. Actually, I take that back. It is worse. In USYSA we would only be playing other premier teams from the region. In ECNL regional games we are playing teams that would be sitting at the bottom of their first division teams in USYSA.

Based on the games from the first national event this year, the only two time an A flight team plays a B flight team is when there are an odd number of teams in each flight. For example in Phoenix for u15s there were 13 A teams and 17 B teams, so 3 A teams played 1 game each against 3 B teams to make the schedule work. The u16s didn't have that issue so there were no games that mixed A vs B.

[Unregistered]

And coming soon

You should see the list for CA teams in ECNL before you speak- West Coast, Arsenal, Real SO. Cal, SO.CAl Blues, Slammers, San Diego Surf, De Anza, San Juan. Quite a list.

Legends FC

[Unregistered]

At U14, the kids are just getting started. Give them a break! As for the Scorps and CFC teams, give them credit. They get their players into some great schools for soccer, so they must be doing something right.

If you look at the below analysis, Scorpions have definitely gotten more kids into college for 2012. CFC and Stars are tied for 2012, and PDA leads the pack as usual.

Scorpions (2012s) Schools committed to (Taken from google recruiting website)

Dayton, Yale, Bryant, Holy Cross (2), Providence (2), Princeton, Central Connecticut,
Boston College (2), Fairfield, New Hampshire, Merrimack, St. Anselm, Harvard,
Rhode Island, Siena, Missouri
(Total of 20 players)

2013 - Maryland


Stars of Mass - Schools committed to for 2012
Northeastern (2), Rutgers, Monmouth, Maryland, Georgetown, Northwestern, PRovidence, Penn State, Michigan State, Maryland, New Hampshire, Boston College
(Total of 13 players)

2013 - Boston College


CFC - Schools committed to for 2012
Brown, NC State, Fairfield (2), Boston Univ. High Point, Providence, Yale, Quinnipiac (2), Vanderbilt (2), Hartford,
(Total of 13 players)

2013 - Michigan, Connecticut, Sacred Heart


PDA - Schools committed to for 2012
Villanova (3), Rutgers (3), West Virginia, Notre Dame, Monmouth (2), Dartmouth, Georgia, Mt. St. Marys, Quinnipiac, Maryland, College of Charleston, Virginia, Providence (2), Seton Hall
(Total of 21 players)

2013 - Northwestern, BYU, North Carolina, Villanova, Boston College, Monmouth (2) , Syracuse, Rutgers (3),
(Total of 11 players)

Corrections:

Based on recruiting website:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...NZnNqc1E#gid=6

Scorpions 2013 (3)
Providence, Maryland, Vermont

CFC
Schools committed to for 2012
Brown, NC State, Fairfield (2), Boston Univ. High Point, Providence, Yale, Quinnipiac (3), Stonybrook, Davidson, Vanderbilt (2), Hartford,
(Total of 16 players)

2013 (6)
Michigan, Connecticut (2), UMass (2), Sacred Heart


PDA
2013 - Clemson, California, BYU, North Carolina, Villanova, Boston College, Monmouth (2) , Syracuse, Rutgers (3), Harvard, Penn State
(Total of 14 players)

[perspective]

There has been a whole lot very very positive information posted about this league since it started a short couple of years ago. Originally it was supposed to be a small national league where only the best of the best belonged. Now it has expanded and morphed into more of an association of regional leagues in a structure similar to DAP. One of the questions now is do all of the original selling points for the league still hold true or have they also changed now that the league structure has changed so dramatically? Originally the primary selling point of the ECNL was it was going to give the players tremendous exposure because all of the best teams and players would be in one place during their showcase events. The claim was that these events were going to change the face of college recruiting because the quality was going to be so high that these events would functionally be the only place coaches would need to go to recruit. As predicted though, the costs of trying to do that proved to be prohibitive and that has forced the whole model to change. Now there is only one ECNL event where you are guaranteed that all of the ECNL teams will be at and since the league has grown so large you now have the inevitable pecking order where teams are grouped differently according to ability. This fact that there would be teams of differing abilities in the league is one big factor that was never really anticipated so what has essentially evolved is the same sort of showcase event that you had in the past. The problem that situation has created is that the original selling point of tremendous exposure cannot possibly be maintained for all of the teams in all of the brackets. So the question is what are the benefits now to participating in this league?

And who might have started this thread in 2012???

[Unregistered]

Thank you Perspective for bringing this two year old thread back and for once again putting the ECNL and its two representatives under the microscope. Considering the lack of success at San Diego, it probably is a fair question. Has the ECNL delivered what was promised.

[perspective]

Thank you Perspective for bringing this two year old thread back and for once again putting the ECNL and its two representatives under the microscope. Considering the lack of success at San Diego, it probably is a fair question. Has the ECNL delivered what was promised.

Why are you thanking me? Is that an admission of guilt?

[Unregistered]

Say what you want but very few non ECNL club teams will be at the PDA College Showcase this Memorial Day. This showcase will face the who's who of college coaches and Scorpions and Stars of Mass will be well represented at this showcase.

No matter if you win or lose you want to be where the college coaches are recruiting. Remember the college coaches are only watching individual players and they could care less about the result of a game.

[Unregistered]

Thank you Perspective for bringing this two year old thread back and for once again putting the ECNL and its two representatives under the microscope. Considering the lack of success at San Diego, it probably is a fair question. Has the ECNL delivered what was promised.

Has the ECNL delivered? Well we just returned from San Diego. This is our first year in ECNL. What did we do in SD? First, we were treated to the most well run soccer event imaginable. Impeccable fields, clock work precision on game time management, top quality reffing at every game, and easy parking. Our daughter got to play against teams and players that they would never have faced at local tournaments. We also got to spend time with parents of older Scorpions players and talk about how they managed in the recruiting process. Our daughter spent time with the older players who treated her like one of them, sharing stories and tips about how best to approach coaches of schools that she is interested in attending. And seeing those older players meet up with players form other ECNL teams that are committed to the same schools was pretty cool.

Did the ECNL deliver? It far exceeded any promise that might have been posted on this website. Oh and also, the US national team played China in San Diego while we were there. An La Jolla is pretty nice. It was a bit more interesting than the post game trip to Panera in Marlborough that highlighted our after-tournament life before the ECNL. SO take it or leave it. For us, we'll definitely be back. Hopefully the anti-ECNL posts on this site will continue, since it is entertaining to hear about its demise.

[Unregistered]

Thank you Perspective for bringing this two year old thread back and for once again putting the ECNL and its two representatives under the microscope. Considering the lack of success at San Diego, it probably is a fair question. Has the ECNL delivered what was promised.

I don't think we had a lack of success ! And I got to go to CA

[Unregistered]

I will say that after CA, I do think ECNL is too big

[Unregistered]

Say what you want but very few non ECNL club teams will be at the PDA College Showcase this Memorial Day. This showcase will face the who's who of college coaches and Scorpions and Stars of Mass will be well represented at this showcase.

No matter if you win or lose you want to be where the college coaches are recruiting. Remember the college coaches are only watching individual players and they could care less about the result of a game.

Honestly what college coaches attending the PDA tournament are going to be looking at the non-ECNL teams? It's an ECNL tournament with the other teams buried in lower brackets.

[Unregistered]

Honestly what college coaches attending the PDA tournament are going to be looking at the non-ECNL teams? It's an ECNL tournament with the other teams buried in lower brackets.

Oh, no! How will my kid on a top team with a club that's not ECNL ever be seen? I know that common sense and reality tell me that many players who aren't on ECNL teams manage to get recruited to the full range of D1 schools. But how that could possibly be is a complete mystery--given that college coaches who would prefer to keep their jobs can't necessarily be expected to scout easily identifiable sources of non-ECNL talent. I really worry that these coaches believe the notion that almost all the talent is already in the ECNL. Still, I'm kind of impressed by the number and quality of purported D1 commitments coming out of my non-ECNL club--so maybe we'll just stay the course and pray that my very talented kid will somehow be discovered, too.

[Unregistered]

Colleges are sending 2 coaches to these events. PDA is the game game in town for recruiting over Memorial Day for the top D1 schools. I'm sure Needham will have a few coaches as well but please let's not debate the 2 showcases.