SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP ecnl vs. odp vs. odp vs. ecnl

Actually someone nicely PM'ed me numbers (after I posted, imagine someone trying to be helpful without an agenda in a forum ) so thats ok but thanks for your ... help anyway. I was not bashing CESA I was only wonder what the cost was vs NC ECNL teams. Neither are on my list of thing to do right now but it is nice to know what options there are.

So you agree that it s about the college coaches and that is what ECNL sells (maybe not club but big picture). They are not alone I just see them ECNL) as another option and wonder about expense vs value i.e. how many of the players would still get offers playing at premier level for less, can never really know but it is worth considering.

On the playing time thing I was more courious about the new sub rule that ECNL was putting in place this year. Large roster with limited subs means someone will get less time. Unless a coach is going to run his game by a stop watch and not worry about wins and loss because the best player for the situation can not be on pitch right now due to playing time fairness. I know how high strung parents are at levels below ECNL cant imagine they get more laid back as they pay more. Just wondering how some thinnk it will work out.

Not aware of any new sub rule. Rules last year seemed to work out just fine. And no, I don't agree that it's 'about college coaches'. Read again.

Chief your correct it doesn't matter what venue your participating in. College coaches are still going to come. College coaches were attending R3 premier events long before ECNL existed. We saw the same college coaches at R3 and ODP events that we saw at our ECNL events.If your looking for a club, find one that's more into development rather than in the travel agency business. If your child develops into a good soccer player a college will find your child.Coach DiCicco in his article I think was trying to point out that clubs should focus more on player development and practice than focus on how many high level games you can play accross the country. I found another article in the Columbus Dispatch that sheds some more light on this issue.

Report: Youth sports come at high cost
Participation pressures families to spend big bucks and chase glory

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A year-round, $5 billion youth sports industry is pushing some children too hard and pressuring families to spend big money traveling the country for games, specialized training and the pursuit of elusive college scholarships, The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday. At a minimum, many youths are robbed of their childhood, the newspaper said in the first of a five-part series. Families easily can sink up to $50,000 a year in youth sports.
One Cleveland family spent $30,000 in six months to help their son pursue a soccer dream, the newspaper said. Another mother arranged to send her 11-year-old son to live with a trainer in Alabama to refine his football skills.
About 40 million children participate in youth sports — nearly six times as many who play high school sports and 100 times as many who play at an NCAA college.
To examine the sports culture, the Dispatch surveyed about 1,000 Ohio high school students and 213 coaches, along with 70 athletes and 33 coaches from Ohio State University. More than 40 percent said their parents pressured them to play, and 10 percent said their parents’ behavior during games embarrassed them.
“Too many parents today want to be agents instead of parents,” said Dave Klontz, head baseball coach at Heath High School.
Sandy Baum, an economics professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga, N.Y., and an expert on financial aid, said parents are making the wrong investment.“ Your kid is much better off studying and doing well academically than spending all the time on the soccer field .” In the past decade, the amount of money pouring into nonprofit youth sport organizations has doubled to nearly $70 million in Ohio, according to IRS tax data. Nationally, those groups are collecting $5 billion a year.
Some students feel caught between high school and youth sports coaches. About 25 percent of high school students said they felt pressed to play at a higher level of competition. As a consequence, nearly half of the high school coaches said some athletes have quit their teams to focus on playing with non-school teams. Coaches say youth sports need a governing body similar to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
Colleges and schools also are required to examine the criminal backgrounds of coaches. Many youth sports leagues aren’t.

As regards high school soccer in our state, the reality is this:
High school soccer is a great low-pressure vacation; a chance to hang with friends and play for your school; a chance to get a hug from your family and friends afterward.
These things are very important in LIFE.
However, high school soccer is not an ideal, or even good, environment for player development. From what I've seen, many "elite club" kids "play down" to the level of their high school teammates, rather than helping to lift them to a higher level.
Human nature, I suppose.

Chief: My philosophy is simple. If you're good enough as an athlete and student, college coaches will find you. Which is one reason why all this early commitment stuff is nonsense, and nothing more than an ego stroke for kids and their parents.

Gee that seems like the hard way to do it, are you sure there is not a short cut?

Fair enough, in the sense that kids SHOULD make some kind of initial contact. That having been said, most coaches know who the prospects are by doing X-amount of legwork on their own. They gossip with fellow coaches, call club and high school coaches, etc. Showcase events tend to be more of a confirmation of mutual interest, rather than a mining and discovery process. Not that the latter never happens. Just RARELY.

I was told one time that at a u-17 ecnl game there were close to 80 coaches on the sideline. In that case i can agree with you that they will find you. Im sure the u-16 may not have as many on the sideline and i know the u-15 do not. The u-15 age may be a good time to make that initial contact with a coach to let them know who you are and where you are at so they do not have to find you.
Think about this. At the u-17 age you are past Sept 1st of your jr year when coaches can officaly contact you. If they are just now finding you then it may be to late. u-16 girls in the fall are playing their final club season before the coaches can contact them. That season is the last chance a coach can see them play before they start contacting players about coming to play for them. the u-15 girls are at the right age to get started getting their name out there. You have to remember that some u-15s are already soph in high school and in the same boat as the u-16s. I would not wait to see if a coach finds me and i would help them find me.