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

Wow! 80 coaches. Think about that for a minute, and ask yourself, how many college programs can I name? Assuming no duplication, that's the equivalent of EVERY program from SIX different 12-team conferences being there. And eight more, to boot.
Possible, yes. But there must have been a coaches'convention nearby!

Not sure about the 80 but thats what i was told. Im sure it could of been stretched a little. I think these events are like a convention for the coaches. There was one game at the Orlando ecnl event that had about 12 coaches on the sideline.

We've attended R3PL, ECNL, ODP and USYSA Regional games over the last few . The number of coaches on the sidelines at ECNL games has far exceeded anything I've seen at the other events. In fact, at U16 and above, each ECNL game gets more coaches on the sidelines than all R3PL games combined.

However, keep in mind that these ECNL games are the showcase events. In the coming year, it sounds like there will be more regional games. I would expect only a small fraction of the coaches to attend these regional games compared to a showcase. In fact, I'd expect the attendance to be similar to R3PL games unless ECNL advertises the games to regional coaches (i.e. some kind of "get out the coach" initiative).

I guess what I'm saying is that comparing coaches at ECNL showcase games v R3PL league games probably isn't really comparing apples-to-apples. Regardless, in the end, the competion and experience gained by the players at both is great.

On a different note, I'd like to echo someone elses comments about dollars going to the club since ECNL. Overall soccer costs may be higher because of the travel (and 2010-2011 felt "cheap" comparied to 2009-2010 because of the event locations and flight costs), but the amount we pay to the club hasn't changed. But, unfortunately, if the cost is too expensive for a family, then it really doesn't matter where the check goes (club or airlines or other) because it's still too expensive.

Boys & Girls, there could be a 180 college coaches, but what matters is ...

- Is the college coach of the school you are interested present?
- Are you even good enough to play at said schools?

Most of these college coaches are not there to look at SC players.

Just look at the club web sites and the list of the Colleges our best players are going to ... 80% are in SC, most within a few hours drive of where they presently live and or play.

But yet we have parents believe they must travel the globe.

And don't give me this competition excuse ... Play a team a year older, drive to Atlanta, Charlotte or Raleigh where there are plenty of teams available to beat our best. Easily.

Yes, exceptions are available but we are talking about 95% of the players. The 5% that are good enough and willing to travel should play out of state.

I believe the answer to both questions is yes for the girls on these ECNL teams.

- The girls have no idea what school they might be interested in until they start to have their options open up. I've seen minds change more than once as new options become available. Unless you want their options limited to the schools they and you know, why limit them?

- We've seen many schools from a good radius around SC at all three events we've attended. As an example, here is a partial list we were given of the coaches that were handed team rosters during our games in San Antonio (during the Viking Cup). I'm guessing there are some good options in this list for the players, and there were also a lot of options outside of a 300 mile radius. Also, many of these coaches attended our games because they were there to look at SC players. And yes, there are a few kids interested in Ivy League schools too.

Clemson
Coastal Carolina
College of Charleston
Cornell
Davidson
East Carolina
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida International University
George Washington
Harvard
James Madison
Marshall
NC State
Pitt
Princeton
Tennessee
UNC - Charlotte
University of Alabama
University of Alabama - Birmingham
University of SC
USC Upstate
Vanderbilt
West Point
Western Carolina

Player on the ECNL teams are getting exposure and potential options. Whether they take advantage of it is dependent on how they play, their own desire and drive and how they follow up.

Remember too that ECNL is still new. The first group of ECNL players who have had a full cycle are more than two years away from graduating. The goal is to improve the level of girls soccer and that will take time.

In the end, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you completely.

I think Reccos observation is a little more accurate based on the D1 womens soccer websites in SC.It could of changed from when I posted it a month ago, but I doubt it changed very much.

Womens D1 recruiting for SC Colleges 2011 - Stats come from South Carolina D1 college athletic websites. Not sure if they list preferred walk-ons or walk ons.

Number of recruits by state.

Coastal Carolina - Michigan, Kentucky, Cal - 2, Fla - 2, Washington, Arizona, Va. NC

USC - Canada, Colorado, NJ, Va, Pa
,
College of Charleston - Ga, NY, Va, La., NC, SC, Ca
.
Winthrop- No Info

Presbyterian - Ga–3

Clemson - No Info

Wofford - Conn,NC,Mass,Ga-2,SC

Citadel - Fla-3

Furman - SC-3, Texas-3,Fla-2,Ga-1

Charleston Southern - TX,NJ-4,SC-3,NC,Sweden

USC Upstate - Ky,SC,Va,NC,Ill,Md,Ga

SC State - Canada, England, Ohio

By State
SC – 9
Georgia – 8
Florida – 7
NC – 5
Pa – 1
NJ – 5
International – 4
Virginia – 4
Cal – 3
Kentucky – 2
Arizona – 1
Michigan – 1
Washington – 1
Colorado – 1
NY – 1
La. – 1
Conn – 1
MD - 1

Out of State Recruits – 47 SC Recruits – 9

SC Recruits by school
Coastal Carolina – 0 of 10
University of South Carolina – 0 of 5
South Carolina State – 0 of 3
Citadel – 0 of 3
Presbyterian – 0 of 3
College of Charleston – 1 of 7
Wofford – 1 of 6
Furman – 3 of 9
Charleston Southern – 3 of 10
USC Upstate – 1 of 7
Clemson – No data
Winthrop – No data

Sorry for the ignorance, but you're going to have to tell me what these stats tell us about the topic? I don't get the correlation to the value of ECNL, especially given that we are less than two years into the process.

Reccos posted "most of the college coaches there are not there to look at SC players". The correlation is as you can see by the D1 info SC D1 colleges are not recruiting SC players, what makes you think out of state D1's are going to recruit your SC player from one of the ECNL events. Just for kicks how many of the colleges that you listed above that attended these ECNL events has a player of your club on it. I'm sure their has to be a few. Hope this clears up the correlation thing.