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Harry, unless that's short for Harriet, you might ask your daughter's opinion. Over the last 15 years my daughters have gotten fairly serious about soccer. But when it comes to High School soccer, what dad thinks and what daughter thinks can be quite different.

(What dad knows is that the privilege of playing those 3 games is probably going to cost him $150-$200 each, so if she does go lets hope that's where she really wants to be... seriously.)

How many coaches usually watch each game.

not 229.

(Hard Headed maybe you can move this tangent over to a new topic like ECNL vs. Viking Cup or something, I don't know how. Harry, in the last 8 months my daughter had a total of 2 weeks in the summer off and 2 weekends off this fall, when she wasn't in cleats playing ECNL, Southern Regionals, Region 3 ODP, Premier League, Challenge League, and three college camps. By New Year you can add 2 more ECNL events and State Cup. By the time January rolls around she'll be wanting a couple of months of just being a high school student and playing for her school and recharging her "social battery". We can analyze "social" vs. "serious soccer" vs. "college recruiting" desires in another thread. But, come Spring she deserves a break.)

Back to ODP.

What about those members of Region 3 teams that also play ECNL? If they miss the district/state tryouts, will they miss out on upcoming Region team events? Will the ECNL player Nehsmith(sp?) that made the all-expenses-paid trip to Costa Rica last Spring for the international matches lose future opportunities. Will they be forced to go to another club to maintain access?

That's an excellent question regarding T. N. and the ODP Region team. How did she get on the ODP region team and still manage to play for a club whose director forbids the players to play ODP? How did your daughter manage to pull that off? They did both play in the ECNL last year right?

Or are you referring to the point that the ECNL may or may not forbid players from doing ODP? Has that been established as fact yet?

In T.N.'s case regarding the 'all expense paid trip', it sounds great. In order to get to that point, if she went the normal ODP route last year, I'm sure she paid her dues. How much was region camp? I think tryouts last year, for a one day (I'm sorry, half day) tryout was $70? I may be wrong. I remember last year seeing kids from Greenville required to stay in a hotel in Greenville for one day of training and scrimmages between SC squads. There were a few charter busses involved also I believe. Were the rooms and busses free as well? I wonder what the total cost and the total number of sessions and games were. It might be reasonable. I honestly don't know. Does anyone?

Dog, you might have answers to these two questions. Why doesn't the top 2 teams in R3PL u18 girls(Boca & Pontre Vedre) not play in ECNL. Those 2 teams are loaded with top D1 recruits and it doesn't seem like they think the need to play in ECNL for college exposure.
Also the top u18 girls team from CASL this year has taken a beating compared to years past. They always used to be one of the top teams in u18 R3PL. This could be a rumor, but I was told CASL told the girls that they couldn't compete in high school soccer anymore because they would have ECNL commitments, and some of their players told CASL to go jump in the lake. Is this true?

Is there another team from the Ponte Vedre club in another age group that is anywhere near as good as the U-18s? That's probably why they weren't invited to ECNL. They only invite clubs (not individual teams) that are consistently strong and have the resources and infrastructure to sustain a strong program. One-off teams aren't invited.

CASL's U-18s demonstrate that at that age, clubs deal with the same issues all over the place. Some kids decide that they want to go to UNC and that they won't play soccer there. Some decide that they've already committed to a college and want to take a 'break'. (I personally couldn't imagine committing to playing college soccer and then preparing for it by NOT playing the most soccer I could against the best teams I could find.) Some kids get misguided by others that they should be able to do what they want when they want in their final year. CASL is in a position to tell those kids to go somewhere else. Most clubs are not.

I was told by a CASL staff member that they had 40+ girls in 3 combined older age groups tell them that their HS teams were poorly coached and unchallenging, and asked if the club would train them etc. in the Spring. I believe they are in a position to do that, as are other clubs.

R3PL, ECNL, ODP, SC challenge league, high school soccer. On the girls side it looks like there are a lot of choices of what a player can be involved in. It seems people are complaining on one hand there are too many demands on a player and then on the other hand why some of these leagues are conflicting and talking about not allowing participation in a conflicting league. Why doesn't there seem to be as much complaints on the boys side? Didn't some of the league offerings become mutually exclusive? At the end of the day, the player should decide what level/league she wants to participate in, try out and if she makes that team knowing full well what the schedule commitment is, fully commit to that season and team. If she knows of conflicts up front, let the coach know at tryouts and then it is the coach's decision whether they take on that player with those contingencies or priorities. i.e. if high school or ODP is a priority then let the ECNL coach know at team selection that high school or ODP comes first or the reverse. If the coach takes on a player knowing those priorities then they are willing to work with it and shouldn't expect a player to be at an event when it was stated at selection time her priority, as well as the reverse. If the player says the ECNL team is a priority then the player should make all the events. It would make it easier in this case then to have separate "teams" for each of the leagues since there seems to be more and more overlap. The ECNL team should not neccesarily be the same team as R3PL. This may be the end result if ECNL is going the way of the boys academy but in the mean time hold separate tryouts for a team that participates in the ECNL league, premier league, challenge league etc. If a player tries out for several different teams in different leagues it is only fair to state her priorities up front and give the chance for the coach to select another or additional players if that team is not a player's priority. If you could separate out the different leagues, what a great time to be a girl soccer player. You could combine whatever participation meets your desire, needs and talent. There doesn't have to be one "right" or better league. If high school soccer is important to a player then combine with the challenge league and/or ODP. If year round national competition is more the players interest and style then do ECNL. I think it is difficult right now because it is all combined and a player really can't be 100% committed to every soccer league available. Choices have to be made by players and coaches but they need to be clear up front and upheld through the whole season.