1. Not to argue against the ECNL experience (my daughter also enjoyed her's), but to make a technical point...
Quote: ...At our last ECNL game in Sanford FL, there were over 70 coaches watching our girls perform. It's been a while since I've seen that number of coaches roaming the sidelines at a Premier game.
...Do Premier league games usually have coaches from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Richmond, and Columbus State University in attendance? I know the ECNL events did.
Comparison of coaches' attendance at ECNL events with Premier league games may be apples and oranges. Better comparison (my opinion) would be Sanford ECNL attendance compared to Disney, and Premier league game attendance to ECNL league game attendance. I really don't know, but were 70 coaches including UPenn and Richmond at MeSA for your ECNL league games with Atlanta and Concorde? (BTW, congrats to the player going to UPenn, absolutely incredible school but $50k+/yr Ivy League... no athletic scholarships. Obviously matches her formidable performance on the field with similar performance in the classroom. Always a winning combination.)
2. ECNL vs. Premier League? Been down that road before maybe a little too often, so I thought I'd leave the thread by quoting an excerpt from what I thought was a pretty good interview with Coach Hyslop by Soccer America regarding the recent accomplishments of Mr. Velasquez at Real Salt Lake. I don't think the strategies for player development are necessarily gender specific, so feel free to substitute "ECNL" for "Academy" as you read...
Quote: ... but when Hyslop hears talk that the only pathway to soccer success lies with the Development Academy, or that certain college coaches turn away from evaluating players based on what league they compete in, he points to Velasquez as a reminder that players “get where they want to go in a variety of ways.”
“I think the Academy is a viable, great option, but at the same time, we’re also providing provide [sic] opportunities and developing players,” says Hyslop. “There’s no cookie-cutter guaranteed way to do that. I certainly don’t have all the answers. With the size of the country, it’s inevitable there’s going to be different avenues to reach a goal.”
Hyslop believes youth soccer, with the rise of the Development Academy and its increased influence -- which includes discouraging of high school play -- is at a crossroads.
“It’s not about Sebastian Velasquez,” he says. “It’s not about Carolina Elite Academy. It’s not necessarily about the USSF Academy. It’s really about taking a look and asking can we make sure we develop every possible player in this country? There’s more than one way to do it.
“We have to decide, are we going recognize everybody? Or are we only going to recognize some?
“It makes good sense to cast the net far and wide.”
Now, Sebastion Velasquez is a truly gifted player as is his teammate at RSL, Enzo Martinez. The fact that in the same year one was drafted from a junior college, Spartanburg Methodist, and the other from UNC tends to further support the point Coach Hyslop is making in the article... that players "get where they want to go in a variety of ways.”
The point from the article that most caught my attention and agreement was... "It’s really about taking a look and asking can we make sure we develop every possible player in this country? There’s more than one way to do it."
