Quote:

So, if there was nothing on the club schedule whatsoever for the month of July and part of August, would that count as a "break" after the spring/summer? And if there was nothing on the schedule from the end of Feb. until the beginning of June, would that count as a "break" after the winter season?


Maybe, but realistically from the player perspective of a 3-4 week break from soccer that just isn't the case. Then again maybe they're getting a 3-4 week break away from the fields between HS season and the June lineup of ECNL and Southern Regional events.

Quote:

... And in tournaments, you can apparently play PDA's top team in the ECNL bracket or you can play McLean's 2nd team and the teams from the bottom of the Premier League in the other brackets.


Or, you can play PDA's top team in a non-ECNL top bracket. In the U-16 top bracket at JCup Braddock Road got 3 games vs. ECNL teams without having to be a part of ECNL. In the U-15 top bracket that's not a "bottom of the Premier League" team from SCUMP But, that's beside the point I was making about attending major tournaments. On second thought it may be exactly the point I was making about major tournaments.

Earlier I brought up major tournaments specifically regarding exposure to college coaches not level of competition. If as you say the level of competition isn't what it used to be at the open major tournaments like PDA, Disney, CASL, JCup (hard to believe you would consider quality down with all those ECNL teams entered), then the ECNL teams attending those non-National-ECNL-Events must not be there for the competition or player development. So unless they just like spending the money for no reason at all (not saying they don't), I can only think of one reason they would be there. Exposure to college coaches at the major tournaments in addition to the exposure they get through ECNL events. I'm not saying ECNL National Events don't draw a lot of coaches, they do. So do the major tournaments. I guess I should send a note of thanks to all those ECNL teams still attending the major tournaments for helping make my point. According to the JCup site the number of college coaches registered this year on both the boys and girls side set a record, and I haven't heard of a major exodus of coaches at PDA, Disney, etc.

Quote:

I'd be curious to see you at PDA or Surf Cup (you mentioned) as I thought you were against traveling so much. I may be wrong, it may not have been you that objected to much to the travel.


I have been to PDA but only once for ECNL (I drove, she flew). And when I got there and watched a U-16 game between D. Texans and BUSA with 70 (I counted) college coaches in attendance on the open non-ECNL side of the tournament I couldn't help but wonder why our club had not been attending all along. After a 6 year absence from CASL Shootout, my daughter finally got a chance to return at U-18. She took a look around and said, "We should have been coming here all along." Oh, I don't think I've ever been accused of being against traveling so much, although I will say I'm not particularly fond of having to purchase airline tickets to do so.

So, been to PDA. And Dallas (2x), D.C. (2x), Little Rock, Baton Rouge, Nashville, Houston, College Station, Orlando (?x), Sanford, Raleigh (5x), Knoxville, Atlanta (?x), Jacksonville (?x), Jekyll Island (?x), Greensboro (?x), Chattanooga, Norfolk, Birmingham, Montevallo (6x, 9weeks hotel), and probably some I've forgotten. Only a few of those trips were related to ECNL. Fortunately only a few involved airline tickets. I enjoyed making every trip to watch and support my daughters. Although both are now playing in college, the connections to their current coaches were made locally (one from a HS tournament). Even so, if asked tomorrow to start over... we'd be signed up and on the road again.