Hi all, this is my first post on this thread and I finally had to ask and get some input from everyone. My daughter is currently playing on an ECNL team and is doing very well. Her goal is to play in college and beyond. With the grind of the ECNL schedule for practice, training, games, tournaments, and showcases, I am really worried about her maintaining this schedule as she starts HS. Then four years from now, still being excited about wanting to continue this pace in college. I have had many of my friends and colleagues who tell stories of these kids getting burned out. On the flip side, is the ECNL the end-all, be-all path to being exposed to and eventually receiving the best college scholarship offers? The worry, maybe like many of you, is that if we decide to pull her back and play for say a Flight 1 team, that yes her schedule will free up more time and money, but then will she miss out on being exposed to the top colleges or could they frown upon the level she is playing at. Mom and I recently had the conversation about dropping down a level but maybe playing a year up if it worked out. Plus with the newfound time and money, we would have more time to visit schools and/or have our daughter attend ID Camps. I thank all of you ahead of time for your experienced input on this!
ECNL, College, Time-Balance
- Thread starter SccrDad
- Start date
ECNL is not the be-all, end-all, but many on here will tell you it is. The be-all, end-all is finding a team where the coach and teammates are a perfect fit, and she enjoys playing, then pay close attention to make sure you see the signs of excessive stress - physical & mental. It comes up fast and without warning. Naturally, the higher-level teams will provide more access to college coaches, but there are good teams in many leagues - ECNL, GAL, NPL/discovery/Flight 1, and possibly E64.
Find someone you trust who has been through the college recruiting path. Perhaps an older sibling of someone on her current team? Because you've got to take things you read here with a grain of salt!
I'm sure there will be plenty of valuable posts with great information, and undoubtedly there will be others who sidetrack this post from it's original intent and flame wars will ensue, so before it gets there, welcome to the forum, great question and feel free to continue to post and engage in good conversations.
- ECNL is a great platform and can be very valuable in getting your DD the visibility she needs to make her goals a reality. A lot of contributing factors to get the most out of the platform are team's competition level, your own DD's competition level, coach connections, your DD's outreach to coaches / programs, etc. The platform works, but you also have to work the platform.
- ECNL Grind. Having a balance for your DD is easier said than done and also easier if the club she's at is flexible in partnering with her on that. If the club is flexible, a lot of the soccer / life balance will need to be planned out as best as possible and communication at all times is key, i.e. Vacations, Conflicting Academic Dates, High School Activities, Etc. Both parents / players are fearful that missing 1 practice or game will be a deal breaker with their progress and place with the coach / club. Don't dabble in fear and remove those thoughts by being upfront and asking the coach what her / his policy is on attendance / communication on conflicting commitments. My personal opinion, if the club and coach do not provide the flexibility, and you put soccer before everything else, that is a key contributor to burn out.
- Flight 1 Teams. Not playing on the ECNL platform is not a "deal breaker" as many posters will attest to, but present a different set of challenges. The path is different and sometimes will require more work on either the coach's behalf or your DD.
- Long Term Goals. You mentioned your DD aspires to play soccer in college and beyond, in most cases the level of "business" she is beginning to experience will continue throughout those endeavors. The only difference will be the gravity of that schedule which can vary by which level she plays in college, D1 / D2 / D3 and so on. If those are her goals, letting her know that what she is going through will be par for the course going forward is key in her understanding the level of stress / pressure she will be under.
My DD's experience ran the full gamut of club soccer, started at a big club and got lost in the shuffle. Moved to a small club to gain confidence and more individual attention to her needs where she flourished and then made the move back to the big club scene. Transition to an ECRL team to have more of a soccer / life balance the last few years, and continued to love the sport until this final season. Any momentum she had built up in her sophomore and junior years where snuffed out by a coaching change. She made the best of it, but silver lining was she leaned more towards switching to academics only and ended up turning down 3 offers to play college soccer. My wife and I asked her about the decision and how soccer burnout played a role. She was honest and said she wanted to play soccer on her terms as much as possible and the final year of club soured her on the possibilities of that being the case going forward into college.
She got accepted into UCLA and will be attending school there in the fall. It will cost us more than it would have been to take the soccer offers, but this is my DD's dream, not mine. Her goal was always life after soccer, and it just so happened to start sooner, 4 years, than expected. Good memories, a great journey with a lot of life experience and lessons learned.
Best of luck to your DD on her own journey, be there to support her when she needs you and give her space when she needs that as well.
Messi>CR7
GOLD
I'm not a big fan of playing up at a level lower. In our own experience, you would just be playing against bigger kids, but not necessarily against stronger kids.
Take ECNL off if she is worried about burnout already and play with her friends in HSS. Burnout is real and I can say more girls I know are quitting the sport and just doing school. Tech's story of his dd is what's ahppenning to so many. I know so many girls that just got told no more ECNL and they told their parents, "This sucks and no more." Focus on grades if your kid really wants to go to college. It's a full time job during the season and full time after.
Academics first and foremost. Your student needs to be able to get into the school of their dreams and do well once there (soccer can help get you in but once you are in the classes you have to have the background to succeed). Follow the academics with the love of the game. With my kiddos we always said once they protest leaving the beach for soccer practice then it is time to set back (drop a level, change the commitment and the goal). Lastly a good friend of the family said talent will find talent. If you aren't playing on a top team you have to do more work to help your schools find you.
One last piece of advice...pick the school first and if the soccer follows great, if not there is always the club level or intermural. Don't worry about the D1, D2, D3 if the college fits. We are finding that the opportunities presented to a D3 kid are pretty on par with a D1 (minus the scholarship). Your kiddo has to be happy at whatever college they pick. A lot of family friends ended up at D1 school around the country and while they love the soccer they hate the school. Most of these kids have transferred or are looking to transfer.
One last piece of advice...pick the school first and if the soccer follows great, if not there is always the club level or intermural. Don't worry about the D1, D2, D3 if the college fits. We are finding that the opportunities presented to a D3 kid are pretty on par with a D1 (minus the scholarship). Your kiddo has to be happy at whatever college they pick. A lot of family friends ended up at D1 school around the country and while they love the soccer they hate the school. Most of these kids have transferred or are looking to transfer.
First…please always remember, colleges recruit players, not teams and not leagues.
Both my DD’s have gone thru the same grind. It has been beneficial for both of them in that they have had to learn time management and what it means to commit to something. These are life lessons as the real world often emulates what we see in youth sports.
What @Technician72 said is completely true.
Life can be sink or swim, I’ve always found it best to teach them young rather than protect them from it.
They don't recruit leagues, but college coaches are on ECNL sidelines in droves. You have to work hard to get them to watch flight 1 games. It all depends on what your goals are. But, candidly, the SoCal league schedule has just as many games as ECNL so I am not sure why she would burn out at ECNL and not SoCal. The difference isn't the schedule, it is the competition.
This is what I honestly have learned over the years. If you have 4.2+ plus 1300+SAT plus great kid, wants to go college, wants to play soccer in college, then it dont matter what league you play in. If you want to play against the best players top to bottom, then pick ECNL. Before the GDA, it was only 8 teams in SW? Now we have 17 in ECNL and another 10 or so in GAL plus ECRL, plus Elite 64 and DPL and NPL. The last 6 years we went from 8 to like 64 elite teams in the SW areas.
The gap between ECNL and the top of SCL/CSL only grows each year both in terms of quality and commitment. Any SCL or CSL coach still selling the college dream via soccer recruitment at this age should be ignored. You have to make a choice about priorities. I'm all about supporting my DD but if she was passionate about video games I would not let that impact her grades and while soccer is different it is still clearly below academics. She's still learning about life from soccer if you go to a team requiring less commitment - just about exercising good judgment and sacrificing for long term success among other things.
College soccer has two parts to it, each listed in the order of priority. And when she gets there, its the same thing. Plenty of girls realize that the commitment to each they somehow managed in HS isn't worth it once they are in college.
Coming from someone who did exactly what you are contemplating, FYI. I wouldn't try to get the best of both worlds. Just go somewhere the coach understands your priorities and won't punish your daughter for having them straight.
College soccer has two parts to it, each listed in the order of priority. And when she gets there, its the same thing. Plenty of girls realize that the commitment to each they somehow managed in HS isn't worth it once they are in college.
Coming from someone who did exactly what you are contemplating, FYI. I wouldn't try to get the best of both worlds. Just go somewhere the coach understands your priorities and won't punish your daughter for having them straight.
Very well said.
LetsGooooo
BRONZE
On the flip side I know someone who did just that but now many years later strongly regrets turning down the scholarships and wishes she played.
diamondcoach
SILVER
ECNL and/or GA will provide your DD with the most exposure and opportunity to play in front of college coaches. Feel free to Google the percentage of players in D1 who played in the ECNL...that # probably sits at 60% or higher. If playing in college (regardless of level) is a goal, then playing in the ECNL or GA probably isn't necessary. There are over 300 D1 soccer programs for women's soccer, so there are a LOT of programs looking for players. I would encourage your DD to play in HS....as this is usually a completely different experience (in a positive way). I always encouraged my daughters to play other sports, as this helps with the burnout factor...Balance of school (academics) and club soccer can certainly be stressful. If your DD is as focused in the classroom as she is on the field, then you should be fairly confident that she will learn to prioritize her time....best of luck
Nice flip. Let me flip you one. The person that you know, did they give up soccer for UCLA?
LetsGooooo
BRONZE
They exactly did that’s why I had to comment.
Thank you so much for everyone's input. I agree 100% that grades are number one, and thankfully she is doing very well on this front. It's a shame that everything is year-round nowadays, but I still want to try and expose her to some different sports, even on a very limited/training/rec basis. My DD hasn't expressed or shown any signs of burnout yet, but I am just trying to jump out ahead of it as I see the killer schedule that she just went through. I realize that the number of league games may be similar with somewhere else, but our coach, love/hate it, has us training/playing/traveling A LOT. We are very torn on this because now that we have had a taste of playing at the ECNL level, I can imagine some frustrations that may arise from playing somewhere else. She will be in 8th grade next year, so my thought was to have her play somewhere with a lighter schedule for the next 1-2 years and then slowly build back up to the rigorous schedule during her sophomore/junior year. Again, maybe using the extra time/money we have to check out school's and attend ID camps. Anyone have input on ID camp experiences?
Burnout comes later as do the boys. Jr year or Sr year for burnout and boys are probably around now or they soon will be.
There are a lot of "money making" camps, and although you may not get much out of them the occasional 1-2 in the beginning will give your DD an idea of what to expect in a camp that is multiple schools / coaches versus a single school camp. The drills, level of play, speed, interaction with coaches and feedback.
When things get further along ideally you want a camp to be a "sure thing" if there is such a thing and confirm coach attendance, confirm if they will be evaluating her that day with specific attention / details. The best experience you can get out of a camp is when the conversations are further along and her being there will have some sort of payoff.