GA 2021-2022 Season

I wanted to take a look at GA now that all the dust has settled and things are beginning to get back to pre-pandemic norms. Obviously there was a lot of change over the past 14 months from the end of the DA to the birth of the GA. This thread will be a place to follow the upcoming GA season and how the league, teams, and players do. ECNL is without question the top league, but is there a niche for GA and can it be a legit competitive local and national platform for players? I think the success of the league locally and nationally will be contingent on fielding competitive teams that can compete against ECRL teams and bottom half ECNL teams with success. If they can draw college coaches to their showcase events and offer a legit pathway to college, that will do wonders for the league. That success could offer players who are on the 15-20 depth chart on an ECNL roster, ECRL players, or local players who are more interested in a coach vs a specific patch, an alternative option. I think the next two years will be telling for this league and if GA can find that sweet spot and offer a viable option for players it will be a win win situation for the league and the players. Regardless it’s nice to see all the players returning to the pitch, it is long overdue and hopefully no matter what league your dd plays in, just getting back to competing is a huge victory.



https://girlsacademyleague.com/
 
From a So Cal point of view they seem to need more clubs.

Right now on their map for next year they show a total of 5 clubs for the LA/SD area.
 
Currently the only GA team in Orange County is West Coast FC . Their Instagram and Facebook is advertising
GA - DPL - Discovery tryouts for G04 to G09.

I assume the West Coast Girls ECRL teams are being disbanded.

#wcfcsoccer
 
I wanted to take a look at GA now that all the dust has settled and things are beginning to get back to pre-pandemic norms. Obviously there was a lot of change over the past 14 months from the end of the DA to the birth of the GA. This thread will be a place to follow the upcoming GA season and how the league, teams, and players do. ECNL is without question the top league, but is there a niche for GA and can it be a legit competitive local and national platform for players? I think the success of the league locally and nationally will be contingent on fielding competitive teams that can compete against ECRL teams and bottom half ECNL teams with success. If they can draw college coaches to their showcase events and offer a legit pathway to college, that will do wonders for the league. That success could offer players who are on the 15-20 depth chart on an ECNL roster, ECRL players, or local players who are more interested in a coach vs a specific patch, an alternative option. I think the next two years will be telling for this league and if GA can find that sweet spot and offer a viable option for players it will be a win win situation for the league and the players. Regardless it’s nice to see all the players returning to the pitch, it is long overdue and hopefully no matter what league your dd plays in, just getting back to competing is a huge victory.



https://girlsacademyleague.com/
I hope they do well. I always like having options as a consumer. However, they need to admit more members now instead of waiting another year. Having only five teams in the SW Conference is not a good look.
 
I wanted to take a look at GA now that all the dust has settled and things are beginning to get back to pre-pandemic norms. Obviously there was a lot of change over the past 14 months from the end of the DA to the birth of the GA. This thread will be a place to follow the upcoming GA season and how the league, teams, and players do. ECNL is without question the top league, but is there a niche for GA and can it be a legit competitive local and national platform for players? I think the success of the league locally and nationally will be contingent on fielding competitive teams that can compete against ECRL teams and bottom half ECNL teams with success. If they can draw college coaches to their showcase events and offer a legit pathway to college, that will do wonders for the league. That success could offer players who are on the 15-20 depth chart on an ECNL roster, ECRL players, or local players who are more interested in a coach vs a specific patch, an alternative option. I think the next two years will be telling for this league and if GA can find that sweet spot and offer a viable option for players it will be a win win situation for the league and the players. Regardless it’s nice to see all the players returning to the pitch, it is long overdue and hopefully no matter what league your dd plays in, just getting back to competing is a huge victory.



https://girlsacademyleague.com/

Well said. I think you hit the mark on all of your points. Regarding the SW conference, there's still a lot of time before the 21-22 season kicks off. I'm sure there will be new club announcements over the next month or two.
 
In SW, I think the top couple of teams at each age group in GA this year would end up just higher than the middle of the pack in ECNL standings and likely toward the top (or at the top) in ECRL standings. However, the concern about lack of teams in GA SW next year is real and many GA girls are looking to find new homes on ECNL or ECRL teams. I heard they plan to play interconference games against teams in Nocal and Mountain in order to get more "league" games. Hard to justify needing to travel out of socal to play mediocre teams in order to get in enough league games. It's a shame really as I think the league is well run and was very organized this year.
 
In SoCal GAL is in a tough position. All ECNL has to do is bring in one 1 or 2 of the better SoCal GAL clubs and it will all fall apart. ECNL might even bring in a couple of the GAL clubs at the ECRL level and make membership provisional on dropping GAL status.

Nationally if Tophat jumps ship GAL is in trouble.

We'll know more late fall when recruiting starts up full speed again.

The one aspect about the whole ECNL vs GAL debate that's hard to quantify is that the pettiness and personal squabbles between clubs goes back 10 and sometimes 20/30 years. You never know when XYZ call in a 1998 championship game is holding a club back from joining/leaving a league.
 
In SW, I think the top couple of teams at each age group in GA this year would end up just higher than the middle of the pack in ECNL standings and likely toward the top (or at the top) in ECRL standings. However, the concern about lack of teams in GA SW next year is real and many GA girls are looking to find new homes on ECNL or ECRL teams. I heard they plan to play interconference games against teams in Nocal and Mountain in order to get more "league" games. Hard to justify needing to travel out of socal to play mediocre teams in order to get in enough league games. It's a shame really as I think the league is well run and was very organized this year.

I'd think the colder weather northwest and mountain teams would be happy to take a trip to san diego in december-feb for a couple games, so it should be easy to get in enough games and could end up being about the same as the old league with a mix of out of state opponents instead of the same arizona and vegas teams all the time. But they could definitely use 2-3 more so cal clubs if not more (what are the most likely candidates?)

It's interesting that a bunch of surf and rush affiliates from around the country are in GA rather than ECNL (with only sd surf in ecnl). As both surf and rush were early adapters of DA and are at best frenemies with many of the powers that be in ECNL it will be interesting to see how those relationships play out over the next couple years.

GA's midwest division seems to be their strongest top to bottom, as the ecnl leadership has frozen out their strongest rivals in most of the area.
 
I have found the A to be a very well organized league, especially for their first year. Florida was a great expiernece for both the girls and us parents. We switched from ECNL to GA because my daughter wanted to play for a specific coach. Best decision we have ever made!
 
I have found the A to be a very well organized league, especially for their first year. Florida was a great expiernece for both the girls and us parents. We switched from ECNL to GA because my daughter wanted to play for a specific coach. Best decision we have ever made!
Who is the new coach if you don't mind sharing that information.?
 
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