If my G07 thinks she wants to play DA eventually, should she try out now?

G

G07KeeperMom

BRONZE
First year that 07s can try out for DA. My G07 Keeper thinks she wants to play DA eventually. Some say she should try to make the DA team this year, because once a DA Coach/Team has a Keeper, it's hard to take their spot. Those of you who have played DA or have some experience in this area - what are your thoughts? I know there is always turnover with field players, but I was wondering, from a logistical standpoint, if there are only 2 Keepers on a DA team, how much turnover can there be over time? Do teams/coaches get entrenched with their Keepers as much as people think they do, or will there still be plenty of opportunity to pursue a Keeper spot on a DA team down the road?
 
Great question! We are a few years older and thinking of making a change but unsure if its going to be possible to find a new home on an ECNL team....(DA would be a second choice but since my kiddo is on the AP/IB track I don't like the amount of school that will be missed).
 
LOTS of movement and turnover, especially as they transition through puberty. And injuries. And the inevitable attrition that hits between 8th-11th grades. There should be no particular urgency to hook on with a DA team or an ECNL team now, in my opinion. However, there’s nothing wrong with giving it a shot if there’s a club nearby you and she wants to and your family is in a position to handle the time/travel/financial commitment. I just wouldn’t put as much importance on it as most do. Playing keeper on a lower level team at her age actually has a lot of advantages for development, generally seeing a lot more action being one for example. The nearest DA club to us has had three different keepers in 3 years at my daughter’s birth year. So, yes, there’s always opportunities down the road.
 
Mystery Train said:
LOTS of movement and turnover, especially as they transition through puberty. And injuries. And the inevitable attrition that hits between 8th-11th grades. There should be no particular urgency to hook on with a DA team or an ECNL team now, in my opinion. However, there’s nothing wrong with giving it a shot if there’s a club nearby you and she wants to and your family is in a position to handle the time/travel/financial commitment. I just wouldn’t put as much importance on it as most do. Playing keeper on a lower level team at her age actually has a lot of advantages for development, generally seeing a lot more action being one for example. The nearest DA club to us has had three different keepers in 3 years at my daughter’s birth year. So, yes, there’s always opportunities down the road.
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I have found it best to agree with @Mystery Train as he/she is normally correct. I will offer a counter argument, based on what I have seen (limited data so take it for what it is worth).
My DD is an '05, so I follow the '05 age group. I can speak with a little knowledge of 5 clubs (I will not identify who they are on the forum, send me a DM if you want more specific info).
Clubs 1, 2, 3 & 4 = DA/ECNL with the same primary goalie for multiple years. Club 5 = DA/ECNL that has had less stability in the position. At clubs 1,2, 3 & 4 the starting/primary goalies are pretty well established and it will be hard to break in and either get a spot or unseat them. At club #5 there has been more of a willingness to look at new GKs and more turn over.
With that in mind, get your kid onto a DA/ECNL club early and have her be the one that needs to be unseated. Also, my DD plays DPL but trained with the DA team several days a week until HS soccer started; the speed of play is not the same. The intensity is not the same. The top team trains with a different speed and intensity. Get your kid there early so they get the increased intensity and club attention.

PS I agree that playing on a lower level team has advantages, but the DA/ENCL benefits outweigh that. My $0.02. Good luck to you & your kid.
 
07..so she will be an eighth grader next school year? That's THE perfect time to try DA. You might get there and decide it's not for you, and then you guys go elsewhere the following year and she won't miss a year of HS. Or you could get there, love it...and never look back. If she wants to test herself at the DA level, the first year is the best. Because virtually every top player will be doing the same, by the following year, some of them will have moved somewhere else in order to play in HS or wherever.
 
MyDaughtersAKeeper said:
I have found it best to agree with @Mystery Train as he/she is normally correct.
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Ha, tell that to my spouse please!

All of our views are based on our own limited experience with our own kids’ age group, mine as well. The ‘02 age group has had to navigate a lot of changes over the years (start of ECNL, start of girls DA, birth year grouping, etc.) so it’s always looked like a carousel. Maybe that’s the reason for some of my skepticism about the stability of club rosters. But I will say that you will be surprised at the attrition, even at the higher levels, once they hit sophomore and junior year. A lot of really good players drop out, and unfortunately, injuries are a big factor. My daughter has never been a dominant keeper, but she’s (knocking on wood) never missed games for injuries. She tells the college coaches recruiting her that availability is her greatest ability, and that’s a huge reason for her success in making the transition from CSL bronze back in the day to the DA/ECNL level.

But you do make a good point that coaches won’t often recruit a keeper over a solid incumbent, so if your kid is capable of winning that spot now, there’s no reason not to give it a go, except for the aforementioned travel/money/times commitment question. No doubt that the college exposure granted by the ECNL and DA leagues is far greater. My overriding philosophy about club soccer is to choose the team and coach first, league affiliation second, and that’s paid off over the long haul, whereas I have seen a lot of families chasing leagues and clubs get burnt.
 
Decision #1: Does she want to play ECNL vs DA? (the play HS or not question). If her projected high school has a good team/coach, I would strongly consider ECNL (for girls only) over DA.
Decision #2: Does she like the experience of the pre-DA/ECNL team? (Players, coaches, parents, etc).

If yes to #2, then I'd go to that team ASAP. Consider it a long try-out, playing on the "Pre" team. Just talk to the club DOC to ensure that the coach you'd be playing for is the one who will be coaching. My son's SCDSL team was better than the team that DA coach had but we played on the team coached by the DA coach so that when it came to trying out, he had a spot to lose rather than had to have a great 2-3 days of trials.

I assume the end goal is college... the reality is for boys, DA gets more looks and for girls, ECNL gets more looks. Before Randy's Rebels' parents go nuts, yes there are anomaly teams based on grouping hired guns and finding a good coach that get into showcase and key tourneys... but if your club or coach isn't well-connected to your kid's top 5 schools, then yes, a DA or ECNL option is going to get your kid playing in front of the most college coaches and typically against/with the top players.

I do think as GKs, we could also play on a non-DA/ECNL team but be trained by a high capacity trainer who ensures strong/consistent development then use ID camps to get in front of our desired schools. If it's a mid D1, D2 or D3 level school, I am of the opinion that path will work. If you are wanting to play at the highest tier of D1, you will have to be able to explain why your kid isn't DA boys/ECNL girls. Not a deal breaker, but definitely will come up. Take UCI... they're about half DA, right now. It's just easier for a coach to go to a showcase and watch a dozen games with all college potential athletes than scout a HS game. Easier... not impossible. The benefit of HS is that it most reflects the college experience in that you have a wide variety of ages on the pitch together. So, the benefit of HS is it shows how a younger player performs with older players. But again, if your high school team is poorly coached, I would be a hard pass.

So, if your kids loves playing with a non-DA team, then I would keep her on that team and supplement with the highest quality keeper training, you can find... regardless of whether or not your club provides.

If your kid loves playing on the DA/ECNL team, go that route.

End of the day, if your kid isn't happy, the level doesn't matter... they will inevitably burn out. If they are happy, they will do the work to succeed at whatever level they enjoy.

My theory is our role as parent is to provide our kid the opportunity to play at whatever level they can and they enjoy. Then we challenge them to be the best at that level. I only push my kid when he/she gets lazy for the sake of lazy... or, if he/she is phoning it in/not giving their best. Otherwise, by 12... the drive has to be internal from them or burn out is inevitable.
 
RedDevilDad said:
Decision #1: Does she want to play ECNL vs DA? (the play HS or not question). If her projected high school has a good team/coach, I would strongly consider ECNL (for girls only) over DA.
Decision #2: Does she like the experience of the pre-DA/ECNL team? (Players, coaches, parents, etc).

If yes to #2, then I'd go to that team ASAP. Consider it a long try-out, playing on the "Pre" team. Just talk to the club DOC to ensure that the coach you'd be playing for is the one who will be coaching. My son's SCDSL team was better than the team that DA coach had but we played on the team coached by the DA coach so that when it came to trying out, he had a spot to lose rather than had to have a great 2-3 days of trials.

I assume the end goal is college... the reality is for boys, DA gets more looks and for girls, ECNL gets more looks. Before Randy's Rebels' parents go nuts, yes there are anomaly teams based on grouping hired guns and finding a good coach that get into showcase and key tourneys... but if your club or coach isn't well-connected to your kid's top 5 schools, then yes, a DA or ECNL option is going to get your kid playing in front of the most college coaches and typically against/with the top players.

I do think as GKs, we could also play on a non-DA/ECNL team but be trained by a high capacity trainer who ensures strong/consistent development then use ID camps to get in front of our desired schools. If it's a mid D1, D2 or D3 level school, I am of the opinion that path will work. If you are wanting to play at the highest tier of D1, you will have to be able to explain why your kid isn't DA boys/ECNL girls. Not a deal breaker, but definitely will come up. Take UCI... they're about half DA, right now. It's just easier for a coach to go to a showcase and watch a dozen games with all college potential athletes than scout a HS game. Easier... not impossible. The benefit of HS is that it most reflects the college experience in that you have a wide variety of ages on the pitch together. So, the benefit of HS is it shows how a younger player performs with older players. But again, if your high school team is poorly coached, I would be a hard pass.

So, if your kids loves playing with a non-DA team, then I would keep her on that team and supplement with the highest quality keeper training, you can find... regardless of whether or not your club provides.

If your kid loves playing on the DA/ECNL team, go that route.

End of the day, if your kid isn't happy, the level doesn't matter... they will inevitably burn out. If they are happy, they will do the work to succeed at whatever level they enjoy.

My theory is our role as parent is to provide our kid the opportunity to play at whatever level they can and they enjoy. Then we challenge them to be the best at that level. I only push my kid when he/she gets lazy for the sake of lazy... or, if he/she is phoning it in/not giving their best. Otherwise, by 12... the drive has to be internal from them or burn out is inevitable.
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Great post.
 
I never have to push my daughter - she pushes herself and drags me along in the process. :p She wants a top D1 school...but she's only 12. Things change. I'm trying to keep her expectations realistic but part of me doesn't mind her reaching for the stars at this point. Also, she's not just a pie in the sky dreamer, she works really hard - never complains about going to practice, extra Keeper Trainings, late hours, harsh criticism, working through pain (she had Osgood Schlatters), etc., so as long as she's fully engaged, we're here to support her (researching options, etc.).

We're really not sure where she is going to HS yet...private or public. I thought I remember reading somewhere on this board that not playing HS if you play DA only applies to Public High Schools. Some DA players are still able to playin High School if they go to Private Schools. Is that right?
 
G07KeeperMom said:
I thought I remember reading somewhere on this board that not playing HS if you play DA only applies to Public High Schools. Some DA players are still able to playin High School if they go to Private Schools. Is that right?
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Almost all of the private school girls my kids know are not allowed to play HS soccer....There are exceptions (and they are not very fair, things like a club coach is also the club coach, or a scholarship twisted to fit exception rule and things like that) but general rule is no, so don't believe coaches that tell you otherwise as they'll say one thing and and they say "my bad" when it runs our your kid cannot.....
 
G07KeeperMom said:
I never have to push my daughter - she pushes herself and drags me along in the process. :p She wants a top D1 school...but she's only 12. Things change. I'm trying to keep her expectations realistic but part of me doesn't mind her reaching for the stars at this point. Also, she's not just a pie in the sky dreamer, she works really hard - never complains about going to practice, extra Keeper Trainings, late hours, harsh criticism, working through pain (she had Osgood Schlatters), etc., so as long as she's fully engaged, we're here to support her (researching options, etc.).

We're really not sure where she is going to HS yet...private or public. I thought I remember reading somewhere on this board that not playing HS if you play DA only applies to Public High Schools. Some DA players are still able to playin High School if they go to Private Schools. Is that right?
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She sounds a lot like my kid was at 12. There's nothing wrong with reaching for the stars, especially at her age. I do think it's good to expose her to the reality of other options in college outside of top D1 schools as well, because I think we as a family got a little too narrow-minded about what our daughter should aim for when we started the recruitment process. Just because a player can compete at "top" D1 program, it doesn't mean that they should. Of all the graduating seniors at top 25 D1 women's soccer programs, there's probably a dozen players that will go on to play professionally for more than a couple years. And of those, it's probable that none of them will ever make more money at soccer than they would in the field of their degree. The degree and the college experience, on the other hand, will have a far greater impact on their long term future than how many tournament games they end up playing in, or how high quality the soccer was at their school. That being said, some kids just have that drive, and playing at a top soccer school is just that goal which they strive for and find their fulfillment in achieving no matter what. But there are so many variables that go into making that a reality, many of them not under her or your control, so it helps to stay focused on just always getting better and striving, and just let that take her wherever it will.

As for the HS thing, it 100% depends on the school she ends up at. At some schools, the soccer culture and program is fantastic, and the girls really have great experiences playing HS. At others, the best club players (and not just the DA players) skip school soccer completely because it's not high quality, increased risk of injury, bad coaching, bad attitudes, etc. If your kid is focused on playing in college, I definitely wouldn't worry about the quality of the soccer program if your evaluating which HS to attend. Almost nobody gets recruited via HS soccer and in most places, the training won't hold a candle to the quality of training at the clubs (ESPECIALLY for keepers). HS soccer for the most part is what it should be: a fun sport activity to build your kid's sense of school pride and belonging.
 
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