NTH

This isn’t exactly accurate. TH had to shift players around to fill the GAL2 and DPL teams, having to pull up SCCL, SCCL-P, TH White. Bigger hits at different age groups.

If they can’t actually get college coaches to show up this season, which will be difficult, good luck selling DPL at all next year.

This is true but garbage in garbage out. The athena stats were only put in by some teams and not others. The ECNL stats are put in hit or miss as well. Some games have no stats and some are completed.

Don’t believe there’s any girls form the 02/03 DPL teams from last year that stayed for DPL this year. Hopefully it works out and they all have a good season.

True. I’m hearing the new players to the 06 & 05 GA Gold (former DA) teams are better than those which left. Now it will be about training and development. We will get a chance to see any difference - GA teams will play ECNL teams in several showcases in the coming year.

This is exactly correct.  I wouldn't trust most of the stats kept & provided by the leagues.  I have seen ECNL teams with 16 players all listed as Midfielders, and stats in the wrong places (goals/assists listed as cards, etc.).

As a parent, if you want specific stats to provide to college coaches, I would suggest keeping them yourself.  You can always show them to your club coach and get them to validate if necessary as I'm sure they would do so if things didn't look way off.  Personally I have been keeping a spreadsheet with positions played, estimated minutes, goals, assists, and notes on each game for the past 2 years.

As last year's DPL teams become this year's GA Navy teams and last year's SCCL-C (to use the forum nomenclature) become this year's DPL teams barring any entries and exits I also think you both were saying the same thing!!! Confusing with the way things work but given the new leagues, defunct leagues, etc it is all a big mess.

I think all of the high level NTH teams will be fine. There was some loss of players from the club but there are new players who have come to fill in those losses. Will they be able to fill the shoes of those that left? My guess is some will and some won't, but isn't that typical of most clubs? NTH has been immune from losing their best at the high school age groups in general. They would lose one or two maybe per year. This time they lost a few more from 04 and 05. I don't think the teams younger than 06 are a big long term loss because they are still young and things can change yet again (and likely will).

Its unfortunate but was expected.

I'm curious if the stories of NTH balking at a single ECNL spot and demanding two spots were true.

The 06's will be totally fine. Losing three players is no big deal. As her father and others mentioned the forward they lost did not even always play with them as she played up sometimes. She might have left but did not strengthen the 06 CF team as she is not on that team. I think 06 NTH and 06 CF platinum will be pretty equivalent.

The 04's had major losses. 04 CF Platinum was already stellar. Hard to say how 04 NTH will be. That much turnover hurts a team a lot initially.

The 05's biggest loss was the keeper. The defection of the player this week was very unfortunate, especially after the release of the rosters to the team. The rest were all good players but I don't believe anyone at 15 years old is irreplaceable. They have a few really good players that got added to that team from inside NTH from what I heard. Rumor has it there is a returning player from out of state who was a major goal scorer for them in the past. They may not be as good as CF Platinum (hard to know until and if they play each other) but I would bet they beat some of the ECNL teams if not all of the others if the rumors of who will be on NTH 05 are true.

Think it will take some time to integrate the new pieces on the 06 squad. Give me a team...ANY team from U9 to the pros and take away the center forward and the keeper without replacing that front and back of the spine with equal personnel, and by definition that team will take a step or 2 backwards before it can move forward. Makes the “pretty equivalent” comment a false equivalency in my book. Great thing about that team though is given how much talent remains on it, they should steamroll through the GAL SE conference. Expect the Navy team to compete for the second spot.

Agreed re: the 04s. Hope they’re able to turn things around. Given the amount of changes, that’s going to take some time. Same for the 05s. Don’t expect one player returning to a team after more than a year away to have much effect, if any.

Many of the comments on this 13-page thread are quite comical.

I think you just turned your initial compliment (if that was your intention) into an insult with this post. The SE GAL is weaker compared to other conferences in the GAL. The Northeast, mid-Atlantic and mid-America conferences are nearly 100% of the former DA Clubs from those conferences last year with an occasional additional club added in. The southeast lost 2 strong clubs out of DA in NC Courage and CSA. UFA was a lower team at all age groups except 04 in DA (I have UFA connections so this is not to disparage them) so not really a big loss to NTH to not be playing them as far as quality of the competition. IMG does tend to get better as you get into the high school ages.

For sure the crossover games and showcases will be better competition for NTH top team than the SE conference will be. The second team will probably be 2nd or 3rd in the conference maybe an occasional 4th out of 7.

Unfortunately for all of our girl kids that play here in ATL the southeast has only a few REALLY strong clubs historically. Only 12 of the top 100 girls clubs according to soccerwire's ranking are in the southeastern United States. I included clubs that are close to us and would be easy to get to in regional competitions like CESA, CSA, Tennessee SC. These clubs we could easily play (GAL or ECNL) in local tournaments like Concorde Fire Challenge Cup or GSA's winter showcase or we (any of the ATL clubs) could and have scheduled friendlies with these clubs. Only 7 are in the southeast conference for either GAL or ECNL. 5 are in the ECNL (though I am confused as to why BUSA/Alabama FC is in it as they are pretty weak). Only 3 clubs are from Florida and 3 from Georgia. You would think that a state like Florida would have more teams. They have 21.5 million people and North Carolina and Georgia have about 10 million. Strange. Regardless, our pairing with Florida in ECNL and GAL weakens the Southeast conference and adds to travel.

As for the adding of NTH second teams, well, ECNL has close to 10 clubs with two teams in it and several are in their biggest conferences. They even have one club with 3 teams in it now in PDA. There are some clubs strong enough to have multiple teams in top leagues. Tophat is one of them. I have not been a huge fan of this in the past, but I see why both the clubs and the leagues do it and it gives the second team players great exposure and development opportunities.

Agree to disagree, justwatching. The original compliment was genuine, as I’ve seen their games from the sides for 2 years now. My comment about records was because you decided to bring up the strength of the 2 conferences, which, in my opinion, is an argument you will lose every time when comparing the two (at least in this age group we’re discussing), as supported by the fact that you had to argue OUT-of-conference schedules to attempt to make your point re: schedule strength.

That’s the beauty of the forum, I guess. Reasonable people can engage in lively discussion and ultimately agree to disagree about things like the relative strength of the conferences/leagues, as well as the strength of each SE conference as compared to other conferences within their own respective leagues. Guess I will just have to wait until you play that strong ECNL club you mentioned in your last post and use that as something of a barometer. I’m assuming that is NC Courage, the last team the girls played before COVID-19 changes everything. Post the time and location of that match on here a few days in advance, and I’ll be there to see that heavyweight battle.

Interesting perspective. In every league and game I’ve ever observed, half the teams win and half the teams lose.

You are correct that many ECNL teams and coaches seems to be most focused on winning games. The DA, and now the GA, are definitely more focused on player development than winning games. As a result, the training sessions and style of play are significantly different from many ECNL teams.

A recent illustration from the college world - the difference in style of play of Stanford (similar to GA) and UNC (similar to many ECNL teams). Neither is necessarily better than the other, just different. As a parent you get to choose what’s best with and for your player.

Good luck with winning this season!

Because I feel bad for the TH KIDS, I have not commented on what transpired in tryouts, but figured I would weigh in now.

It amazes me how the lack of reality continues over there in Buckhead. I guess the PR machine must continue. Back when the insiders were saying TH would not get ECNL, the PR machine was saying, "Yes we will. The hold up is that we are negotiating over getting 2 ECNL teams." (LOL!) Back when insiders said large numbers would leave TH, the PR machine said, "No TH will always be a destination club no matter where they play. The kids are staying." What happened instead was that TH (according to another poster) lost about 35 really good kids because the reality is that, as TH even advertised for years, if you want to be the best, you have to play against the best.

Now, the PR machine tells us "GAL will still be a great league as it will be about development, not winning. It will play a Stanford style of games." HUH? Is that for real?

In all objective measures, GAL is a far inferior league to ECNL. And, the competition will be MUCH lower which will have a significant negative domino effect on TH. I am sorry but it is true. Just look at TH alone. TH lost 35 kids--about 6 per age group. Whatever you want to say, a large number were very good impact players and 99% were starters. Trust me, the CF teams are pretty stacked. They could have taken 10 more TH kids, but only took kids that would improve their teams--hence why the o4s and 05s only took 3 or 4 from TH. Bottom line, if those TH kids weren't really good, CF would not have taken them. I appreciate TH has some depth, but each age group has only a few impact players who are difference makers and the rest are role players. Any one honest with themselves knows that TH with the loss of 5 or 6 starters from each age group truly is not as good as they were last year. That is just a undeniable fact.

Also, while I have not confirmed it in any detail, logic would dictate that the exodus TH experienced here in Ga would not be a unique phenomenon and similar losses had to occur to many other GAL teams (USA v. Armada, Weston v. Sunrise). Indeed, USA and Weston don't have the TH reputation, do you think they didn't lose a solid amount of their starters, too?

In sum, when you are playing in an inferior league with 50% of your starters, I wouldn't argue (albeit implied) "we are still better because we will play a Stanford style of soccer in our new league." That ranks up there w/ "TH will get ECNL, the hold up is we are negotiating for two teams." (Final note, ironically, the only 02 going to Stanford this year is from CF who is a center mid now but to be fair played center back at TH thru u13.)