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Post by Futsal Gawdess on Mar 2, 2023 12:12:32 GMT -5
Then there is this...
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Post by Soccerhouse on Mar 2, 2023 17:24:25 GMT -5
and...
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Post by mamadona on Mar 2, 2023 17:44:47 GMT -5
Is this a joke with all these different leagues? It feels like it!
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Post by Topline Soccer on Mar 2, 2023 19:37:56 GMT -5
I like the idea of more local clubs in the UPSL. Eventually leading to a tiered program in the US with promotion and relegation. UPSL to USL to MLS.
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Post by bogan on Mar 2, 2023 20:13:46 GMT -5
I like the idea of more local clubs in the UPSL. Eventually leading to a tiered program in the US with promotion and relegation. UPSL to USL to MLS. If only…however, MLS has no incentive to give up its monopoly. As far as USL goes, MLS rules make it easier to get someone from Europe than play a USL player. |
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Post by rifle on Mar 2, 2023 21:07:09 GMT -5
Honestly - awesome. Every Youth club should have a senior team that competes in an open professional pyramid. Not a closed playground based upon how much real estate you can package into your investment hedge.
MLS is going to hang onto their stacked deck of cards as long as they can. So let’s have a lot more of this and we can eventually kiss MLS goodbye. Can’t happen soon enough.
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Post by futbolhero on Mar 3, 2023 9:21:53 GMT -5
Is this a joke with all these different leagues? It feels like it! Both of these leagues are beyond youth soccer. Look at them as semi pro/minor league. |
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Post by mamadona on Mar 3, 2023 12:18:04 GMT -5
Is this a joke with all these different leagues? It feels like it! Both of these leagues are beyond youth soccer. Look at them as semi pro/minor league. Ah ok, that's pretty cool! Where do I sign up?  |
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Post by futbolhero on Mar 3, 2023 23:42:25 GMT -5
Both of these leagues are beyond youth soccer. Look at them as semi pro/minor league. Ah ok, that's pretty cool! Where do I sign up? WPSL is 2nd tier just below NWSL so call it AAA. UPSL is tier 3/4 depending how big of a difference one sees in talent once you get below USL so A/AA. You are talking decent talent. |
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Post by og on Mar 4, 2023 22:32:23 GMT -5
Anyone know about Mike Gailey? My son has him as a coach right now and apparently my daughter might have him next year. I think he’s new this year but don’t know anything about him.
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Post by diamondmid on Mar 5, 2023 9:35:51 GMT -5
Anyone know about Mike Gailey? My son has him as a coach right now and apparently my daughter might have him next year. I think he’s new this year but don’t know anything about him. Others may have had a different experience but I’d say your son is in good hands. Good coach, clear expectations, works on good ball movement and speed of play, has players thinking about what they are doing and why - on and off the ball. My son liked him a lot. |
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Post by NotherSoccerParent on Mar 5, 2023 15:05:39 GMT -5
Anyone know about Mike Gailey? My son has him as a coach right now and apparently my daughter might have him next year. I think he’s new this year but don’t know anything about him. Assuming this is the same Mike Gailey who was previously at NASA, we had a horrible experience with him. The season started out well with good tactical drills and training sessions. Then, for whatever reason, he seemed to lose interest or something bc he spent more time on his phone than running a session. The kids did the same drill at practice for like 3-4 weeks. The end result was a bunch of kids who lost interest in the game and a team that finished 3rd when it could have finished 1st. |
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Post by futbolhero on Mar 5, 2023 17:50:48 GMT -5
Anyone know about Mike Gailey? My son has him as a coach right now and apparently my daughter might have him next year. I think he’s new this year but don’t know anything about him. Assuming this is the same Mike Gailey who was previously at NASA, we had a horrible experience with him. The season started out well with good tactical drills and training sessions. Then, for whatever reason, he seemed to lose interest or something bc he spent more time on his phone than running a session. The kids did the same drill at practice for like 3-4 weeks. The end result was a bunch of kids who lost interest in the game and a team that finished 3rd when it could have finished 1st. Looks like you have your answer right here. He obviously had 1 if not 2 feet already out the door and those on his NASA teams suffered. |
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Post by dabe on May 2, 2023 19:17:30 GMT -5
AFU Expands to Milton/Alpharetta/Roswell/Cherokee Are
This is interesting. Would like to know more about the partnership with MSA.
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Post by kickinondaweekend on May 3, 2023 5:34:01 GMT -5
It’s probably no different that what they did with Notre Dame Academy or Pinecrest Academy. They are “partnering” with the school in order to have access to turf fields for their games. AFU is probably paying MSA or “contributing” to the schools expenses for either an Athletic Director or Soccer Coach(or multiple coaches) and probably still going to pay them for the use of the schools field(which is how things are “partnered” with Norte Dame Academy and Pinecrest Academy) for nothing more than field access and maybe the hope to get players from SSA, TH or CF that are in that area. What is also interesting is that AFU has made Mike Gailey an Academy Director but has not made any significant announcement about his hiring. We could see MG being the one “running” AFU West program through this partnership with MSA. Will be interesting to see how things progress!
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Post by mamadona on May 3, 2023 6:35:03 GMT -5
It’s probably no different that what they did with Notre Dame Academy or Pinecrest Academy. They are “partnering” with the school in order to have access to turf fields for their games. AFU is probably paying MSA or “contributing” to the schools expenses for either an Athletic Director or Soccer Coach(or multiple coaches) and probably still going to pay them for the use of the schools field(which is how things are “partnered” with Norte Dame Academy and Pinecrest Academy) for nothing more than field access and maybe the hope to get players from SSA, TH or CF that are in that area. What is also interesting is that AFU has made Mike Gailey an Academy Director but has not made any significant announcement about his hiring. We could see MG being the one “running” AFU West program through this partnership with MSA. Will be interesting to see how things progress! MG has experience of working with schools as NTH Milton is based at Kings Ridge. |
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Post by Futsal Gawdess on May 3, 2023 8:10:11 GMT -5
Looks like AFU has been making some intriguing moves as of late...
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Post by dabe on May 3, 2023 11:58:57 GMT -5
Looks like AFU has been making some intriguing moves as of late... Definitely. This move seems a little weird because all of the cities/counties mentioned are within 30 minutes of Pinecrest (Cherokee County is about 45) and MSA is 25 mins from Pinecrest. So it doesn't seem like there's a need for AFU West, but you never know. Also wonder what teams will be hosted out of that campus. |
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Post by oraclesfriend on May 3, 2023 12:20:35 GMT -5
Looks like AFU has been making some intriguing moves as of late... Definitely. This move seems a little weird because all of the cities/counties mentioned are within 30 minutes of Pinecrest (Cherokee County is about 45) and MSA is 25 mins from Pinecrest. So it doesn't seem like there's a need for AFU West, but you never know. Also wonder what teams will be hosted out of that campus. Seems weird to me. Other clubs usually merge with some other club to get these satellite locations. Like they did with Henry County United. Tophat Milton is different because they took Concorde North’s people and just killed off CF North (on the girls side anyway). So it wasn’t like they just made it up out of nowhere. But I hope it works out for AFU |
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Post by randomparent on May 3, 2023 12:38:25 GMT -5
It makes a lot of sense actually. If they do it right.
But they probably will not, and go with the Concord mothership strategy which has strangled concord west and prevented it from growing.
There is no ECNL club serving where a lot of the youth soccer talent is in Atlanta which is the triangle between Lassiter/RiverRidge/Blessed Trinity (three of the four 6A semi-finalists). The only options for those kids are -
- play sccl at santos or nasa
- hope they hit the birthyear lottery at concord west (the random years they have ECRL or ECNL) and the mothership doesn't eat their team up on any random year.
- play at NASA, but not enough spots for the number of players
- or drive to practice every night to some far-off location for no reason
If AFU had its ECNL team play out of the new location they have access to a lot of good players with limited options.
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Post by mochiburon on May 3, 2023 16:19:15 GMT -5
It’s probably no different that what they did with Notre Dame Academy or Pinecrest Academy. They are “partnering” with the school in order to have access to turf fields for their games. AFU is probably paying MSA or “contributing” to the schools expenses for either an Athletic Director or Soccer Coach(or multiple coaches) and probably still going to pay them for the use of the schools field(which is how things are “partnered” with Norte Dame Academy and Pinecrest Academy) for nothing more than field access and maybe the hope to get players from SSA, TH or CF that are in that area. What is also interesting is that AFU has made Mike Gailey an Academy Director but has not made any significant announcement about his hiring. We could see MG being the one “running” AFU West program through this partnership with MSA. Will be interesting to see how things progress! No turf fields at Mill Springs unless they are being installed today. Nothing special facility wise unless you run track. The grass field seems a bit agricultural and there is a big tailwater pit between the football field and the tennis courts. They have room to grow but based on current configuration, they aren't planning to have many players. |
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Post by playfromtheback on May 4, 2023 9:07:19 GMT -5
Does anyone know who will be leading this or what leagues they will be playing in?
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Post by soccer_uber_driver on May 14, 2023 8:26:59 GMT -5
still no follow-up announcements (re: tryouts) or further details...
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Post by diamondmid on May 14, 2023 11:55:58 GMT -5
AFU West has it's own Twitter page - they announced their tryouts on May 11. U8-U14 - Girls and Boys.
@afusawest
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Post by atlantasoccerdad2020 on May 14, 2023 21:48:53 GMT -5
AFU West has it's own Twitter page - they announced their tryouts on May 11. U8-U14 - Girls and Boys. @afusawest There’s no way you just start a new club in that area. One would have to imagine clubs like Rush union, Alpharetta ambush, Cherokee impact, and possibly Roswell Santos will roll up under the AFU banner to offer those players a pathway to higher leagues. It would be a win-win for all parties. |
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Post by soccer_uber_driver on May 15, 2023 6:24:48 GMT -5
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Post by natlfutbol on May 15, 2023 14:43:10 GMT -5
Does anyone know of the levels which they will have at the west location? |
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2023 8:36:11 GMT -5
AFU West has it's own Twitter page - they announced their tryouts on May 11. U8-U14 - Girls and Boys. @afusawest There’s no way you just start a new club in that area. One would have to imagine clubs like Rush union, Alpharetta ambush, Cherokee impact, and possibly Roswell Santos will roll up under the AFU banner to offer those players a pathway to higher leagues. It would be a win-win for all parties. Why would anyone roll up under AFU? Santos and Ambush clubs beat AFU pretty much always in the academy on the boy's side. The only reason would be to get access to ECNL, but haven't we had enough mergers to know that does not work? If the kids from those clubs want to go play ECNL they can go travel over to AFU and do it now. At some point those four clubs will figure something out but its not going to be attaching their wagon to AFU. |
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Post by cluelessparents on May 16, 2023 8:46:27 GMT -5
There’s no way you just start a new club in that area. One would have to imagine clubs like Rush union, Alpharetta ambush, Cherokee impact, and possibly Roswell Santos will roll up under the AFU banner to offer those players a pathway to higher leagues. It would be a win-win for all parties. Why would anyone roll up under AFU? Santos and Ambush clubs beat AFU pretty much always in the academy on the boy's side. The only reason would be to get access to ECNL, but haven't we had enough mergers to know that does not work? If the kids from those clubs want to go play ECNL they can go travel over to AFU and do it now. At some point those four clubs will figure something out but its not going to be attaching their wagon to AFU. It’s all about the money for clubs. If smaller clubs can retain some of the fees and the player gets exposure to higher levels of soccer it becomes a business decision for the clubs. Without merging of some kind with those clubs in that area I’m not sure how it makes sense as that area is already saturated with places to play. |
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2023 9:11:57 GMT -5
Why would anyone roll up under AFU? Santos and Ambush clubs beat AFU pretty much always in the academy on the boy's side. The only reason would be to get access to ECNL, but haven't we had enough mergers to know that does not work? If the kids from those clubs want to go play ECNL they can go travel over to AFU and do it now. At some point those four clubs will figure something out but its not going to be attaching their wagon to AFU. It’s all about the money for clubs. If smaller clubs can retain some of the fees and the player gets exposure to higher levels of soccer it becomes a business decision for the clubs. Without merging of some kind with those clubs in that area I’m not sure how it makes sense as that area is already saturated with places to play. For the amount of talent in that area, it really is not saturated. 3 of the 4 boys' semifinalists in hs this year were basically in a no man's land of clubs. The only real options for that area that I can see are - - Santos goes MLS Next. They appear currently blocked from ECNL. It would take a bite out of NASA (mostly) and UFA some of which benefit from their exclusion for their higher-level teams. - AFU runs just ECRL out of their new location, they would be a top-of-the-table team if they got the word out early enough next year. - Concord West, if Central would stop taking the top talent out of west at young age to central and the director is able to recruit more. A team out of concord west and a team out of Central = two platinum-level teams. |
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