A guide for young female soccer players choosing an ECNL club. College coaches recruit from ECNL showcases where the most girls play, so exposure matters more than club prestige. Start at local clubs like Easton or Orland at age 11, move to GA at 12-13 to work toward the top leagues.
How do you find the right ECNL team, especially if you're a girl? So regarding ECNL, you can go on the website and find every ECNL team there is, which is important for you to do to your local area. On the girls' side, there's really not that many club levels you need to think about. There's ECNL, ECNL RL, GA, and underneath that— ECNL RL I mentioned, but underneath that there's NPL, there's DPL, but don't worry about those. The goal is to get to those 3 leagues: ECNL RL, GA, or ECNL. There can be exceptions. There's a club called Tudela, which is really good and has really great coaching, and there's an argument to maybe stay with a club like that, but But even then, they will have a tough time getting people to stay because the exposure rates with ECNL. It doesn't matter if your team's better. It doesn't matter if you have better coaching. Coaches, the club soccer coaches or the college soccer coaches, are going to go where there's the most girls in one place. And those are the ECNL showcases. So you might be on a team that is better than all the ECNL teams, but you go to a showcase, and if it's not where most of the girls are going, the ECNL events, then the coaches don't have the budget to go to your team. It's like a food court. They're going to go to where the most food is. So you've looked up where it is, you understand the importance of getting there. So if you're starting at Easton or Orland at 11 years old, that's perfect, 'cause then you can work your way up. If you're starting at GA at 12, 13, that's perfect, 'cause then you can change teams or work your way up. If you want more help, give me a DM. We'll talk soon, bye.
