ECNL offers better college recruiting exposure than Girls Academy, but being a top player in a lower-profile league beats being mid-tier in a prestigious one. Juniors should target Division II or III; sophomores still have time for Division I if they get visibility through showcases or ID camps.
ECNL for women or Girls Lead Academy for women? There's really 3 points you need to know, and the last one is going to tell you which camps you should go to, so just stay tuned till the end. Statistically speaking, it is always known that ECNL for girls has a better exposure rate than Girls Lead Academy. You must also consider though the big fish small pond concept, which is to say sometimes it's better to be the big fish in a small pond than it is to be a a small fish in a big pond, meaning a low, a normal ECNL level team playing ECNL, but you're not the best team versus the best team in GA because it's a slightly less level league. Now, on paper, can a GA team beat an ECNL team? Absolutely. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about exposure, right? You want to play college soccer, do you want to win every club game, or do you want to play college soccer? That's what this is about. Now, your GA team and your GA coach might be getting all the exposure you need, so you don't necessarily need to switch. But this brings us to the ID camps. So if you're playing ECNL and you're going to playoffs and showcases and whatnot, you don't have to go to as many camps, especially if the coaches are confirming they're going to see you, because then you're in a pretty good spot. On the flip side, if you're playing GA, for example, and you're not going to as many showcases and the coaches are not confirming they're coming, you must go to camps this summer as a junior. For girls soccer, juniors are almost— they're basically done with the Division I process. So they're really focused on their sophomores. So if you are this summer a junior wanting to play Division I college soccer as a girl, that boat has probably passed for 95% of the schools. For if you're a sophomore though, this is your time to shine. You can still play Division III and Division II if you're a junior playing GA or ECNL, and Division I's not out of the question completely, but pretty much it is. If you're a girl soccer player and you want more help playing college soccer and you wanna find out a realistic place for you, gimme a call, links in the bio. Talk to you soon.
