A youth soccer coach argues that joining a top-tier club team matters more than solo skill work. He says players should target ECNL or MLS Next by 8th-10th grade for college recruiter visibility, and shares a story of a talented player who stayed on a weak team through senior year and missed recruitment opportunities.
Is it better to work on your skills or to play for a better club team? And the answer is it's more important to play for a better club team almost no matter how old you are, even if you're 10, 11, 12 years old. Part of the reason is if you're on a better club team, the players are better, the coaches are better, and your skills will improve. Now some of you are with a coach that's like, he's a great coach or she's a great coach, and it's a lower-level club team, so we want to stay there because we want to develop. That's fine, but you only get to do that probably until 7th grade. By 7th grade, you're You need to be looking to go to better teams. And by 8th, 9th, 10th grade, you need to be on the ECNLs, MLS Next-esque teams, or elite academy teams that are affiliated with clubs that are gonna get seen by college coaches. So if you're good enough and you're making your skills so great, I have a story. There was a player I grew up with. His dad was a great coach, and so he stayed on his dad's team. But his dad's team was playing Silver Elite in my era, which was a low-level team. But the kid was amazing. But because he stayed on this low-level team until senior year, I was getting recruited and I probably wasn't as gifted as he was, but I was being seen by coaches. On the flip side, his dad finally said senior year, fine, I'll let you go to another team even though the coaching's bad. And at that point, the teams were full. And so he never got to play college soccer. And I saw him in a pickup league the other day 'cause we're the same age. And he's actually reached out about his daughter and he told me, I do not wanna make the same mistake my father made with me with my child. So his girl is a baller and is already playing pre-ECNL. She's 11 years old. Because he doesn't want to make the same mistake. If you want more help, give me a call. Links in the bio.
