How to Play D1 Women's Soccer?

Hey guys, it's Zev Taublieb here, your college soccer guide. Today I'm here to explain the girls youth soccer competitive pyramid here in Southern California. There are 3 distinct tiers, but before I tell you about all the tiers, I'd like to give you a little bit of a backstory of how the competitive soccer landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. Prior to 2020, the two entities considered to be the number one leagues in the country, the top tier in the pyramid of girls soccer here in the United States, was the DA, the Development Academy, which main focus was on turning players into professionals or U.S. national team players. And then you had either ECNL, Elite Clubs National League, which focus on producing collegiate players. On the girls' side, there was an even split between the DA and ECNL of where the best clubs in the country placed most of their competitive teams. In 2020, the DA season was suspended by U.S. Soccer in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. On April 20th, the DA announced It is with profound disappointment that U.S. Soccer has made the determination to end the operation of the Development Academy effective immediately, meaning that the DA would no longer exist. Many DA clubs had already begun leaving for ECNL before this announcement, with one of the main reasons being that the DA denied players the option of playing in high school. This was a problem for these clubs' customers who did want their daughters playing high school soccer. When the DA was dissolved by US Soccer, ECNL once again became the only competitive destination for top-tier girls soccer clubs and teams and players in the United States. With ECNL now established as the single most competitive gaming circuit in the US, it actually made life easier for college coaches who have extremely limited travel and recruiting budgets. Now they know that almost all top clubs, teams, and players will be playing ECNL and attending their scheduled events throughout the year. The colleges now can focus on attending and recruiting at these events and 2-3 non-ECNL events which still attract some of the best teams. Teams and players. Some of those tournaments that are non-ECNL include Surf Cup, Jefferson Cup, and Las Vegas Players Showcase. Remember, ECNL clubs are the only clubs that get automatic access to ECNL College Showcases. In the description in this video is a list of events that are ECNL national events. Please click that in my comment section to see what those events are. In the ECNL, colleges usually attend 4 to 5 of the ECNL national events working around the high school schedule, and teams attend 4 to 5 as well. Now ECNL teams will also attend Surf Cup in the summer and during Thanksgiving, which are open to non-ECNL teams. There are 11 ECNL members in Southern California that play in the Southwest Conference. This includes a couple teams from Arizona and Nevada. The teams are as follows: We have LA Breakers in Los Angeles, Beach FC in Long Beach, LAFC, SoCal San Fernando Valley, Eagles Ventura, Legends, Slammers, Slammers Koge, Strikers, Surf, Blues, and Arsenal. If you or your daughter dreams of playing college soccer, playing for a club that has guaranteed access to the top college showcases should be a priority. ECNL guarantees you that collegiate showcase exposure The best non-ECNL teams only have access to non-ECNL showcases, which greatly limits their chance to be seen by college coaches. There are 2 other tiers below ECNL with subsequent levels within them. I'm going to start at the bottom of our pyramid, the 3rd tier. We have SoCal Development League and Coast Soccer League, and within these leagues are different levels. So in the SoCal Development League, we have Discovery, as the top, Champions, Flight 1, 2, and 3, and in co-soccer we have Premier, Gold, Silver Elite, Silver, and Bronze. These teams can still be very competitive, but it's very important to understand that from a college recruiting perspective, these teams do not have access to ECNL college showcases. Inevitably, this means the exposure for players in these leagues is considerably less than those of ECNL clubs. As discussed before, college teams have limited budgets and time. They therefore often only have the means to travel to places where the most talent is sure to be on display. Now the second tier is known as the ECNL Region League, otherwise known as ECNL RL. The bonus of being part of the ECNL Region League in regards to playing college soccer is that you can move up to the ECNL team at any point in the season and you can be a guest player for the ECNL team at a College National Showcase within your club. The ECNL Regionally is a developmental competition platform that provides objective results for the assessment of potential future club membership in the ECNL girls. Basically what they're saying is this means the intention of ECNL Region League is to train girls to be ready for the ECNL level. I know this was a lot of information, so I'm going to sum it all up for you guys. Starting at the bottom tier, Tier 3, we have SoCal Development League and Coast Soccer League. SoCal Development League has Discovery, Champions, Flight 1, 2, and 3. Then we have Coast Soccer League, which has Premier, Gold, Silver Elite, Silver, Bronze. These leagues have limited exposure to college soccer teams. They often still have talented players, but it can be difficult for these teams to receive exposure due to colleges' limited budgets and resources. Tier 2: The ECNL Region League. This league was developed to help girls make the jump to ECNL. Colleges at the D2 and D3 levels are beginning to notice that players in this league have potential. but because of limited resources, it is difficult for college teams to come watch them play. And finally, the top tier, ECNL. The ECNL level is the highest level of girls youth soccer here in the United States. ECNL teams are invited to nationally sanctioned college showcases, giving the girls that play at this level the best chance of being seen by colleges. College showcases are not the only way to be seen by college coaches. There are other strategies and opportunities. To gain the attention of college coaches. If you found this video helpful, please consider sharing it with a fellow teammate or colleague so that we can get this information out to those who need it. If you have any questions or you'd like a strategy, no matter what tier you're in, reach out to me. I'm here to help. That is why I started this process, and I want to make a difference and give you guys a strategy to make sure that you have the best chance of going to the college soccer team that you want to go to. Again, click the link below to schedule a free call with me, and I'll talk to you guys next time.