ECNL Schedules Posted

Gunners wrote:

CUZete90 wrote:

dallas 1968 wrote:

CUZete90 wrote:Holy Crap!  I think Dallas 1968 has managed to out-snob the ECNL snobs on here!  That some mad skillz there!

With this kind of sarcasm you are definitely a candidate to coach any ECNL club. Just continue to work on refining your negativity and belittlement. Forget about actually having a valid point to make.

Who said I was being sarcastic?  It all depends on your lens.  I happen to think I made a highly valid point.  You've clearly worked hard at your arrogance.

...and ignorance.

Sorry, only valid points accepted here. Oh, wait... nevermind.

(now that was sarcastic )

Packrabbit wrote:Wow.
I've been gone too long...
I have no idea where to start.
I've been lost in the wilderness, been eating bugs for a month and stumbled into an all-you-can-eat buffet...

... The boredom was overwhelming, my cocktail glass empty, and I was too uninterested to arise for a refill...and Lo and Behold... My tired eyes seize upon key words and phrases necessary to an entertaining thread....

dallas 1968 wrote:Please quit with the moronic attacks and explain exactly why I am 'a clueless idiot'. I am offering an opinion that is different from the majority apparently. No-one seems to be actually addressing the points I am making, rather resorting to personal attacks. Why should I stop posting ? because my well formed opinion differs from yours ?

My eyes move upwards to...

Gunners wrote:
Forgive me for resorting to childishness, but I can resist no longer... You are a (substantial) clueless idiot.  Do yourself a favor and stop posting.

Oh my goodness, GUNNERS said THAT... Gunners?

Oh, a question has been posed! Perhaps, I may be of assistance... I read on further...

I learned that S-P-C IS A VERY BIG DEAL and ECNL had the audacity to...

dallas 1968 wrote:The games scheduled for February 13th-15th fall right in the middle of the SPC (Southwest Preparatory Conference) high school championship tournament in Houston.

1968, my goodness, I am beginning to see your point! I had no idea ECNL could carelessly affect an entire CONFERENCE... How many states are in the SPC...?

dallas 1968 wrote:
Will affect ECNL players at Hockaday, Greenhill, ESD and others. All these schools have several ECNL players...
Pretty sure the Tapps schools ... will be in their play-offs that mid February weekend of the ECNL showcase in South Texas. Very poor timing on the ECNL side....
This unnecessary  conflict will create a big problem and many girls, possibly dozens, will be affected.  

DOZENS AT LEAST! That number doesn't take into account our having to rescheduling personal home assistants, chauffeurs, nannies..

dallas 1968 wrote:ECNL should have scheduled this particular showcase on a different weekend. As they obviously don't give a rats ass about  (insert SPC)
school sports or the girls playing them chances are it never crossed their minds.

Those inconsiderate commoners! I bet you $10,000 that those people eat hamburger with their hands, too!

dallas 1968 wrote:High school soccer is far from 'rec soccer' in many cases and a few high school teams would be more than competitive with several ECNL teams. Too many of you have been drinking the 'ECNL Cool Aid'. Some ECNL 'coaches' are very verbally and mentally abusive, loudly sarcastic and belittling to their players   and if you have watched many ECNL games you will have noticed this first hand.

You are absolutely right! Last season, I actually saw an ECNL coach make  eye contact with a SPC student! It was so irreverent and demeaning...It took me 10 minutes for my heart to stop palpitating...

ALSO, DID YOU KNOW...

dallas 1968 wrote:Last season Hockaday lost 4-3 to Sting '99 in a highly competitive contest. A few weeks later ESD destroyed Hockaday 3-0 in the SPC championship match. Both schools have several ECNL players.

Oh, it was glorious, GLORIOUS!! I could barely contain myself on the way to the club! Afterwards, I let Jeeves take the rest of the day off (after 5, of course) .

dallas 1968 wrote:The ECNL is not all that and they should take into account the (insert "SPC")high school schedules.

E-Gads!

dallas 1968 wrote:
Also remember this: The parents of the private school girls are not spending a fortune so their daughters can get a 'soccer scholarship' to West Texas State, Sam Houston State or East Podunk U. like most of their (public) school club teammates.... Fact is, ECNL should take the SPC Championship weekend and TAPPS play-offs into account  when scheduling their 'showcase' tournaments in Texas.

1968-- careful, you speak your mind too freely. The little people's children have to go somewhere! After all, good help is getting harder to find. Do want them going to school with our children?!

dallas 1968 wrote: Generally (certainly at the private school level) the high school facilities are far better than ANYTHING any ECNL team offers. They have stadium dressing rooms, on site medical trainers, fully equipped weight rooms staffed by qualified personnel, excellent grass fields (ESD's two grass fields are second to none and Greenhill's new fields are right there in terms of quality of playing surface) lighted field turf fields, team rooms for video work and tactical preparation which often feature dry erase boards, drop down screens, internet hook-up and the rest.

Dear, you absolutely correct! Other than the upper level training, these people offer NOTHING!... Have you seen some of the 'new' facilities the public's have built up north?! Very rudimentary.. Sooo 2000's! Oh well, I suppose it good for our girls to intermingle with the less fortunate...

dallas 1968 wrote:
The high school girls do NOT have to bring their own water and soccer balls to practice and, in case of poor weather can play futsal in one of the schools gyms. NONE of the ECNL teams come close to matching this and if they did then why do they spend so much money RENTING the high school facilities when their own fields are soaking wet, like they were this last spring ? Heck, at least one ECNL league game was re-scheduled on the field turf of a local private high school, just to get it in.

I hope you aren't implying that you are requiring your DD to prepare and carry a water jug! It wouldn't take Maria anytime to add that to her duties... It's so amazing you mentioned water jugs- I saw the most adorable Gucci Jug @ Neiman's today...sweetie, you have to take lemons and make lemonade (or have Maria do it! hahahahahahaha!)

dallas 1968 wrote:In my experience (substantial) more girls get seriously injured playing for the their club teams than for their school teams and they do so because of overtraining. Many club coaches fail to realize that these girls are NOT machines, that they do need some R&R. Any club who does 'fitness training' without a ball is coached by someone who has no idea what he/she is doing.

Seriously? 'Fitness training' on those fields?  Absolutely unacceptable working young ladies this hard in those conditions.  Do these people have any idea how busy we are??

dallas 1968 wrote:
I feel the ECNL clubs, in an attempt to justify their exorbitant fees feel that 'more is more'. I can assure you that in soccer, more is NOT more. The North Texas ECNL clubs failure to be truly competitive nationally is down to the ignorance of most of their coaches.

Seriously, these people...I actually heard that some of these coaches don't have university degrees! Do you think that true?

dallas 1968 wrote:
Not sure I agree with this. I think for the girls in public schools this may be the case. If you are paying a small fortune to educate your daughter at Hockaday, Ursuline, Lynch and the rest, chances are you aspire to a bit more than West Texas A&M or whoever (no offence to these fine institutions). For example, Mimi Asom (according to Top Drawer Soccer) turned down a soccer scholarship to Stanford and instead accepted an academic scholarship to something called Princeton, apparently an Ivy League school. Take care of your academics and the soccer will take care of itself, even if you have to 'walk-on'.

Girl, You are so right! YOU KNOW, the truth be told- we want these girls going somewhere or we'll end of up paying for them later.

dallas 1968 wrote:
I think it important for the girls in private schools to play club soccer thru their sophomore years, after which they should concentrate on their academics so they can get academic scholarships which will, in most cases, FAR out weigh anything they would get for soccer.

1968,
Thank you for taking time out of your obviously busy day to add your wit, wisdom and world view to the conservation.

Are you truly expecting
A) a national soccer league of almost 80 teams, 2000+ players across the nation to adjust their schedule for The SPC, to resolve a "conflict (that) will create a big problem and many girls, possibly dozens"?

B) no hostility to that elitist view?

I'm now ready for that cocktail... I am definitely looking forward to the next topic! Any  views or predictions on the upcoming season?

pitchafit wrote:Wow... Had I known that all my kid needed was a Mark Cuban dressing room I could have saved her all the sweat, tears and training.

Thanks for the laugh Pitch. Very funny!

dallas 1968 wrote:

CUZete90 wrote:

dallas 1968 wrote:

CUZete90 wrote:Holy Crap!  I think Dallas 1968 has managed to out-snob the ECNL snobs on here!  That some mad skillz there!

With this kind of sarcasm you are definitely a candidate to coach any ECNL club. Just continue to work on refining your negativity and belittlement. Forget about actually having a valid point to make.

Who said I was being sarcastic?  It all depends on your lens.  I happen to think I made a highly valid point.

I said you were being sarcastic and you were. You made no valid point at all.

So, if as you say, the girls in the elite private schools in NTX such as Ursuline, Hockaday, ESD, Lynch, etc., are wasting their time if they are playing club soccer beyond their Sophomore year, and should be focusing on chasing down academic scholarships to elite universities and colleges, instead of athletic scholarships to safety schools like Stanford and UT and A&M, then why all of your original whining in this thread about ECNL not scheduling their showcase around the TAPPS playoffs?

According to you, there really isn't a decision for these girls to make, and it should be of absolute no consequence that ECNL is scheduled the same weekend as the TAPPS playoff.  Sounds to me like you should be focused on talking directly to each of those girls and their parents about the colossal mistakes they are making by playing for inferior and abusive coaches in ECNL (especially the ones like Mimi Asom who played for Tatu at Sting, and is clearly much worse off for having done so), rather than trying to convince a bunch of white-trash, send-their-kids-to-public-schools, ECNL-loving, forum-trollers that ECNL is egregiously in the wrong for not knowing it's place in the pecking order of society, and having the brazen audacity to schedule their showcase without consulting and getting approval from TAPPS beforehand.

But then again, that's just me being sarcastic and pointless.  Can't help it, my parents didn't pay to have the nuns or Jesuits beat it out of me growing up.

Just have to agree to disagree then. You are not going to change my mind and obviously I won't change yours either. I believe much of the coaching in North Texas ECNL teams to be poor. I believe many players like Mimi Asom, developed in spite of the North Texas ECNL coaching not because of it. I believe more North Texas girls would be on the various age group levels of the national team were the coaching in this area better, if the 'style of play' (if you can call it that) were better, If the training sessions were more related to what actually goes on during games, instead of some of the mindless stuff I have witnessed over the years.

I believe, having observed the sideline behavior of many North Texas club coaches, that many of you think this is how coaches (I use the term loosely) are supposed to behave, with their constant, unending, yelling and screaming.

Coaches who actually know what they are doing do their work during the week at practice, once the game starts the players take over and the coach should sit down and watch. You cannot play the game for the girls, they have to learn from their mistakes without the incessant verbal and mental abuse many of them are subjected to every single game.

If you are truly interested in this game I suggest you google a couple of short articles:

Raymond Verheijen-Dispelling the Myths of Soccer Fitness.

Then go to Soccer America's 'search' box and type in 'Interview with John Cone'.

Both of these coaches are way more qualified than ANY North Texas ECNL coach. Both know how the game should be taught and both articles are about coaching young players/the over-emphasis on 'tournaments' in the USA in general. Do yourself a favor and read them. Next time you watch your daughter's club practice or game you may observe from a different perspective.

dallas 1968 wrote:Just have to agree to disagree then. You are not going to change my mind and obviously I won't change yours either. I believe much of the coaching in North Texas ECNL teams to be poor. I believe many players like Mimi Asom, developed in spite of the North Texas ECNL coaching not because of it. I believe more North Texas girls would be on the various age group levels of the national team were the coaching in this area better, if the 'style of play' (if you can call it that) were better, If the training sessions were more related to what actually goes on during games, instead of some of the mindless stuff I have witnessed over the years.

I believe, having observed the sideline behavior of many North Texas club coaches, that many of you think this is how coaches (I use the term loosely) are supposed to behave, with their constant, unending, yelling and screaming.

Coaches who actually know what they are doing do their work during the week at practice, once the game starts the players take over and the coach should sit down and watch. You cannot play the game for the girls, they have to learn from their mistakes without the incessant verbal and mental abuse many of them are subjected to every single game.

If you are truly interested in this game I suggest you google a couple of short articles:

Raymond Verheijen-Dispelling the Myths of Soccer Fitness.

Then go to Soccer America's 'search' box and type in 'Interview with John Cone'.

Both of these coaches are way more qualified than ANY North Texas ECNL coach. Both know how the game should be taught and both articles are about coaching young players/the over-emphasis on 'tournaments' in the USA in general. Do yourself a favor and read them. Next time you watch your daughter's club practice or game you may observe from a different perspective.

Great, NOW I get this information!  All these years involved with ntx soccer, and I could have read 2 articles years ago and been an expert! I suspect if you investigated this site throughly, you might find that there are more than several posters who have been students of the game for many years, and very knowledgable.

You are correct in acknowledging that this game is expensive to play, however,  many do NOT view ntx soccer as an "investment" toward college... In my house, School and grades come first..., Alas, she hanging out at a mall or having  a lot of idle time with other idle kids would be must more expensive.

For these exorbant fees, she has life friends, is learning what it takes to compete, be accountable to others; learning that anything worth doing or having  is worth working hard for... And to one of your points-- at one time or another, most have experienced a "bad coach", but working for a jerk boss is also another worthy life lesson... Me personally, some of my best teachers who demanded (and got) the most out of me, were not all hugs, sunshine and patience...

I'm trying to figure out what your central thesis about Ntx soccer/ECNL? Unlike down south, this market is highly competitive (although I didn't attend SPC, I do know competition makes a product better) with many choices.

What course of action do you suggest to young ladies, with soccer ability and passion, who wish to play in college?

Packrabbit wrote:

What course of action do you suggest to young ladies, with soccer ability and passion, who wish to play in college?

If the girl is in a good situation, enjoying the practices and games, starting or at least getting substantial playing time, then playing ECNL is a fine option but it should not be considered the be all and end all. Most college coaches would have a tendency to 'overlook' or dismiss a girl who can't even start for her club team or at least get significant minutes.

I do think there are many girl's playing LH D1 who could comfortably move up a level but choose not to for various reasons, be they cost, time, travel all over the place, comfortable where they are, convenient location, whatever. So LH D1 is the best option for them.

Going to the summer soccer camps of a couple of colleges the girl is interested in is a great way to get noticed. Especially if her club or school coach is willing to write a recommendation letter. This way the college coach will probably give her a longer look at the camp, particularly if he knows or knows of the coach doing the recommending.

The other option would be to take care of the academics, get academic or needs based financial help then get into a good school and walk-on. I remember reading the book, "The Man Watching" about Anson Dorrance and the North Carolina Women's Soccer Team. He mentions that on one of his national championship teams he started 4 'walk-ons in the title game. There is also a passage where he mentions he gets a few players each year from his camps, which de describes as 'a mass Tar Heel try-out for a 1000 girls'. These camps are staffed by college coaches from other, not as high profile schools, who may notice a player that could play for them. As an example, Butch Lauffer, coach at West Texas A&M coaches at the Notre Dame summer soccer camps and has for several years.

I don't have a 'problem' with ECNL but I do have a problem with their idea they are the 'only game in town' when this is clearly not the case.

So, your saying stay in LH and play high school soccer to get noticed?

Zizou wrote:So, your saying stay in LH and play high school soccer to get noticed?

No. I did not say that at all. I was asked what would I recommend as an alternative and I gave an opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

dallas 1968 wrote:

Zizou wrote:So, your saying stay in LH and play high school soccer to get noticed?

No. I did not say that at all. I was asked what would I recommend as an alternative and I gave an opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

Certainly an alternative, but an alternative that's undoubtedly inferior to playing at the highest levels versus the best competition.