Sting Austin

What the hell is going on with Sting Austin? Who and the hell is the coach and who is responsible for allowing the coach to be employed? Throw in the towel already!

They say the coaching is pretty good, there just isn't any high end talent. The club simply isn't any better than they were 3 years ago when they started. And there isn't much hope for the future. Surprisingly, the Lonestar 2nd teamers just haven't migrated over as many expected. There isn't an Academy to build organically. It's a mess without a realistic pathway to competitiveness.
As mentioned in the other thread, the only good news for Sting Austin is that Oklahoma Celtic and Colorado Pride have joined ECNL in the past 2 years, which offers at least a couple of competitive games and opportunities for some wins.

Every year since inception all they do is call every girls coaches and teams begging them to "come in" and play as sting. It is a joke and was politics at its best when this happened.

It's all watered down politics these days.

Got a PM that the coach is a real douche bag and Sting sent him down there to avoid some serious issues here......
sounds like a bad coach and a shitty person if true.

Sting Austin, Oklahoma Celtic and Pride don't belong in an elite league. These panicked moves by ECNL will have long term ramifications.

kickball2005 wrote:Sting Austin, Oklahoma Celtic and Pride don't belong in an elite league.  These panicked moves by ECNL will have long term ramifications.  

I think you are right about ramifications. But only OK Celtic was truly a panic move. The "travel partner" angle is important to ECNL, though. Nobody wants to travel to Tulsa for one game.  So Celtic was added.

Sting Austin wasn't a panic move. It was necessary to buy off Sting Dallas and get them to decline the DA invite.  Needless to say, three years in the Austin expansion hasn't gone how Sting hoped it would.  

As for the Pride...After all the traveling to Colorado last year for subpar competition, the California ECNL teams refused to play in a conference with the Rapids again this coming season. So ECNL quietly moved Colorado to an unsuspecting Texas Conference and looked to add another club to make the trip more "worthwhile." Unfortunately, there simply weren't any other quality non-DA clubs in Colorado (despite heavy efforts from ECNL, Real and Rush weren't leaving DA), so ECNL just took whatever they could get. That's why the Pride are unfortunately involved.

Truthiness wrote:

kickball2005 wrote:Sting Austin, Oklahoma Celtic and Pride don't belong in an elite league.  These panicked moves by ECNL will have long term ramifications.  

I think you are right about ramifications. But only OK Celtic was truly a panic move. The "travel partner" angle is important to ECNL, though. Nobody wants to travel to Tulsa for one game.  So Celtic was added.

Sting Austin wasn't a panic move. It was necessary to buy off Sting Dallas and get them to decline the DA invite.  Needless to say, three years in the Austin expansion hasn't gone how Sting hoped it would.  

As for the Pride...After all the traveling to Colorado last year for subpar competition, the California ECNL teams refused to play in a conference with the Rapids again this coming season. So ECNL quietly moved Colorado to an unsuspecting Texas Conference and looked to add another club to make the trip more "worthwhile." Unfortunately, there simply weren't any other quality non-DA clubs in Colorado (despite heavy efforts from ECNL, Real and Rush weren't leaving DA), so ECNL just took whatever they could get. That's why the Pride are unfortunately involved.

Haven't seen enough clubs from Colorado but I from what I have seen Real and Rush's second teams would have been better than Pride. Issue is parents have been told ECNL was cheaper cause we didn't have to go to Colorado.  I get the "reasons" although there was better choices for travel partners than Oklahoma Celtic and Colorado shouldn't even be part of it.   Curious of ramifications as a decade of marketing is falling flat in some markets. I know now its wasting money as you can scrimmage better competition locally than bottom 4 or 5 in ECNL now.

Beating down the clubs that JUST JOIN. If these clubs were 10 year into the league and still not winning. Then I could see North Texas clubs point.

soccerman1994 wrote:Beating down the clubs that JUST JOIN. If these clubs were 10 year into the league and still not winning. Then I could see North Texas clubs point.

So parents should keep paying $1000+ every year to fly in and out for a couple of uncompetitive games in hopes that eventually their grandchildren will be able to do the same except instead the games might be competitive?

Your contention is we should happily pay $5k+ over the years for the purpose of subsidizing the development of a bunch of kids who happen to live in a far flung state that doesn't have quite enough quality soccer competition (or, even worse, there is enough local competition but they refuse to play in the same league together for dumb reasons that then require my kid to fly out there)?  I'd rather put that money towards something else and stay home and watch my kid play against better competition as I live in one of the few areas of the country that has zero need to every get on an airplane to find the high level competition that I'm told is necessary for fulfilling potential.

Yeah.  I know.  I signed up for this and choose to support my kid's choice.  But it's dumb, and genuinely good alternatives for kids who want to play at as high of level as possible are far and few between.

If your flying to Oklahoma or South Texas. That
your fault for wasting 1000.00 flying. Good luck beating all the second hand clubs in the Texas Conference.

[/quote] After all the traveling to Colorado last year for subpar competition, the California ECNL teams refused to play in a conference with the Rapids again this coming season.[/quote]

You got it all wrong. ECNL in the Northwest picked up 3 new clubs (Crossfire Premier and Eastside FC from GDA and Marin FC) and it didn't make sense for them to keep traveling to Colorado. At the same time, the Texas Conference needed another club so they paired Rapids with Pride to make the trip more cost effective. It had NOTHING to do with the quality of Rapids. The NW Conference of ECNL is one of the strongest and the Rapids were always competitive. If you had to rank them they would fall between Rush and Real and might beat Real in a couple age groups.

In case you haven't noticed, there have been weaker clubs added to all leagues, from GDA to ECNL to DPL to ECRL. Every league has 2 maybe 3 really strong clubs, a few decent clubs and a few bottom clubs who in a perfect world wouldn't be playing at that level.

After all the traveling to Colorado last year for subpar competition, the California ECNL teams refused to play in a conference with the Rapids again this coming season.[/quote]

You got it all wrong. ECNL in the Northwest picked up 3 new clubs (Crossfire Premier and Eastside FC from GDA and Marin FC) and it didn't make sense for them to keep traveling to Colorado. At the same time, the Texas Conference needed another club so they paired Rapids with Pride to make the trip more cost effective. It had NOTHING to do with the quality of Rapids. The NW Conference of ECNL is one of the strongest and the Rapids were always competitive. If you had to rank them they would fall between Rush and Real and might beat Real in a couple age groups.

In case you haven't noticed, there have been weaker clubs added to all leagues, from GDA to ECNL to DPL to ECRL. Every league has 2 maybe 3 really strong clubs, a few decent clubs and a few bottom clubs who in a perfect world wouldn't be playing at that level.[/quote]








Each year you see the stronger players moving to DA clubs. ECNL has solidified their position as the second division travel league. DFeeters would leave ECNL in a heart beat if GDA came calling. Sting has no interest in lowering their cost to support a non pay to play model or even play at a reduced rate like GDA. D’feeters should be the next club to be admitted into the frontier conference. My opinion.

That might be true in NTX, but not nationwide. ECNL is now stronger than GDA in most markets. Based on continuing defections at Dash and Lonestar, I don't think it's the case in STX either.

Sorry to say that there are very few leagues, conferences or what have you that do not have at least one bottom dweller that gets beat up on by others. DA, ECNL conferences all have their share.
Yes Sting Austin has been beaten on mostly to an ugly result by many NTX teams. They did just get a win last week and they managed to get some ties and a win or so last year after being embarrassed their first year in ECNL. Are they a team you want to play twice a year yet? Umm NO!

918soccer wrote:That might be true in NTX, but not nationwide. ECNL is now stronger than GDA in most markets. Based on continuing defections at Dash and Lonestar, I don't think it's the case in STX either.

Those defections could be due to players having to compete each season with the best in the nation. Moving to a inferior league playing 80% or more vs inferior teams and players. Boosting players egos and perception they are better than they really are. One game a month against another team with any talent would make a player stats look pretty impressive.

Watching games these lower rung teams such as Austin and Celtic bring nothing. Pack it in and boot it out. They are current average D1 teams at best. Again, why?

U-15 Girl’s national team selections 15 GDA players one ECNL . That has to sting slammers, PDA, and Mass Stars who are rarely shut out of the national seen. I did not even recognize the ECNL club selected player.

Is this the end Zizou?

918soccer wrote:That might be true in NTX, but not nationwide. ECNL is now stronger than GDA in most markets. Based on continuing defections at Dash and Lonestar, I don't think it's the case in STX either.

You seem to say a lot of things about how you wish things could be rather than how it really is. Lonestar isn't losing players. None. Across every age group, Dash lost two good players to ECNL, but picked up 5 or 6 good new players. Lying about things may make you feel better, but it isn't going to suddenly prevent ECNL from being a clear 2nd tier.

BENDMEOVER wrote:Is this the end Zizou?

Nope, you should be interested in those clubs running businesses to make a buck compared to those at least at the elite level trying to support those players that do not have the parents with money and hopefully some day moving away from the pay to play model. In fact this is the beginning to a bright future.

Zizou you like to contradict yourself quite often.

Zizou wrote:

918soccer wrote:That might be true in NTX, but not nationwide. ECNL is now stronger than GDA in most markets. Based on continuing defections at Dash and Lonestar, I don't think it's the case in STX either.

Those defections could be due to players having to compete each season with the best in the nation. Moving to a inferior league playing 80% or more vs inferior teams and players. Boosting players egos and perception they are better than they really are. One game a month against another team with any talent would make a player stats look pretty impressive.

Lonestar GDA played Albion ECNL two weeks ago and these were the results:

07 - Lonestar won 2-0
06 - Albion won 3-2
05 - Albion won 1-0
04 - tied 0-0
03 - Albion won 2-0
02 - Lonestar won 3-2

Lonestar use to be quite a bit better than Albion, so a shift is clearly happening, just not in the direction that you contend. The same is true in Michigan (Hawks), Chicago (Eclipse), New York (NYCFC), New Jersey (PDA), Washington (Crossfire Premier), Massachusetts (FC Stars), and other markets where clubs are moving top players to ECNL and DA has become second tier.

So again, your statement that top players are moving to DA might be true in NTX, although I suspect Sting and Feet might challenge that contention, it certainly isn't the case nationally.

Zizou again those pay to play teams that finance your so called elite teams have their marketing work cut out for them.

[quote="918soccer"]

Zizou wrote:

918soccer wrote:That might be true in NTX, but not nationwide. ECNL is now stronger than GDA in most markets. Based on continuing defections at Dash and Lonestar, I don't think it's the case in STX either.

Those defections could be due to players having to compete each season with the best in the nation. Moving to a inferior league playing 80% or more vs inferior teams and players. Boosting players egos and perception they are better than they really are. One game a month against another team with any talent would make a player stats look pretty impressive.

Lonestar GDA played Albion ECNL two weeks ago and these were the results:

07 - Lonestar won 2-0
06 - Albion won 3-2
05 - Albion won 1-0
04 - tied 0-0
03 - Albion won 2-0
02 - Lonestar won 3-2

Lonestar use to be quite a bit better than Albion, so a shift is clearly happening, just not in the direction that you contend. The same is true in Michigan (Hawks), Chicago (Eclipse), New York (NYCFC), New Jersey (PDA), Washington (Crossfire Premier), Massachusetts (FC Stars), and other markets where clubs are moving top players to ECNL and DA has become second tier.

So again, your statement that top players are moving to DA might be true in NTX, although I suspect Sting and Feet might challenge that contention, it certainly isn't the case nationally.



[/quote

I don’t even have to look out of my own city to find the top players and teams in the nation. Dominating the national seen when ECNL was relevant and even now in GDA. Local DA clubs are not concerned with sting and dfeeters and surely do not feel Houston posses any competition locally and nationally. Being involved during ECNL conception and now DA it is very clear which league is moving in the right direction ie: national team call ups and removing the pay for play model that continues to set us back in the US.