The Latest On U.S. Soccer’s Girls Development Academy
U.S. Soccer plans to kick off the girls side of the USSF Development Academy in August 2017. While no defined timeline on the Girls Development Academy (GDA) has been officially announced by U.S. Soccer, the Fall 2017 kick off was confirmed by US Club’s CEO Kevin Payne.
Last week on February 12, U.S. Soccer Technical Director April Heinrichs and U.S. Soccer Director of Sport Development Ryan Mooney met with ECNL’s president Christian Lavers, ECNL Board Members Doug Bracken and Kenny Medina along US Club’s founder Ken Chartier and Payne to discuss the launch of the new US Soccer Development Academy for Girls.
“We appreciated the opportunity to spend time with April and Ryan and we are disappointed that U.S. Soccer believes going it alone is the best course of action — but we have asked them to revisit the idea of collaboration – which we believe will produce a better outcome,” said Payne. “When we started the USSF Boys Development Academy, there was no realistic alternative.”
Every rumor leading up to the launch of US Soccer’s Girls DA has touched upon the inevitable impact it will have on ECNL, the Elite Clubs National League which has been the de-facto top tier development program for girls since its launch in 2009. While US Soccer launched the Development Academy for boys in 2007, they have worked with ECNL for the past 7 years.
“This is not a US Soccer vs ECNL issue, and framing it that way doesn’t help improve the game,” said ECNL President Christian Lavers. “The ECNL’s desire was and still remains to find a way to bring together unique resources from each organization to make an even better platform, but that doesn’t seem to be a possibility at this time. If that is the case, then the ECNL will continue to fulfill its mission and will keep working to improve development in female youth club soccer. As always, the ECNL will continue to support the Youth National Teams and the Women’s Team as they move towards Rio this summer.”
The latest rumors circling US Soccer’s Girls DA are centered around whether or not the program will allow girls to play high school soccer or mirror the existing boys academy and ban participation.
“On this and other issues, ECNL believes players and youth soccer clubs deserve to have a choice,” said Lavers. ECNL does not restrict its players from playing high school soccer. “We believe players should have a choice,” said Lavers. “While playing soccer in High School is good for some players, it isn’t the right choice for others.”
“Mallory Pugh played high school every year of her career and enjoyed it. For someone else, this might not have been the right choice but it is our position that it is not our decision as a league,” said Lavers. ECNL player, Pugh — who is just 17 years old — just scored her first international goal for the WNT v Republic of Ireland on January 23, 2016.
ENCL also seems to recognize that in parts of America — where community spirit runs strong — playing high school is an important part of growing up.
After years of establishing itself as the preeminent elite girls league in the USA, is ECNL being pushed aside? Soccer Wire’s leak of the Girls DA – U.S. Soccer set to launch girls’ Development Academy in 2017, likely relegating ECNL to second tier – broke the news to everyone, including the top people at ECNL.
Lavers, who believes collaboration is usually the wisest course of action, acknowledges that everyone is working towards the shared goal of making the game better. The question is can U.S. Soccer establish a girls program better and faster? And, should U.S. Soccer accomplish this without working with ECNL? The USA is a big country and there are always different perceptions on ways to add value.
Is collaboration on the horizon? Lavers said, “We can discuss and implement any technical changes that U.S. Soccer wants — and, we have said that since the inception of the program, but it seems at this point that U.S. Soccer wants to do the Girls Development Academy on their own.”
What will ECNL do? The short answer is ECNL will continue developing high level girls soccer in the U-14 to U-18 five age groups. ECNL’s record of college-bound player development is unrivaled by any other youth organization in the USA. ECNL’s emphasis on developing Amazing Young Women has been highly successful — more ECNL players play collegiate soccer than any other youth soccer program.
How well has ECNL performed developing players for college soccer? ECNL alums dominated the 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s College Cup Final Four, with sixty-eight ECNL Alums on the rosters of the four teams that competed to be crowned the 2015 NCAA National Champions. In the Power 5, forty-one out of the sixty players who earned 2015 freshman honors were developed in ECNL – an overwhelmingly percentage reflecting the top 2015 individual awards in the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12, and Big 12. And, ECNL Alums claimed 11 different Player of the Year awards and 118 All-Conference honors.
“We have duty to our member clubs and we will continue to represent and serve these clubs and their members. We started with the core belief that coaches working together can do great things for the game as long as they put the game first and we still believe that in everything we do,” said Lavers.
“We will continue to do what we can to make youth soccer better. No matter where they come from, at the end of the day, the very best players will be selected for the national team pools and college soccer will continue to be the biggest target for almost every player.”
As the country debates what is the best possible building platform for developing its female youth soccer players, the spotlight is on and the future is undefined — as of yet.
“We are all trying to do things to make the game better,” said Lavers.
“I think it would be shame if the introduction of the GDA ended up competing with the ECNL and watering down the player pool,” said Payne. “If that happens, it happens. And, yes, it is a possibility.”
