Girls DA in 2017

4 training days a week, 10 months a year, and no outside play(High School ODP)... Be hard to even play another sport in High School it would seem.

US Soccer official announcement.

http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2016/02/23/14/48/160223-gda-us-soccer-to-launch-girls-development-academy-in-fall-of-2017

Few notes:

1 age groups will be U14/15--U16/U17--U18/U19
2. No school sports or ODP
3. No re-entry on subs

"The use of combined age groups will require clubs to form teams with a balanced roster of players from two distinct birth years."

Based on one of the criteria for a club being selected is the history of producing players for the WNT pools, can't see that NTX would get more that 2 spots, if that many.

Borrowed from Socal forum...

The U.S. Soccer Federation made it official on Tuesday:

It will launch the Girls Development Academy (GDA) in fall of 2017 -- a nationwide league with 60 to 80 clubs fielding teams at the U-14/15, U-16/17 and U-18/19 age groups.

Having launched a boys DA in 2007, the USSF will thus be in control of the highest level of youth soccer for both genders.

Since 2009, the U.S. Club-sanctioned ECNL laid claim to running elite soccer for American girls. The ECNL has 79 clubs nationwide that field teams at five age groups, from U-14 to U-18.

One great achievement of the boys DA, thanks in large part to fully funded MLS academies, is that it vastly increased the number of elite boys players participating at no cost or reduced cost.

So will the GDA be less expensive for players than the ECNL?

“It’s our plan that the cost will be reduced to play in the league,” said U.S. Soccer Technical Director April Heinrichs. “In general, U.S. Soccer is going to pick up a lot of the expenses in terms of running the league, so the cost will be less for the players.”

Ryan Mooney, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Sport Development, said that in premier leagues such as the ECNL and the Development Academy that require vast amounts of travel, per-player costs can range significantly from one club to the next.

“We want to make sure that we’re mindful of the cost impact that is reaching the end-user, both the player and their parents,” said Mooney. “Whether that’s through the cost we cover from an event perspective, whether it’s a reduction in registration fees, whether it’s scholarship program funding, etc. Those are all things we’ll look to contribute to the program to try to help minimize costs.

“At the same time I think it’s fair to say that there will still be a pay-to-play component, certainly from the onset, and we’ll see how that changes over time. It was no different eight years ago with the launch of the boys Academy and how that cost now has changed between then and now.”

Heinrichs said that the Federation has been discussing a Girls Development Academy for years and that a recent influx of financial commitment makes the timing right.

“For me it was quite simple,” she said. “When we looked at all these new resources post-World Cup win [in 2015] that want to invest in, be a part of and integrate with our youth national team program on the girls side – this was an easy decision. An exciting decision for us as well.

“Five years ago, we had two full-time employees in the girls youth national team program. Now we’re looking to hire potentially 10 to 15 new people to be involved and committed on a full-time, daily basis to improve the women’s game. And then there’s going to be a large budget to run the [GDA] ... and the full Dribble of U.S. Soccer’s leadership and the ability to run a national league -- we’re already running the NWSL and the Boys Development Academy.”

A key difference between the GDA and the ECNL is that while the ECNL is age pure and requires clubs to field five teams, GDA teams will field three combined age group teams.

“The use of combined age groups will require clubs to form teams with a balanced roster of players from two distinct birth years,” reads the U.S. Soccer statement.

Heinrichs calls it a way “to get players playing up more naturally.”

“If I had a list of player development initiatives that help players grow, one of the top, top, top things on that list is playing up,” she said.

In the age-pure setup, clubs may resist moving players up because it decreases their changes of winning trophies. In the DA setup, for example, a team’s star player one year will be among the younger players every two years. Fewer teams can also mean fewer roster-fillers -- players who might not be suited for the elite level but are needed to round out the squad.

Moreover, by having to field only three teams, Heinrichs believes the GDA will be more inclusive to smaller clubs.

“Let’s say there’s a super club out there and they’ve got 60 girls teams under their umbrella,” she said. “It’s quite easy for them to put a team out there in every age group. But with a smaller club that’s doing it well -- and this is where I think our model is pretty attractive -- all they have to do is put out three really good age groups.

“I have seen non-ECNL doing things really, really well but they’re not a super club. They don’t have a business model that’s so huge that they’re all about making money. But they’re doing it well from the leadership standpoint. They don’t have so many teams, but their focus would be on getting the three age groups right.

“Having birth-year every other year with the Girls Development Academy makes it more elite and more inclusive of clubs that aren’t a super club.”

The other big difference compared to the ECNL or U.S. Youth Soccer leagues is that the GDA will ban players from participating in high school ball. That, Heinrichs said, will only affect “1 percent” of the players in girls youth soccer. And she expects players with college and national team ambitions to be OK with skipping high school ball.

That it doesn't ban kids from high school ball will no doubt be a selling point from the ECNL when it starts competing for players with the GDA, which begins taking applications this May for the fall 2017 launch.

The applications will be evaluated by U.S. Soccer technical staff on:

• Leadership of the club and quality of the coaching staff;
• Desire to embrace and promote the core values of the program;
• U.S. Soccer license levels of coaching staff;
• Infrastructure of the club and the resources currently being invested in development (facilities, scholarships, staff to player ratio, etc.); 
• History of player production for youth national teams, the senior women’s national teams, and professional leagues;
• Market and depth of the player pool, geographic location and travel implications, and proximity to other elite clubs.

what I see is the local league LHGCL losing more players to DA and ECNL.

“At the same time I think it’s fair to say that there will still be a pay-to-play component, certainly from the onset, and we’ll see how that changes over time."

A wolf (money grab) in sheep's (power grab) clothing.

I don't doubt their intentions are good, but I also don't doubt they realize they can make significant money off of this "necessary" move as well.

As is almost always the case in life, follow the money...

I wonder when we'll know who gets the DA spots.

Has anyone done the research to see how many players each club has in the national team programs?

SD69 wrote:I wonder when we'll know who gets the DA spots.

I would have bet that the clubs are DT and FCD, but then I realized Solar has a boys side too, so maybe they get the invite.

I'm going with 3 for the metroplex, with Sting having an outside chance. Not because I don't think their club has earned it. Over the years they've had one of the best girls programs in the country and kudos to them. I just think it boils down to money and boys. I could be wrong, but we'll see.

Homeboy wrote:Has anyone done the research to see how many players each club has in the national team programs?

Or how many players from NTX capped on the US WNT in the last 20 years?

Zero since Carla Werden retired.

jogobonito07 wrote:Zero since Carla Werden retired.

Or Carla Overbeck for newbies.

That is what I was thinking, along with a couple who were capped for other countries WNT's.

What does that say about NTX development approach? Where are we falling short?

. Physical attributes? - we have players playing U17 who are bigger, faster, stronger than some WNT players
. Technical capability?
. Tactical/mental aspects?

Gunners wrote:The most interesting part, for me, is the USSF admitting that it's had coastal bias when selecting National Team players for years...

USSF considered, but declined the idea of starting a girls DA back in 2007/08, believing national-team-caliber players existing mostly in a few “pockets,” mainly Southern California and the greater New York area, not nationally.

I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, as this has been widely known for years. It certainly should be disarming to those who constantly beat the "NTX doesn't produce National Team caliber players" drum.

bump.

Soccer is full of bias, politics, and nepotism. All levels.

Sho'Nuff wrote:

Gunners wrote:The most interesting part, for me, is the USSF admitting that it's had coastal bias when selecting National Team players for years...

USSF considered, but declined the idea of starting a girls DA back in 2007/08, believing national-team-caliber players existing mostly in a few “pockets,” mainly Southern California and the greater New York area, not nationally.

I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, as this has been widely known for years. It certainly should be disarming to those who constantly beat the "NTX doesn't produce National Team caliber players" drum.

bump.

Soccer is full of bias, politics, and nepotism.  All levels.

Yeah, Ok.

'It's not fair', 'not our fault', 'we are a victim' always works well as an opening position.  

Assuming there is some truth to NY/NJ & all CA bias.  

Somehow GA, CO, MA, managed to get multiple players on the current team along with FL, AZ, WA, MO, PA, VA who have one.  Realize that is a snapshot of a point in time, but why none from NTX for years and years?

Lefty wrote:
Yeah, Ok.

'It's not fair', 'not our fault', 'we are a victim' always works well as an opening position.  

Assuming there is some truth to NY/NJ & all CA bias.  

Somehow GA, CO, MA, managed to get multiple players on the current team along with FL, AZ, WA, MO, PA, VA who have one.  Realize that is a snapshot of a point in time, but why none from NTX for years and years?

The Shogun of Harlem don't like that victim-mentality accusation. 'Paranoid', I'll embrace that.

Anyways, I think we're cheering for the same thing. The less DA clubs the better. I would be stoked if it was only one. 11 players per agegroup.

Sho'Nuff wrote:

Lefty wrote:
Yeah, Ok.

'It's not fair', 'not our fault', 'we are a victim' always works well as an opening position.  

Assuming there is some truth to NY/NJ & all CA bias.  

Somehow GA, CO, MA, managed to get multiple players on the current team along with FL, AZ, WA, MO, PA, VA who have one.  Realize that is a snapshot of a point in time, but why none from NTX for years and years?

The Shogun of Harlem don't like that victim-mentality accusation.  'Paranoid', I'll embrace that.  

Anyways, I think we're cheering for the same thing. The less DA clubs the better.  I would be stoked if it was only one.  11 players per age group.

1 would be optimal in my mind.

All we can hope is that it is stocked primarily with piano players rather than piano movers.

FCD will be one of the teams in DA

Guess Who wrote:FCD will be one of the teams in DA

Really going out on a limb there.

It looks like US Soccer got a big injection of cash and wants to retain control of how it's spent. Makes sense. They also want to concentrate the talent into a smaller pool, early so they can give that talent more focus and have fewer places to look for National Team candidates.

The DA Clubs will attract DA caliber kids and the folks they reject will play ECNL or LHGCL if they still want to play competitive professionally coached soccer. The colleges will start their recruiting at DA and then look at ECNL.

The only thing that changes is that DA will have more US Soccer money and will be a smaller "super league". Since very few folks will be in DA if what folks are doing is tracking towards a local (Texas) college ECNL will still be perfectly fine.

The only interest for most people will be betting on the local DA horse race. Looks like FCD is off to an early start :-) The tough question will be whether clubs who "make" DA will give up their ECNL slot(s). Doubt it but you never know. Let the games begin.

My money is on 2 NTX DA clubs and that it will be FCD and Texans...


(Of course, that pretty much guarantees that there will be 3 DA clubs in NTX, and that they will be D'Feeters, Solar, and Sting...)

You forgot Liverpool

Lefty wrote:You forgot Liverpool

No I didn't...

(although LP will have the strong selling point that they can use their flower sales to subsidize their DA scholarship program...)

So any one want to give odds?

LP 6 - 1
Solar 2 - 1
DT 5 - 1
Sting 5 - 1
FC Dallas 2 - 1
D'Feeters 8 - 1

We should know in September of this year. No betting but indicates likelihood. I'm starting to feel this might be a good thing. Ideally the level of soccer goes up again and we get more attendance and more sponsorship for the Women's professional league. Now that would be wonderful. There is in my opinion a lot of pent up demand by women to be fans of Sport. Soccer is a natural way to address that demand. Women's Soccer. That would be progress.

An FC Dallas women's pro team would be nice to see. Place a Pugh, Horan, etc... on the roster. This house would be season ticket holders.

They will apparently start with "60-80" clubs in 2017.
If so, I imagine the Metroplex gets AT LEAST three teams.
3 in D/FW 1 in Austin. 1 in Oklahoma. 2 in Houston.
You have a ready made 7 team conference with two 12 game seasons (home and home with each club).  Add in four tournaments per year, and you have the 35 to 40 games-per-year target the DA seeks.