Home Forums Long Island & Eastern New York Soccer Message Boards Roll Away The Stone Soccer News SIX NEW CLUBS TO JOIN GIRLS' DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY FOR 2019-20 SEASON

CHICAGO (Feb. 20, 2019)-The U.S. Soccer Girls' Development Academy will expand its membership for the 2019-20 season to 71 clubs, encompassing 342 teams. As part of its mission to impact everyday environments to develop world-class players, six new clubs will join the Girls' Academy and two clubs will introduce new age-group teams. With the introduction of the Girls' U-16 age group, the upcoming third season of the Girls' Academy will be its largest ever, set to feature nearly 7,000 players.

2019-20 GIRLS' DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY CLUB ADDITIONS

Club	Location	Age Group(s)	Conference
Albion SC Las Vegas	Henderson, Nev.	All (U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18/19)	West
Cedar Stars Academy - Bergen	South Hackensack, N.J.	U-14, U-15	East
Salvo SC	Eagan, Minn.	All (U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18/19)	Central
SJEB Rush	Marlton, N.J.	U-14, U-15	East
South Shore Select	Hingham, Mass.	All (U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18/19)	East
STA Development Academy	Randolph, N.J.	All (U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18/19)	East

ACADEMY CLUBS ADDING AGE GROUPS FOR 2019-20 SEASON

Club	Location	New Age Group(s)	Conference
Arlington Soccer Association	Arlington, Va.	U-16, U-17, U-18/19	East
Long Island SC	Plainview, N.Y.	U-16	East

New clubs and new age-group teams were selected for admission to the Academy following a thorough review process by the U.S. Soccer Club Development department based on:

• Academy leadership and quality of coaching staff
  
• Desire to embrace Development Academy philosophy and core values
• Infrastructure and investment of resources
• Player production history, player pool depth and geographic location
  

"After a thorough review of the everyday environments at applicant clubs, a select number were chosen to join the Girls' Academy for its third season," said Miriam Hickey, U.S. Soccer Director of Club Development. "It is evident that these clubs are passionate about providing opportunities for female players to have access to fun, challenging and safe environments that encourage them to reach their full potential.

"In these environments, the club leaders and coaches will serve as role models to ensure that players remain lifelong participants. These female players are our future on the field, as well as our next generation of coaches, referees and fans. Together with our Club Development Managers across the country we look forward to providing support and collaborating with current and new Academy clubs."

Six new clubs will join the Girls' Academy in its third year, including one from a new geographic region: Albion SC Las Vegas, the first Academy club from Nevada for either gender.

SJEB Rush will join the Girls' Academy at the U-14 and U-15 levels after competing in the Girls' U-13 pilot program during the 2018-19 season. Already a part of the Boys' Academy, Cedar Stars Academy - Bergen will join the Girls' Academy for the 2019-20 season. In addition to Cedar Stars and SJEB, two more new clubs come from the East Coast in South Shore Select and STA Development Academy, while Salvo SC becomes the second Girls' Academy club based in Minnesota.

Following the launch of its Girls' Academy programming this season at the U-14 and U-15 level. Arlington Soccer Association will expand to the U-16, U-17 and U-18/19 age groups for 2019-20. Long Island SC will also add a team in the new U-16 age group.

GIRLS' DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY BY THE NUMBERS

2018-19		2019-20
Age Groups	Clubs	Age Groups	Clubs
U-14	64	U-14	70
U-15	65	U-15	71
U-16/17	63	U-16	69
		U-17	68
U-18/19	59	U-18/19	64
Total Groups:4	Teams: 251 Clubs: 65	Total Groups:5	Teams: 342 Clubs: 71

"The growth of the Academy is not simply measured in the number of new clubs or players," said Jared Micklos, Youth National Teams Director. "It is about the commitment of both existing and new clubs to raise the collective standard and create optimal environments focused on the development of players that will pay dividends for years to come."

At the start of the 2019-20 Girls' Academy season, the following age eligibility dates will be in effect:

• U-18/19: Players born Jan. 1, 2001 or later
• U-17: Players born Jan. 1, 2003 or later
• U-16: Players born Jan. 1, 2004 or later
• U-15: Players born Jan. 1, 2005 or later
• U-14: Players born Jan. 1, 2006 or later

Expansion to Boys' Academy membership will be announced in the coming weeks. The 2019-20 regular season and event schedule will be released by June 1, 2019.

Its pretty evident that ECNL is not allowing anymore current clubs to join GDA, hence you have middle of the table NPL and USYS clubs being invited, ugh....

Good for LISC

Looks like they might be changing the divisions as well. LISC was in the atlantic but now they are in the EAST. There actually is no EAST conference now just Northeast or atlantic. There was talk about moving teams around for less travel which would be a plus for teams too.

Happy for LISC, their players, and parents who took a chance on the 04 age year. Any chance they get U17 now, or they building from youngest up?

My uneducated guess is that with Meghan taking over this year, and turning the club around the GDA rewarded LISC with the addition of another age group (U16), and I would expect the [i]rewarding[/] to continue to the Fall 2020.

What is also notable and not yet mentioned is who applied to the GDA, but didn't get DA status.

Spill the beans already! 🤐

Typical for USSF.
Take something that is sub-par and double down on it thinking it will get better.

So true. For the clubs that have left DA there replacements are not on the same level of competition and talent. That is not what the DA was supposed to be about. It was formed to have the “best of the best” training and competition. The truth is if a club today is given the opportunity to either join DA or ECNL which league would they join? The answer is obvious. If you compare those CLUBS from both leagues in the North East there is no doubt ECNL is much ore competitive. In this area the DA may have to allow teams in the North East play teams in other regions to make it more competitive.

Congrats to LISC but why no SUSA or Barca?

I dont think SUSA would want to give up ECNL for the DA. Why would Barca even think they could get a GDA nod?

I think if there is an effort to bring in good clubs with a history of commitment to female soccer and the ability to reduce travel they may have a good long term play against the ecnl. Parents of top players may flock to a league that offers great exposure at less travel. The way forward is to allow HS soccer (at least for Jr/Sr year) and to find a way to reduce travel to about 2/3rds what it cost before. This is how you get the top players from lower/middle class economic families. Instead of offering ECNL w/o High School, they should be offering a viable alternative that has clear benefits and this may be a good step forward.

For the teams that have left the DA, what were the reasons (both the reasons they stated publicly and what you think the real reasons are, if they are different).

What does less travel mean? There are plenty of leagues that allow for less travel and play within a local community. Travel soccer at the highest level of competition means you are dedicated to play against the best and most competitive competition wherever that may be. If that means traveling to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia then that is exactly what my daughter wants. Clubs take vans, buses or even car pools to these locations. I think it is a great experience for those young ladies and is an important part of there maturity by traveling and experiencing new places. It has been a great experience for my girls and it has great benefits. This is the there experience not about parents and the inconvenience to there schedules. Travel soccer is not for everyone and is part of the commitment to play at a higher level vs. competition wherever it may be. If travel is an inconvenience for you then maybe ECNL/DA is not for you.

IMO, I think Kaz is unhappy with the direction of USSDA, and he would know, as he is actually consults with them. Some people think that NYCFC is going away, they are not, they are merging their teams with their co/parent WCFC, and resifting to what he considers the top league in this area...

Thank you Anthony Travel..!

Yes, there will always be an element of travel but the need to spend $10k on travel alone is one of the biggest reasons why DA or ECNL are not as competitive as they could or should be. They're leaving many talented kids behind in favor of ones whose parents can pay. Occasional trips to play teams a state or two away is fine but it should not be as much as it is right now. For me, a reduction of 20-30% of travel could be a real benefit and may be just enough to enable more kids at the lower economic spectrum to get access to the league and significantly expand the player pool. I would have to imagine (or just hope) someone has done the math on that.

Any news about allowing girls to play HS ball?

ECNL has already won the announcements for 2019-20 season and they haven’t even announced anything yet. Seems GDA is becoming the new NPL...with no HS. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun for a kid that goes through their youth but once.

You ecnl guys love to bring up HS, but if you ask most NYCFC players, they are still not interested, even though they won’t have a fall season. The girls who have played for the last 2 years have realized that Hs soccer is nothing but an extended summer vacation.

The same train of though was being applied to SUSA before they joined ECNL.

They were always a strong team in NPL and always in competition with NYSC, CSA, STA. All of a sudden the same metric (strong NPL team) that welcomed SUSA into ECNL (and SUSA is doing well) is all of a sudden being rejected by GDA haters.

This is typical FUD from Match Fit management because they are dependent on poaching players from these clubs.

Name one club in the north east that can beat SSS 2003 team at full strength.

BOTN is predicting that there will be a change in the GDA High School rule coming soon.......

NYCFC 03, at full strength.

Hearing the same rumors. But putting it in perspective, would GDA clubs really gain an influx of players if they did change the HS rule? With the Alby ECNL debacle last year, many players have moved on to other clubs. Can't see them coming back since they all saw it as a trust issue.

Hopefully the girls who choose not to play HS will be given opportunities to practice within the club during the HS season. I can imagine there are a lot of girls who prefer to avoid HS for fear of injury or just lack of desire to play that type of game.