ECNL Girls Indiana National Event wraps up, featuring 88 teams
This weekend, ECNL players from around the country traveled to the Midwest for the opportunity to experience an ECNL National Event. ECNL Indiana featured 88 teams from 28 ECNL clubs competing across three days.
“We cherish these opportunities to just be in this environment and get motivated by this environment and by the competition,” said Minnesota Thunder head coach Mark Abboud.
With the club’s location in Minnesota, Abboud explained it often requires long trips to find quality competition for his players and coming to an event like this for a weekend full of it is a huge benefit to his team.
“I think what helps about these ECNL National Events, and the way that they do the pairing against like-seeded teams from other conferences, it basically ensures us quality games,” Abboud said. “Especially when our fall league schedule is very light, an event like this is terrific.”
Cleveland Force Director, Everett Palache, described the weekend as a great experience for his players while also echoing the sentiments about how important the level of competition over the weekend was.
“The players’ experience has been fantastic, and the level of competition has been just what you want,” Palache said. “We’re getting levels of games that are allowing each of the kids to grow.”
Sweet Dreams, Indy! #ECNLIN pic.twitter.com/aGZTDuv03V
— ECNL Girls (@ECNLgirls) October 17, 2022
Getting younger players out to National Events and having them gain experience that they can draw on while moving forward in their careers is also valuable for clubs. Richmond United head coach, Kimmy Cummings, spoke to how this event was able to help her team gain some of that experience.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve seen is that events like this prepare them for when we go to the playoffs or finals,” Cummings said. “Having been to events like this at the younger age groups, it’s less of a shock when they get there. They’re not used to seeing this many fans out here, the environment, the atmosphere, and so really what it comes down to is just exposing them to high level talent at young age groups, so that when they go to events that have some older age groups it’s not as much of a shellshock when they’ve been to something like this.”
This weekend’s event also provided a unique experience for Kansas City Scott Gallagher SC, a club competing in the ECNL Regional League. Nac Neuendorf, Assistant Director at KCSG SC, believes her players will only benefit from having a weekend to compete at the club competition level.
“There’s opportunities for them now to go back into their conference in the Regional League and hopefully display some of the stuff they either saw from their opponent, or what they brought out of themselves from having to compete at a higher level.”
For Dean Blain, Girls U12-U14 Director at Tennessee SC, ECNL Indiana was also a chance for his team to experience an ECNL National Event for the first time.
“This is their first experience at an ECNL event, so coming in there were a lot of questions and nerves about what they were going to experience,” Blain said. “The nerves disappeared very quickly. Their experiences have been nothing but positive.”
“They leave the field win, lose or draw with a smile on their face because they’ve seen new competition, they’ve made new friends, and the environment is something that has a positive impact on all the players.”
ECNL GIRLS INDIANA | |||
October 14-16, 2022 | TEAM LIST | |||
Pre-ECNL U12 | U13 | U14 | U15 |
Cleveland Force | Cleveland Force | Cleveland Force | Eclipse Select |
Colorado Rapids | Colorado Rapids | Colorado Rapids | FC Pride |
FC Pride | Eclipse Select SC | Eclipse Select SC | FC Wisconsin |
FC Wisconsin | FC Alliance | Eclipse Select SC North | GTFC RL |
Indiana Fire | FC Pride | FC Alliance | Indiana Fire Juniors |
Internationals SC | FC Stars Blue | FC Pride | KCSG RL |
Michigan Hawks | FC Stars White | FC Stars Blue | Michigan Hawks |
Midwest United | FC Wisconsin | FC Stars White | Michigan Hawks Magic |
Minnesota Thunder Academy | GTFC RL | FC Wisconsin | Midwest United |
Ohio Premier | Indiana Fire | Indiana Fire | Real Colorado Athletico |
Racing Louisville Academy | Internationals SC | Internationals SC | Real Colorado National |
SLSG Green | Kansas City Athletics | Kansas City Athletics | Richmond United |
SLSG Navy | KCSG RL | Kings Hammer | SLSG Green |
WNY Flash | Kings Hammer | Michigan Hawks | SLSG Navy |
Michigan Hawks | Michigan Hawks Magic | ||
Michigan Hawks Magic | Midwest United | ||
Midwest United | Minnesota Thunder Academy | ||
Minnesota Thunder Academy | Ohio Elite SA | ||
NWI Lions RL | Ohio Premier | ||
Ohio Elite SA | Oklahoma Energy | ||
Ohio Premier | PDA White | ||
Oklahoma Energy | Racing Louisville Academy | ||
PDA White | Real Colorado Athletico | ||
Racing Louisville Academy | Real Colorado National | ||
Real Colorado Athletico | Richmond United | ||
Real Colorado National | SLSG Green | ||
Richmond United | SLSG Navy | ||
SLSG Green | WNY Flash | ||
SLSG Navy | |||
Sting Dallas Royal | |||
Tennessee SC | |||
WNY Flash |