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 The girls divisions of the Wisconsin State Championships will have a different look next fall and spring.
FC Milwaukee, which has won more than 70 percent of the girls State Cup titles over the past seven years, no longer will field its top-level "Blue" teams in state competition in the Under-14 through Under-18 age groups.
Instead, the Nationals' teams in those age groups will play in Elite Clubs National League regional competition along with ECNL showcase tournaments.
From that standpoint, the ECNL changes will allow the 3-year-old league to mirror that of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, the country's top level of play for high school-aged boys.
"We are trying to limit the number of games overall that players are playing and make those games better," said FC Milwaukee academy director Christian Lavers, who also is the president of the ECNL.
In league play, FC Milwaukee will play the Michigan Hawks, Vardar (Mich.), Chicago's Eclipse Select and the Chicago Sockers twice per season and face Carmel United (Ind.), Minnesota Thunder Academy, St. Louis Scott Gallagher, Missouri's KCFC and Kansas' Blue Valley once.
"We'll average out to about one game a week, which provides a huge advantage in terms of just the amount of training hours we're going to get," Lavers said. "And then every game is going to be really good."
"You look at that type of schedule, there's no easy game in there. That's going to be a really positive thing, I think, for the players long term because they're just going to be forced to get better."
Nearly every ECNL match will be home or away, in contrast to the U.S. Youth Soccer Midwest Regional League, which features many neutral-site games. Lavers said he's looking forward to playing more matches at FC Milwaukee's complex in Germantown; this season, their girls teams had one home game apiece in addition to three more thanks to being the host of an ECNL event.
"I think we have nine home games in the ECNL (next season) where we don't have to travel," Lavers said. "We have more weekends where we'll be off of games than we ever have before, where players will be at home and instead of traveling and playing a few games, players will stay at home and we'll train on a Sunday."
The ECNL started with 40 teams in 2009, and will have 66 clubs divided into eight regional conferences when the 2011-12 season kicks off in the fall. All of the clubs will field teams in each of the five age divisions.
FC Milwaukee's Under-13 and Under-19 girls teams and the club's "White" teams will continue to play in state competitions, Lavers said.
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The schedule is set for the Under-15 through Under-18 girls divisions of the Wisconsin State Championships in the fall. Group play will be Sept. 17, 18 and 24, with the semifinals Sept. 25 and the finals Oct. 2 in Fond du Lac. Those age groups are played in the fall to avoid conflicts with the WIAA girls season in the spring.
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