ISL Soccer - how difficult to make the team?

soxmom
Sun, 07 Mar 2021 21:45:49 +0000

For what it’s worth, my son played on a club team in the Boston area before going to boarding school. I was never entirely clear where exactly his team fell within the NEP, but I think pretty high up. If he had stayed for 9th grade, he likely would have been elevated to the ECNL team. He goes to a boarding school that isn’t in the ISL, but would be pretty equivalent to a middle of the pack ISL school. He was one of the better players on JV as a 9th grader, and played varsity as a 10th grader (usually didn’t start but saw significant playing time). He’ll start on varsity next year, and also plans to play club outside of school (would have done that this year, but for Covid restrictions).

From what I’ve seen, I think most of the boys playing at what was the Academy level are noticeably better than NEP/ECNL level, and might well start on varsity at an ISL school even as a 9th grader.