Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
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Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
Showcase Season Insights: Uncovering Scheduling, Substitution Rules, & Recruiting | Ep. 107
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Unlock the secrets of the ECNL showcase season alongside Christian Lavers, Doug Bracken, and Ashley Willis as they dissect the perfect blend of timing and location that makes these events a recruiting hotspot. Discover why warm climates open doors for teams from colder areas, and learn how 80% of Division I recruits trace their roots back to this league. The hosts discuss the strategic planning behind competitive schedules and how aligning teams based on last season's standings elevates the level of play and scouting opportunities, all while tackling the real-world challenges of NIL and college athlete payment issues.
Navigate the nuanced world of youth soccer substitution rules, where the balance between player exposure and maintaining game fluidity is key. This episode unpacks how the ECNL adapts its substitution policies for showcases versus regular league play, offering insights into how these decisions impact player development and safety, particularly under extreme weather conditions. We also shine a light on the "Red Isn't Your Color" campaign, encouraging a culture of respect and sportsmanship to address the referee shortage caused by poor conduct in youth sports.
Welcome to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, a bi-weekly look at all things ECNL, covering topics that you care about and topics that make a difference. I am Dean Linke, your behind-the-scenes editor of the show. As always, leading the discussion today is ECNL President and CEO Christian Labors, along with ECNL Vice President and Chief of Staff, doug Bracken, and Ashley Willis, ecnl's Partnership Activation and Alumni Relations Manager. The ECNL is listening to you and they use this podcast to answer your questions and give more background on why they do the great things that they do.
Speaker 1:As always, this is a wonderful edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. This is a wonderful edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, and our three superstars tackle the ECNL showcases, scheduling, particularly as it relates to the showcases, the substitution rules for the showcases as well as for the regular season and tournaments, and then we end proudly discussing the launch of the ECNL's quote Red Isn't your Color end quote campaign of the ECNL's quote red isn't your color and quote campaign a league-wide call to encourage and promote fair play sportsmanship and to reduce the number of red cards throughout youth soccer related to foul and abusive language and behavior from players and even parents. It's a campaign that is going to make a big difference and, in addition to cleaning up the game, we believe it will also bring more referees back into the sport, which we definitely need. And, of course, we can't forget our clothes with Bracken's Brain Buster, as Doug Bracken gets us all into the holiday spirit. That's our show, and it starts after this message from ECNL partner Nike.
Speaker 2:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL's. Nothing Can Stop what we Can Do Together to bring positive change to our communities. You can't stop sport because hashtag. You can't stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter. Follow Nike on Instagram Facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to the November 20 edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. You heard in the open what we are covering today, and in segment one we will talk about showcases, particularly the first two events in Phoenix, which were awesome, including the National Selection Games, which it was indeed a pleasure to call, just like it is indeed a pleasure to hand the reins over to the talented CEO and president of the ECNL, Christian Lavers.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you very much, Dean, appreciate the introduction as always, and got the normal team today. Hello Doug, hello Christian, hello Ashley, hello, how are you guys? I should also say hello to Ashley, hello.
Speaker 5:Doug, hello, christian, hello, ashley, hello, how are you guys?
Speaker 4:I should also say hello to Ashley, hello, ashley, hello. We should one day do a podcast where we speak in a British accent only. I actually went with my son's friend to watch one of his games and he and I agreed that we would watch the whole game and talk only in a British accent. Quite exhausting, but fun. How old is your son? 11. 11, all right.
Speaker 5:Why don't you test it right now and do like every other comment or thought in a British accent?
Speaker 4:I need more preparation time. Sorry, I can't do it on command oh that's fine.
Speaker 3:Well, I can't think that's going to do our listener numbers very much good, but Maybe it is very much good, but maybe it would in Britain.
Speaker 4:That is truth.
Speaker 5:All of a sudden go international podcast Sorry.
Speaker 4:I opened your open. Christian, I apologize.
Speaker 3:That's all right. I mean I didn't really think that we'd be talking about the power of various accents in sport. I mean, God knows, we have a lot of British coaches in the United.
Speaker 4:States. We do and we love all of them, most of them, most, all of them.
Speaker 3:All right. So we're going to talk today about showcase season. To start, we affectionately refer to around early November through early spring as showcase season, because that is when the majority of the ECNL college recruiting showcases take place. For the older age groups we obviously have events that go on all throughout the year fall and spring some of which are showcases, but the bulk of it, for obvious reasons, in the winter College seasons are done, so it's easy for coaches to travel and come watch. It also is a typical time of the year where the primary conference seasons I know it's not that way everywhere, but most of the country is playing primary conference seasons in the fall or the spring, so it's easier to squeeze in some of these showcases in the winter as well. And everybody likes going down south to Florida, arizona, all these nice warm coastal states I guess Arizona is not a coastal state but warm states at this time of the year. So we started kicked off with Girls Phoenix on November 9th and then Boys Phoenix just concluded yesterday, actually at Reach 11. Unbelievable facility Opening weekend, november 9th. Fields are like a putting green, wonderful environment. Most of the team's coming down, like I said, from the north, from what starts to be cool, cold, fall, winter air, come down into Phoenix and start to play other teams from other conferences. So showcase season we'll start.
Speaker 3:Give some facts here, because I know we've talked about it and there's a lot of stuff in the air about the impacts of the house settlement and the NIL and the payment of college athletes and all the stuff that's going on.
Speaker 3:The good news is numbers of college coaches in attendance at the showcase very consistent year over year in terms of there's a lot of schools going out there. I think we had over 500 different coaches on site in Phoenix, girls representing over 200 different schools. On the boy side just finishing, we had over almost 400 coaches representing a little bit under 200 schools that were on site. And we say Phoenix is definitely not our biggest showcase and that's again partially the time of the year because the college seasons are just starting to wind down. They're still in play in conference tournaments or NCAA tournaments. For scheduling needs we have to do this around this time of year, but still that's pretty fantastic exposure for the players, a great showcase, and I think. So we go back to all this discussion of where is college soccer going boys, girls, whatever and there's a good statement here again.
Speaker 4:Take a breath Things are in a good spot. What gets you most excited about showcase season?
Speaker 3:Christian, as you think back what got you most excited. I always loved coming down to Phoenix as the sort of the wind down of the fall season from the Midwest, and again, I don't think you'd overstate how perfect the facility and the grass is at reach. You're going to be hard pressed to find a better environment to play in anywhere at any time. And then it was the kickoff of a different type of competition where you see a lot of California teams down there from the Midwest. I just enjoyed coming down seeing coaches and clubs from around the country so that there is a networking or a relationship building piece to it. And then, of course, you see the teams excited for something different playing in warm weather or warmer weather, for sure, but also starting to chase that dream of getting a college spot.
Speaker 5:Ashley. I think there's just something fun about showcases. I'm not really sure what it is. As a player, I enjoyed them. As a coach, I enjoy them Now working them. They're just fun. There's something different in the atmosphere, even without something entirely on the line, like a tournament would be, like you're not winning a trophy there's just showcases are fun, don't you think like?
Speaker 4:if you think about what they were like when you were a player and what they are like now, oh my god, the players who get to play in these now realize how awesome it is. There were no showcases, by the way. When christian and I were coming up, I mean, we played in tournaments where we would go play like five or six games in three days and and try to try to walk out of it. So the format kind of has changed a little bit, but do you think the players understand the difference now than even what it was 10 or 15 years ago?
Speaker 5:I hope so, and I say this to my own players. Like the fact that, to what you just said of like you're only playing once a day, you usually have at least one other team from your club around, so it's fun to go be able to watch them, schedule permitting. You know we have the NSG, which is a blast. These showcases are so much fun. I tell people all the time like this is rarefiedied air these kids are living in. Like it's so different these days of what we all grew up with. Like I don't know, I want to go back and play. Sometimes my body wouldn't be able to handle it, but I mean, these things are so much fun it's you don't get much better than a youth player at these events.
Speaker 3:Like it's the other piece to it is even even early 2000s there weren't very many opportunities, to your point, doug. I mean you go to the 90s, there wasn't really such a thing. But even in early 2000s there were very few. There are few and far between, and you also had to wait and find out whether you would be accepted into them because they were so small and limited. These players in the, in the cnl and in the rl, they can build these events into their schedule and know they're going to be down there.
Speaker 5:That's a huge difference as well well, you also have, like the clubs from your own league, in these showcases where, like growing up you know surf was the biggest one at thanksgiving, then you had wags and then you had the houston shootout, like, but the Houston shootout, but that competition was so few and far between. And now you're guaranteed to go to a showcase where you know the competition is going to be like the best that you're going to get in the country. I don't know. It's hard to beat.
Speaker 3:You also generally know the colleges are going to be there. I mean, like I said, the numbers and we gloss over that at the beginning, but over 500 coaches for the girls, almost 400 for the boys and of course there's not every single school is at every one of our events.
Speaker 3:Like I said, the Phoenix one is not the biggest one as we get into December, january, those ones will grow significantly from that. But you know, when you go there this is not the manipulation of the word showcase, where a lot of events call themselves a showcase and you show up and there's like five or 10 schools total and there are usually schools that are not just by law of averages they're not going to be the ones that you're interested in. You come to these and there are going to be schools you're interested in. There's going to be schools that you've written to. There's going to be schools that see you that maybe you didn't know you'd be interested in. I mean it's, it's a real opportunity.
Speaker 4:You know you guys have touched on a lot of the stuff that I think is really awesome. One of the things that I really always appreciated was just how connected the players are to the league and how the showcase kind of brings that kind of together more than anything, and then, you know, just getting the opportunity to see some of the top teams in the country go up against each other in some games. I saw some really cool games in Phoenix that just are super, super competitive. In order to be successful in this league you certainly have to play those games and play them as frequently as you can, just to test yourself. So I always try to remind our players, but I really hope that the players understand how awesome it is to be able to be in that environment. I think it's a cool environment, great school experience and the fields and weather in Phoenix obviously you can't argue with that.
Speaker 1:Indeed, you cannot, Doug Bracken. We're going to take our first break. When we come back, we'll dive into scheduling.
Speaker 2:That is after this message from an ecnl corporate partner soccercom is proud to partner with the ecnl to support the continued development of soccer in the us at the highest levels. We've been delivering quality soccer equipment and apparel to players, fans and coaches since 1984. Living and breathing the beautiful game ourselves. Our goal at Soccercom is to inspire you to play better, cheer louder and have more fun. Visit Soccercom today to check out our unmatched selection of gear, expert advice and stories of greatness at every level of the game.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to segment two of the November 20 edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. As I mentioned, segment one covered showcases. What are we going to switch to now?
Speaker 3:Christian, let's use this opportunity to jump into scheduling because there's been some questions on scheduling at showcases. Just so everybody knows the way showcases work in the ECNL is those games. They used to count for postseason qualification. They do not count for qualification anymore. All of the qualification to the postseason is based on conference play alone. The showcases in that sense are friendlies but they do count in seating in terms of once you are put into either the Champions League or the North American, whatever it may be, your results.
Speaker 3:Cross-conference in these showcases do have an impact on what seed that you get within the postseason competition. So there is something attached to them, although it's not the same degree of impact as it used to. And that was because when it was impacting qualification directly, it put clubs in a tough spot of playing for a result to get into a postseason versus actually prioritizing showcasing all of the players, one through 18. And then we made that adjustment a couple of years ago. And then when you look at and Doug, maybe you can go through the variables that go into how the schedule is made in terms of how you play. We were debating it's not quite as automatic as an algorithm but there's a lot of constraints used to put together that schedule so that the games are what we feel they should be. So why don't you go through the variables in there?
Speaker 4:First the competitive side. So why don't you go through the variables in there? First, the competitive side. Generally speaking, what we want when teams go to one of these showcases is that you play teams like you, so the games are going to be very competitive. It doesn't help us to have big scores although they happen sometimes, and in fact we kind of look at that after the fact just to see how our matchups are working. So we usually try to put a range in for kind of finishing where you finished this season before, so that you're playing against teams that finish like you. We'd look at the standings to the degree that we can this year and use some of that to line people up.
Speaker 4:But there's also coaching conflicts that are a part of this, because we always work around the coaches that coach multiple teams, which I think is a really unique thing about the league, because we've talked about before on this podcast how that used to never be the case and we could oftentimes have multiple games happening at the same time. And then there are just kind of the requests that come in as well. That are also part of it. So it is kind of a huge puzzle. Obviously, the other one is you can't play somebody from your own conference at one of these events, so we have to have different conferences that are matching up against each other. So there's a number of constraints that we go down to try to get to the matchups that make the most sense. But that's generally the criteria that we go through when we're building these, yeah.
Speaker 3:So in general you see clubs that finish towards the top of their conference the year before are playing each other, Clubs that finish in the middle of their conference are playing each other and clubs that finish in the bottom third or so are playing each other.
Speaker 3:And then we look at the end of the event and we do this every event every year is look and say how many games would we deem as not as competitive as we want, and typically that is like a three goal or a four goal difference and what we've seen over time is that there are a smaller and smaller number of those games, which speaks to the matchups and it also, I think, speaks to the growing level of play, because I think if we went back to seven, eight, ten years ago, there was a bigger difference between top and bottom of the league would you say that than there is now yeah, I mean there still is a difference between the acl national champion and the the team that finished, oh and whatever, but it's a smaller difference than before the league itself demands you to create an environment in your home that makes you makes you as competitive as possible.
Speaker 4:You're always going to have teams that struggle, but yeah, I think, generally speaking, the level is better than it was the beginning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, and that goes back to again, we talk about our mission to raise the game and ultimately that's about making the sport better on the field, off the field, and when we can look at things and say, hey, the quality of the competition and the level of play at the various levels in the ECNL and again there are levels and you can walk around a showcase and see that If you're going to see two teams that are in the top 10 play, that game is going to look different than two teams that are maybe in the bottom 30 of the league playing. But that's also an educational opportunity for players. But when we can look and say both of those levels of play are getting better, there's an eye test to that. I'm sure we could come up now that we have a great partnership with Huddle, there's a little plug and some of the data. I'm sure we could see some of that stuff. Maybe that's something we should do, but the eye test certainly would say that the level has increased.
Speaker 4:The purpose of these showcases outside of the experiential and the competition and all that kind of stuff and bringing people from outside different conferences together is the obvious college recruiting piece of it, and I think it is better to have two teams that are similar playing against each other from the recruiting perspective than there being some kind of lopsided situation. So that is also really good from a college recruiting perspective. So coaches get to see teams playing in that situation. Again to your point, we know that there's a difference between the natural champion and the team lower, but it's the right experience and the right situation for recruiting in order to put these teams together the way we do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and when we talk about a recruitable game, ultimately a recruitable game is something one it's got to have a minimum level of competition, which we feel is by being in the ECNL you're in that level. But then the game has to have quality and bite to it and competitiveness to it, and that's when you get the opportunity to see how the players handle it, how they handle success, failure, the results. I think you could probably line up most college coaches. They'd say the results of the game, when lost high, don't really matter to them. But watching the kids perform, and not just the technical tactical them, but watching the kids perform, and not just the technical tactical piece, but watching just the way they react to positives and negatives and various variables that are presented at a showcase, is what really the purpose is.
Speaker 4:The quick grab metric is 80% of the kids that are getting recruited and going to our four schools right now come from our league. Now, obviously, we know there's a lot more conferences than that, so that's a testament to the level of the players that are playing in the league, but also, I think, the way we set it up and put them on the stage so that they can do what they do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's a proxy for the numbers across all conferences. I would say.
Speaker 1:Showcases and scheduling, including scheduling of showcases already covered and in the books on this edition of breaking the line, the ECNL podcast. And another question came in about substitutions, and our three great superstars, christian, doug and Ashley, will tackle the topic of substitutions after this message from an ECNL sponsor.
Speaker 2:From athletes just starting to turn heads to some of the best athletes to ever play their games, gatorade shows that they are the proven fuel of the best. For the athletes who give everything, nothing beats Gatorade, the studied, tested and proven fuel of the ECNL.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. We had a question come in from one of our listeners about substitutions and Christian and the gang tackle that head on.
Speaker 3:We had a question on substitutions that came in that actually could play into showcase discussion as well. So, ashley, you want to read the question that came in.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's from a parent out of Kentucky and it's. Has the league considered changing the substitution rule to match NCAA Division I? It would be helpful to be able to reenter games, especially during the hot months, and if the girls are going to have the same rule in college, why not now? Obviously, we have different rules for showcase versus league.
Speaker 3:Let's give a little context on that. First, I think actually when we're talking about showcases it's rarely hot. When we're talking about December, november, january, even down south Backing up college rules on the women's side are no reentry in the first half, but in the second half you can reenter once, which means if you took max advantage of the women's college substitution rule, you can start the game, sub off in the first half, come back in in the second half, sub off in the second half and come back in in the second half. So that's the women's rule.
Speaker 4:I had to write that down to keep track of that. And also I might point out that in women's college soccer, 22 players can also play in the game.
Speaker 3:Okay, so that's the college rule on the women's side. The men's side has recently changed to be no re-entry per half, which means you can start, come off in the first half and then you can come back in in the second half. So no re-entry. For parents who may not know, this means that once you come off the field in a half, you cannot go back on Both men's and women's college soccer. Once you come off in the first half, you're off for the rest of the half. In the second half the women's game allows you to come off and then go back on again in the second half. How does that match up In FIFA or in pro soccer around the world? It is no re-entry in a game, which means that once you come off, whether first half, second half you cannot come back for the duration of that game.
Speaker 4:And you're only allowed five, five subs.
Speaker 3:So college soccer, 22 players means you could have 22 players in the game, 11 players coming on who didn't start Pro college soccer. You start with 11, obviously you can have five ultimately, if you chose them all, so you'd have 16 players that play Youth soccer. 18 is the game day roster. We have two different substitution rules within the league Substitution in your league or your conference and then substitution at showcases. At showcases we have unlimited substitution and the reason for that is we want to have the max of opportunity for players to come into the game and come out of the game, because the primary purpose of those events is to be seen.
Speaker 3:We don't restrict re-entry at all at our showcases. When we go to conference and league play we have no re-entry per half and the answer as to why we do that is generally it's a balance between what I think we would say is too much change and too much chaos of too many substitutions and too much rigidity and inability for players to get minutes, because the less flexibility you provide in substitution re-entry generally, the less players at the bottom end of the roster will play. So again, showcases maximum flexibility. Players 1 through 18 all get a lot of opportunity. Conference play no re-entry per half and that's our balance between. If we did no re-entry at all, like pro or international soccer, you'd see very limited minutes for players 16, 17, and 18 generally and, doug, you can actually you can tell me if you see that differently. But with re-entry it provides a balance without having so many substitutions that the game just becomes choppy, broken up and you lose a lot of time.
Speaker 4:That is a major factor that people don't necessarily think about. When I say people, I mean lay people who aren't working every day in the game or whatever is how choppy and the game can become when unlimited substitution is used in a way not conducive to the game of soccer. I mean, I have plenty of examples but I will spare everybody.
Speaker 4:So I think putting some limitation during the most important competitive games within our season. I agree it does control. It makes the game more tactical and thought-based and more fluid. I mean players can get into a rhythm and a based and more fluid, I mean players can get into a rhythm and a flow. Right, you would agree that in order for a player to do that, they have to play for a fairly extended period of time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think the equivalent would be if you think about the end of a college basketball game where every time you get on the other half of the court they take time out and they talk about a play.
Speaker 3:Or you think about a football game where if there's a bunch of flags and a bunch of official conferences and a bunch of video review and everyone's reaction to both of those scenarios is kind of like come on, let's get the game going, soccer can unlimited substitutions used inappropriately can do that.
Speaker 3:The other thing I should say is that there is flexibility based on heat and wet bulb temperatures for clubs on site, because on any given weekend in the ECNL there's thousands of games going on in hundreds of locations. When you get to certain levels of heat and humidity, the clubs and the host clubs for the games in their conference and leagues have the ability to go to unlimited substitution based on heat. And that is a medical issue and a liability issue. Us soccer has heat guidelines which we follow Generally. We follow those at the events that we run. Those guidelines are provided to clubs to make those decisions in discussion with on-site medical professionals, whether that's the athletic trainers or other professionals on site. Because, of course, if you're talking about Texas or Florida, in August it can be pretty darn hot, and so there is flexibility given in our rules for substitutions to change from no reentry per half to unlimited subs in those scenarios.
Speaker 4:I might also add about college soccer as to the why College soccer is a very compressed season that happens over a row. Having more players that can go in the game and maybe some additional re-entry probably helps those players physically deal with the demand of the game, whereas in a more spread out type of situation the actual rest in between games kind of serves you there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're talking about a competition and training load is the less substitution, the more the load is on the players that do start.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so when you have compressed schedules, that adds up fast and sneak peek is. Dr Drew Watson, our medical advisor, is doing some research on this, on some of the impacts of substitution on injury, especially when you're talking about multiple games. That hopefully we'll have some data on to share in the coming months, because that's an area that nobody everybody's talked about with opinion but there's very little data on that and we've partnered with him to provide a study on that to see if we can get some data on it.
Speaker 4:If this sums up we want soccer games to be decided on quality and not on attrition. Do you think that's accurate?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the other balance to that is their youth soccer games. That are other priorities sometimes besides just the result in terms of showcase and teaching and providing some flexibility and additional tools to coaches to be able to manage the on and off of players is helpful. I think we've beaten the showcase topic. Did we win? I don't know if we won, but we looked good. I think that was the point of the showcase, so hopefully any podcast people.
Speaker 4:I will say Phoenix, it looked good out there, it was sharp.
Speaker 3:It did look sharp. We had some new stuff, some new branding out there. Excited to talk about the campaign briefly that we kicked off in Phoenix Red isn't your color, which is our call to try and reduce some of the behavior resulting in straight red cards from players or spectators. And I think, generally the initiative to that campaign was qualitatively not based on any data or numbers, but across soccer, at all different levels of youth soccer and all different types of competitions, there's been discussion about a rise in what you would call inappropriate behavior.
Speaker 3:So something happens and somebody loses their mind and says something they shouldn't, something foul and abusive language is, I believe, what people would call it or does something, lashes out in a fit of anger. And so we said, beyond dealing with that on a post-event basis with sanctions and suspensions, we wanted to try and do something to raise awareness to how the behavior, especially on the sidelines, is. I think, where we've started this campaign Parents on the sidelines yelling at players, yelling at referees, yelling things that maybe in their finer moments they wouldn't that we can talk about the impact negative impact of those moments versus the positive impact that could happen if somebody is a little bit more calm and aware. So that campaign kicked off.
Speaker 1:That campaign did kick off and Doug Bracken will address the campaign when we return. The ECNL is pleased to announce Quick Goal as the official goal provider and partner for ECNL Girls and ECNL Boys, a new partnership created to support the growth and development of the country's top players, clubs and coaches At all national events, including national playoffs and national finals. The Quick Goal Coaches Corner will provide hospitality and social space for ECNL Girls, ecnl Boys and collegiate coaches. Quick Goal will also be the presenting sponsor of the national championship-winning ECNL girls and ECNL boys coaches of the year and the ECNL girls and ECNL boys goals of the year. Quick Goal looks forward to helping the ECNL continue to elevate the standards of youth soccer and provide more opportunities to players on and off the field in the coming years.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to the November 20 edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast. Just a few weeks ago, the ECNL proudly announced the launch of the quote Red Isn't your Color campaign, a league-wide call to encourage and promote fair play sportsmanship and to reduce the number of red cards throughout youth soccer related to foul and abusive language and behavior from players and spectators. The Red Isn't your Color campaign is an extension of the ECNL's mission to raise the game and set new standards of excellence in youth sports. Red Isn't your Color will encourage players, coaches, parents and fans to be the best version of themselves on and off the field and to display leadership and great character in the exciting and passionate moments inherent in youth sports. Red cards for poor behavior have no place in soccer and have significant impacts on the quality of the youth sports experience and the enjoyment of the players of the youth sports experience and the enjoyment of the players. Nearly 70% of all kids who drop out of sports before age 13 cite a lack of fun, pressure and burnout as the reason for quitting. In addition, nearly 60% of officials across all sports that quit refereeing do so because of verbal abuse from players and parents, of verbal abuse from players and parents. The Red Isn't your Color campaign is a commitment to make a positive impact on the atmosphere around youth sports and competition and promote an environment of fun, positivity and leadership.
Speaker 1:To kick off the campaign, the ECNL is releasing videos aimed at educating fans, players, coaches and parents about why red cards and inappropriate spectator sideline behavior are detrimental to athletes and teams. The league has also created a pledge that athletes, coaches, parents and anyone else can sign, that promises to promote fair play and sportsmanship, starting with the ECNL national events in Phoenix and continuing at specific events throughout the year. The captain's armbands for each team in attendance will be red, with the Red Isn't your Color logo displayed on them. In addition, ecl branding throughout the complex will feature access points to interact with the Red Isn't your Color campaign, including opportunities to sign the pledge and learn more information information throughout the rest of the season. The ecnl will continue to promote high skill, fair play and sportsmanship through its red isn't your color campaign. To get more information, including signing the pledge, visit ecnlinfo. Backslash red hyphen isn't isnt hyphen your hyphen color. And for more on that, doug Bracken offers us this take.
Speaker 4:First, I would like to analogize this to like the campaign to put your seatbelt on, click it or tick it To say that there are laws of the game and it is a reminder that breaking those laws have results that are negative, and we're trying to say it in a way that just maybe helps people think.
Speaker 4:Does it mean that all red cards are going to be out of the game?
Speaker 4:No, Is it a way to make people think by having a way of saying it like red isn't your color, Christian and it makes people just maybe take a pause and think, and a lot of times I think when you do take a pause, it does what you need it to do, which is to basically calm you down and so you don't get in the heat of the moment, whether that be players, spectators, whoever. I think it's a really cool kind of way to say it and I think our hope here is just to be part of improving the environment and maybe just trying to get people to think for a minute or take a pause and recognize that any kind of lashing out or emotional outbursts or negative things towards referees or other people or whatever doesn't help the environment that we're trying to create in youth sports. So I think that's kind of what we're after. We put together a cool video about it. We had some some branding out at the fields and some messaging with. There's a pledge out there that people can take.
Speaker 3:Let me read the pledge and think the the important piece of this is this is very much a we thing, because anybody who's ever been on the sideline or coaching or watching their kid or whatever, who says they've never felt their temperature going higher, whether they're frustrated a referee or frustrated, something happened whatever.
Speaker 3:I think most people can acknowledge feeling that, and so we're talking about how we can collectively help make the game better by all of us being aware of that. The pledge here is respect the players, respect the game, respect yourself. I will stop and take a breath when I feel myself getting angry or frustrated. I'll step back and remind myself how my actions in the moment will impact me and those I care about. I will remind my child, my friends and others of the importance of perspective, resilience and emotional control. And finishes with because red isn't my color and so we think it's a cool thing. It fits in line with our goal to make sports better for players, coaches, parents, referees, everybody, and you'll see that campaign will have a thread running through the rest of the year as we just continue to try and do things to improve the environment we're a part of.
Speaker 4:There's a real human element to this and that we understand because we've all kind of probably been there at some level. Just that reminder and that thought of me not being able to coach the rest of that particular game. It may have helped our players or may have hurt them, but probably taking a piece out of the equation that that is normal, like losing your coach or losing a player or even your parent on the side, has a negative impact on on the game. I think there were some stats that are part of the campaign that that reflect that. So just trying to click it or take it, we're not saying.
Speaker 5:I think there's a misconception of saying like oh, we're protecting refs and refs are correct. In this campaign, where that's not what we're saying, we're saying everyone has a human element. Everyone's allowed to get frustrated with the refs. The refs are allowed to make bad calls Not allowed. But bad calls happen, Misconstrued calls happen.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day, refere day, referees, players, coaches that everybody's a part of the game and you take any one of them away and you don't have a game right. And so, recognizing referees make mistakes, just like coaches make mistakes, like just like players makes mistakes, and they are a a critical part of the game. And we'll have more referees and better referees if they're not being yelled at all the time. And that's the other piece that has to, because there is a national referee shortage, a significant one. If you talk to young referees who go into the game, a lot of young referees leave because they get yelled at a lot and say why do I want to do this? And so, ultimately, part of this is also an attempt to and I think you'll see that later on in the year to try and get more referees started. You know, have players that either can look to make some extra money or that who maybe decide they want to be referees long term so that we can make that pool bigger and stronger.
Speaker 4:It is a requirement to play our game to your point, and we need more of them. They're an important part of the game. So anything we can do again just to create the environment that we all hope to create and limit these situations that come up, it's a good message and a good way to just take a breath and remember that red is not your color.
Speaker 3:You're going to see that throughout the year and hopefully, when you come to your next showcase, you'll see that somewhere as well.
Speaker 4:I do want to say one other thing about it. That I didn't say and that you saw, is we gave the captain of every team at phoenix girls and boys a red armband that said red isn't your color. So again, just a reminder, just a visual reminder, that I thought that was a really cool thing. You saw them out there a lot. I thought it was a really cool, cool thing we did.
Speaker 5:I think it's important to know with the captain's bands that those go on your arms and not on your legs, though that is a very important message that I want to make with that, though.
Speaker 3:I generally would agree with that. I don't know where this band around the leg thing started, but it is. Maybe it's geographic, but it is an armband.
Speaker 4:Well, I would say that some of these captain's armbands that are given out are big and they probably don't fit around everyone's arm, because some people have smaller arms. However, the bands well, not all of them have that. So I'm just going to, because I totally agree with you, the captain's leg band, I'm not down with it at all. It's an armband. But the ones we gave out had the white smaller piece of elastic that you put on first. That helps you keep it on your arm, although we did see a few still on the leg.
Speaker 1:So that would be my only defense of the Captain band Mad props to Amy Bracken, who played a key role in this initiative as well. We are just about done, but we cannot finish without Bracken's brain buster, and that's what we'll get after this, one final message.
Speaker 2:Nike is a proud sponsor of ECNL. Nothing can stop what we can do together to bring positive change to our communities. You can't stop sport because hashtag. You can't stop our voices. Follow Nike on Instagram, facebook and Twitter.
Speaker 1:Back to wrap up the show, and we do that with Doug Bracken and Bracken's Brain Buster.
Speaker 4:Well, first thing I want to say before I get into the Brain Busters is that we want to know what you guys want us to talk about here If you have questions. We enjoy connecting with people and hearing what you guys think and what you guys want to talk about, much like we did today. The substitution rules. So remember you can submit questions. We have some mechanisms out at our events. You can always email us at info at theecnlcom. Submit your questions and we will do everything in our power on this podcast to answer those questions. So info at the ECNLcom.
Speaker 3:Or topics of discussion. That's another suggestion.
Speaker 4:Things you're interested in. Absolutely Good. Good shot there, okay, given that I know at least two people on this podcast love Christmas, okay, or big Christmas people. And I know Christian's been very disappointed in some of my Bracken Brain Busters in the past, and so I thought long and hard about how can I make Christian happy with today's Bracken Brain Busters. So the question goes out to Christian Lavers. I'm going to let him answer first today. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
Speaker 3:There are so many. To be fair, we start the Christmas, caroling and the setup on November 1 at the Laver's house, you know, and our kids are all all into it.
Speaker 4:So is that your favorite tradition, that you do it on November 1? Because that's a tradition.
Speaker 3:We started last year because the kids are just getting old enough is that when we do put up the tree with ornaments which we haven't done yet, we actually do the ornaments with the kids, which has been really cool because they're super excited about oh I remember this one, I remember that one and so they pull them out of the box and then we put them up on the tree, ask them where they want them to go. It's a kind of a cool way to make it a family moment. So we started that a couple of years ago and that actually, as I say this, that gave me the biggest warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 4:Love that you wouldn't know, that Christian has warm and fuzzy, but there it is how many Christmas trees will be present in the Labor's abode.
Speaker 3:Three.
Speaker 4:Three trees, love that Three trees.
Speaker 5:Three trees per room, or in total.
Speaker 3:No, there's three trees. They're big trees, though. I mean two artificial, and then we get one real one every year.
Speaker 4:Is it a palm tree, now that you're in San Diego?
Speaker 3:No, no, no no, no, no, we got. I like the Fraser firs. Do you fly that in from Wisconsin? No, you can go out here. They can find them. I don't. I don't know that they're the same type of tree you could get in the Midwest, but there's a try. You can drive out here and get some, but I would have never thought that I would have never I know, I know it is weird looking at palm trees.
Speaker 4:I will not argue that yeah, all right, ashley, favorite christmas tradition. I don't know are you a big christmas person or I love christmas.
Speaker 5:It's my favorite holiday. Because I've never answered your question correctly, I'm going to have two, because why would I all right dean no, dean is going to bring his wife into this. My favorite traditions are so in my family we do. When we open up presents on Christmas Eve, our tradition is like the night before, so, yeah, christmas Eve, duh, you can open up one present from somebody that's out of town.
Speaker 5:So if you have an aunt and uncle or a cousin, someone from out of town, you get one present. But then my favorite tradition in total with all of the presents is because I'm the baby of the family is we go youngest to oldest in opening up Christmas gifts. But now they have nieces and nephews. They've taken over and I am salty over the fact that I go third now. Wow.
Speaker 4:It's only downhill from here. By the way, you're not going to get younger.
Speaker 5:I know, thank you for pointing that out. But yeah, I love, I love Christmas. It's the best holiday.
Speaker 4:It is. It is. The Bracken house has been completely Christmas of five. We went after it this weekend. It's a lot, there's a lot of stuff and it's a process. It makes the house feel cozier. To me my favorite Christmas tradition and my kids are a little older now but every year my wife and I host a party called Christmas Karaoke. So people from the neighborhood come and we sing karaoke. It starts as Christmas songs only and then it obviously devolves into something else with lots of different songs, but Christmas karaoke at the Bracken House would be my favorite tradition.
Speaker 3:What's Gotta? Have a little Nat King Cole in there, I hope.
Speaker 4:Nat King Cole, he gotta be in there. Absolutely Chestnuts.
Speaker 3:Little Johnny Mathis, johnny Mathis, little Bing Crosby, I mean. And Frank, you can always have, frank, I mean, what's your go-to song Like?
Speaker 5:what do you sing? What do you bring to the table?
Speaker 4:I don't like to just put myself in a box with one song. God, no, I always sing the first song at the Christmas karaoke party, and normally it's Please Come Home for Christmas by Bon Jovi. Oh, wow, so you know, check it out.
Speaker 5:All right. I have heard that you are quite the karaoke singer.
Speaker 4:I don't know if I can confirm or deny that. I've put that out. We're going to do some karaoke this weekend here, by the way, it was fun.
Speaker 3:We're going well far afield on today's podcast. I think All right.
Speaker 4:Well, so now we got to hear from Dean Dean what is your favorite Christmas tradition.
Speaker 1:Great question, great bracken brain buster and of course the wonderful Ashley Willis is spot on. As I will tip my hat to my wife all the way home on Christmas. We have quite a few traditions. One is we all get new pajamas on Christmas Eve. One is we all get new pajamas on Christmas Eve Earlier. That day my wife and the two boys make the big cowboy tomahawk steaks and we have lobster tails and the food is just amazing.
Speaker 1:Look, my boys are now 24 and 27. And my 24-year-old is still a very nostalgic old soul and his big thing is waking up and then looking down at the Christmas tree and just seeing a ridiculous and unnecessary amount of presents. And in those presents it's not just quantity, it's quality and quantity and it's very expensive. But they love itah, loves doing it. I get a little stressed out over christmas because I feel like I should also be out there buying a whole bunch of stuff for the boys and everything else. But she covers it so well that I think that would be just too much. But yeah, my wife carries Christmas. She loves it, she's great at it, the boys love it and I can't wait.
Speaker 1:It's a little early, like you guys, starting November and already doing karaoke. That's a little early for me. I like to wait till after Thanksgiving. We usually put our tree up the second week of December and then just start rolling. The other thing is, my youngest insists that none of the presents can go under the tree until the night of Christmas Eve. So that's always a pain in the you know what? Because I'm helping Leah carry down 60 presents. It's just stupid how much they get.
Speaker 1:But you know what? You only got two kids. You love them with all your heart. They love Christmas, they love opening presents, they like hanging out with us. So we overdo it, as we seem to overdo everything, and in the end we end up having a glorious day. I will tell you that for years we would tease them with little New York knickknacks and I think five years in a row the last present they would open would be a plane ticket to New York City. So when they were I want to say 8 to 11 and 11 to 14 Christmas Day would include a three-day trip to New York City on Christmas Day. So that's a lot. It's all a bit over the top, but it is genuine fun and great question.
Speaker 1:Doug Bracken, good Bracken, brain buster. And yeah, ashley Leah did make the cut once again on this question. You guys are rock stars. You guys are rock stars. Everybody listening are rock stars. The people at the ECNL are rock stars. All the members are fantastic as well and, of course, I want to thank all of them and my producer, colin Thrash, in fact, for each and every one of them. I want to thank you for listening to this edition of Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast. My name is Dean Linke and we'll see you in two weeks. Thank you for listening to Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast and remember, if you have a question that you want answered on Breaking the Line the ECNL podcast, email us at info at the ECNL dot com.