"the strongest kids will get recruited regardless of who they play for"
I just went through this with my 2025 and this is 100% true and something brand-chasing parents don't understand. You want your girl on the field as much as possible so she can get better and eventually be seen.
Being on "Great Team A" doesn't matter if you're on the bench. The 25 D1 commits for the 2025 YJ team is exceedingly rare and probably unique to that group of girls.
Agreed that the strongest kids will always get recruited but that's a very small number of kids and unfortunately most kids don't fall into this category. I think as in most things in life, it's not always so black and white. While being on a team of smaller roster size and playing most of every game is great, it doesn't not automatically translate to getting better if your team is weak and you play weak competition. Ideally you want great training, a small roster size, great team mates that are similar to your level and even preferably at top 1/2 of the team so you can continue to grow, clubs with decent track records, etc. but in reality when you look at the all club options and consider the proximity and any given year and team have different dynamics, you have very limited options and you may only hit a couple of the "ideals". Both my girls have switched teams more than once, we honestly are not "grass is always greener" and we have come to the conclusion, it's just about what you can tolerate and make it work...
