No there are not. Especially at the for profit clubs. When profit margin is what you are solving for coach compensation is one of the first targets. In many instances you get what you pay for.
It all matters, coaching, talent, I'd think roster continuity would be a positive too. Team culture means something but short of a truly caustic atmosphere I think that's often more in the head of the parents than the kids. My guess is that coaching across the Northern Illinois girls' soccer landscape is fairly even to the point where you see some degree of recycling. Now if you are talking from state to state I think there has to be a difference I mean is the talent in St Louis or Michigan so superior, or are the coaches developed in a better way via their state soccer associations? Why does it seem Hawks, Nationals, SLSG, Lou Fusz (GA) always have teams near the top.
I’ve seen it plenty of times that the teams are successful and winning in spite of the coaching. Girls and boys in older age groups learn to play for each other and not the coach.
ECNL Regional League has first teams playing in it from around the country just by going through the website. I think finding a way for those clubs who have proven themselves to move up would be the answer... and vice versa. What do you mean about the 08 age group?
Oh that is great news IMO. The only downside for the girls is that they have to compete in the crappy NPL.
There are definitely regional differences, so it's sometimes challenging to extrapolate too far. In some places NPL is a hot mess, while in other places good NPL teams are on par with good ECNL teams (up through the U13/U14 ages), while in the older ages they usually diverge more significantly.
I would think in Chicagoland the NPL/NISL's top teams could be competitive with most, if not all ECNL-RL teams. Especially now that Evolution seems to have fallen apart and I don't think FC1974 is as strong as it was last year.
Could be, you'd have to look at individual teams to test that theory. On the 2011B boys side at least, the #2 team in the state looks to be an NISL team, in between two MLS N teams at #1 and #3. The top RL team looks to be at #13, over two goals back. They also might be outliers, so doing the averages of more of the NISL teams (and/or more RL teams) might tell a slightly different story.