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Youth Track · still climbing

The next club up.

1,049 clubs mapped across 42 states and DC — which ones near you are a real step up, and which are a lateral move in a nicer kit. Age-group standings, tryout dates, the ODP pathway state by state, and the director who actually picks the team.
Tritooth · CC BY-SA 4.0

You're scored and fit for the Youth Track

Here's everything we do next — in order.

You don't need a college list at 14 — you need the next club. We place your player on the path as it is today, then work the one honest step up: the clubs within reach, and the people who pick those teams.

  1. Step 1 of 5

    Place your player on the path

    Where they sit on the club path today — and the honest next step up, not three levels ahead.

    both paths
    startlineapps.com/academy/path
    The app placing this player on the club path, with the honest next step up.
    A screenshot of Startline with 3 regions highlighted and numbered, explained in the list below.
    1. 1The level, placedWhere your player's club sits on the real board — MLS NEXT, ECNL, the Academy Division, ECNL Regional — and what the next level up actually is.
    2. 2Level only, and it says soThe ladder is about where a club plays, not how good your player is. The app says that under it in its own words.
    3. 3Counted, not rankedEach level carries how many college programs clear it — a real count off the same engine as the Fit Score, not a reputation.
  2. Step 2 of 5

    Find clubs a level up

    Next-level clubs near you, strongest leagues first, with the season form to tell a real step up from a lateral move.

    1,049 clubs
    startlineapps.com/academy/clubs
    The club directory filtered to this player's state and gender — 1,049 clubs, strongest leagues first.
    A screenshot of Startline with 3 regions highlighted and numbered, explained in the list below.
    1. 1The league, on every rowMLS NEXT, ECNL, Girls Academy, ECNL Regional — so a step up is a thing you can see rather than a thing you're told.
    2. 2Where they actually areCity and state on every team, so you can tell a real drive from a nice idea on a map.
    3. 3Age groups and tryoutsThe age groups a club fields and its tryout dates, where the club publishes them. Where it doesn't, the row says so instead of guessing.
  3. Step 3 of 5

    Reach the age-group coach, not a front desk

    Personalized emails to the people who actually pick the team — the director and your exact age-group coach — leading with that club's real standings at your age.

    7,281 staff
    startlineapps.com/academy/emails
    A drafted email to the club's director and the exact age-group coach.
    A screenshot of Startline with 3 regions highlighted and numbered, explained in the list below.
    1. 1Opens with their levelThe first line names that club's own platform and where it sits — the same rule the college drafts follow, so a director can tell in one line that it wasn't sent to sixty clubs.
    2. 2You send itIt opens in your own email app, from your own address. Nothing ever leaves on your behalf.
    3. 3Pick the club firstEvery club you're following, with its platform and age groups, so the draft is aimed before a word of it is written.
  4. Step 4 of 5

    Get seen — tryouts & the ODP pathway

    Live tryout pages for the clubs on your list, plus the ODP pathway state by state: the one national route any player can try out for, scouted from the State Team up.

    762 tryout links
    startlineapps.com/academy/odp
    The ODP pathway in the app, state by state.
    A screenshot of Startline with 3 regions highlighted and numbered, explained in the list below.
    1. 1All 50 statesThe Olympic Development pathway, state by state — the one route in this sport any player can try out for.
    2. 2The real tryout windowRead off each state association's own page. Where a state hasn't posted dates, it says so instead of inventing one.
    3. 3What ODP actually isThe one route in this sport a player can enter without being invited. Explained in plain words above the table, before any of the dates.
  5. Step 5 of 5

    Track it all the way to a spot

    One board holds every club conversation from first message to a trial invite, a nudge drafts itself the moment a director goes quiet, and a weekly newsletter on your exact clubs keeps the next move in front of you.

    first message → trial
    startlineapps.com/academy/tracker
    The club follow-up board: every club staged from ready-to-send through to a trial invite.
    A screenshot of Startline with 3 regions highlighted and numbered, explained in the list below.
    1. 1The same four stagesReady to send, emailed, replied, trial invite. The college board's four, with the last one named for what actually happens at a club.
    2. 2Clubs on the college boardThe same cards, carrying clubs instead of schools — so a family climbing now doesn't start again on a second system later.
    3. 3The nudge, datedFourteen days of silence is a second touch, not a no. Here it reads director silence rather than coach silence, because that is who you wrote to.

The data behind the climb

Both ladders, mapped club by club.

Before Startline points you at a single club it has mapped both paths — the leagues, the people who pick the teams, and the season form at your age group.

1,802

club teams mapped

978 boys' · 824 girls' — both paths, peak to grassroots

7,281

staff contacts

6,214 with an email on file · 494 named directors

3,471

age-group standings

season form at the exact age your player would join

762

tryout pages held

the live door to actually try out, one tap from your list

Every league, both paths

1,049 clubs

Strongest first, down to where the climb actually starts — so a move up is a real level change, not a new badge.

Boys

MLS NEXT152
ECNL Boys167
MLS NEXT Academy Div.229
ECNL Regional430

Girls

ECNL Girls131
Girls Academy126
GA ASPIRE108
ECNL Regional396
National League63
U15 → U19 covered5,625 staff tied to an age group42 states

The open door: ODP

50 states

The one national pathway any player can try out for — no club pedigree required. It runs as a climb: your state, then your region, then the national teams.

50

state programs

4

regions

9

steps to the top

Scouts are watching from the State Team up — not just at the top. Every tryout scores the same four things, coast to coast.

Find your next club free

Start a profile and explore the club directories — no credit card to begin.

Before you start

What parents ask us at this stage

Does the league my kid plays in decide whether they get recruited?

It changes who is watching, not whether your player is good enough. A stronger league puts more college staff in the stands; it does not fill in a highlight reel or a position of need. Both still have to be there.

My player is 13. Is this too early to think about college?

For a college list, yes — and we won't build you one. What is not too early is knowing which clubs near you play at the next level up, who runs them, and when they hold tryouts. That is the whole Youth Track.

What is ODP, and is it worth it?

The Olympic Development Program — the state-association pathway, and the one route in this sport that any player can try out for without being invited. We hold all 50 states, with the real tryout window where the state has published one.

We're happy at our club. Is any of this for us?

Then use it as a map rather than an exit. 1,802 teams across 1,049 clubs, with age groups and named staff, tells you where your club actually sits — which is worth knowing even when the answer is "stay".