Rapids Youth Soccer is delighted to improve its elite player development pathway with two further tiers of exciting and challenging competition.
The concept of a second tier of playing teams has been in delivery since August 2021. The rationale behind the project was to provide more players who were close to the tier 1 “ECNL” level the opportunity to practice and play together whilst remaining full-time players within their region and select teams.
In the 2023/24 season, the teams entered an elite competition administered by US Club Soccer called National Premier League (NPL). This was a platform that delivered a season-long league format against clubs from CO, ID, NV, MT, SD, and WY. The Mountain West National Premier League provides teams with 3 events per season, playing up to 4 games over the weekend, thereby creating more value for the time and money spent traveling. These divisions are playing through to a title and the winners from the U13s to U19s (in both boys and girls) receive direct pathways to the annual NPL postseason, in which teams have an opportunity to compete for National Premier Leagues championships, where qualifiers from all NPL member leagues throughout the country compete for National Premier Leagues titles. This addressed an important need for the groups, in that the club no longer had to find and create a games schedule that did not suit everyone, and clubs were hesitant to play due to clashes in their own calendar.
Now, we are able to bolster the pathway further with the creation of full-time teams at 13u-19u competing in ECRL (tier 2) and NPL platforms (tier 3) based in the following locations:
ECRL GIRLS NORTH | Trail Winds, Thornton
ECRL GIRLS SOUTH | Gates South, Centennial
ECRL BOYS CENTRAL | Aurora Sports Park, Aurora
NPL GIRLS CASTLE ROCK | Douglas County Fairgrounds, Castle Rock
NPL BOYS NORTH | Trail Winds, Thornton