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The ECNL's leadership team emerges from the incredibly hectic spring for the latest episode of Breaking the Line, where ECNL Regional League Commissioner Chris Leahey joins ECNL President Christian Lavers and ECNL Vice President Doug Bracken to discuss all of the major changes within the ECNL platform and what it means for players, parents, coaches and clubs.

Building off of Breaking the Line Episode 114, the ECNL has let the dust settle from the club chaos, promoting 24 teams into ECNL and welcoming more than 190 teams into the ECNL Regional League across both boys and girls. The team discusses how clubs may move from the ECNL Regional League into ECNL, and also the mindset of what clubs can join the ECNL Regional League from other platforms.

They also converse about the overall youth soccer structure, about what clubs need from their leagues, how club-based league structures have evolved since the beginning of the Development Academy days, and more.

As always, if you have any questions or podcast topic suggestions for the Breaking the Line podcast, send them to us at https://ecnl.info/BTL-Questions. And please, follow the ECNL on all social channels, subscribe to Breaking the Line, and don't miss all the exciting content being published on the ECNL's YouTube page!

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The Breaking the Line team returns with Dr. Drew Watson, a friend of the podcast and the ECNL's Chief Medical Officer.

In March, the ECNL launched the Center for Athlete Health a Performance, a research and education hub designed to identify, develop and share best practices in long-term youth athlete health, development and performance, and spearheaded by Dr. Watson.

Dr. Watson joined Breaking the Line this week to discuss the founding of this Center along with the first two published pieces of research: the ECNL Injury Risk Reduction Program and the relationship between sleep and injuries in elite athletes.

The Breaking the Line crew dives into these topics, discussing the vision for the Center and why it was founded in the first place, the relationship between the ECNL and Dr. Watson's Human Performance Lab, tips for athletes to be at the top of their game and more.

If you have any questions for the Breaking the Line crew, make sure to submit them at https://ecnl.info/BTL-Questions. And as always, make sure to follow the ECNL on all social channels, and don't forget to watch this podcast in video on YouTube!

And if you want to learn more about the ECNL's Center for Athlete Health and Performance, visit theecnl.com/CAHP.

Let us know the topics of interest to you!

The Breaking the Line team is back from Las Vegas and a lot has changed since early February.

In Episode 114, Christian Lavers and Doug Bracken sit down to discuss the changing youth soccer landscape. Clubs are in peak tryout season, and with that comes plenty of questions about club visions and player pathways. As a player and parent, how do you know which club is right for you? What about a club is important, and what is just white noise?

That conversations leads to a much bigger discussion; club movement across leagues. More than 20 clubs will join either ECNL Boys or ECNL Girls for the 2025-26 season through new entry or promotion, and an additional 15 clubs will join the ECNL Regional League ranks in either Boys or Girls. With this movement, ECNL Boys will introduce the Far West Conference, and the ECNL Regional League will launch the Regional League - Gulf Coast, Regional League - Greater Michigan Alliance and a revamped Regional League - NorCal and Regional League - Golden State in ECNL Regional League Boys, and Regional League - Greater Michigan Alliance in ECNL Regional League Girls.

That's an incredible amount of movement from year to year, and the Breaking the Line team discusses what has caused this movement, why it's important, and what does it mean for the ECNL as a whole.

It's a great discussion into where we have been, where we currently are, and where we want to go.

If you have any questions about player or club movement, make sure to submit them at https://ecnl.info/BTL-Questions. And as always, make sure to follow the ECNL on all social channels, and don't forget to watch this podcast in video on YouTube!