New youth soccer clubs are started every year in the U.S., but the launch of FC Wisconsin Eclipse this fall brings with it every indication that this one is going to be quite a bit more significant than most.

The club is being founded by former FC Milwaukee coach Christian Lavers in the Milwaukee area. While it will be independent and its top teams will move directly into the Elite Clubs National League, the club is also the first to take on the brand name of Eclipse Select, the powerhouse club from the Chicago area.

Eclipse Select Director Rory Dames explained that the idea of expanding his club’s brand is not entirely new.

“There have been clubs every year who wanted to become Eclipse,” he told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “Expanding to a different stage is something we have wanted to do. A few other clubs have done it. There are some things they’ve done we like and some we don’t like.

“When the opportunity came to partner with Christian it made sense,” Dames continued. “He has worked for us before and been successful. He’s someone we trust, with the same values and beliefs. He teaches a similar style of play. It made sense now to expand our brand. Now that we’ve done this we will look to take the Eclipse Select brand through the country. “

Dames stressed that the particulars of each partnership agreement with club could well vary, noting the structure of each club will not be as uniform, which he said would draw a contrast with Rush Soccer, the club model that has expanded most prolifically in the U.S.

“We will be different,” he said. “Until we get a few more (partnerships) set up, we’ll have to figure out exactly the best way to do it. Each situation can be different and we can learn from successes and mistakes.”

One consistent fact will be that the clubs are set up with a for-profit status, which allows soccer people to control the decision-making.  This is also unique in the club soccer world, as clubs tend to be set up as not-for-profit and are run by parent boards.

“We hear all the time from coaches that ‘we control the board’ but at the end of the day, those boards are made up of parents and they are on that board because they have a vested interest in their children,” Dames said. “At any point, whether it’s their child being put on the second team or any other range of issues, the parent will have more of an emotional interest. We are set up so we are run by soccer people and the decisions will be made in the best interest of our club and for player development.”

Dames said Lavers’ responsibilities will stretch beyond FC Wisconsin Eclipse and include coaching education throughout the Eclipse Select orbit.

For his part, Lavers is hoping to put together a program that is “the most ambitious in the state of Wisconsin.” The club will gain direct admittance into the ECNL, of which Lavers is president. Age groups for year one will be U14 through U18 and while the playing rosters will resemble those of the previous season’s FC Milwaukee teams, he hopes to attract talent from a much wider area in the state.

“Our purpose is to put together teams focused purely on the top level of players We will apply more coaching resources into these players and this will be hard for other clubs to do when their resources are spread among multiple levels of teams,” Lavers said. “We’re not looking to compete with other clubs in Wisconsin, but it will be similar to the Academy (the USSF boys program). ECNL is a different animal at a different level. Those teams don’t do much else but ECNL, so we’re trying to set up within Wisconsin the right kind of pyramid structure, working with other clubs andhave their coaches work with us to identify players and have our staff work to help their clubs at younger age groups or at the level at which they are competing.  We’re trying a different model than for clubs just trying to beat each other.”

Lavers acknowledged such a sentiment might inspire cynicism among long-time observers of and participants in club soccer. He described reaction around the state to his club’s initiatives as mixed.

“Some like it, some don’t. Some are interested but don’t see it working,” he said. “At the end of the day our goal is to be the best developmental club in the country, to get players in at young ages and keep them around for a long time. We really want to put our money where our mouth is and teach players to play the right way, in the right style. We want to teach what it takes to be successful, tactically, technically, the way they work, the way they need to compete for a spot. The youth soccer marketplace is so competitive, but we just want to be looked at as the best place for players to learn.”

Lavers, who expressed enthusiasm about monthly get-togethers between some players from his club and those at Eclipse Select, 90 minutes to the south in the North Chicago suburbs, said his new club’s teams will benefit from the work of six staff coaches including himself.  Coaches will work with each age group and teams will frequently be combined for training, which will include functional training at least every couple of weeks. The training facility, provided by FC Milwaukee, will be a veritable soccer playground.

Which is a good way to describe what Eclipse Select now does. While the team has been successful competitively for some time, a more pointed emphasis on player development has developed over the past few years. A major component of this is a pool for age groups up to U13 is developed that greatly deemphasizes individual teams. While composite teams are formed for particular events, the main identity of the players is as Eclipse players within a Cbicagoland-area pool of up to 120 players. Dames said up to ¾ of these will get to play in some high-level event during the course of the season as a key way for staff to evaluate their progress (along with other games, tournaments and of course regular training times).

As the players get older, the teams will be more defined from the top (ECNL) to lower tiers competing in other competitions. This offers the chance for each player to advance in accordance with her development.

“The overall quality and depth of the player pool is much greater than it was four years ago (when the pool system was implemented). Our ability to compete at national events is much higher,” he said. At the recent ECNL Nationals, Eclipse was the only club, other than Northern California’s Mustang SC, to have a team qualify in the top flight final 16 for each of five age groups. Eclipse teams also fared well in the U.S. Youth Soccer national and regional leagues a testimony to giving players deeper in the pool a sufficient chance to compete in match play.

Dames said that while the team mentality can take something of a back seat to player development in this system, a payoff is that the club has seen more players invited into youth national team events over the past 12-18 months than he recalls ever happening in the club’s history.

He added that building a culture of players believing in and supporting one another, and hence a strong club identity, is another benefit to the system. In fact, the club was already known for that and you had to see to realize it was any Eclipse Select game at nationals where players from at least one other of the club’s teams were on hand to establish a very vocal presence in support. This doesn’t mean it is an easy sell for parents of younger-aged players.

“One of the hardest things about doing this was getting them to understand that at younger ages,” he said. “Other clubs in the area would use it as a selling point that you don’t want to be in a pool, that you want to be part of a team. It reminds of the high school battle we fought 7 or 8 years ago and how the players will miss out on memories and time with their peers. Now our kids don’t think twice about not playing high school. We’re trying to educate parents outside the organization. They are being sold a bill of goods, but the reality is if they want to give their child the best opportunity to develop, the pool setup is a better avenue.