DA's impact on tournaments

If anyone was wondering how much DA would impact tournament quality in our region, look no further than the Plano Invitational. This tournament used to be one of the highest level tournaments in TX and a virtual who's who of the top teams in the region. Looking at this year's teams, that is no longer the case. As you can see from the 2016 and 2017 05 team lists below, last year's 05 teams were mostly comprised of the top 10 teams in NTX but this year's 05 teams are far from the top of the rankings. With the exception of 05 Selecao, which I believe could be his jdl team and not his ECNL team, OK Energy and Southlakes Cosmos are the highest ranked 05 teams in the tournament.

There used to be 4-5 tournaments in TX where you could play many of the top teams in the country but that is no longer the case. DA and ECNL are changing where top teams play and I think it's going to be harder and harder to play the best teams if you are not in one of those 2 leagues.

https://home.gotsoccer.com/rankings/event.aspx?EventID=52601&GroupID=529749

https://events.gotsport.com/events/teamlist.aspx?eventid=59863

This has gotten a lot of conversation around my daughter's team the past week or so.  The level of competition available has definitely went down; and that's not even including teams left over that may have lost a key player or two to DA; Dallas teams specifically.  

I used the terminology "left behind" last week to describe the feeling.  There are players out there that are DA level but get shut out due to being attached to smaller clubs or being in the wrong part of the country.

My daughter's choices are to: go find a team 2-3 hours away OR hope her team can get enough exposure in showcase tourneys to overcome lack of frequent DA/ECNL exposure.  It is definitely a quandry.