ECNL Regional League
National Elite (L2–L3) · Boys & Girls
The tier directly beneath ECNL, with a promotion pathway up.
Overview
The ECNL Regional League sits one rung below the national ECNL, on a more regional regular season. For 2026-27 it holds more than 390 boys clubs across 26 regional leagues and more than 375 girls clubs across 25.
Of the ten clubs joining ECNL Boys for 2026-27, seven came up from the Regional League, and four of the five joining ECNL Girls did the same. US Club Soccer places the Regional League directly beneath ECNL in its own published order of competitions, and its boys commissioner calls it the country's biggest proving ground.
"Regional" describes the regular season, not the whole year. Five playoff events in June feed eight teams per age group into national finals in July, boys in Richmond and girls in Seattle.
One thing to know before you compare rulebooks: ECNL publishes competition rules for ECNL and none for the Regional League, so RL roster caps and age-group requirements are not on the public record the way ECNL's are. Ask the club.
- Promotion into ECNL is documented: seven of the ten clubs joining ECNL Boys for 2026-27 came up from here
- A regional regular season, with a national postseason in June and July
- Nothing in ECNL’s competition rules restricts high school soccer
- ECNL publishes no Regional League rulebook, so roster caps come from the club rather than a document
- ECNL runs 12 recruitable events for the Regional League against 13 for ECNL, and publishes coach counts only for ECNL
- Twenty-six separate regional leagues on the boys side, so the level varies by which one you are in
Who plays here
408 clubs we catalogue play in ECNL RL. Open one to see every league its teams actually enter, not just this one.
1974 Newark FCPre-ProfessionalNewark, CA
210 FC San AntonioNational EliteSan Antonio, TX
956 UnitedNational EliteMcAllen, TX
AC ConnecticutNational EliteDanbury, CT
AC MarinNational ElitePetaluma, CA
AFA FilliesNational EliteSt. Louis, MOAjax UnitedPre-ProfessionalModesto, CAAlabama FCPre-ProfessionalAL
Albany AlleycatsNational EliteColonie, NY
Albertson SUSAPre-ProfessionalCentral Islip, NY
Albion Hurricanes FCPre-ProfessionalTX
ALBION SC Boulder CountyNational EliteCOCollege commitments
5,438 college commitments from 171 New York and New Jersey member clubs, taken from public commitment lists. Those two states are the only ones these counts cover.
These counts cover this league’s New York and New Jersey member clubs only. “Unverified” means the school matched but the program level did not. No league publishes college placement by youth league, so read this as one slice of two states rather than a scoreboard. We never print a current youth player’s name.
Rules
What this league asks before your kid can register: the ages it runs, whether they can still play the high school season, and who sanctions it. The college-exposure and cost lines are our read of the league, not a figure the league publishes.
HS soccer policy
Players can also play high school soccer
Age groups
U13-U19
Geographic footprint
Regional
College exposure (our read)
High
Cost level (our read)
High
Governing body
US Club Soccer
The other leagues at this level
Leagues on the same rung of the ladder, so you can hold a club’s pitch against what the alternatives actually ask of a family.
| Factor | ECNL RL This league | DPL | USL Academy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Boys & Girls | Girls | Boys & Girls |
| Ages | U13-U19 | U13–U19 | U13–U19 |
| Clubs in directory | 408 clubs | 197 clubs | 213 clubs |
| HS soccer ok? | Yes | — | — |
| Footprint | Regional | National | National |
| What it is | The tier directly beneath ECNL, with a promotion pathway up. | A national girls youth league, the competitive tier below the Girls Academy. | A national youth league run by the United Soccer Leagues, made up of USL pro-club academies and affiliated youth clubs. |
Pathway from here
Clubs at this level play national or multi-state schedules and sell their events on college-coach attendance, which is a figure each league publishes about itself. Clubs also move between here and level 1 most springs, so the badge a club carries this season may not be the one it carries next.
The national events at this level are where college coaches watch, and each league publishes its own attendance figures for them. A coach at an event watches players who are on the pitch, so the question that decides your kid’s exposure is the roster size at their age group and where the coach puts them in it.
Which ECNL RL clubs are inside your drive time?
Put in your ZIP and the finder shows the ECNL Regional League clubs near you alongside everything else at that level. Or tell us about your kid and we’ll rank them with the reasoning spelled out.