NorCal Community Spotlight: The Rise of San Carlos United’s 2006 Girls

Starting at the Bronze level, San Carlos United’s 2006 Girls rose all the way through NorCal’s ranks to become ECNL-RL champions. This is their story.

In a youth soccer landscape where it has become increasingly common for players to switch clubs multiple times in their careers and look for opportunities outside of their hometown, continuity can be rare.

Even more rare is continuity with success, but that’s exactly what the San Carlos United 2006 girls can claim–with a group that remained mostly unchanged for the past decade, United capped off a remarkable rise by finishing third in the U19 Girls ECNL-RL last year, one year after winning it in their first season of NorCal’s top division of play.

Those finishes were made all the more remarkable by the fact that San Carlos wasn’t even in the NPL–NorCal’s second-highest level of competition–just a few years prior. In fact, when club Director of Coaching Nick Dye first started the team, they played in the Bronze level of the Regional Leagues.

“The start of this team was really the start of, hey, let’s take a long term development approach,” said Dye, who got his start coaching in the youth setup of Norwich City in England before moving stateside at 21. “Let’s really look at how we can affect these players, the development windows. Let’s access them. Let’s not push winning early. Let’s look at individual technique.”

“That was frustrating for some of the families and for some of the players, because it wasn’t normal, and it did lead to some heavy defeats against us,” Dye said. “But over time, the long term development approach has really paid off for us.”

PROMOTION/RELEGATION

Ten years ago, Dye arrived in San Carlos to take over the program with a fresh set of eyes. He chose to begin his 2006 girls age group by looking at 60 players, which were eventually whittled down to 30 to play in some of the youngest age groups NorCal Premier Soccer offers.

While the team’s humble beginnings started at the Bronze level, the merit based system that NorCal provided allowed the team to rise higher up in the pyramid should San Carlos’s results improve.

Merit-based competition, which allows teams to move up and down based on their on-field performance, is a core aspect of NorCal’s competition philosophy, and perhaps no other team has taken advantage of this philosophy like the San Carlos United 2006 Girls.

Bronze became Silver. Silver became Gold. And by the time the team was entering their teenage years, it had reached the State Premier League, the highest level of competition in the State below the National Premier League level.

“The State Premier League is the first opportunity that you have to earn promotion into the NPL and then eventually the ECNL Regional League,” said NorCal Director of Competitions Daniel Chamberlain. “Once they were there, they quickly rose through the ranks all the way to the highest level of our competition, which last year they ended up winning.”

“It’s why we’re doing this whole thing because (a run like San Carlos’s is) really, really rare and really cool,” Chamberlain added. “No, it’s very not normal. Frankly, this is the only area of the country that I know of that a team like San Carlos could win their way all the way up to the highest level and then essentially be crowned one of the best teams in Northern California by winning the top division.”

CONTINUITY

What helped make the run extra special was the community aspect and continuity found throughout the team.

According to Dye, 90 percent of San Carlos United players live in the city proper, while 10 of the players who began on the 2006 girls team from the original 30 played a part in capturing the ECNL-RL title.

“If you care about something, you put all of your energy into it and you love it and prepare for it,” Dye said. “Once you care for something that deeply, you’re prepared to put in whatever work it takes, sacrifice whatever it takes. I’ve seen that with the players on our team. I’ve certainly seen that with the coaches in this club, the board in this club, every volunteer in this club. Everyone puts in so much work to make this happen.”

San Carlos, however, didn’t rise all the way to the top without a few bumps on the way.

For three straight years, the club was among those in contention for promotion to the NPL, but fell just short in the last game or two.

“We had a struggle with getting into NPL,” Grace (player) said. “We kept going into the finals, but losing. We tried year after year after year, but we never gave up. We worked for at least three years for it, we kept losing by one game.”

CHAMPIONS

Together, San Carlos United finally got over the hump on their fourth try, winning a spot in the NPL West through NorCal’s promotion playoffs before claiming the NPL West title in what was the first time in the nearly 50-year history that the club had placed a team in a division this prestigious.

“What makes this special is their group and their willingness to stick together and play for their club and their community all the way through,” Chamberlain said.

Finally, during the 2023 spring season, United was placed in the ECNL-RL alongside eight other rivals from traditionally strong clubs.

With a 5-1-2 record, San Carlos took home the ECNL-RL trophy thanks to a pair of one-goal victories at the NorCal Spring College Showcase.

Dye and Co. stepped on the NorCal stage that day, celebrating the complete NorCal dream experience, one that started at the very bottom and ended at the very top.

“An important lesson that I will take away is to never give up, even when you’re faced with challenges,” Emma (player) said. “We’ve been faced with multiple challenges with this team, but we’ve never given up. We’ve just pushed each other and worked together through it and achieved so much as a team. I think that’s definitely why we’re successful, we just don’t let a loss in a game put us down or if we don’t do well in a tournament, we don’t let that put us down, we keep working through it. We talk about how we can be better and how we can improve.”

Added Tally (player): “It’s been amazing. I love my teammates and I love playing with them, it’s probably one of the most meaningful things I’ve done. I’m a better person because of them.”