What Oakwood’s move to ECNL means for club and high school soccer in Connecticut

Oakwood's move from MLS Next to ECNL will have ramifications across soccer in Connecticut.

Carlos Parra arrived at Oakwood Soccer Club as its new technical director in November, right as the Connecticut high school and New England prep seasons were ending. The club’s first MLS Next road trip under Parra was to visit RNYFC in Rochester, which required a 350-mile, five-and-a-half hour trek to Western New York. As Oakwood’s MLS Next teams competed, a reality became clear to their new head man.

Some of his teams could field only 11 players. An enormous chunk of Oakwood’s rosters — Parra reckons as many as 15 from the 2008 age group and eight more from the ’09s, alone — had foregone the start of the MLS Next season to play for their high school or prep school in the fall. Those players were set to return for the remainder of Oakwood’s season, but only after their waivers were approved by MLS, a process that wouldn’t conclude for another week.

The delay provided Parra an opportunity to see the uphill battle Oakwood (Middletown, Conn.) had been fighting the previous three months. How Oakwood’s rosters were so thin (their players couldn’t play for Oakwood and their schools simultaneously, per Connecticut rules) the club often had to move players between Tier I and Tier II teams just to make the numbers work; how the club, missing many of its best players, couldn’t keep up with the competition in MLS Next, some of which is directly affiliated with an MLS franchise.

It led Parra to ask himself: “How do we remain competitive at the highest level?”

Four months later, Oakwood, the main MLS Next club in the Central Connecticut/Hartford area, decided that it couldn’t. During a meeting in the middle of March that was broadcast on Zoom to coaches around the state, club leadership announced Oakwood will move to the ECNL starting in the 2026-27 season. According to multiple coaches who watched the meeting, the exodus of players to high school and prep schools during fall seasons was among the most prevalent reasons provided. When its tenure begins in the ECNL, a league that schedules around the high school and prep school seasons, Oakwood no longer will feel the brunt of its players choosing their schools in the fall.

“The direction we’re taking aligns perfectly with our demographic,” Parra said.

Some of the immediate ramifications of the transfer seem obvious. The Oakwood players who had elected to play the entire MLS Next season are now left without a home this coming fall and have an immediate, and consequential, decision to make. They could remain at Oakwood and compete in the ECNL after spending the fall with their high school or prep school. Glastonbury High coach KC Warren’s inbox was flooded with inquiries from parents and families less than 24 hours after Oakwood announced its decision, and he won’t be the only coach, especially in the powerhouse Central Connecticut Conference, inundated with emails.

Fifty-eight miles southwest in Norwalk, Conn., Mickey Kydes, the founder and sporting director at Beachside CT, one of the few remaining MLS Next clubs in the state, also is hearing from players and families at Oakwood. Those players might view the opportunity to continue playing in MLS Next as worth it, even if it means a long commute. “They’ll have to try out,” Kydes said. Vale and Connecticut Rush also recently merged to form Vale Rush United, which will compete in the MLS Next Academy Division starting in the fall. The Academy Division is a tier below the Homegrown Division (which was offered by Oakwood and is offered by Beachside), but Vale Rush United is located in Central Connecticut; it would be the easy option logistically.

Where the dominoes eventually fall will have implications for the CIAC, Oakwood, Beachside and surrounding clubs in Connecticut, both for the 2026-27 season and beyond. Some coaches feel that if enough Oakwood players elect to play for their high schools, it will lead to a noticeable increase in the quality and parity throughout the CIAC, specifically in the Central Connecticut Conference. Others pump the brakes. Still, among the coaches interviewed for this story, it was close to consensus that Oakwood’s move represented a victory for high school soccer.

“Some are contemplating going to other clubs,” said Brian Fitzgerald, the coach at Xavier High, which has six freshmen and one sophomore currently playing in MLS Next for Oakwood. “I don’t know if high school soccer will get all the players to come back, but I definitely think it’ll be enough to improve the level of play.”

Connecticut awaits their fate. But in the meantime, it is worth asking: Why was Oakwood losing so many of its players in the fall? And what does it say about player development in Connecticut?

WARREN WILL POUND THE TABLE for Glastonbury’s model. The school’s soccer program is a powerhouse in Class LL, the state’s highest level; the Guardians have won 11 state titles, including a run of five championships in six seasons from 2013 to 2018. There are several “Soccer Towns” in Central Connecticut, and Glastonbury certainly is one of them. The Guardians drew smaller crowds as they endured a down season in 2025, but most years, the school’s stadium is rocking. Warren, entering his third season as head man after a long stint as an assistant, leans into this heavily. His team and its players are intimately connected with the town and the school; Warren is not off on his own running a glorified training program.

“And we feel that, for the guys who want to play in college, that best represents a college experience,” Warren said.

Glastonbury — as for the rest of the powerhouse programs in the CIAC — gets a lot of those. Connecticut high schools pump out college players annually. Warren sent three graduates to the NCAA last year and will send three more this year. Fitzgerald sent one and eight over the same span; it is a conscious and deliberate part of their jobs to help their players who want to reach the NCAA do so. Warren, Fitzgerald and Farmington coach Nick Boorman all said some college coaches will watch/scout high school games, especially during the state tournament. The CIAC — especially when a player pairs it with the ECNL in the winter and spring — provides a legitimate and proven path to the NCAA.

Oakwood, meanwhile, long branded its MLS Next program as something entirely different. The club sold itself as a place that developed elite players and fed them to MLS-affiliated MLS Next teams or even MLS academies. A slide deck from a past Oakwood leadership meeting obtained by New England Soccer Journal listed six goals for Oakwood’s U16, 17 and 19 age groups. “Help develop the next pro player” was ranked fourth on the list. In sixth, next to a preface that declared it the goal Oakwood focused on the least, was assisting with college placement. “If they are in the club for this,” a bullet point read, “they are playing for the wrong reasons.”

That mission, the conversation with Parra revealed, didn’t make sense for Oakwood’s market in Central Connecticut. The education provided by high schools in the area is strong; so is, obviously, the education provided by nearby NEPSAC schools Avon Old Farms, Choate and Cheshire, among others. Parra said the demographic of soccer players in Central Connecticut is increasingly valuing an education, more than it already was. The best players in the area, it seemed to Parra, are not solely focused on developing their game.

At Glastonbury, Warren and his staff routinely check in with their players to discuss their academic performance. They connect with guidance counselors and other resources at the school. Any student at Glastonbury High who elected to play the full MLS Next season at Oakwood — there are seven right now, according to Warren — didn’t get those check-ins from Warren and his staff. “When they’re playing at MLS Next, we never cross paths, because we have an obligation to the guys that play for us,” Warren said. Oakwood and its coaches couldn’t provide that kind of marriage between soccer and a player’s academic resources, either.

“It’s much more connected at the high school level,” said rising senior Grisha Abromov, who played for Oakwood in MLS Next until 2025-26, when he left to play for the Glastonbury and FSA, a local club competing in ECNL.

“(Warren) is very invested in the individuals,” added Mike Gatinella, whose son, Max, made the same move. “I give him a lot of credit for that.”

The governing body at MLS Next is pushing to completely disallow MLS Next players from competing for their schools, Parra said. If MLS Next stopped handing out the waivers allowing its players to play at a high school or prep school for a portion of the season, it would have left Oakwood with a limited player pool for the entire MLS Next season, not just during the fall. Warren, who watched Oakwood’s meeting announcing its move to the ECNL, said MLS Next’s push to get rid of waivers was among the reasons discussed.

If MLS Next is indeed heading in that direction, Parra said he thinks the ultimate aim is to align the league’s operating structure with that of MLS youth academies. “There’s players that they will attract, because their goal is to get to MLS,” he said.

“But that wouldn’t benefit Oakwood’s membership at all.”

GIVEN THE REPUTATION MLS NEXT has rapidly developed since its creation six years ago, the immediate reflex is to say that Oakwood is moving down to ECNL. Parra doesn’t see it like that. “It’s a lateral move,” he said. He’s not the only one New England Soccer Journal spoke to who feels that way. Zeke Seguro, the head coach at CCC powerhouse Hall and a coach at FSA, was adamant.

“It’s the same level,” he said. “There’s no difference.”

There is one caveat that both Parra and Seguro conceded. The level of play among MLS-affiliated MLS Next teams — the New England Revolution, as an example — is significantly higher than that among ECNL teams. But the level among local MLS Next clubs, like Oakwood, Beachside, CT Rush or Ginga FC, isn’t all that different to ECNL, Parra, Seguro and Gatinella said. Seguro said FSA plays games against local MLS Next clubs, and they usually aren’t separated by more than a goal. “We beat them, they beat us,” he said.

The ECNL, like MLS Next, offers plenty of showcases, which are heavily attended by college coaches and are hotbeds for recruiting. When asked if it will be harder to get Oakwood’s players in front of colleges in the ECNL, Parra said “not at all.” To that end, Parra added the ECNL might even be better, because Oakwood’s players won’t be drowned out at showcases by the players on affiliated MLS Next teams. MLS Next also recently removed the showcase accompanying the MLS Next Playoffs, which was one of its three annual national showcases. Warren said Oakwood mentioned that in its meeting, and Kydes, the sporting director at Beachside, said he wants that showcase to return.

Still, Kydes disagreed with the notion that the level at MLS Next and ECNL is equivalent, or that the two leagues are equally as effective at sending players to the NCAA. “MLS Next is the best league in the country,” he said. He claimed that Beachside places 85 percent of its players in college.

Beachside — despite its proximity to the Fairfield County Interscholastic Conference, which is as strong or stronger than the CCC — hasn’t suffered from an exodus of players bolting to their high schools in the fall. Staples High (Westport, Conn.) won the Class LL title in 2025, but Kydes still had plenty of Westporters who stayed at Beachside, including Lukas Syah, a Staples student who is committed to Seton Hall. Kydes isn’t concerned with MLS Next potentially banning waivers; he doesn’t allow players who play at high school or prep school in the fall to return to Beachside in the middle of the MLS Next season, anyway. Kydes said Beachside has no plans to follow Oakwood to the ECNL, despite the rising costs of MLS Next.

“We’re doing well,” he said. “At Beachside, [families] see the value of the league.”

The demographics in Fairfield County and Central Connecticut are different. But while Oakwood might be a cautionary tale for smaller MLS Next clubs, Beachside would indicate Oakwood’s move is not necessarily a sign of things to come. Time will tell.

Regardless of what the future holds in Connecticut, there was one age-old adage nearly everyone interviewed for this story could agree on.

“Good players will be recognized, regardless of where they are,” Parra said.