US Soccer age changes - what are the area leagues doing? are all the kids moving up? u11-u13

[Anonymous]

age group *rule*

[Anonymous]

I'm 16:14. My kid is starting travel this fall. It's earlier than we had planned, by about a year, but with the birth date switch, this was our year to try out. I'm still not sure about the added money and time commitment but she LOVES soccer. She was disappointed to only have one day of practice per week, disappointed when her rec games were canceled due to rain, and disappointed when her teammates would no-show or not care.

In Arlington, she could not have played rec a year early - you sign up with your school's kindergarten team when you start kindergarten. So she went into travel tryouts after 4 seasons instead of 6, and she was definitely at a disadvantage. It was a much bigger disadvantage for the boys, since so many more tried out. It'll even out after a year or two of travel play, I imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
18:28 - but this isn't the same thing, given that many kids start playing soccer on a school team. Say you have two kids born in 2008, one in August, one in October. The kid with the August birthday went to kindergarten a year earlier. He had his two kindergarten seasons, his two first grade seasons AND his two second grade seasons before he tried out for U9 travel soccer.

The kid with the october birthday had to wait a year to go to kindergarten and play rec soccer with his classmates. He has 2 kindergarten seasons and 2 first grade seasons before he has to try out for U9 travel soccer.

Almost none of the kids I know with late 2008 birthdays made travel this year, vs. many kids with earlier 2008 birthdays who have a full year more experience.

Plus the 1st grade kids haven't played with the 2nd grade kids before. They haven't played goalie or played on a team that kept score. They're at a real disadvantage. Plus they're up to 11 months younger than the other kids, and maybe smaller and less coordinated.

My kid is a late 2008 birthday who squeaked into travel, but she would have been a lot better off had she had an extra two seasons like the rest of the kids on her team.



your kid could have played up in kindergarten and every year till they got to travel.. as a matter of fact i know a most of BRYCs u9 travel team were all playing up this year including a few 7 yr olds on their 3rd team so your kid could have played up to play travel as well same is the case at arlington and Loudon where my neighbor plays.


BRYC will take anyone's money at U9-U10.


+100. I also believe those kids playing up would have been better off playing rec with kids their own age.


Not PP but how do you know they would be better playing rec? Have you seen them play? Do you know what stage of their development they are in? Do you know if these are kids are committed to the game on a daily basis and want to improve and be challenged instead of running up the score 15-1 in rec. Do you know how they are being coached? Some kids are ready to play and others aren't. Kids need to be challenged if they want to improve. Maybe reason why playing up in Travel. If on BRYC's 3rd team unlikely that they were 7 since ODSL and NCSL have rules about being able to play prior to turning 8.

Yes to all your Y/N questions. And I don't disagree with your statement about kids being challenged, but I think they would have been challenged enough at rec or the MicroAcademy. I'll just leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Fair then if you are familiar with their development. Maybe something having to do with what a PP mentioned above and BRYC just wanting to field an extra team for $ in their pockets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 16:14. My kid is starting travel this fall. It's earlier than we had planned, by about a year, but with the birth date switch, this was our year to try out. I'm still not sure about the added money and time commitment but she LOVES soccer. She was disappointed to only have one day of practice per week, disappointed when her rec games were canceled due to rain, and disappointed when her teammates would no-show or not care.

In Arlington, she could not have played rec a year early - you sign up with your school's kindergarten team when you start kindergarten. So she went into travel tryouts after 4 seasons instead of 6, and she was definitely at a disadvantage. It was a much bigger disadvantage for the boys, since so many more tried out. It'll even out after a year or two of travel play, I imagine.

I regret to inform you that travel games get cancelled for rain (on grass fields) and lightning (turf and grass), and that travel players also no-show and don't care. I'm assuming she's around the "U9" age level, so she will be fine, even if she has had less soccer experience than some on her team. The challenge will be beneficial in the long run. Besides, it's really the "U12/U13" years that count for major soccer development.

[Anonymous]

Are any clubs encouraging players to play-up just to keep the team together. not sure if playing up at U 9-10-11-12 is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Well, I think they turn a few kids away, but yes, they do charge kids $2000 a year for them to play in ODSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

[Anonymous]

I assume that if they didn't get enough kids that were "good enough", they could just hold more tryouts. It's really only an issue on the girls' side - there were over twice as many boys trying out for U9 as there were slots, but fewer girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

You are fooling yourself if you think that's a development pool. They never even give the bottom 4 teams another look after they pick them at age 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

I'm actually with you. I was amazed at the turnout for boys. DS tried at 2 other clubs at U9 and the numbers weren't remotely close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

I'm actually with you. I was amazed at the turnout for boys. DS tried at 2 other clubs at U9 and the numbers weren't remotely close.

Which clubs? We tried out at another local club and numbers were about the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

I'm actually with you. I was amazed at the turnout for boys. DS tried at 2 other clubs at U9 and the numbers weren't remotely close.

Which clubs? We tried out at another local club and numbers were about the same.

Yea. There were about 120 U9 boys at another club we tried out for and they carry fewer teams per age group. Depends how many clubs feed into the same counties. Some counties have several travel clubs---some are a one-stop shop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And apparently Arlington takes anyone to pad their pockets with 6 teams per age group at U9 and U10

Why shouldn't they? At U9 and U10, the bigger your talent pool is to develop over the next few years so that when these kids are 13 and 14 - when the pool starts to thin out - they have a terrific group of talent to select from. What's wrong with that? And the more money the club makes the more it can funnel into programs and coaches, sooooo....what's wrong with that? Unless it's the bruised ego since the perception of U9 travel is that it is supposed to be exclusive and elite hence the "....apparently Arlington takes anyone...." comment.

I'm actually with you. I was amazed at the turnout for boys. DS tried at 2 other clubs at U9 and the numbers weren't remotely close.

Which clubs? We tried out at another local club and numbers were about the same.

They were other local CCL clubs.