For those who remember the 2017 age-reclassing, what was it like?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious to know how chaotic the shuffle will be if/when they vote to move the age cutoff to July 31. How did it work 7 years ago? Did it kill off teams or even small clubs?

[Anonymous]

What do you mean? That doesn’t make sense

[Anonymous]

There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

[Anonymous]

My kid was rec at the time. She was early December so she lost her team. She decided to move to travel instead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

It's all in the phrasing. There has to be a cut off, school year makes more sense in a country where high school sports are a big deal than birth year (parent of an 8th grade 2010 wondering what their team will look like in the spring)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

It's all in the phrasing. There has to be a cut off, school year makes more sense in a country where high school sports are a big deal than birth year (parent of an 8th grade 2010 wondering what their team will look like in the spring)

I don't agree with you and believe what you stated is opinion not fact.

You wanted to know how things went last time and I told you. It was much easier.

BY to SY will cause all kinds of tensions on teams. However 6 months after the change nobody will care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

It's all in the phrasing. There has to be a cut off, school year makes more sense in a country where high school sports are a big deal than birth year (parent of an 8th grade 2010 wondering what their team will look like in the spring)

I don't agree with you and believe what you stated is opinion not fact.

You wanted to know how things went last time and I told you. It was much easier.

BY to SY will cause all kinds of tensions on teams. However 6 months after the change nobody will care.

Actually yours was opinion, comparing something that did happen to your complete guess of what will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious to know how chaotic the shuffle will be if/when they vote to move the age cutoff to July 31. How did it work 7 years ago? Did it kill off teams or even small clubs?

My son was U8 when it changed before 2015-16 season, so it really made no difference at that time because he was so young. He didn't love going from a team of kids of similar size and skill at that time, to being the oldest on the team (he's Q1) of much smaller kids who were new to sport, but he was a U little and it didn't really matter too much in the end. The size and skill issue kind of leveled out - he was always the biggest on the team and among the oldest thereafter but did not impact him in the least. I have a U14 now with a Q1 player who played for all of his U little years and just started playing his age group season before last, so I don't expect this will impact him either.

[Anonymous]

*who played up for all his u little years, rather.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. I guess I'm wondering how much drama surrounded it in terms of team formations, but it sounds like it was a different experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious to know how chaotic the shuffle will be if/when they vote to move the age cutoff to July 31. How did it work 7 years ago? Did it kill off teams or even small clubs?

This time should be less chaotic, but still chaotic. By numbers, an underrepresented group is moving this time whereas it was an overrepresented group last time. School friends may be united this time, whereas last time school friends were split up. Social maturity on new teams this time will be more aligned, so there will be less social anxiety (from the younger group) and less social exclusion (from the older group). Yes, last time it killed off many teams, and some clubs. But that was likely because the change was bad from a social perspective, and it's easier to kill teams/clubs at a lower, more social tier. This time the drama will likely be more confined to the elite tiers. Those teams won't be killed off, even if there are hard feelings in a shuffle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious to know how chaotic the shuffle will be if/when they vote to move the age cutoff to July 31. How did it work 7 years ago? Did it kill off teams or even small clubs?

This time should be less chaotic, but still chaotic. By numbers, an underrepresented group is moving this time whereas it was an overrepresented group last time. School friends may be united this time, whereas last time school friends were split up. Social maturity on new teams this time will be more aligned, so there will be less social anxiety (from the younger group) and less social exclusion (from the older group). Yes, last time it killed off many teams, and some clubs. But that was likely because the change was bad from a social perspective, and it's easier to kill teams/clubs at a lower, more social tier. This time the drama will likely be more confined to the elite tiers. Those teams won't be killed off, even if there are hard feelings in a shuffle.

I think it will still hurt some teams. My kid has decided to play up to stay with her current team. If the club says no, she's leaving. I think that will be played our across most teams where the kids have been together for years

[Anonymous]

The drama is going to be from parents of kids on established teams who may get bumped to a B team from an A team due to the "older" kids moving down, or to a B team because there are now "older" kids who could potentially take A team player spots. Established teams will shift. It's also not always a choice to "just play up" to stay with your team. Some clubs do not allow playing up. The change in 2017 affected my son's team with around 5 player shifts. . .we anticipate potentially the same number shift for his team right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The drama is going to be from parents of kids on established teams who may get bumped to a B team from an A team due to the "older" kids moving down, or to a B team because there are now "older" kids who could potentially take A team player spots. Established teams will shift. It's also not always a choice to "just play up" to stay with your team. Some clubs do not allow playing up. The change in 2017 affected my son's team with around 5 player shifts. . .we anticipate potentially the same number shift for his team right now.

I think those clubs will reconsider, especially smaller clubs. It may just be the impetus that families need to move on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious to know how chaotic the shuffle will be if/when they vote to move the age cutoff to July 31. How did it work 7 years ago? Did it kill off teams or even small clubs?

This time should be less chaotic, but still chaotic. By numbers, an underrepresented group is moving this time whereas it was an overrepresented group last time. School friends may be united this time, whereas last time school friends were split up. Social maturity on new teams this time will be more aligned, so there will be less social anxiety (from the younger group) and less social exclusion (from the older group). Yes, last time it killed off many teams, and some clubs. But that was likely because the change was bad from a social perspective, and it's easier to kill teams/clubs at a lower, more social tier. This time the drama will likely be more confined to the elite tiers. Those teams won't be killed off, even if there are hard feelings in a shuffle.

I think it will still hurt some teams. My kid has decided to play up to stay with her current team. If the club says no, she's leaving. I think that will be played our across most teams where the kids have been together for years

Oh it will still cause some serious chaos. But last time by me (IL) the primary girls travel league under U13 lost almost 20% of its teams in the first year of the change. I wouldn't expect that level of teams disappearing in year one this time.