ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its a pretty rabid 600 I'll grant you that.

But seriously its such a small number of people impacted its not worth worrying about.

Very clear to me why the freak out. RAE is a massive thing and maybe the biggest driver of talent ID out there.

“Not worth worrying about” - Tell that to the August kids who are told they are the only ones that can’t play with their grade and everyone else can. There are kids at the heart of this. You all need to take a step back and think again about what the true focus should be here.

It's a bummer for them for sure and some leagues will likely have some ways for them to compete with their grad year at older groups (when it really matters).

But... no one really cared about an entire quarter of players being trapped and forced to play up a grade so it is unlikely there will be too much sleep lost over the very small number of august bdays who cannot play with their proper grade (i.e., just states that have an 8/1 cut-off, not the red-shirted august bdays in 9/1 states).

This is a good point…suddenly all the people care about trapped players…

Probably a few are BY crazies just trying to take up any cause to bash the new age cutoff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can align with school year for a much higher percentage of kids with reasonable modifications to the strict 12-month window. Other sports do it. Soccer can too.

Yes, modifications/exceptions may still be coming. The headline cutoff date can remain 9/1, and then there can just be exceptions for the August kids to play with grade. In order of best to worst, I'd say:
(1) 9/1 cutoff with non-redshirt August kids playing with grade under exceptions
(2) 8/1 cutoff with no exceptions
(3) 9/1 cutoff with no exceptions
(4) strict grade year
(5) strict birth year

August parents, imo, should be fighting for an exception framework rather than trying to get a wholesale change to 8/1 whereby many kids can play down a grade or be rewarded for redshirting.

There's a big difference between you sending in your "suggestions" to USCS and USYS and "changes may be coming." They aren't. You are a troll - and you know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heart the "SY + 60" person...and the idea. Or a "let August play with their grade year" approach, or a waiver system in place. There are a lot of reasonable places where an August birthday kid will be mis-aligned in the 9/1 system and the heartache doesn't seem worth the occasional small creep in age group.

All jokes aside, and regardless of where you land on this (has zero impact on my kid), having some sort of flexibility like that makes the most sense. But because it makes sense, I doubt it would ever happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its a pretty rabid 600 I'll grant you that.

But seriously its such a small number of people impacted its not worth worrying about.

Very clear to me why the freak out. RAE is a massive thing and maybe the biggest driver of talent ID out there.

“Not worth worrying about” - Tell that to the August kids who are told they are the only ones that can’t play with their grade and everyone else can. There are kids at the heart of this. You all need to take a step back and think again about what the true focus should be here.

It's a bummer for them for sure and some leagues will likely have some ways for them to compete with their grad year at older groups (when it really matters).

But... no one really cared about an entire quarter of players being trapped and forced to play up a grade so it is unlikely there will be too much sleep lost over the very small number of august bdays who cannot play with their proper grade (i.e., just states that have an 8/1 cut-off, not the red-shirted august bdays in 9/1 states).

This is a good point…suddenly all the people care about trapped players…

Probably a few are BY crazies just trying to take up any cause to bash the new age cutoff

The relatively small number of August birthdays in 8/1 cutoff states can mean two things: not much sleep will be lost if they are left behind, and there is almost no downside to just placing them with their grade. So, yes, national leagues may not care a lot, but they can also just do the right thing for this tiny segment of kids without a cost to everyone else.

Do we really think placing them with grade means that U13+ national platforms are all of a sudden going to be dominated by August kids from Arkansas, Indiana, Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee? I can see how they don't want 8/1 nationally, and have teams in all the other states with many August players playing below their grade level, or an influx of redshirts in California, Texas, and Florida.

I don't have an August kid. I just think it's silly to leave the few behind who have a good case to play with grade when they don't disrupt the competitive balance anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can align with school year for a much higher percentage of kids with reasonable modifications to the strict 12-month window. Other sports do it. Soccer can too.

Yes, modifications/exceptions may still be coming. The headline cutoff date can remain 9/1, and then there can just be exceptions for the August kids to play with grade. In order of best to worst, I'd say:
(1) 9/1 cutoff with non-redshirt August kids playing with grade under exceptions
(2) 8/1 cutoff with no exceptions
(3) 9/1 cutoff with no exceptions
(4) strict grade year
(5) strict birth year

August parents, imo, should be fighting for an exception framework rather than trying to get a wholesale change to 8/1 whereby many kids can play down a grade or be rewarded for redshirting.

There's a big difference between you sending in your "suggestions" to USCS and USYS and "changes may be coming." They aren't. You are a troll - and you know that.

I don't know what you're talking about ... I'm not saying these exceptions are coming. I'm just saying nothing announced so far precludes them from being a possibility. For instance, ECNL has trapped player exceptions now. I'm sure they announced in 2016 that they would be changing to BY without mentioning those exceptions until later. Imo exceptions make sense. No clue if they're coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heart the "SY + 60" person...and the idea. Or a "let August play with their grade year" approach, or a waiver system in place. There are a lot of reasonable places where an August birthday kid will be mis-aligned in the 9/1 system and the heartache doesn't seem worth the occasional small creep in age group.

All jokes aside, and regardless of where you land on this (has zero impact on my kid), having some sort of flexibility like that makes the most sense. But because it makes sense, I doubt it would ever happen.

Not having flexibility was considered a feature not a bug. So I wouldn't expect changes. MLSN and or GA could pick 8/1 though for their walled garden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heart the "SY + 60" person...and the idea. Or a "let August play with their grade year" approach, or a waiver system in place. There are a lot of reasonable places where an August birthday kid will be mis-aligned in the 9/1 system and the heartache doesn't seem worth the occasional small creep in age group.

All jokes aside, and regardless of where you land on this (has zero impact on my kid), having some sort of flexibility like that makes the most sense. But because it makes sense, I doubt it would ever happen.

Not having flexibility was considered a feature not a bug. So I wouldn't expect changes. MLSN and or GA could pick 8/1 though for their walled garden.

Best decision ever would be if GA and MLSN picked 8/1- my kid is Q4 so August doesn't matter but I think it would be an amazing marketing move

[Anonymous]

GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

GA Club too - heard the opposite just this week. Hopefully there will be an official statement soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

I think it would be good for GA to BY and ECNL SY- provides opportunities for both age groups. But I don't think that will happen.

From the directors that I spoke with in SoCal, they believe GA will switch and they (not sure who 'they' are..assume SoCal and ECNL/GA) are now considering August. I guess because there are more August birthday kids than other month (holiday babies). But they could be wrong. (and no I don't have August kids- before you start hurling accusations and insults).

I would bet all leagues switch from BY, except MLSNext.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

GA Club too - heard the opposite just this week. Hopefully there will be an official statement soon.

Ha- no one knows. I've talked to 2 clubs this week. one things they will have to go SY and the other thinks they will stay BY

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

GA Club too - heard the opposite just this week. Hopefully there will be an official statement soon.

Ha- no one knows. I've talked to 2 clubs this week. one things they will have to go SY and the other thinks they will stay BY

So glad my kid is at a club that plays exclusively USYS and ECNL. We already know everything we need to know.. moving on!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heart the "SY + 60" person...and the idea. Or a "let August play with their grade year" approach, or a waiver system in place. There are a lot of reasonable places where an August birthday kid will be mis-aligned in the 9/1 system and the heartache doesn't seem worth the occasional small creep in age group.

All jokes aside, and regardless of where you land on this (has zero impact on my kid), having some sort of flexibility like that makes the most sense. But because it makes sense, I doubt it would ever happen.

Why? There was no flexibility in the old BY system and that impacted a much much larger pool of players. Why make all of these loopholes and exceptions (that certainly won't be exploited by anyone) when the impacted pool is so small? It wasn't done before. Are August bday kids somehow that fragile?

[Anonymous]

It seems very odd that ECNL has not announced any transition plans. If there is no transition plan and there will be an abrupt change for the 2026-2027 season, why even wait a year for the change if it will be sudden anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GA Club - Heard that GA is not making the change. This is terrible for trapped kids. May as well looking to move to ECNL/ECRL clubs.

GA Club too - heard the opposite just this week. Hopefully there will be an official statement soon.

Ha- no one knows. I've talked to 2 clubs this week. one things they will have to go SY and the other thinks they will stay BY

So glad my kid is at a club that plays exclusively USYS and ECNL. We already know everything we need to know.. moving on!

thanks for helping us reach 1000!! We are debating between 2 clubs. 1 is GA and the other is ECNL- so this will impact us with upcoming try outs