ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only to think USYS could have had it all. They have the state cups and the u-littles but failed on college exposure and now instead of just losing players to the elite leagues, they are losing entire clubs.

I mean, they did have it all lol. The structure was just too archaic to implement any change and before they could do much it was over. They needed to take steps 20 years ago (once easy access to online registrations became available) to scrap all of the state orgs, consolidate into a few (4-5) regions and get aggressive with any club that wanted to play outside USYS. And create some elite club leagues... But they didn't and the writing is on the wall now. They are the Kmart of youth soccer orgs now.

They DID/DO have regions with their NL -- which is/was based on promotion/relegation BUT interestingly for that ultimately couldn't compete with the club-based elite leagues concept that emerged. Those leagues -- based on clubs with strong reputations -- proved to be talent magnets and popular with parents -- although I've always found it fascinating seeing the huge gaps between the "elite" leagues 1st and last vs the differences of the leagues at highest levels of USYS where it was true in that you "earned your place." I guess the top "elites" needed their cannon fodder -- and that's not surprising as the American way often can be less about earning things and more about appearances. Still, 1 would have thought the USYS would have fared better.

I always felt large clubs went the ECNL/RL/NPL or MLSN/GA/DPL route because they got a team at every age group in that league. The USYS system rewarded individual teams, not the entire club. Big clubs, IOT protect their bottom line, gravitated to a club based model, allowing weaker age groups at that club to play a higher level than they merit.

True but it was also highly driven simply by wanting something that has better planning, logistics and predictability. Playing NL required a lot more micromanagement and dealing with USYS for scheduling is a nightmare.

As far as quality of teams go, sure there were/are plenty of great teams. But on the other hand, the drive to win at all costs to stay up also leads to some of the worst play and behavior I’ve ever seen on a soccer field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of our club directors said MLSN and MLSN2 were staying BY. No clue if this holds weight. I have always been in the MLSN will be forced to change to SY but maybe I was wrong. Director said the clubs plan was to stay BY even at the younger ages and just play up. Seems like a way to lose recruiting power for U Littles. I don't see many parents of Sept to Dec 7 and 8 year olds wanting to play up and give away RAE advantage by joining the club. Seems like nearly all Sept to Dec kids would look elsewhere.

The 'director' is either messing with you or an idiot... The large MLSN clubs make 95% of their revenue from 2nd, 3rd, 4th teams from U8-U19. There is a 0% chance they 'just have those teams play up'.

I have yet to meet a thoughtful director. I don’t believe thinking and planning ahead and being thoughtful are normal for them.

Good family friends are friends with Luis Suarez. When InterMiami were in town recently, they hung out with him for a bit. He said youth coaching in the US is horrific. That the coaches here don’t think of themselves as educators. InterMiami is replacing their youth coaches with coaches from Spain and Argentina.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The plan has always been 26/27.

Well yeah but there has been speculating on whether leagues or clubs might try and ‘ease’ the change in with some proactive measures.

For the clubs, unless the leagues force them to do something, they will do nothing until the day before tryouts next spring. They may talk a big game but nothing will be done. That’s what happened last time and I don’t think they learned anything from that.

💯 They can’t think that far ahead.

A lot of directors think RAE is a myth.

These guys aren’t very bright on average.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe I'm way off on this opinion. But my experience throughout the years (12 years & 3 kids) with our directors & involvement with U.S soccer/ECNL ect... leaves me with the impression that these people running everything at some point have a great "soccer player pro resume" but have no clue how go run a business. All of our directors have been incredibly nice and affable but most of the time seem to shoot themselves in the foot more often than not. Just not the sharpest knife in the drawer type.I'm guessing this trickles up to the top of U.S soccer with the same types of people making decisions regarding this BY/SY mess. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm sure they love what they do, but maybe someone outside the soccer community could figure this out.

In the US, this is 💯 true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of our club directors said MLSN and MLSN2 were staying BY. No clue if this holds weight. I have always been in the MLSN will be forced to change to SY but maybe I was wrong. Director said the clubs plan was to stay BY even at the younger ages and just play up. Seems like a way to lose recruiting power for U Littles. I don't see many parents of Sept to Dec 7 and 8 year olds wanting to play up and give away RAE advantage by joining the club. Seems like nearly all Sept to Dec kids would look elsewhere.

The 'director' is either messing with you or an idiot... The large MLSN clubs make 95% of their revenue from 2nd, 3rd, 4th teams from U8-U19. There is a 0% chance they 'just have those teams play up'.

I have yet to meet a thoughtful director. I don’t believe thinking and planning ahead and being thoughtful are normal for them.

Good family friends are friends with Luis Suarez. When InterMiami were in town recently, they hung out with him for a bit. He said youth coaching in the US is horrific. That the coaches here don’t think of themselves as educators. InterMiami is replacing their youth coaches with coaches from Spain and Argentina.

Do you think the Suarez story is news somehow? No one should consider youth soccer in America as a good environment to develop your child. If you do, then you are the idiot. Pay to play incentivizes winning stupid tournaments for the benefit of the club's brand...in other countries their goal is to develop talent and build their reputation that way. They are literally using your children to build their own brand and make more money...AND YOU ARE PAYING TO BE USED!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of our club directors said MLSN and MLSN2 were staying BY. No clue if this holds weight. I have always been in the MLSN will be forced to change to SY but maybe I was wrong. Director said the clubs plan was to stay BY even at the younger ages and just play up. Seems like a way to lose recruiting power for U Littles. I don't see many parents of Sept to Dec 7 and 8 year olds wanting to play up and give away RAE advantage by joining the club. Seems like nearly all Sept to Dec kids would look elsewhere.

The 'director' is either messing with you or an idiot... The large MLSN clubs make 95% of their revenue from 2nd, 3rd, 4th teams from U8-U19. There is a 0% chance they 'just have those teams play up'.

I have yet to meet a thoughtful director. I don’t believe thinking and planning ahead and being thoughtful are normal for them.

Good family friends are friends with Luis Suarez. When InterMiami were in town recently, they hung out with him for a bit. He said youth coaching in the US is horrific. That the coaches here don’t think of themselves as educators. InterMiami is replacing their youth coaches with coaches from Spain and Argentina.

Do you think the Suarez story is news somehow? No one should consider youth soccer in America as a good environment to develop your child. If you do, then you are the idiot. Pay to play incentivizes winning stupid tournaments for the benefit of the club's brand...in other countries their goal is to develop talent and build their reputation that way. They are literally using your children to build their own brand and make more money...AND YOU ARE PAYING TO BE USED!

Not news, but confirmation from someone that is familiar with systems in other parts of the world. The foreign players at Inter Miami all have their kids in the academy. They can see first hand.

[Anonymous]

That’s damning. Those guys know what’s up and they are dealing with the best America has. No pay to play either….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of our club directors said MLSN and MLSN2 were staying BY. No clue if this holds weight. I have always been in the MLSN will be forced to change to SY but maybe I was wrong. Director said the clubs plan was to stay BY even at the younger ages and just play up. Seems like a way to lose recruiting power for U Littles. I don't see many parents of Sept to Dec 7 and 8 year olds wanting to play up and give away RAE advantage by joining the club. Seems like nearly all Sept to Dec kids would look elsewhere.

The 'director' is either messing with you or an idiot... The large MLSN clubs make 95% of their revenue from 2nd, 3rd, 4th teams from U8-U19. There is a 0% chance they 'just have those teams play up'.

I have yet to meet a thoughtful director. I don’t believe thinking and planning ahead and being thoughtful are normal for them.

Good family friends are friends with Luis Suarez. When InterMiami were in town recently, they hung out with him for a bit. He said youth coaching in the US is horrific. That the coaches here don’t think of themselves as educators. InterMiami is replacing their youth coaches with coaches from Spain and Argentina.

Makes sense since they call their coaches Profesor or Profe which says it all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of our club directors said MLSN and MLSN2 were staying BY. No clue if this holds weight. I have always been in the MLSN will be forced to change to SY but maybe I was wrong. Director said the clubs plan was to stay BY even at the younger ages and just play up. Seems like a way to lose recruiting power for U Littles. I don't see many parents of Sept to Dec 7 and 8 year olds wanting to play up and give away RAE advantage by joining the club. Seems like nearly all Sept to Dec kids would look elsewhere.

The 'director' is either messing with you or an idiot... The large MLSN clubs make 95% of their revenue from 2nd, 3rd, 4th teams from U8-U19. There is a 0% chance they 'just have those teams play up'.

I have yet to meet a thoughtful director. I don’t believe thinking and planning ahead and being thoughtful are normal for them.

Good family friends are friends with Luis Suarez. When InterMiami were in town recently, they hung out with him for a bit. He said youth coaching in the US is horrific. That the coaches here don’t think of themselves as educators. InterMiami is replacing their youth coaches with coaches from Spain and Argentina.

Makes sense since they call their coaches Profesor or Profe which says it all

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe I'm way off on this opinion. But my experience throughout the years (12 years & 3 kids) with our directors & involvement with U.S soccer/ECNL ect... leaves me with the impression that these people running everything at some point have a great "soccer player pro resume" but have no clue how go run a business. All of our directors have been incredibly nice and affable but most of the time seem to shoot themselves in the foot more often than not. Just not the sharpest knife in the drawer type.I'm guessing this trickles up to the top of U.S soccer with the same types of people making decisions regarding this BY/SY mess. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm sure they love what they do, but maybe someone outside the soccer community could figure this out.

100% and as a parent it’s very frustrating that clubs and their directors/managers can’t figure things out.

Some clubs are extremely well ran and business savvy. Which is why they rise to the top. But sadly most of them are just not bright enough to figure things out.

[Anonymous]

Get this thread back on track ...How does Luis Suarez feel about SY vs. BY? What about Messi?

[Anonymous]

What are they drinking on south beach?

[Anonymous]

Awful day for this thread. Not sure we can make it to the finish line anymore…

[Anonymous]

Ok, let's get back to this ... Reason to WHY grad year is NOT so great:

"DES MOINES, Iowa —The Des Moines Hoover High School boys soccer team has had to forfeit all its 2025 wins for using an ineligible player, KCCI has learned.

According to officials, the school learned on April 21 that a birth certificate for a student who is a refugee from Sudan was inaccurate. The player, a senior, is actually 20 years old, not 19."

https://www.kcci.com/article/des-moines-hoover-high-school-boys-soccer-forfeit-ineligible-player/64612032

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, let's get back to this ... Reason to WHY grad year is NOT so great:

"DES MOINES, Iowa —The Des Moines Hoover High School boys soccer team has had to forfeit all its 2025 wins for using an ineligible player, KCCI has learned.

According to officials, the school learned on April 21 that a birth certificate for a student who is a refugee from Sudan was inaccurate. The player, a senior, is actually 20 years old, not 19."

https://www.kcci.com/article/des-moines-hoover-high-school-boys-soccer-forfeit-ineligible-player/64612032

Corner cases like this are really not useful comparators. Also there can be issues with birth certificate verification in any registration system.