This is the time to move back to school year age groups
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Anonymous
Yep! +1. They can play grade level in Middle school and High School. Leave birth year alone. |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
| dumb idea |
Anonymous
How so? |
Anonymous
| OP, I don't get what other sports have to do with it? |
Anonymous
Don't get this at all. As far as my kids were concerned it worked no worse and no better than school year. It made zero difference in fact. |
Anonymous
Just curious - how old are you kids? |
Anonymous
| My kid is 2005 and half of the team is in middle school and half in high school. From puberty to maturity it is crazy! |
Anonymous
I have a fall birthday 04 DD who had to make the change (and adjusted to it at ECNL level). Why would I want her to change back? So she can have to change twice? If she can hang with the "older" girls, no point in disrupting what is already just about the most disrupted couple of years already. |
Anonymous
Youngest is 14. He was 9 or 10 when change was made. Chnage itself was annoying. But once made, no big deal. |
Anonymous
It’s the kids with birthdays at the end of the year that were affected by this change. Our son is a 2003 with an August birthday. His team went from playing with kids in his grade (end of year 2003/beginning of year 2004’s) to all 2003’s (beginning of year 2003’s= juniors now/end of year 2003 = sophomores now) He was in 8th grade when this change happened- so half of his team were freshmen in high school. While the freshmen were playing high school soccer, his actual team did not have enough kids In 8th grade to field a team, so they had to combine with the clubs other 8th graders on lower level teams to be able to play at all during that fall season. It was basically a wasted half of the year that year for travel as he only played with his actual travel team for half of it. This will affect him again at U19 when he is a senior, as half of his current team will graduate next year. So again, they have to come up with some kind of combined team his last season of travel. If they changed back to the grade level, then he would have a full team again his senior year (go back to end of year 2003 & beg of year 2004’s who are all in the same grade right now). |
Anonymous
And the older vs younger thing shouldn't matter. Sure - now January birthdays are the "older" kids and previously it was September birthdays who were older. But in any age group there will be the same number of "older" and "younger" kids. They'll just be different kids. |
Anonymous
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My understanding of key points on why changing back to the original age groups is being discussed:
1. aligning the age groups with the start and end of the soccer year (Aug 1 thru end of July) 2. more natural alignment with social circles created by schools - (has been suggested this is more important at younger ages and at the recreational level) 3. easier management of the last year of youth soccer where clubs can have challenges managing combined 11th and 12th teams as part of the team graduates out each year and can very greatly 4. for college recruitment allows college coaches when watching teams play to easier understand graduation year instead of having split grad year teams DA wanted the ability for its national team scouts to see players based on international competition rules (birth year), no other reason. As a parent my kid benefited in being a DA player with an early month calendar birthday but overall see why changing back should be considered over the long term. I do know going through the college recruiting process and the rules instituted by the NCAA makes recruiting more messy to manage a team with half the team being one grade under one set of rules and the other half in another grade with a different set of rules. |
Anonymous
| The reason school year is much better is college recruiting. Given that very few kids will care at all about international play, but a much larger group will care about college, it doesn't make sense to have a system that causes dead training zones for a lot of good kids, doesn't align with school teams (which are getting better), and makes college recruiting more challenging. |
Anonymous
| There is no benefit for this. People have adjusted and it works better because there is only a 12 spread rather than some of the 1 1/2 - 2 years depending on red shirting. Too many parents play the red shirt system and this blocks them. You don't plan soccer for a bunch of juniors for recruiting. Most people do not play college soccer. You have the 12 month spread because it is fair. |