ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

If BY doesn't matter, it seems you are ok with a switch to SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

When will you learn there is no bartering with the BY people, they are just maniacs who do not won’t their kids position or team messed with even slightly. If you give any data or thoughtful reasoning for a change you will be called stupid and your kid is a JV scrub.

100% agreed. I'm talking here to the SY people, who are far more reasonable. I am sympathetic to the 1 in 100,000 kid, the absolute best of the best, who will one day feed his/her family by playing soccer. If we can give him/her a better shot at it while also serving the interests of the other 99,999 we obviously should. International alignment *arguably* serves a few purposes:
(1) Scouting for national teams is easier.
(2) Foreign pro/academy teams may be interested in scouting American players along BY lines.
(3) Club teams could play in international friendlies/tournaments (by most reports they don't, but they could).

These purposes really only apply to the best of the best players who can play up in age groups without problem. If this is to be accomplished at the club level, not something like ODP, constituting a very small amount of their play, two-year grouping of limited-purpose BY teams could achieve all of that. Also, by designating an internal club squad as our club's "international team," there may be some pressure to actually do more international play than we currently do. If there really is some benefit to it, the best kids should actually be doing it, not just arranging club teams so they *could*.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

When will you learn there is no bartering with the BY people, they are just maniacs who do not won’t their kids position or team messed with even slightly. If you give any data or thoughtful reasoning for a change you will be called stupid and your kid is a JV scrub.

BY works across the board and is currently what soccer is aligned to around the world.

We get that you have an Aug to Dec birthday kid and they you feel changing the rules to give them and advantage and maybe a shot at playing in college.

What you don't see is that trapped player or not trapped player colleges will recruit the best options for their team. Also cream will rise to the top trapped or not trapped. Spend your time getting better not trying to change the rules.

How does aligning with the rest of the world help U.S. youth soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

When will you learn there is no bartering with the BY people, they are just maniacs who do not won’t their kids position or team messed with even slightly. If you give any data or thoughtful reasoning for a change you will be called stupid and your kid is a JV scrub.

BY works across the board and is currently what soccer is aligned to around the world.

We get that you have an Aug to Dec birthday kid and they you feel changing the rules to give them and advantage and maybe a shot at playing in college.

What you don't see is that trapped player or not trapped player colleges will recruit the best options for their team. Also cream will rise to the top trapped or not trapped. Spend your time getting better not trying to change the rules.

You people all have the same it’s the same in the rest of the world argument? Which is fine because outside of international competition you know By make no sense for how we are set up as a country.
Let me tell you something that argument will not help you keep BY so be ready for that. Better get out of your echo chambers and start really thinking if By is better for the “majority”. And how you can articulate that to someone who has the evidence and data that says you’re wrong.

The truth is RAE will always exist why add layers of different obstacles for kids born for one half of the year that wouldn’t exist with SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

When will you learn there is no bartering with the BY people, they are just maniacs who do not won’t their kids position or team messed with even slightly. If you give any data or thoughtful reasoning for a change you will be called stupid and your kid is a JV scrub.

BY works across the board and is currently what soccer is aligned to around the world.

We get that you have an Aug to Dec birthday kid and they you feel changing the rules to give them and advantage and maybe a shot at playing in college.

What you don't see is that trapped player or not trapped player colleges will recruit the best options for their team. Also cream will rise to the top trapped or not trapped. Spend your time getting better not trying to change the rules.

How does aligning with the rest of the world help U.S. youth soccer?

It really doesn't unless we get more kids playing internationally. Otherwise it's just an unrealized theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

ECNL already only plays against themself 90% times. They don't care play against non ECNL teams. Their sole business selling point is College Recruiting. They will just allow each team take 4/5 players to play down in the same grade for 25/26. That will make everybody happy except Q1/Q2 parents since they will lose 5 starting positions and 5 ECNL rosters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

When will you learn there is no bartering with the BY people, they are just maniacs who do not won’t their kids position or team messed with even slightly. If you give any data or thoughtful reasoning for a change you will be called stupid and your kid is a JV scrub.

100% agreed. I'm talking here to the SY people, who are far more reasonable. I am sympathetic to the 1 in 100,000 kid, the absolute best of the best, who will one day feed his/her family by playing soccer. If we can give him/her a better shot at it while also serving the interests of the other 99,999 we obviously should. International alignment *arguably* serves a few purposes:
(1) Scouting for national teams is easier.
(2) Foreign pro/academy teams may be interested in scouting American players along BY lines.
(3) Club teams could play in international friendlies/tournaments (by most reports they don't, but they could).

These purposes really only apply to the best of the best players who can play up in age groups without problem. If this is to be accomplished at the club level, not something like ODP, constituting a very small amount of their play, two-year grouping of limited-purpose BY teams could achieve all of that. Also, by designating an internal club squad as our club's "international team," there may be some pressure to actually do more international play than we currently do. If there really is some benefit to it, the best kids should actually be doing it, not just arranging club teams so they *could*.

For the " I am sympathetic to the 1 in 100,000 kid, the absolute best of the best" who might get impacted by changing to SY. No worry, he/she already is playing 1/2 years up. So even the current BY means nothing or help them in anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

ECNL already only plays against themself 90% times. They don't care play against non ECNL teams. Their sole business selling point is College Recruiting. They will just allow each team take 4/5 players to play down in the same grade for 25/26. That will make everybody happy except Q1/Q2 parents since they will lose 5 starting positions and 5 ECNL rosters.

Then lobby ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down per team.

Do this and all players on a team are the same grade and recruiters will only see a certain grad year when watching a game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

"Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works. " This is not official yet. It currently only apply to high school season gap for 8th grader. I believe ECNL will make it official if SY is too much of an impact for 25/26.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

"Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works. " This is not official yet. It currently only apply to high school season gap for 8th grader. I believe ECNL will make it official if SY is too much of an impact for 25/26.

Great, this works within the current framework.

Unfortunately this change will end ECNL teams from participating in BY club tournaments because they won't be able to play down 4-5 players per team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

"Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works. " This is not official yet. It currently only apply to high school season gap for 8th grader. I believe ECNL will make it official if SY is too much of an impact for 25/26.

Great, this works within the current framework.

Unfortunately this change will end ECNL teams from participating in BY club tournaments because they won't be able to play down 4-5 players per team.

It will also drive current ECNL Jan 1 birthdays to BY leagues (GA) because they're no longer the king of the hill in the birth lottery. (Displaced by trapped players playing down)

Ironically this would address RAE because players born in the first half of the year would go to BY league and players born in the second half of the year would go to a league that allows playing down which in essence means SY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

"Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works. " This is not official yet. It currently only apply to high school season gap for 8th grader. I believe ECNL will make it official if SY is too much of an impact for 25/26.

Great, this works within the current framework.

Unfortunately this change will end ECNL teams from participating in BY club tournaments because they won't be able to play down 4-5 players per team.

So some players can play down every/year season, not just the 8th grade and senior seasons? Trapped players should be about a third of the roster, so maybe it should be 6-7 allowed. Essentially we would have SY, but we could all call it "BY with exceptions" to feel better about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think should happen is leagues like GA, ECNL, whatever should be BY.

But events like showcases which shouldn't count against or for a teams record should be SY.

If you do this everyone is happy.

If kids play along a couple different cutoffs within their club, here's my suggestion...

ECNL, GA, and maybe even MLSNext play league, tournaments, and showcases according to SY. They form secondary "international" teams on two year boundaries for the year. So, e.g., maybe this next year there is a "2008/2009 International Team" inside the top clubs. That team plays any international friendlies/tournaments the club wants, and participates in a once-a-year "International Showcase." The top, top kids get international experience and exposure, national team scouts go to this showcase, and the whole rest of the system doesn't get dragged into the mess of being misaligned with domestic school cutoffs.

I suggest GA, ECNL, etc keep everything BY.

But, US Soccer creates a new league called NWSL Next grouped exactly like MLS Next also grouped by BY.

Any league that targets college recruiting should do SY.

Any local league that targets young players should do SY.

MLS can do BY if it competes against the Academy team.

College teams need players as much as youth players need college teams to play on.

BY doesn't matter. Colleges that need players will sort through what's available to find the best options.

Think about it. College coaches can find foreign players from different countries. But they can't identify a trapped player from an American youth club?

Switching to SY won't change anything. You're just altered the players that won the birthday lottery. Instead of trying to change the rules to give your Aug to Dec birthday kid a potential advantage. Just spend more time training in the park or investing in strength training.

Let’s say no one played college, no recruiting. It still makes more sense to let kids be grouped with their same grade? It makes sense to get rid of anytime in the system where kids teams get split up for one group to play high school and one group to figure something out.

Even if it’s slightly more convenient SY makes sense to everyone but parents with kids Jan to July. Which is fine. I get it.

If this is what you want tell ECNL to allow 4-5 trapped players to play down. It solves your issue allowing all the players in the same grade to play on the same team.

However I know the secret about why you don't want above. If implemented it would make it difficult for ECNL teams to participate in BY tournaments. Their teams would get destroyed by BY teams because they wouldn't be able to play all the trapped players down.

And MLS Next can't play the biobanders, whatever.

The holy grail is increasing youth soccer participation. Going to school year addresses this.

How does staying at calendar year help soccer participation in any way in the long run?

Look how quickly you glossed over the solution ECNL can take to address the issue that you feel is such a problem. (Trapped Players)

Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works.

Why are you ignoring this?

"Again, ECNL can allow 4-5 trapped players to play down and everything works. " This is not official yet. It currently only apply to high school season gap for 8th grader. I believe ECNL will make it official if SY is too much of an impact for 25/26.