US Soccer age changes - what are the area leagues doing? are all the kids moving up? u11-u13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an Oct birthday U9 girl on a team that is 60/40 fall/spring birthdays.
I'm just hoping that the U10 team she'll be combined with has a similar mix of kids.
The problem will be if this isn't the case and talented kids don't get a spot because there is a glut of kids at the older level they're combining with.

Someone has to be the youngest. At any tryout, there will always be kids who are almost a full older than the other kids, and they tend to have an advantage in both size and experience level. Nothing you can do about it. Mine has a summer birthday and is the youngest on a U10 team, so next year he will end up being in the middle of the age range. His friend on the team was born on Dec 31 so will go from being in the older group on the team (which is, unsurprisingly, the bulk of the team) to the absolute youngest on his new team with the new age spreads. Again, nothing you can do.

I'm fine with her being among the youngest, I just hope she gets a spot.

Let's say her current u9 team is composed of 6 out of 10 Fall birthdays but the current U10 team is composed of 6 out of 10 spring birthdays.
That gives 12 kids for 10 spots in the new u11 team that will be formed.

That's what I worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an Oct birthday U9 girl on a team that is 60/40 fall/spring birthdays.
I'm just hoping that the U10 team she'll be combined with has a similar mix of kids.
The problem will be if this isn't the case and talented kids don't get a spot because there is a glut of kids at the older level they're combining with.

Someone has to be the youngest. At any tryout, there will always be kids who are almost a full older than the other kids, and they tend to have an advantage in both size and experience level. Nothing you can do about it. Mine has a summer birthday and is the youngest on a U10 team, so next year he will end up being in the middle of the age range. His friend on the team was born on Dec 31 so will go from being in the older group on the team (which is, unsurprisingly, the bulk of the team) to the absolute youngest on his new team with the new age spreads. Again, nothing you can do.

I'm fine with her being among the youngest, I just hope she gets a spot.

Let's say her current u9 team is composed of 6 out of 10 Fall birthdays but the current U10 team is composed of 6 out of 10 spring birthdays.
That gives 12 kids for 10 spots in the new u11 team that will be formed.

That's what I worry about.

At least she's not a late December kid like my U10 (U12 next year) boy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never realized how intense these sports leagues are.

The leagues aren't intense; the parents are.

And the coaches. It's been an eye-opener in our first year of travel to see how these professional coaches are such a change from the supportive parent coaches we had in House league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never realized how intense these sports leagues are.

The leagues aren't intense; the parents are.

And the coaches. It's been an eye-opener in our first year of travel to see how these professional coaches are such a change from the supportive parent coaches we had in House league.

Yes. I miss travel of my youth when I had the same coach for multiple years---8+.

My kid has a different coach almost every game. It's a big factory. It's about the $.

It's sad they don't have somebody that knows them personally and helps and encourages individual players.

I pretty much decided second year in we are moving out of the giant club system.

[Anonymous]

At least she's not a late December kid like my U10 (U12 next year) boy!

Your December U10 son will play U11 next year (unless he plays a year up, which would be tougher next year for a December birthday) The younger (January and later) players will "get" to play down a year and play U10 again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

At least she's not a late December kid like my U10 (U12 next year) boy!

Your December U10 son will play U11 next year (unless he plays a year up, which would be tougher next year for a December birthday) The younger (January and later) players will "get" to play down a year and play U10 again.

This is not true according to the latest from U.S. Youth Soccer. Not that it really matters whether it's called U11 or U12.

https://usys-assets.ae-admin.com/assets/1/15/US%20Soccer%20Birth%20Year%20and%20Season%20Matrix.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

At least she's not a late December kid like my U10 (U12 next year) boy!

Your December U10 son will play U11 next year (unless he plays a year up, which would be tougher next year for a December birthday) The younger (January and later) players will "get" to play down a year and play U10 again.

This is not true according to the latest from U.S. Youth Soccer. Not that it really matters whether it's called U11 or U12.

https://usys-assets.ae-admin.com/assets/1/15/US%20Soccer%20Birth%20Year%20and%20Season%20Matrix.pdf

Yes. That chart is weird. Our U-10 team is 50% 8/05-12/05 and 1/06-7/06 bdays. This chart has the '05 boys skipping the U-11 year-weird. While the 06 will move up to U-11--we skip an entire age group. It will mean an extra player on the field --2 more per team.

Of course- this means nothing because every kid in U-12 will have to be born in 2005. So it's not the 'U" system anymore.

I am glad to see my 2008 spring bday/2nd grader gets to start at U-9 next year. We have no 2008s on the current U-9 team it's all 2006&2007. At least no kids can drop down to U-9. It will be a fresh start. My other son has the sucky late Fall bday. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

At least she's not a late December kid like my U10 (U12 next year) boy!

Your December U10 son will play U11 next year (unless he plays a year up, which would be tougher next year for a December birthday) The younger (January and later) players will "get" to play down a year and play U10 again.

This is not true according to the latest from U.S. Youth Soccer. Not that it really matters whether it's called U11 or U12.

https://usys-assets.ae-admin.com/assets/1/15/US%20Soccer%20Birth%20Year%20and%20Season%20Matrix.pdf

Thanks -- this is different than what I saw earlier and elsewhere, where the shift was described as downward, rather than upward, because of the impact on upper ages -- If you shift upward, where is the U18 team for the 2016-2017 season? Half my son's current U17 team are 1998s -- if I am reading the chart correctly, there is no option for the 1998 current juniors to play their senior year??

[Anonymous]

^^Sorry - should read, where is the U19 (not U18) team for 2016-17 season...

[Anonymous]

The whole thing for lack of a better word is completely retarded.

They are making kids skip an entire developmental year.

U-10s skip up to U-12. This is the 50% of them born in 2005. You have 2004 U-11 skipping up to U-13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing for lack of a better word is completely retarded.

They are making kids skip an entire developmental year.

U-10s skip up to U-12. This is the 50% of them born in 2005. You have 2004 U-11 skipping up to U-13.

So my 10-year old (this chart has him skipping up to U-12 next year) will be playing 9v9 next fall which is the complete opposite of what they wanted to do developmentally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing for lack of a better word is completely retarded.

They are making kids skip an entire developmental year.

U-10s skip up to U-12. This is the 50% of them born in 2005. You have 2004 U-11 skipping up to U-13.

agreed.
My just turned nine year old will be playing u11 next fall.
9 v 9 which is sort of crazy considering that she just started playing 7 v 7 and her rec team (Stoddert) still plays 5 v 5 in third grade.

At least 9 v 9 means that they'll have a 2 player cushion when they're determining rosters so hopefully they can take all returning u9 (fall birthday) and u10 (spring birthday) kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing for lack of a better word is completely retarded.

They are making kids skip an entire developmental year.

U-10s skip up to U-12. This is the 50% of them born in 2005. You have 2004 U-11 skipping up to U-13.

agreed.
My just turned nine year old will be playing u11 next fall.
9 v 9 which is sort of crazy considering that she just started playing 7 v 7 and her rec team (Stoddert) still plays 5 v 5 in third grade.

At least 9 v 9 means that they'll have a 2 player cushion when they're determining rosters so hopefully they can take all returning u9 (fall birthday) and u10 (spring birthday) kids.

The crazy thing is she will be 10 (even 9) for the entire Fall and Spring seasons as a U-11.
If they take away the U-designations and just say birth year--I think a lot of the shock will go away.
2006s is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing for lack of a better word is completely retarded.

They are making kids skip an entire developmental year.

U-10s skip up to U-12. This is the 50% of them born in 2005. You have 2004 U-11 skipping up to U-13.

agreed.
My just turned nine year old will be playing u11 next fall.
9 v 9 which is sort of crazy considering that she just started playing 7 v 7 and her rec team (Stoddert) still plays 5 v 5 in third grade.

At least 9 v 9 means that they'll have a 2 player cushion when they're determining rosters so hopefully they can take all returning u9 (fall birthday) and u10 (spring birthday) kids.

The crazy thing is she will be 10 (even 9) for the entire Fall and Spring seasons as a U-11.
If they take away the U-designations and just say birth year--I think a lot of the shock will go away.
2006s is better.

Her one advantage will be that Fresmen year in HS she will have been playing up an age group and competing against freshman girls that were playing travel an age group lower. Trying to look in bright side because my kid is in same boat.

[Anonymous]

Are any of the clubs going to try to get out ahead of this and communicate about the changes with some specificity? Because the talk and rumors are really starting. I have heard from parents from two different clubs that their coach said "Nothing is really going to have to change" more than usual with respect to the make-up of their respective teams. I find this hard to believe. One was a U-17 girls team and the other a U-16 boys team, so maybe it has something to do with the upper ages. In another case, parents of a somewhat younger, very competitive "elite" team, with eight players born in one year and eight players born in the other year were talking about how they doubt that many players will "play-up" and they were wondering which team will keep their current coach, etc.