ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If SoCal Reds is changing doesn’t that speak loudly for MLSN AD?

OP here. It is just an 1 day "evaluation" , you can interpret for whatever it is.

The club has both MLSN1 and MLSN2

MLS2 will be SY 100%.

Why would p2p Mlsn 1 and 2 each have a different age registration? These are being sold as part of the pathway and in reality they are just the top two teams at the club level. This would stifle each club’s ability to utilise and develop players and deflate parents and kids, not to mention the confusion and distraction it would bring.

MLS1 and MLS2 will be SY.

Otherwise it would be impossible for p2p like Bavarian, SC Wave, and dozens more, to roster players in an organized way.

MLS academies might stay BY and playing only 5 months up.

The experience for MLS academies this season playing 1 whole year up is being a total disaster.

So playing just 5 months up would be positive for them.

MLS Academy plays up this season and gets beaten badly. Now we know how hard it is to play one year up and how dominant it can be when Q3/Q4 get dropped down. In our club intra scrimmage, older NL score 4:0 vs younger NL in 30 min and we have 12 Q3/Q4 across NL, RL and RL2 teams.

That’s a little wider but still close to the score differential at our club between top teams a year apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man it’s going to be a long F in year. People who have never been on the wrong side of RAE are going to freak.

YUP. Just my experience doesn’t make it true for everyone, my daughter’s team brought up a 2011 who’s the all everything for her team. Invites to all the US soccer national team tryouts and playing up she looked like any sub we had on the team. Definitely didn’t do terrible but against a middle of the pack ECNL team she was just an average player with some speed.

Not saying she won’t develop into a quality player. I just think kids who have been dominant in their age group are going to notice an extra degree of difficulty next year.

Facing older/more experienced players will benefit these current top age groupers.

That is how I tell my kid this is his last chance to practice in the ECNL championship team. Then he will be dropped down to the younger team and will no longer be able to practice with the top elite players. The younger team is much weaker.

If he gets moved down it's not because of age. Let's not forget these teams want to win and if your kid is part of that plan he is not going to move him

Nobody is playing up now and they have several players signed up MLS Academy last season. So every Q3/Q4 will be dropped to the younger team. Nobody is going to play up.

Will be interesting. There will always be some exceptions for those August/September birthdays who are starters on their current team.

[Anonymous]

So many factors at play for where kids will play next year.

-Some clubs dont have uniformly strong teams so very dynamic in terms of development from one team to another
-Some geographies have multiple options while others dont have any. When there are options, leverage shifts from club to parent
-Some August birthdays are very developed girls and others are not. Same can be said for all youngers
-Some clubs have competitive RL teams and others dont not


This is all to point out that there will most likely be no hard and fast rule. Clubs will take one of two choices:

1. You live into the age group. Full stop.

2. You take each situation/kid on a case by case scenario considering best for kid, best for club and who has the most leverage at the end of the day.

Are there issues with both? Absolutely, but these are the two that fall under Occam.

Others can pontificate but, at the end of the day there will be no more “rules” handed down from the governing bodies other than dates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man it’s going to be a long F in year. People who have never been on the wrong side of RAE are going to freak.

YUP. Just my experience doesn’t make it true for everyone, my daughter’s team brought up a 2011 who’s the all everything for her team. Invites to all the US soccer national team tryouts and playing up she looked like any sub we had on the team. Definitely didn’t do terrible but against a middle of the pack ECNL team she was just an average player with some speed.

Not saying she won’t develop into a quality player. I just think kids who have been dominant in their age group are going to notice an extra degree of difficulty next year.

Facing older/more experienced players will benefit these current top age groupers.

That is how I tell my kid this is his last chance to practice in the ECNL championship team. Then he will be dropped down to the younger team and will no longer be able to practice with the top elite players. The younger team is much weaker.

If he gets moved down it's not because of age. Let's not forget these teams want to win and if your kid is part of that plan he is not going to move him

Nobody is playing up now and they have several players signed up MLS Academy last season. So every Q3/Q4 will be dropped to the younger team. Nobody is going to play up.

Will be interesting. There will always be some exceptions for those August/September birthdays who are starters on their current team.

I don't think Aug starters necessarily WOULD stay, because there could be better players coming in. If they stay, they might be subs vs. moving to keep starting. You can't assume anything really. At least Aug starters have more mobility/options.

[Anonymous]

As a parent of a really good Q3 player why would I let my kid fight gravity? No one is penalized for playing with their age group. Easy decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a really good Q3 player why would I let my kid fight gravity? No one is penalized for playing with their age group. Easy decision.

Same - current 2013G starter on ECNL team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a really good Q3 player why would I let my kid fight gravity? No one is penalized for playing with their age group. Easy decision.

Same - current 2013G starter on ECNL team

But I guess I should clarify she'd be playing at grade level (one of few 6th graders on a team of 7th graders) since she's late sept and went to school "on time" since you all need to know every detail

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody discussing the aug older grade playing down when they are in ninth grade and abandoning the team to play high school for half the season while all the 8th graders stay behind. Coaches don’t want that disruption I wouldn’t think. My gut is most kids in that situation play up with grade by coaches choice.

I've been pointing this out for a while. What 8th grade coach wants to roster a grade older player thats wont play with your team for 3-4 months during HS soccer season. On top of that they'll probabaly skip games for things like homecoming, prom, etc.

But dont let reality get in the way of wanting to play down a grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody discussing the aug older grade playing down when they are in ninth grade and abandoning the team to play high school for half the season while all the 8th graders stay behind. Coaches don’t want that disruption I wouldn’t think. My gut is most kids in that situation play up with grade by coaches choice.

I've been pointing this out for a while. What 8th grade coach wants to roster a grade older player thats wont play with your team for 3-4 months during HS soccer season. On top of that they'll probabaly skip games for things like homecoming, prom, etc.

But dont let reality get in the way of wanting to play down a grade.

Homecoming and prom are not events for 9th graders (how old is your kid?!). Most 11th/12th graders serious about playing in college aren’t skipping games for homecoming or prom. This is a nonissue.

[Anonymous]

I’m having trouble seeing a way that mlsnext stays BY.

Mlsnext 1 and 2 have to have the same cutoff. I think that’s impossible for clubs with both to bounce between. If the cutoff is 1/1, I think you lose the mlsnext 2 clubs that don’t have mlsnext 1. Just not worth the trouble to stay in a second tier league. The question is how much does mlsnext need the money coming in from these clubs?

In addition, mlsnext (like all other leagues) usually adds clubs every year. I can’t see non-mlsnext clubs changing to 8/1 and then next year changing back to 1/1 to join mlsnext. Maybe mlsnext does a big add this year and then no new clubs for the next 4-5 years?

Logistically it just doesn’t make sense for mlsnext to stay 1/1 as the only league doing so. They may dig in their heels and do it anyway… we’ll see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a really good Q3 player why would I let my kid fight gravity? No one is penalized for playing with their age group. Easy decision.

Same - current 2013G starter on ECNL team

But I guess I should clarify she'd be playing at grade level (one of few 6th graders on a team of 7th graders) since she's late sept and went to school "on time" since you all need to know every detail

Exactly my kids situation. 2013B. Everything else is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a really good Q3 player why would I let my kid fight gravity? No one is penalized for playing with their age group. Easy decision.

Same - current 2013G starter on ECNL team

But I guess I should clarify she'd be playing at grade level (one of few 6th graders on a team of 7th graders) since she's late sept and went to school "on time" since you all need to know every detail

Exactly my kids situation. 2013B. Everything else is the same.

High five! - I was a baseball player growing up and Aug/Sept birthdays were always the best. It's changed a few times over the years as has soccer. She has always been one of the smaller kids for club but very average for her own grade. Nice seeing the tables turning now (and she's in the middle of a huge growth spurt right now - just 6-9 months after most of her team).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody discussing the aug older grade playing down when they are in ninth grade and abandoning the team to play high school for half the season while all the 8th graders stay behind. Coaches don’t want that disruption I wouldn’t think. My gut is most kids in that situation play up with grade by coaches choice.

I've been pointing this out for a while. What 8th grade coach wants to roster a grade older player thats wont play with your team for 3-4 months during HS soccer season. On top of that they'll probabaly skip games for things like homecoming, prom, etc.

But dont let reality get in the way of wanting to play down a grade.

Makes no sense, no school's 8th grade team has HS playing for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody discussing the aug older grade playing down when they are in ninth grade and abandoning the team to play high school for half the season while all the 8th graders stay behind. Coaches don’t want that disruption I wouldn’t think. My gut is most kids in that situation play up with grade by coaches choice.

I've been pointing this out for a while. What 8th grade coach wants to roster a grade older player thats wont play with your team for 3-4 months during HS soccer season. On top of that they'll probabaly skip games for things like homecoming, prom, etc.

But dont let reality get in the way of wanting to play down a grade.

Coaches that want to win and progress at the club will take that Aug kid. Kids and teams manage the balancing act all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m having trouble seeing a way that mlsnext stays BY.

Mlsnext 1 and 2 have to have the same cutoff. I think that’s impossible for clubs with both to bounce between. If the cutoff is 1/1, I think you lose the mlsnext 2 clubs that don’t have mlsnext 1. Just not worth the trouble to stay in a second tier league. The question is how much does mlsnext need the money coming in from these clubs?

In addition, mlsnext (like all other leagues) usually adds clubs every year. I can’t see non-mlsnext clubs changing to 8/1 and then next year changing back to 1/1 to join mlsnext. Maybe mlsnext does a big add this year and then no new clubs for the next 4-5 years?

Logistically it just doesn’t make sense for mlsnext to stay 1/1 as the only league doing so. They may dig in their heels and do it anyway… we’ll see what happens.

Taka has listed MLS1 and MLS2 players together and some MLS2 Players play for both MLS1 and MLS2. So we can just wait for the official news that MLSN (except for the Academy) goes to SY.