ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

How many hold back are scholorship material? I think football and Basketball are very different landscapes. Min GPA is 1.75 for football.... Pretty sure that wont cut it for D1 soccer...

[Anonymous]

Statement from our club:

US Soccer made an announcement last week that they will not change the player registration from Birth Year to School Year for the 2025/2026 season. I have attached a PDF at the bottom of the email for you to look at. Over the next few weeks, we expect US Soccer to come out with more information and more guidance for clubs.

Thank you again for all your time, commitment and support you give our players, coaches and the club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When does the next podcast come out? Do you think they’ll actually have solid info?

Wednesday. What are the odds they address age changes in any way?

Given their acknowledgment that the vote was taking place on prior podcasts, I’d expect them to mention it.

However, in terms of change management I think having local clubs deliver the details in a message would be best.

So, I’m predicting they announce a fall change on the podcast and indicate clubs will be providing more details on what it means for them in January.

[Anonymous]

There are some states with an 8/1 cutoff. Their parents didn’t hold them back, but they were born in August. They would still be trapped with a 9/1 date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some states with an 8/1 cutoff. Their parents didn’t hold them back, but they were born in August. They would still be trapped with a 9/1 date.

Agree which states? and are there more or less compared to other age cutoffs?

[Anonymous]

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab5_3.asp interesting table to level set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grad year! 2026!!!

They can't base it solely on graduation year as too many people would game the system by holding their kids back. Im basing this off the homeschool families who already train 2 hours a day at home school just to gain a clear technical advantage. (Hats off to them.) But that would also open the door for people to hold kids back 1-3 years to dominate and guarantee college scholarships. You'd have 20 year olds competing against 17 year olds for college slots and scholarships. (It would not be widespread, but you would create a scenario where it would easily be taken advantage of.)

Just Look at Freddy Adu, no one believed that kid was the age they said he was. Although thats just speculation, but that is the kind of imbalance you would create with grouping bases solely on Graduation Year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Statement from our club:

US Soccer made an announcement last week that they will not change the player registration from Birth Year to School Year for the 2025/2026 season. I have attached a PDF at the bottom of the email for you to look at. Over the next few weeks, we expect US Soccer to come out with more information and more guidance for clubs.

Thank you again for all your time, commitment and support you give our players, coaches and the club.

US club is going to be coming out soon with “additional” information for their clubs going forward as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know a single August kid that wasn’t held back

Generalizations are not always true. YMMV.

My DC team has a July birthday kid in 7th grade, while my August birthday DC is in 8th grade. State cutoff is 9/1. FWIW, the July birthday is in private school, my DC is in a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know a single August kid that wasn’t held back

Wow! I don't know one who has .

And I know several September kids who were pushed ahead.

[Anonymous]

College Soccer Truth says we will get an update about ECNL’s plans for 2025 tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

Uh oh, plans for 2025!! 500 pages here we come!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uh oh, plans for 2025!! 500 pages here we come!

415 by the end of this weekend! It’s going to happen.

And to kick start things - ECNL is the second best league on both the boys and girls side.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I just don’t see ECNL doing as much as some people hope they will do. I could see them addressing the trapped player problem in some way for next year’s crop of 8th graders but even that’s a long shot.

I will say I’ve seen this posted everywhere but have not seen US club or ECNL post the announcement plan that came out.

ECNL has nothing to do with HS soccer…why do people keep trotting out the 8th grade issue like it’s a grand injustice.

The lower grade players on a club team still get 4 years of HS soccer if they want to play HS soccer…they just don’t get it at the same time the 9th graders on their club team are able to play HS soccer. If you’re on an NPL or classic team, sure maybe those awful but extra touches are helpful. But if you’re playing ECNL (and your ECNL club allows you to play HS soccer…which many do not) then HS soccer reps are bad reps, and the 8th grader that is making up for it by playing in club, or grinding with a trainer will be 1000x better off.

Another BY wacko that has no clue how things work. Ofcourse ECNL allows HS play, lookup the history and why everyone gravitated to ECNL in the first place. ECNL has ALOT to do with HS soccer. ENCL kids aren't playing at school to get better BTW, life isn't all about going pro for these kids. Even the phenoms want to help their HS win state championship and ball out in front of classmates from time to time.

And if you don't care about the 8th grade issue then you're just a BY leftover trying to justify why the current system isn't that bad. I'm sorry, but your January kid is now going to compete the December kid sitting right next to them in history class. Maybe that is why your kid doesn't play in HS, because it would expose how inferior they are to the Q3/Q4 kids in the SAME grade. What a broken system...

News flash, many if not most ECNL clubs do not allow their players to play HS until they’re committed to a college.

That is a patently false statement. ECNL thrived where DA didn't in large part because it allowed for HS participation. ECNL for U-15-U19 is only for one season, whereas U-13/U-14 is for the whole year. Why? Because of the direct conflict with HS soccer. Regardless of your opinion of HS soccer, ECNL clubs work closely with the High Schools in many regions. Heck, a lot of High School work at those clubs too.

You’re not correct. And it depends on the ECNL club…the most competitive (and many that want to be the most competitive) DO NOT allow it. Does “ECNL” allow for it? Yes. But that doesn’t mean clubs have to allow for it.

Tons of reasons for this. They don’t want to lose time un-coaching bad HS practices, they don’t want added work and wear on their athletes, they want to minimize injuries, they want to make sure the athlete is getting the right exposure to the schools they want to target, etc.

One of the big selling points for RL in many markets is that the kids have the time and freedom to play HS soccer if that is important to them. And I can tell you, for kids that playing HS soccer is important enough to drop to RL or play for a bottom ECNL club, is a kid that has already capped their soccer career.

I know this much. The 2024 09 Boys National Champions were SC Surf having beaten vaunted Pipeline in the final match. Every single one of them played HS ball. Facts. But perhaps that team isn't among "the most competitive" to you.

Maybe your club's ECNL prohibits HS play, but painting all of ECNL with such a broad brush is wrong. The ECNL Southeast clubs only play in the Fall. There is no club option for them in the Spring for U15-U19.

Nobody said all ECNL…you made that up in order to argue.

The original poster definitely painted a broad brush and tried to imply that high level ECNL players don't play HS. Everyone here is calling bull. I'm in SoCal and everyone plays HS ball here. Just look at all the recruiting profiles online. Its part of the marketing package. So and so played for xyz club and helped their HS team win CIF championship, blah blah. The idea that high level recruits don't play HS, at least on the girls side is silly. Not as familiar with the boys side but multiple kids quit MLSN for the sole reason of playing HS. Ban kids from their school sports at your own peril. The season is only a couple months long, seems dumb to take that stance in a competitive market where top kids have options.

This is ECNL…define “high level recruit”. D1 ain’t what it used to be.

D1 is the destination for everyone I know. Nobody is sending their daughter across the world to play soccer. Boys might be different, IDK. But high level recruit is national team members courted by top 10 schools.

The point I’m making is that there D1 is a vast landscape. Being a D1 tier recruit is not high level. There are bench warmers that are D1 level recruits.

It happens. I know of a couple of players who were among the best in their state, recruited by and were on a top-tier D1 team and rarely saw the field in college. They got a good education, at least. Except for the world's-best, everyone is humbled eventually.

Even the worlds best are humbled eventually. Pulisic is arguably the best player the US ever produced (well, kindof...took the Germans to intervene and identify the talent. He barely sniffed the field at Chelsea. Lesson for all the Q4 parents rejoicing...if you're the best player on the field, you're on the wrong field.

Great point about development. But keep in mind there is a small contingent of militant Q4 parents in this thread that are saying “my kid isn’t the best on the field, maybe not even on the same field, but this cut-off changed makes them the best now, and it will be glorious.”

You got it. This is my situation. My daughter is not the best on her current team but zero doubt in my mind she'll run circles around the girls a year down. My daughter regularly guests up 2-3 years. This change is almost laughable how good she'll be compared to her peers. I just feel bad for her schoolmates that thought they were good. Maybe I'll be proven wrong and she'll continue to be only top 7 on her next team. But at her age the size and speed difference is insane. She hasn't practiced with the younger group yet, they aren't allowed anywhere near the older girls because they'll get crushed, and maybe even hurt. Judging by the coaches sniffing around though, my daughter has her pick of team and position in 2026. We'll see....

No she does not guest up 2-3 years. BS

Maybe the daughter plays classic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College Soccer Truth says we will get an update about ECNL’s plans for 2025 tomorrow!

If you review all his previous messages with "ECNL Director," you will see that 25/26 is for clubs to reorg the player pool.

So I bet tomorrow ECNL will announce their plan for 25/26 that corresponds to this "reorg the player pool"