Travel Soccer Age Question

[Anonymous]

Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

Don't think of the age groups as describing your son's current age. And remember the age group describes not just the fall season but both the fall and spring seasons -- from August to July -- so some kids born in 2003 will turn 14 during their U14 soccer year.

[Anonymous]

Remember that the U stands for Under. The U14 team is for kids under 14.

[Anonymous]

ugh. We got our asses kicked all weekend by some kids who we're pretty sure are 2 years older than some of our kids. That sucked. I had forgotten that "U9" means that my seven-year-old could be going up against nine year olds. Some of those kids were gigantic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ugh. We got our asses kicked all weekend by some kids who we're pretty sure are 2 years older than some of our kids. That sucked. I had forgotten that "U9" means that my seven-year-old could be going up against nine year olds. Some of those kids were gigantic.

There are such disparities in size at these younger age groups. Another parent and I were talking about how six months makes such a difference at U11. Unless your kid is playing up to an older age group, I would hope that there are not kids two years older in the same game. That would be cheating.

My son played up at U9 and U10. This year at U11, he's finally playing at his age group. But the November birthday still puts him at a physical disadvantage to some of the kids who have birthdays in the early part of the year. At least the difference isn't as pronounced as it was when he was playing up. I definitely feel your pain because at this age, the physically superior kids are much faster, win more balls, and can really dominate the smaller kids. It does toughen them up, if you're looking for a positive! We have several 07s playing on our 06 team and they are some of the toughest kids out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ugh. We got our asses kicked all weekend by some kids who we're pretty sure are 2 years older than some of our kids. That sucked. I had forgotten that "U9" means that my seven-year-old could be going up against nine year olds. Some of those kids were gigantic.

U9 means 2008. So there aren't any kids in U9 that are born before 1/1/2008. There are no 9-year-olds in U9 right now. Most of the kids are 8 already, and some will turn 8 later in this calendar year, unless they're playing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

Don't think of the age groups as describing your son's current age. And remember the age group describes not just the fall season but both the fall and spring seasons -- from August to July -- so some kids born in 2003 will turn 14 during their U14 soccer year.

OP here-I understand that some of the kids will turn 14 during the fall and spring seasons, it's just that NONE of the kids on his team that were forced to move up to the new age group actually will; some of the kids are still 12 and others, like my son, just turned 13.

[Anonymous]

U stands for under. So the 12 year olds will more than likely turn 13 during the season. 13 is a lower number than 14 thus in this way of thinking is Under or U

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

Don't think of the age groups as describing your son's current age. And remember the age group describes not just the fall season but both the fall and spring seasons -- from August to July -- so some kids born in 2003 will turn 14 during their U14 soccer year.

OP here-I understand that some of the kids will turn 14 during the fall and spring seasons, it's just that NONE of the kids on his team that were forced to move up to the new age group actually will; some of the kids are still 12 and others, like my son, just turned 13.

Ok, that means that every kid on your U14 team was born in the last five months of 2003. That is an unusual coincidence, but your son's team is still a U14 team since the boys on it were born in 2003 or later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

My 10-year old is on U-12. Late Fall 2005 birthday. He will never be 12 Spring or fall seasons.

You need to just call it by birth year. It sounds less painful.

Your son plays 2003. Nobody can be born earlier than 1/1/03.

[Anonymous]

I wish they would just get rid of age bands and call it by birth year now. So 2002, 2003, 2004 etc birth year (or younger) teams. less confusing.

[Anonymous]

Agreed. I thought they had already changed it to the year of birth.

[Anonymous]

The beginning of the calendar year in January doesn't make any sense for a yearly soccer season that starts in August. Maybe their tryouts need to be held in late fall instead of the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would just get rid of age bands and call it by birth year now. So 2002, 2003, 2004 etc birth year (or younger) teams. less confusing.

USSF has to keep the U-designations because that is what determines the size of the soccer ball used, the size of field, size of goals, number of players on field, size of rosters, number of minutes per game, etc.

There is no other logical way to keep track of those elements of soccer that change as the player ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like most travel soccer clubs, ours changed age cut-offs this year. What I don't understand is why kids like my son, who are just turning 13 after September 1st are on the 14U team. My son won't be 14 at any time during this soccer season. It doesn't make any sense.

Your team should have a name that says '03'. Kids born in 2003 would be this years' U14's. Your son was born in 2003 if he just turned 13 last month. If he is on a team that has a name with '02' then he is playing up.