ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Quick guide for the fall 2026

U19 8/1/2007-7/31, Senior and younger
U17 8/1/2009-7/31, Senior and younger
U16 8/1/2010-7/31, Junior and younger
U15 8/1/2011-7/31, Sophomore and younger
U14 8/1/2012-7/31, Freshman and younger
U13 8/1/2013-7/31, 8th and younger
U12 8/1/2014-7/31, 7th and younger
U11 8/1/2015-7/31, 6th and younger
U10 8/1/2016-7/31, 5th and younger
U9 8/1/2017-7/31, 4th and younger
U8 8/1/2018-7/31, 3rd and younger
U7 8/1/2019-7/31, 2nd and younger

[Anonymous]

100% correct

This one is for next fall when SY starts.

U18/U19; 8/1/2007 - 7/31/2009 ~ Senior
U17; 8/1/2009 - 7/31/2010 ~ Senior
U16; 8/1/2010 - 7/31/2011 ~ Junior
U15; 8/1/2011 - 7/31/2012 ~ Sophomore
U14; 8/1/2012 - 7/31/2013 ~ Freshman
U13; 8/1/2013 - 7/31/2014 ~ 8th
U12; 8/1/2014 - 7/31/2015 ~ 7th
U11; 8/1/2015 - 7/31/2016 ~ 6th
U10; 8/1/2016 - 7/31/2017~ 5th
U9; 8/1/2017 - 7/31/2018 ~ 4th
U8; 8/1/2018 - 7/31/2019 ~ 3rd
U7; 8/1/2019 - 7/31/2020 ~ 2nd
U6; 8/1/2020 - 7/31/2021 ~ 1st

Using U14 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012
4. Players are most likely Freshman or younger

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% correct

This one is for next fall when SY starts.

U18/U19; 8/1/2007 - 7/31/2009 ~ Senior
U17; 8/1/2009 - 7/31/2010 ~ Senior
U16; 8/1/2010 - 7/31/2011 ~ Junior
U15; 8/1/2011 - 7/31/2012 ~ Sophomore
U14; 8/1/2012 - 7/31/2013 ~ Freshman
U13; 8/1/2013 - 7/31/2014 ~ 8th
U12; 8/1/2014 - 7/31/2015 ~ 7th
U11; 8/1/2015 - 7/31/2016 ~ 6th
U10; 8/1/2016 - 7/31/2017~ 5th
U9; 8/1/2017 - 7/31/2018 ~ 4th
U8; 8/1/2018 - 7/31/2019 ~ 3rd
U7; 8/1/2019 - 7/31/2020 ~ 2nd
U6; 8/1/2020 - 7/31/2021 ~ 1st

Using U14 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012
4. Players are most likely Freshman or younger

Wrong please stop relaying wrong info. We get that you dont understand math but it's not an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.

I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.

What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.

So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.

Wow ... A top longtime director in youth soccer basically saying it's case-by-case after consulting with the top part of the system and echoes what's been said locally. This thread can end -- at least the grade part of it -- unless you just want to ignore reality and complain. I bet that NJ ECNL club which say they're prioritizing grade first really are doing what this guy says behind the scenes.

No he said hes planning to split the difference and play Aug birthdays down in league and up in showcases.

Which makes things incredibly difficult for Aug birthdays because they're expected to play up with their grade level only at showcases. Which wont work put well.

It's an obvious thing to do because of the cumulative advantages of RAE (the Matthew Effect) and after puberty, the age group differences are much less than they are when the kids are very young. Everyone, the clubs, the parents, the leagues, the colleges; has already figured this out, play on age when young, easy to address when past puberty.

He also likely knows that Aug birthdays playing on grade down teams will have an incredibly difficult time with recruiting. If this wasnt the case he wouldnt have them play up in showcases so they appear aligned.

Not difficult at all, they have a solution and 90 % of recruiting is from the player.

You cant instagram post your way into changing a coaches mind that players are pathetic for choosing to play on geade down teams.

This is what people mean when they say that misaligned players will get ignored. Theres so many players that want to play in college they dont need to sift through the bargain bin.

Science says the youngest are least likely to advance, that's proof that you are wrong. The youngest get ignored not the oldest.

You opinion just don't carry any weight.

Oh so now you're back to "science"

Checking my watch so I can get a time frame on how long it takes you to start pushing for 36 month older holdbacks to play against younger players at showcases again.

Bad deflection. You opinion just don't carry any weight.

And you can't name a DMV club that offers this play up option for funzies.

Also, there are atl least 5 or so telling up you are a lunatic on this thread. I'm not pushing for showcases by grade or sharing any inside info. That's the other people talking to league and team leadership.

No its all you and your play down agenda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quick guide for the fall 2026

U19 8/1/2007-7/31, Senior and younger
U17 8/1/2009-7/31, Senior and younger
U16 8/1/2010-7/31, Junior and younger
U15 8/1/2011-7/31, Sophomore and younger
U14 8/1/2012-7/31, Freshman and younger
U13 8/1/2013-7/31, 8th and younger
U12 8/1/2014-7/31, 7th and younger
U11 8/1/2015-7/31, 6th and younger
U10 8/1/2016-7/31, 5th and younger
U9 8/1/2017-7/31, 4th and younger
U8 8/1/2018-7/31, 3rd and younger
U7 8/1/2019-7/31, 2nd and younger

This is not correct because a kid might have skipped 2 grades but is playing on their age team. Basically theres too many possible edge cases which means you cant define grade specifics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% correct

This one is for next fall when SY starts.

U18/U19; 8/1/2007 - 7/31/2009 ~ Senior
U17; 8/1/2009 - 7/31/2010 ~ Senior
U16; 8/1/2010 - 7/31/2011 ~ Junior
U15; 8/1/2011 - 7/31/2012 ~ Sophomore
U14; 8/1/2012 - 7/31/2013 ~ Freshman
U13; 8/1/2013 - 7/31/2014 ~ 8th
U12; 8/1/2014 - 7/31/2015 ~ 7th
U11; 8/1/2015 - 7/31/2016 ~ 6th
U10; 8/1/2016 - 7/31/2017~ 5th
U9; 8/1/2017 - 7/31/2018 ~ 4th
U8; 8/1/2018 - 7/31/2019 ~ 3rd
U7; 8/1/2019 - 7/31/2020 ~ 2nd
U6; 8/1/2020 - 7/31/2021 ~ 1st

Using U14 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012
4. Players are most likely Freshman or younger

A single ~ means approximately not "most likely" as defined in the examples that you copied from others

[Anonymous]

Still 100% correct.

This is for next fall when SY starts.

11v11 = U18/U19 = ≤ 8/1/2007 ≈ Senior
11v11 = U17 = ≤ 8/1/2009 ≈ Junior
11v11 = U16 = ≤ 8/1/2010 ≈ Sophmore
11v11 = U15 = ≤ 8/1/2011 ≈ Freshman
11v11 = U14 = ≤ 8/1/2012 ≈ 8th grade
11v11 = U13 = ≤ 8/1/2013 ≈ 7th grade
9v9/11v11 = U12 = ≤ 8/1/2014 ≈ 6th grade
9v9 = U11 = ≤ 8/1/2015 ≈ 5th grade
9v9 = U10 = ≤ 8/1/2016 ≈ 4th grade
7v7 = U9 = ≤ 8/1/2017 ≈ 3rd grade
7v7 = U8 = ≤ 8/1/2018 ≈ 2nd grade
4v4 = U7 = ≤ 8/1/2019 ≈ 1st grade
4v4 = U6 = ≤ 8/1/2020 ≈ Kindergarten

Using U14 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012
4. Players are most likely in 8th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.

I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.

What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.

So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.

Wow ... A top longtime director in youth soccer basically saying it's case-by-case after consulting with the top part of the system and echoes what's been said locally. This thread can end -- at least the grade part of it -- unless you just want to ignore reality and complain. I bet that NJ ECNL club which say they're prioritizing grade first really are doing what this guy says behind the scenes.

No he said hes planning to split the difference and play Aug birthdays down in league and up in showcases.

Which makes things incredibly difficult for Aug birthdays because they're expected to play up with their grade level only at showcases. Which wont work put well.

It's an obvious thing to do because of the cumulative advantages of RAE (the Matthew Effect) and after puberty, the age group differences are much less than they are when the kids are very young. Everyone, the clubs, the parents, the leagues, the colleges; has already figured this out, play on age when young, easy to address when past puberty.

He also likely knows that Aug birthdays playing on grade down teams will have an incredibly difficult time with recruiting. If this wasnt the case he wouldnt have them play up in showcases so they appear aligned.

Not difficult at all, they have a solution and 90 % of recruiting is from the player.

You cant instagram post your way into changing a coaches mind that players are pathetic for choosing to play on geade down teams.

This is what people mean when they say that misaligned players will get ignored. Theres so many players that want to play in college they dont need to sift through the bargain bin.

Science says the youngest are least likely to advance, that's proof that you are wrong. The youngest get ignored not the oldest.

You opinion just don't carry any weight.

Oh so now you're back to "science"

Checking my watch so I can get a time frame on how long it takes you to start pushing for 36 month older holdbacks to play against younger players at showcases again.

Bad deflection. You opinion just don't carry any weight.

And you can't name a DMV club that offers this play up option for funzies.

Also, there are atl least 5 or so telling up you are a lunatic on this thread. I'm not pushing for showcases by grade or sharing any inside info. That's the other people talking to league and team leadership.

No its all you and your play down agenda.

No bunch of people. I see 12 month window no playing down or up as what is happening around DCUM clubs. Not for anything.

[Anonymous]

This is the quick pocket guide version for the fall 2026

U19 8/1/2007-7/31, Senior and younger
U17 8/1/2009-7/31, Senior and younger
U16 8/1/2010-7/31, Junior and younger
U15 8/1/2011-7/31, Soph. and younger
U14 8/1/2012-7/31, Fresh. and younger
U13 8/1/2013-7/31, 8th and younger
U12 8/1/2014-7/31, 7th and younger
U11 8/1/2015-7/31, 6th and younger
U10 8/1/2016-7/31, 5th and younger
U9 8/1/2017-7/31, 4th and younger
U8 8/1/2018-7/31, 3rd and younger
U7 8/1/2019-7/31, 2nd and younger
report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the quick pocket guide version for the fall 2026

U19 8/1/2007-7/31, Senior and younger
U17 8/1/2009-7/31, Senior and younger
U16 8/1/2010-7/31, Junior and younger
U15 8/1/2011-7/31, Soph. and younger
U14 8/1/2012-7/31, Fresh. and younger
U13 8/1/2013-7/31, 8th and younger
U12 8/1/2014-7/31, 7th and younger
U11 8/1/2015-7/31, 6th and younger
U10 8/1/2016-7/31, 5th and younger
U9 8/1/2017-7/31, 4th and younger
U8 8/1/2018-7/31, 3rd and younger
U7 8/1/2019-7/31, 2nd and younger
report

This is not correct because a kid might have skipped 2 grades but is playing on their age team. Basically theres too many possible edge cases which means you cant define grade as specifics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.

I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.

What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.

So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.

Wow ... A top longtime director in youth soccer basically saying it's case-by-case after consulting with the top part of the system and echoes what's been said locally. This thread can end -- at least the grade part of it -- unless you just want to ignore reality and complain. I bet that NJ ECNL club which say they're prioritizing grade first really are doing what this guy says behind the scenes.

No he said hes planning to split the difference and play Aug birthdays down in league and up in showcases.

Which makes things incredibly difficult for Aug birthdays because they're expected to play up with their grade level only at showcases. Which wont work put well.

No, he's serving his customers -- which is to get them recruited and ready to play in college. Late developers/younger grade have a harder road. This helps them not fall through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Heres a fun read...

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2017/08/five-things-to-know-about-birth-year-registration

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.

I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.

What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.

So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.

Wow ... A top longtime director in youth soccer basically saying it's case-by-case after consulting with the top part of the system and echoes what's been said locally. This thread can end -- at least the grade part of it -- unless you just want to ignore reality and complain. I bet that NJ ECNL club which say they're prioritizing grade first really are doing what this guy says behind the scenes.

No he said hes planning to split the difference and play Aug birthdays down in league and up in showcases.

Which makes things incredibly difficult for Aug birthdays because they're expected to play up with their grade level only at showcases. Which wont work put well.

No, he's serving his customers -- which is to get them recruited and ready to play in college. Late developers/younger grade have a harder road. This helps them not fall through the cracks.

Yes train the players a level down than play them a level up in front of college scouts. Definitely sounds like some amazing training going on. Sounds like a setup to fail situation

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So just to be 1000% clear before age guy misinterprets what they're saying.

ECNLdude plans to roster Aug birthdays on grade down teams for league them play them grade correct (up) for showcases. This has NOTHING to do with older players playing down at showcases.

While this does address the alignment issue with college coaches. The problem is the player will be used to competing at a lower level. Then suddenly they'll be expected to play up at their correct grade level in front of college scouts. This is not a situation that typically ends well.

This is a hack so clubs will look good in league at Aug birthdays expense. Just play Aug birthdays on their correct grade in school team and you do t have to deal with all the nonsese and workarounds. And Aug birthdays wont get ignored by college coaches because they're playing on a grade down team.

He actually does cover playing grade down at showcases. This occurs the second year after the season when the Aug birthday who played up (on their correct grade level) in showcaees. In the next season they play in the same Showcase level again (down a grade). This lets them be seen 2x at the grade level (Sophmore) that recruiters are most interested in. Its kind of confusing and I agree with you that its much easier for clubs to play Aug birthdays at their correct grade level.

But whats the advantage? You might look better playing against younger players but you're playing on a grade down team and recruiters will ignore you at that point.

Not that Im advocating this but it would make more sense for an Aug birthday to play up on thier correct grade in school team. Then participate in sophmore showcases generating interest from college coaches. Then the next year when their Junior grade in school is playing in Junior level showcases. They play down in a Sophmore level Showcase again blowing everyone up because they're used to playing older and faster players.

Which club, and which years, since the rule change, is giving the kids a choice whether to play down or play up? Name the club so we can find this new unicorn club? You want to be helpful, tell us where we can go to not have to play down without a choice?

Any club.

Heres how the conversation goes. I want my Aug birthday kid to play on the correct grade in school team. If this doesn't happen we don't pay.

Magically your kid will be placed on a correct grade in school team.

You simply do not know what you are talking about. The kids are not given an option. Period.

You make it sound like the kids are choosing to play down out of their SY. I have not talked to a single person who was given this option. There is not a glut of kids purposely playing down to dominate at a younger age. Just stop.

Literally go on any social media other than DCUM and you'll see that most clubs let parents choose if they want to play on the cirrect grade in school team.

Most parents choose the correct grade team for their kid.

Who cares? Not commuting to the Midwest. This is the DMV area. Any clubs here?

The Midwest ECNL dude basically explained Arlington's policy and what GA clubs are doing. You can put your head in the sand/be denial if you want. Sure, some clubs, mostly at the lower rungs, are emphasizing grade, especially in states where there's a bigger gap between the cutoff and that area's school cutoffs, but top tier clubs want to WIN, get their players recruited and ready for college. That means taking full advantage of the rules based on age and it means helping individuals based on their development needs. Everything most have been saying all along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.

I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.

What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.

So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.

Wow ... A top longtime director in youth soccer basically saying it's case-by-case after consulting with the top part of the system and echoes what's been said locally. This thread can end -- at least the grade part of it -- unless you just want to ignore reality and complain. I bet that NJ ECNL club which say they're prioritizing grade first really are doing what this guy says behind the scenes.

No he said hes planning to split the difference and play Aug birthdays down in league and up in showcases.

Which makes things incredibly difficult for Aug birthdays because they're expected to play up with their grade level only at showcases. Which wont work put well.

No, he's serving his customers -- which is to get them recruited and ready to play in college. Late developers/younger grade have a harder road. This helps them not fall through the cracks.

Yes train the players a level down than play them a level up in front of college scouts. Definitely sounds like some amazing training going on. Sounds like a setup to fail situation

The sense from the video is if you're in ECNL that's all that matters at that point and playing on age gets more exposure for some if needed.