ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

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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.

Thats not what it says.

Although you are correct on trying to convey where he works is the "best". No conflict of interst there.

[Anonymous]

Still 1000% 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: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.

This largely is against everything Aug grade guy assumed would happen at the top tier and contradicts a lot of what he says he knows. He may thinks this is the wrong way to go, but he's going against a guy who was involved in DA, GA and now ECNL at club who's getting players recruited across the country (and probably the 2nd most successful in that state).

[Anonymous]

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.

This largely is against everything Aug grade guy assumed would happen at the top tier and contradicts a lot of what he says he knows. He may thinks this is the wrong way to go, but he's going against a guy who was involved in DA, GA and now ECNL at club who's getting players recruited across the country (and probably the 2nd most successful in that state).

Sounds like these kids are plenty recruitable!

[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

Sounds the recruiting landscape has changed OR you may have not understood all its aspects. He says it's extra advantage for some kids perhaps overlooked early on.

"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."

[Anonymous]

Hahahaha I knew age guy would try to twist this into an advertisement for playing down.

The simple reality is why play up just for showcases if being misaligned and playing down at showcases is no big deal?

ECNL coach is playing misaligned players up on grade correct teams for showcases because he knows college coaches will ignore them if he doesnt.

[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]

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 this way.

[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: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.

Yup, exactly. Double exposure is better than single exposure every time regardless of grouping.

[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

Some kids may be even a grade older if they like as long as their birthday makes them eligible for the age bracket.

[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 U13 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 13 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2013
4. Players are most likely 8th grade or younger

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Yup, exactly. Double exposure is better than single exposure every time regardless of grouping.

Might also be worse to play at a grade down showcases because college coaches would be expecting to identify players that are a specific graduating year.

[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 U13 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 13 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2013
4. Players are most likely 8th grade or younger

Still completely wrong for multiple reasons. Its really apparent that you dont understand math

[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

Some kids may be even a grade older if they like as long as their birthday makes them eligible for the age bracket.

Makes no sense. The extra part you added at the bottom highlights how dumb you are.

[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