Reply to US Soccer age changes - what are the area leagues doing? are all the kids moving up? u11-u13

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The age cut off for all us soccer leagues will be January 1.  There will be no more "u9" or "u11"  Teams will be referred to as 2005 etc. . . based on the year kids were born.

Initially there will be a fair amount of restructuring for teams.  Yes some teams/clubs will say "we will just play you up", but that does not help kids who will then be among the youngest on the team versus being among the oldest on the team.  It is never a good idea to play up unless your kid really is just eating up the competition at this age level, and you cannot move him/her to a higher level of play at that same age.

US Soccer will NOT grandfather in kids already playing.  State organizations under the US Soccer umbrella are making the call whether to (a) convert everyone starting with next summer's tryouts; (b) convert everyone in the summer of 2017; or (c) allow local leagues to decide for themselves whether to convert this coming summer or next.  It seems like most states as saying -- convert this summer.  That, in turn, will affect how big tournaments are handled as teams will likely need to be set up to comply with the Jan 1 age cutoff.

Again -- DO NOT have your kid play up simply because it is easier for a club, or to "stay together".  Your kid will make friends playing on their appropriate age team.         [/quote]

I agree with most of this post, but wanted to make a couple of points.  First, I don't think State organizations will have too much say over when the change happens.  USYSA and US Club have already announced that they'll be implementing the change for this coming Fall, and I think most State organizations belong to one or the other, so they'll have to follow along.

There still will be "U9", "U10" etc., because you need to have general categories that apply to the rules for each age group (field size, roster size, etc.), and the soccer bodies won't want to update their materials each year.  There will just be a one year transition period during which the Fall birthday kids will move up an age group (say from U9 to U10) as they would have without the change, and the Jan-July kids will stay in the same age group they currently are in if they don't play up (current U9s will be U9s next year again).

Going back to the OP, decisions about allowing kids to play up with their old teams vs. being divided by calendar year will not be made by leagues, it will be made by clubs and/or teams.[/quote]

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