Reply to US soccer rumors of changing back age groups?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I never really get all the "grade year" arguments. We did not have a "grade year" cutoff in soccer before.  August 1st was not grade year - it is two months off of the Virginia school cutoff date.  So in Virginia soccer we went from 2 months off the school cutoff with Aug 1st to 3 months off the cutoff with birth year.  But this 5 month move completely changed who received the relative age advantage which I think is the root of all these discussions not "grade year".[/quote]

Completely agree.  [/quote]

You're being obtuse.  Particularly with boys, August 1 was a fairly good proxy for grade level; the majority of boys born in August or September are sent to school late.  It's not a perfect grade level cutoff, but it's probably as close as you could get without doing an actual grade level cutoff like in basketball, where 14-year-old seventh graders who were held back play against seventh graders who just turned 12.[/quote]

Whats your source for the percentage of boys with August or September birthdays redshirting?  I cannot imagine it’s anywhere close to a “majority.” I agree using a grade level cutoff is a disastrous idea for the reasons you mention, and the same sad scenario with double hold-backs happened in lacrosse for many years as well.

I have no concerns with the old soccer cutoff, which didn’t hold my June and July kids back in any discernible way, nor do I have one with the current cutoff.  But the PP is correct that there was never any public outcry on behalf of the kids who were separated from their grade-mates under the old system and faced these exact same “trapped” scenarios.  Much of the criticism of the 2016 change has come from those whose kids were “winners” under the old system and “losers” under the new. [/quote]

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