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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Playing with your grade makes sense. I think it would keep more kids involved in competitive soccer. It is a fact that some athletic kids move on to other sports from lost opportunity. My daughter is young in the ulittles, her best friend is dying to play with her and can't because they are born different years. She is doing rec instead and another sport more competitive. I'm not saying this girl is the next Alex Morgan, or even that she won't end up in travel down the road, but thousands and thousands of these small examples add up for impact on participation. I personally quit soccer way back and moved on to other sports because I couldn't play travel with my grade. I missed the cutoff by a few days. I was able to play other sports with my friends and got more into those. I was nothing special, but again, all these things add up.

The biggest problem to that, however, is that states have different cutoffs. September 1 is by far the most common with some more earlier/later in August or September. Very few, most notably pockets around NY, use calendar year. There's no perfect answer but I say pick something that works for the most people and maybe give a 30-day buffer for an outlier based on that jurisdictions cutoff. Are we really gonna be up in arms if a girl born August 15 plays because that state has August 1st? This really only screws the calendar year school districts, which are a small minority. I have no good solution for that.[/quote]

For me, the "play with schoolmates" issue is very short-sighted.  Yes, there "could" be friends on the same team, but my DD plays on a team with 18 girls and none attend to her school, yes even those in same grade.  They come from all over.  Think if you live in a dense county or DC even, chances are you live in same MS or HS district will be very rare.[/quote]

This may be true for megaclubs and older ages, but this is about participation as a whole. In a lot of the country and with smaller clubs, a lot of soccer IS where many of the kids go to school together, or a cluster of schools where people know each other in that town. Kids coming from all over is not the norm for the masses and most of the country. If a change is made, it is to get more little kids into soccer and more to stick with it as they hit the teenage years. The bigger picture is very different than your DDs type of team, albeit many on here also have kids on that type of team.[/quote]

So, crux is, there is no 'on field' benefit, just to each their own.  Blow up clubs - again - for one reason that doesn't benefit a majority.  I could easily say then play HS ball and let mega clubs, with girls and boys with aspirations of college and beyond, compete based on the international standard.  Likely, US Soccer could make any rules for <U13 and then start playing by "the rules" come U13.  Either way, you're blowing up mega teams and competitive teams for those who would "like" to have friends on the team.  About as selfish as a reason ever.[/quote]

I'd actually argue that to harp on about a tiny percentage of elite, older teams at the expense of encouraging greater participation for hundreds of thousands or millions of kids across the country is about as selfish as it gets.[/quote]

Only reason kids play sports is because of friends?  I dont think that is true.[/quote]

Of course not only, but absolutely it encourages it. I used to coach my daughter's rec team and half the girls started out because they were friends with my daughter and/or parents knowing me. Absolutely positively a resounding "yes" that playing with friends is a big factor at the younger ages. Not the only, and not for all, but for sure a factor for many. Heck, a girl just joined my DDs ulittle travel team who is friends with another girl from school.

Again, not saying it is the only factor, and maybe there are good competitive reasons to keep birth year. But I honestly don't think it is even debatable that being able to play with your grade, and in turn friends, encourages participation. How MUCH it matters in the big picture who knows, but can anyone seriously argue that the birth year rule fosters BETTER youth participation than playing by grade?[/quote]

Rec can and always were allowed to keep school year. But there is no need in travel. Birth year works just fine. There is always a cutoff and if a kid quits because a friend is on another team then they really were not that into the sport anyway. [/quote]

You definitely have bought into the prevailing thought in youth soccer that the goal should be to cull the herd so that only the best and most dedicated remain. That's not what this is about. [/quote]

You seem to think that travel soccer is nothing more than an activity that "friends" are entitled to play on the same team together forever. Kids who stop playing because they are no longer on the same team as their friends are doing so because they did not make the same team as their friends did in the travel environment. Lots of kids never play soccer or other sports they were introduced to beyond elementary school and that is just fine. Kids fine other interests and make new friends or at least expand their social circle.

You parents who think travel soccer continues with the post game snack schedule and parents who keep trying to social engineer the same 5 friends together on the rec team are in for a rude surprise at travel.

Once in middle school kids fine the team and level of soccer that is appropriate for them competitive wise. It is no longer just about being with school friends. Going to school year will not make enough difference in team selection nor the ability to keep friends together. It just isn't how competitive sports work. [/quote]

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