Reply to ECNL moving to school year part 2

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Stars Blue parents are saying that Stars is picking some Aug birthdays to play with their grade in school team and forcing others to play grade down.

This will go over well.[/quote]

Seems fine if it's about soccer ability.[/quote]
Forcing players to play down a grade makes them easy recruitment targets by other clubs. [/quote]

If they care about grade. Not all do.[/quote]
They all care about getting recruited and therefore care about playing on their grade in school team.[/quote]

Who is they?
Parents with the kids highly desired by D1 colleges aren't thinking about this crap.[/quote]D3 good academic schools are the ticket anyway. Just get the grades, become a good player in whatever age group and then your set. [/quote]

Exactly. And beware of parents who just want to rail against kids for following the rules, like playing on age.[/quote]
Playing with your grade is 100% allowed by the rules.[/quote]Playing with your grade isn't guaranteed and the crux of the last 500 pages.

US Soccer choose birthdays instead grades for national fairness and safety and birthdays are factual while grades are more wishy washy.

As shown here

Will players be organized strictly by their school grade? No. Players will be organized by "School-Year Age Groups" (August 1-July 31), not by their specific academic grade.

Here is the difference: While the new system will naturally align most players with their classmates, "Grade Level" is an academic designation that varies from family to family (due to children starting school early or late, repeating a year, or varying state enrollment dates).

"School-Year Age Groups" use a strict national birthdate range (August 1 to July 31). This ensures a nationwide consistent, fair, and objective standard for safety and competition, regardless of a player’s individual academic path.

Why are teams organized by the August 1–July 31 date range rather than strictly by "Grade Level"? While the new age group system is often referred to as "School Year" because it aligns better with school grades than the calendar year, we will use the nationwide age groupings of August 1st to July 31st date range for **safety and fairness**.

We cannot organize strictly by "Grade" because grade levels are variable, whereas birth dates are factual. Organizing strictly by grade can create significant risks:

The Age Gap Risk: Because kids start school at different ages, are held back, or skip grades, a single grade level can include children whose ages span 2+ years.
Physical Safety: We already see significant physical differences within a standard 12-month age gap. If we were to widen that window to 24+ months (as seen in strict grade-based grouping), the physical disparity becomes dangerous. A "held-back" 13-year-old competing against a young 11-year-old in the same grade poses a real safety concern.
Developmental Fairness: When age gaps widen beyond 12 months, the disparity in talent and physical maturity widens considerably. Keeping the grouping within the August 1–July 31 window ensures players compete with and against peers of similar physiological, emotional, and social maturity.[/quote]

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