Reply to Important Update: US Soccer Birth Year Change

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Important Update: US Soccer Birth Year Change "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think SY is better for the sport to increase its popularity.  It's less about trapped players and more about having kids playing with friends.[/quote]

My pro-SY opinion was formed many years ago at about U10.  Two of my daughter's best friends were on her teams in AYSO, also Fall birthdays.  They were arguably two of the best players in our AYSO region, probably the same or slightly stronger than my daughter.  My daughter started club soccer at that time, which was a rough transition joining much bigger girls from the grade above, most of whom had been doing club for two years.  We tried to convince her AYSO friends/parents to join, but when they found out club was BY (AYSO was SY) they said the girls didn't want to play with girls from the class above as that didn't sound fun.  Tried again every year, same answer.  Fast forward to U12 as AYSO teams were dying, and they decide to tryout for club.  By this point my daughter had worked from B team to A team, and her friends were really only shooting for B team knowing they could be years behind.  Couldn't even make B team, so quit soccer for other sports.  These two still are good athletes.  One is small but insanely fast and can run forever.  I'm sure they could have joined another club, but this was the closest one so they viewed it as this one or nothing even though it's an aggressive goal to make this club as a good rec player at U12.  I see no reason, athletically, that those friends, especially the super fast one, wouldn't be as good as my daughter today if they had started club at the same time.  And I know first-hand they didn't start club earlier because of the BY cutoff.

My older daughter didn't play past AYSO, but a friend of hers at school, who we are friends with as parents, also said she didn't transition from AYSO to club because she had a Fall birthday and didn't want to play with girls above at those ages.  Best player in the league, for sure, in AYSO days.  Better than the girl in that class with a Spring birthday who now years later looks headed for D1 soccer (from ECNL/NL).  According to the girls, this girl is still today by a wide margin the fastest girl in the grade, and she's a lacrosse star.  The club intake issue is real from what I've watched.  [/quote]
Funny, my kid has a Sept birthday and played AYSO for a couple of years. I was even coach for 2 seasons.

She asked to play club against better players. She made the top team (with players a grade up in school) and has played on the top team ever since.

Maybe it's not playing with kids their grade in school that your kid chose to stop playing.

Ironically, since the whole BY vs SY debate coaches have been reaching out because they see that my kid can continue to play at the age their playing now or potentially down an age group if things change.

I think it's all stupid and a distracting waste of time. At the highest levels it doesn't matter if your kids a trapped player or not. Colleges will identify them.[/quote]

For every kid like your daughter, there is absolutely an equally good player who doesn't try club because she doesn't want to play without her friends or is shy/scared of older girls. The US is socialized around SY. It absolutely makes BY-based activities less socially attractive to kids in Aug/Sep-Dec. You are probably right that for the very best players, they will find a way. But 95% of kids who play travel soccer will ultimately not care about college or pros. Travel soccer is for them too. The idea that good athletes should stick to only rec if they don't want to go pro -- especially  in an area where everyone good at soccer leaves rec for travel -- is just dumb.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics