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]https://www.columbusforcesoccer.com/transition-to-grade-year

) August Birthdays & Academic Grade Alignment
Our transition to the Academic Grade Year system is designed to better align a player’s soccer experience with their school experience. One common question involves players born in August, especially those whose birthdays fall after the August 1st national cutoff.

For example, a player born on August 15th would technically fall into the younger grade-year bracket under the national rule. However, that same player may already be in the higher academic grade at school and want to play alongside their classmates.

At Columbus Force SC, our priority is social cohesion and developmental fit. While the August 1st cutoff is used nationally to align the majority of players within a grade, we recognize that school district enrollment dates vary. This means some players may be “young” for their academic grade based on their birth date alone.

Our Approach
Because our Technical Leadership believes that development always comes first, these situations will be handled on a case-by-case basis. If a player is academically in a higher grade than their birth date indicates, [b]the club will work to place them in their true academic grade year (playing up).[/b] Our goal is to ensure every player is in the best “classroom” for their growth. If that means playing with their actual school classmates to support social development and create a smoother path to high school soccer, the club supports that alignment[/quote]More case by case no forced playing up. Bit of a theme.

"All decisions regarding flexible placement will be made thoughtfully by the technical staff on a case-by-case basis."

Heck, you even have to fill out a voluntary Google form to let them you are misaligned because they don't know any ones grades.to even try to force them up.[/quote]
You obviously cant read

"If a player is academically in a higher grade than their birth date indicates, [b]the club will work to place them in their true academic grade year (playing up).[/b] Our goal is to ensure every player is in the best “classroom” for their growth. If that means playing with their actual school classmates to support social development and create a smoother path to high school soccer, the club supports that alignment"[/quote]

More selective reading on YOUR part. It's not forced. Read carefully.

"If a player is academically in a higher grade than their birth date indicates, the club will work to place them in their true academic grade year (playing up). [b]Our goal[/b] is to ensure every player is in the best “classroom” for their growth. [b]If that [/b]means playing with their actual school classmates to support social development and create a smoother path to high school soccer, the club supports that alignment"[/quote]
Seems very clear that they intend to play Aug birthdays on their correct grade in school team. Be it the coreect grade in school A team or B team.

You think youve found a weasel way to play down. Reality will make sure it does t happen. Sorry, but your holdback and participate in High School soccer at whatever grade they identify as.[/quote]

No, this isn't a game. This is a big country with people RIGHTLY choosing the route they want to go and so far the emphasis on grade -- if there is one -- has been with MORE with clubs further down the pyramid, especially within states, while elite clubs MOSTLY have decided to do what's best for the player ... This is reality. Just like ECNL dude talks about and why ... You just can't bring yourself to admit it.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. [b]So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.[/b]

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if [b]I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots.[/b] There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

[b]Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.[/b]

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … [b]So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.[/b]
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