Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are really trying to help the players, you have to move off of a yearly calendar. You would group players by their birth months.

So groups would be Jan-march, April-June, July-September and October- December. This would address the problems with the current system.

Look at the players birth month on your team. If you are on a top team it will run something like Jan-March 60%, April-June 25%, July-September 10%, October- December 5%

That would help some players but not others. For example, you'd be doing a disservice to kids with later birthdays who would benefit from and be challenged by playing with stronger earlier birthday kids.

At some point in this quest to make things as equal as possible based on age, you're going to run into individual differences that regrouping isn't going to solve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

The ECNL president/VP both are heavily advocating for it, but you anonymous commenter say it's not happening so I guess I have to agree with you? I'm sorry it didn't help your child, but they wouldn't have put out such a public discussion if it didn't have any merit. The playing with classmates is nice, but ECNL is focused on college recruitment which goes by the academic calendar.

It doesn't matter what the ECNL President/VP want, it was a decision made at US Soccer's level - multiple levels higher than ECNL.

In 2016, US Soccer began using calendar year birth years to determine a player's age for youth soccer programs and competitions, instead of using the school calendar year. This change aligned US Soccer with international standards and Youth National Team programs. Previously, age groups were based on birth dates between August 1 and July 31, but with the new system, age groups are based on birth dates between January 1 and December 31.

US Club Soccer sanctions ECNL and US Club Soccer falls under the US Soccer Federation. The USSF is the official governing body of soccer in the United States as recognized by soccer's international governing body, FIFA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

The ECNL president/VP both are heavily advocating for it, but you anonymous commenter say it's not happening so I guess I have to agree with you? I'm sorry it didn't help your child, but they wouldn't have put out such a public discussion if it didn't have any merit. The playing with classmates is nice, but ECNL is focused on college recruitment which goes by the academic calendar.

It doesn't matter what the ECNL President/VP want, it was a decision made at US Soccer's level - multiple levels higher than ECNL.

In 2016, US Soccer began using calendar year birth years to determine a player's age for youth soccer programs and competitions, instead of using the school calendar year. This change aligned US Soccer with international standards and Youth National Team programs. Previously, age groups were based on birth dates between August 1 and July 31, but with the new system, age groups are based on birth dates between January 1 and December 31.

US Club Soccer sanctions ECNL and US Club Soccer falls under the US Soccer Federation. The USSF is the official governing body of soccer in the United States as recognized by soccer's international governing body, FIFA.

So it seems you are saying that they will keep the calendar year and create an exception for kids born between Aug and Dec and on grade to play a year down. They could limit the number "playing down" also.

Makes sense as there are already trap player exceptions, biobanding exceptions, etc.

Ummm no. Calendar year. No exceptions. That is what is happening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

The ECNL president/VP both are heavily advocating for it, but you anonymous commenter say it's not happening so I guess I have to agree with you? I'm sorry it didn't help your child, but they wouldn't have put out such a public discussion if it didn't have any merit. The playing with classmates is nice, but ECNL is focused on college recruitment which goes by the academic calendar.

It doesn't matter what the ECNL President/VP want, it was a decision made at US Soccer's level - multiple levels higher than ECNL.

In 2016, US Soccer began using calendar year birth years to determine a player's age for youth soccer programs and competitions, instead of using the school calendar year. This change aligned US Soccer with international standards and Youth National Team programs. Previously, age groups were based on birth dates between August 1 and July 31, but with the new system, age groups are based on birth dates between January 1 and December 31.

US Club Soccer sanctions ECNL and US Club Soccer falls under the US Soccer Federation. The USSF is the official governing body of soccer in the United States as recognized by soccer's international governing body, FIFA.

So it seems you are saying that they will keep the calendar year and create an exception for kids born between Aug and Dec and on grade to play a year down. They could limit the number "playing down" also.

Makes sense as there are already trap player exceptions, biobanding exceptions, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

The ECNL president/VP both are heavily advocating for it, but you anonymous commenter say it's not happening so I guess I have to agree with you? I'm sorry it didn't help your child, but they wouldn't have put out such a public discussion if it didn't have any merit. The playing with classmates is nice, but ECNL is focused on college recruitment which goes by the academic calendar.

It doesn't matter what the ECNL President/VP want, it was a decision made at US Soccer's level - multiple levels higher than ECNL.

In 2016, US Soccer began using calendar year birth years to determine a player's age for youth soccer programs and competitions, instead of using the school calendar year. This change aligned US Soccer with international standards and Youth National Team programs. Previously, age groups were based on birth dates between August 1 and July 31, but with the new system, age groups are based on birth dates between January 1 and December 31.

US Club Soccer sanctions ECNL and US Club Soccer falls under the US Soccer Federation. The USSF is the official governing body of soccer in the United States as recognized by soccer's international governing body, FIFA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

The ECNL president/VP both are heavily advocating for it, but you anonymous commenter say it's not happening so I guess I have to agree with you? I'm sorry it didn't help your child, but they wouldn't have put out such a public discussion if it didn't have any merit. The playing with classmates is nice, but ECNL is focused on college recruitment which goes by the academic calendar.

Anonymous wrote:If you are really trying to help the players, you have to move off of a yearly calendar. You would group players by their birth months.

So groups would be Jan-march, April-June, July-September and October- December. This would address the problems with the current system.

Look at the players birth month on your team. If you are on a top team it will run something like Jan-March 60%, April-June 25%, July-September 10%, October- December 5%

Anonymous wrote:It's not happening. We are in the last season for the kids that had to switch age groups.

Someone has to be the young one regardless of how it's set up. Travel soccer is not meant to play with your friends, it's meant to play with other kids at your level. If you want your kid to play with their friends, then go play rec.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard another podcast where they explained that in addition to the trapped player problem, they are finding kids in the school year may be less likely to quit the sport if they are playing with their school friends vs. soccer friends. They said the number of kids quitting soccer is extremely high and some feel having a stronger cohort of schoolmates / teammates would lessen the number of kids leaving soccer.

We've seen a few kids quit travel soccer for this very reason. Aug–Dec birthday kid always had to play up an age bracket compared to classmates and got into the 'B' team track. Eventually as trapped 8th graders they basically quit playing.

That said being, travel programs (for example) don't have to follow BY. Some state travel programs essentially have stayed with school year and avoided this problem. Other programs have chosen to play their strong teams "up" a year in the fall to give those kids a place to play. It doesn't seem to be a big problem and actually gives the younger players a good challenge.

Now when it comes to ECNL players, I do wonder: How many realistic college prospects actually prioritize playing with their classmates?