I have a "trapped" kid (he's a freshman in college now.) It was very disruptive. His team (mostly 06s, a handful of 05s) got completely split up. They had been the A team and the 05s got split among the older A and B teams. The 06s were the majority but at least half left to go to different clubs because they felt like they were being demoted and the club didn't want them to play up. It wasn't chaotic or confusing, just disappointing because they had had a nice team.

I think that this one will be much less disruptive because the change will affect fewer kids. I think it will be easier for kids and clubs to be flexible with that small number and evaluate whether it makes sense to play up or move to grade level.

For what it's worth, I think going back to the way it was makes sense for youth soccer. My remaining two travel players are summer birthdays so they will now become the smallest/youngest players but I still think it will help the sport to allow kids to play with classmates.

My daughter played up a year then age group due to the change. It was fine.

Anonymous wrote:When is the change happening?

Go and read the other two threads on this topic. Everything that has come out leans significantly to this happening. There is a vote on Nov. 22nd that would make it official. After which point they provide guidance on time-line and implementation. Anyone stating when this will happen is only speculating.

When is the change happening?

Kid with Fall birthday who would have gone from stronger team member with peers in his grade to youngest and who knows how strong compared to older teammates.

Luckily, he played in MSI's Classic League which allowed, and still allows, fall bday kids to play with their school peers (uses an 18 month year). Happily played all through HS

Anonymous wrote:The amount of chaos will be very specific to individual teams. If your player is currently on a team with no or very few late birthdays (Sept-Dec) then impact could be nothing.

If your current team has a lot of late birthdays then you COULD lose a lot of players but not necessarily because they might choose to stay and play up.

If the team one year older at your club has a lot of late birthdays then your team might get a bunch of new players who could bump existing ones.

In an ideal world, the number of players coming and going would be equal and disruption will be minimal. But there will certainly be uneven amounts from club to club and team to team, so it’s impossible to apply it generally.

Either way, after a year players will settle and it will be fine.

I think my DD is on a travel team with too many players (including starters) who will be bumped down because of the change. And even if the club let’s them play up, I don’t see a reason for them to stay — might as well make the transition now and be the biggest and best on a younger age group that you’re graduating with.

And at the same time I don’t think the age group older than her team now has many that would move down. Essentially I think my DD’s team will suck after this change so we’ll probably be looking to make a club change. But then it’s hard to know what the consequences will be at the other clubs either. 😬

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

It's all in the phrasing. There has to be a cut off, school year makes more sense in a country where high school sports are a big deal than birth year (parent of an 8th grade 2010 wondering what their team will look like in the spring)

I don't agree with you and believe what you stated is opinion not fact.


You wanted to know how things went last time and I told you. It was much easier.

BY to SY will cause all kinds of tensions on teams. However 6 months after the change nobody will care.

Easier for who? You? You must not have a trapped player. It was disruptive as hell. Teams were broken up. Change is hard--always is, always will be. But I agree it will settle down in about 6 months and then all will move forward.

I said it was easier because it's less disruptive to move players up an age group because nobody potentially gets cut. You might have bigger than normal rosters and the players moved up might not play but nobody is booted from the team.

Technically moving players down an age group doesn't nessasary mean cuts either but if a new player is way better than the current starter the current starter will get benched and be disgruntled. Their parents will complain and generally be salty.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were not as many issues as with BY to SY. Although many parents still hated the change.

Before Aug 1 to Dec 31 birthdays were forced to play up. Coaches could add them to rosters and just not play them in games. Eventually they'd either get better or filter out.

This time is different because potentially better players who have been playing up can join teams a year younger.

A bench player that never sees the field doesn't affect anyone. A year older player that bumps a starter will cause parents to throw fits.

It's all in the phrasing. There has to be a cut off, school year makes more sense in a country where high school sports are a big deal than birth year (parent of an 8th grade 2010 wondering what their team will look like in the spring)

I don't agree with you and believe what you stated is opinion not fact.


You wanted to know how things went last time and I told you. It was much easier.

BY to SY will cause all kinds of tensions on teams. However 6 months after the change nobody will care.

Easier for who? You? You must not have a trapped player. It was disruptive as hell. Teams were broken up. Change is hard--always is, always will be. But I agree it will settle down in about 6 months and then all will move forward.

The change was implemented after my son's U10 year, which was his first year of non-rec type soccer. Paid coach, multiple practices per week, etc.

He really liked the team that he was on that U10 year and we enjoyed the kids and other parents as well.

The change was a pretty big shift - he is a June birthday and ended up being 1 of only 3 kids left from the original group with the switch. A bunch of kids moved up and there were too many for the location that was our teams homebase. So, those guys ended up getting split up to other team sites within the club.

It was a tough first year of change, but all shook out in about a year - funny thing was he ended up playing again with some of those kids this past year as they were HS seniors and his team was recombined as 18/19 year olds.

It will be interesting to see how things move forward - my daughter is a Jan 09. She has quite a few players that are late 09 birthdays on her current team. Late meaning post August 1. I think she would be bummed if the team got broken up as she has played with some of these girls going on 7 years now. There would be girls on the 08 squad who would in theory drop back to my daughters team if the cutoff is 8/1.

I helped run a club when this happened.

1.) The rec. side of the house hated this change. Friends who went to the same school, sometimes in the same class could no longer play together unless tons of exceptions were made.

2.) The travel side hated it as it caused many established teams to suddenly be split in half, sometimes worse (sometimes less!). They eventually got over it about a year later, but it was a big shakeup. Overall our numbers in travel stayed about the same, but there was some drop off in rec. as families/players who only played to get to play with other friends/school mates went to other sports.

Not at all ! My daughter went through this. She moved age groups 3 times in her soccer career. She plays in college now. Not a big deal - lots of spaces for all the players.

I remember my daughters team was only 9 but it really split up the team- kind of 50/50 of who went up an age group and stayed at current age. I felt bad for the girls who got moved up a group.

It wasn’t great, but they never should have made this change in the first place. I’m surprised it’s taken this long to undo it.

Trapped players are always unhappy in the 8th grade when the rest of the team plays high school, but also given an unfair advantage over other kids in their grade as they are essentially “playing up” for many, many years.

What was the original SY cutoff date in this area?

The amount of chaos will be very specific to individual teams. If your player is currently on a team with no or very few late birthdays (Sept-Dec) then impact could be nothing.

If your current team has a lot of late birthdays then you COULD lose a lot of players but not necessarily because they might choose to stay and play up.

If the team one year older at your club has a lot of late birthdays then your team might get a bunch of new players who could bump existing ones.

In an ideal world, the number of players coming and going would be equal and disruption will be minimal. But there will certainly be uneven amounts from club to club and team to team, so it’s impossible to apply it generally.

Either way, after a year players will settle and it will be fine.