Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving the date fixes trapped players. Trapped players do not exist if you move the date to August 1. No matter how you feel about it, and how important it is to you, it is a problem that can be solved.

Current system: RA and trapped players
Old/Proposed system: RA

Other posters have mentioned the different impacts of trapping players - recruiting, maturity differences, lost seasons - and its up to the governing bodies to decide if it's worth the disruption.

You will still have players whose club year is misaligned with their school year. With an 8/1 cutoff for ECNL and a 10/1 (or later) cutoff for school, you have players born 8/1-9/30, who are playing soccer with kids the grade below them. So, when scouts are scouting for their grade, the scout has to go to watch two age groups. Because different school districts/regions have different school cutoffs, there is always going to be misalignment. Why disrupt the whole system to change to a system that isn't actually better? If 8/1 was better, why did they change back to calendar year?

Because a system that disenfranchises children just for being born August - December is a bad system. It is not a system, it is the simplest possible way to do this on paper without any additional consideration for impact. It not only needs to be disrupted, it needs to be replaced by an actual system that is more fair and equitable, something that actually solves for various issues, whatever calendar range it is based on. At minimum, if it stays as birth year, recruiting system should adapt to accommodate trapped players so they can be looked at with the rest of the team and elite leagues should lift the limit on trapped players playing ‘down’ while their peers play HS ball or disallow that garbage altogether, like MLS Next. And that’s just the beginning of it.

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

As you can see from this thread, September parents would prefer being oldest month of the year.

Anonymous wrote:I have a just finished 11th grade son, whose 2006 team made up of mostly seniors who didn’t do spring tournaments. This is prime recruiting for boys, so those trapped players are penalized

IMHO any ECNL club that doesn’t participate in boys showcase events through the senior year should be questioned. Boys recruiting runs about one year later than girls primarily because many boys aren’t fully developed until later in high school. Top Drawer Soccer weekly recruiting news demonstrates this pattern.

it just seems like anywhere you draw the line, there are winners and losers. It doesn't seem that adjusting the line one way or the other fixes that. My daughters play VB, and USAV does July 1-June 30 age groupings. One daughter has a July bday, so she is at the older end of age group if she were to play her correct age (she plays up, so doesn't matter), while other is a May birthday, so at the younger end of age group. Either way, there are winners and losers. So, I have no clue what moving the line fixes. It helps some people, but then screws the people who were "helped" by being older. I guess you could just do it by grade, but then you have the mess that is basketball, where you have 1-3 ages potentially in any grade division and late bloomers playing against fully developed men who are 1-2 years older!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when you’re in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

This thread is about ECNL and the primary associated issue of college recruiting. Don’t know too many 2nd graders in ECNL and the 8th grade issue does not apply either. You’re conflating relative age effect (RAE) into the mix here.

Dp- the 8th grade absolutely applies. I’ve got a region 2010 who is going into 8th grade with no team to play on or practice with until November. We are in the northeast and our school cutoff is Sept 1. So she and 4 other teammates have to wait while their HS teammates play through their school season.

The 5 of them can find Private Training together that will be better for their development than the HS poor quality crap

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when you’re in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

This thread is about ECNL and the primary associated issue of college recruiting. Don’t know too many 2nd graders in ECNL and the 8th grade issue does not apply either. You’re conflating relative age effect (RAE) into the mix here.

Dp- the 8th grade absolutely applies. I’ve got a region 2010 who is going into 8th grade with no team to play on or practice with until November. We are in the northeast and our school cutoff is Sept 1. So she and 4 other teammates have to wait while their HS teammates play through their school season.

Trying to figure out how ECNL changing from calendar year to school year fixes your situation. Your daughter and her friends are on a calendar year based RL team. If your RL team doesn’t play or practice during fall high school season, that’s a local club issue. Our club has combo practices during high school season with different age groups for non high players. Easy fix.

I’ve got a 11th grade boy (trapped) whose 2006 team made up of all seniors chose not to do spring tournaments. So he was screwed since spring jr year is the big time for recruitment

I have a just finished 11th grade son, whose 2006 team made up of mostly seniors who didn’t do spring tournaments. This is prime recruiting for boys, so those trapped players are penalized

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when you’re in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

This thread is about ECNL and the primary associated issue of college recruiting. Don’t know too many 2nd graders in ECNL and the 8th grade issue does not apply either. You’re conflating relative age effect (RAE) into the mix here.

Dp- the 8th grade absolutely applies. I’ve got a region 2010 who is going into 8th grade with no team to play on or practice with until November. We are in the northeast and our school cutoff is Sept 1. So she and 4 other teammates have to wait while their HS teammates play through their school season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My trapped player had a college coach show up to the wrong age group, ie they are an 06 and coach went to 07 game. Since they are recruiting for a certain class coaches will go to the age group with the majority of age appropriate players.

That coach should be fired

Also, as a parent, you failed in making sure the coach knew who your kid was and where they were playing and when they were graduating.

Gotta get your data right for that 1/8 scholly to Christopher Newport

All D1 players will soon be on full scholarships

no they'll just give them all to football players.

You are wrong the settlement applies to all D1 sports and prior players will get paid as part of the settlement. Soccer teams will be capped at 26/27 players

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when you’re in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

This thread is about ECNL and the primary associated issue of college recruiting. Don’t know too many 2nd graders in ECNL and the 8th grade issue does not apply either. You’re conflating relative age effect (RAE) into the mix here.

Every player in the ECNL was in 2nd grade at some point in their life. They had to choose to stick with soccer in the first place. All the arguments against going back to aligning with the school year calendar only focus on the inability to do math, not wanting to change, or RAE negetatively impacting their kids. Trying to spin it as an advantage is utterly rediculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when you’re in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

This thread is about ECNL and the primary associated issue of college recruiting. Don’t know too many 2nd graders in ECNL and the 8th grade issue does not apply either. You’re conflating relative age effect (RAE) into the mix here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.

Potential advantage? It's a definite disadvantage when you don't have a team to play for in 8th grade. It's a definite disadvantage when your in 2nd grade and deemed a 2nd team player but if you were playing with 2nd graders instead of 3rd would be on the first team. That gets you to quit after a year or 2 when you decide you are "better" at another sport when you are with your grade level. You never make it to the potential advantage that is made up by you. The potential advantage forced on you, when others have the ability to choose.

Anonymous wrote:Moving the date fixes trapped players. Trapped players do not exist if you move the date to August 1. No matter how you feel about it, and how important it is to you, it is a problem that can be solved.

Current system: RA and trapped players
Old/Proposed system: RA

Other posters have mentioned the different impacts of trapping players - recruiting, maturity differences, lost seasons - and its up to the governing bodies to decide if it's worth the disruption.

You will still have players whose club year is misaligned with their school year. With an 8/1 cutoff for ECNL and a 10/1 (or later) cutoff for school, you have players born 8/1-9/30, who are playing soccer with kids the grade below them. So, when scouts are scouting for their grade, the scout has to go to watch two age groups. Because different school districts/regions have different school cutoffs, there is always going to be misalignment. Why disrupt the whole system to change to a system that isn't actually better? If 8/1 was better, why did they change back to calendar year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my DC had been a trapped ECNL player I would have viewed the situation as an opportunity. Trapped players get the clear advantage of being seen and targeted a year earlier by college coaches. No different than playing up a year. It’s like jumping in front of the line.

haha what?? You could always have elected to have your DC play a year up.

. I don’t see where you disagree with the argument that trapped players receive a potential advantage.