Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have an opinion on this, but it did raise a question for me (my kids are early elementary, so we’re still figuring out the whole soccer thing). For the kids with fall birthdays who are playing with mostly kids a grade ahead of them, what happens to them in their senior year when their birth year teammates have moved on to college? Do they drop down a year to play with other high school seniors? Do they miss a year?

That year is U18/19 combined.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have an opinion on this, but it did raise a question for me (my kids are early elementary, so we’re still figuring out the whole soccer thing). For the kids with fall birthdays who are playing with mostly kids a grade ahead of them, what happens to them in their senior year when their birth year teammates have moved on to college? Do they drop down a year to play with other high school seniors? Do they miss a year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where exactly have you been hearing this? I cannot imagine US Soccer would put everyone through a change again so soon, esp given that the rest of the world uses the current system.

Until I see it from the source, this just a rumor.

While I tend to agree it is probably a rumor, I have heard it from a number of different places in the last month or two. I am not sure where there is smoke there may not be a bit of fire. A decision may not be made, but I definitely believe it is being spoken about.

Birth year grouping creates "trapped players" in 8th grade and again in junior year of high school for players that are born Sept-Dec. My daughter plays at a big ECNL club (not in the DC area) and a coach recently alluded to a possible change to grad year. I would not be surprised to see this happen, and it might be driven by ECNL. Dealing with trapped players and creating composite teams for juniors and seniors is something that I'm sure they'd love to do away with. Additionally, it makes college recruiting much easier--coaches at showcases can watch a game where every kid has the same grad year.

DA/GDA kids don't play high school (except those on waivers), so they don't deal with the trapped player issue. However, if college coaches preferred showcases where players are grouped by grad year, that would certainly be something to think about.

As for the fact that the rest of the world follows birth year--the rest of the world isn't a crazy pay to play system and for academies in other countries, college placement is not a priority like it is for clubs here.

This is a good point about showcase games in their junior year in HS. What can an October birthday kid do in this scenario?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where exactly have you been hearing this? I cannot imagine US Soccer would put everyone through a change again so soon, esp given that the rest of the world uses the current system.

Until I see it from the source, this just a rumor.

While I tend to agree it is probably a rumor, I have heard it from a number of different places in the last month or two. I am not sure where there is smoke there may not be a bit of fire. A decision may not be made, but I definitely believe it is being spoken about.

Birth year grouping creates "trapped players" in 8th grade and again in junior year of high school for players that are born Sept-Dec. My daughter plays at a big ECNL club (not in the DC area) and a coach recently alluded to a possible change to grad year. I would not be surprised to see this happen, and it might be driven by ECNL. Dealing with trapped players and creating composite teams for juniors and seniors is something that I'm sure they'd love to do away with. Additionally, it makes college recruiting much easier--coaches at showcases can watch a game where every kid has the same grad year.

DA/GDA kids don't play high school (except those on waivers), so they don't deal with the trapped player issue. However, if college coaches preferred showcases where players are grouped by grad year, that would certainly be something to think about.

As for the fact that the rest of the world follows birth year--the rest of the world isn't a crazy pay to play system and for academies in other countries, college placement is not a priority like it is for clubs here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where exactly have you been hearing this? I cannot imagine US Soccer would put everyone through a change again so soon, esp given that the rest of the world uses the current system.

Until I see it from the source, this just a rumor.

While I tend to agree it is probably a rumor, I have heard it from a number of different places in the last month or two. I am not sure where there is smoke there may not be a bit of fire. A decision may not be made, but I definitely believe it is being spoken about.

Birth year grouping creates "trapped players" in 8th grade and again in junior year of high school for players that are born Sept-Dec. My daughter plays at a big ECNL club (not in the DC area) and a coach recently alluded to a possible change to grad year. I would not be surprised to see this happen, and it might be driven by ECNL. Dealing with trapped players and creating composite teams for juniors and seniors is something that I'm sure they'd love to do away with. Additionally, it makes college recruiting much easier--coaches at showcases can watch a game where every kid has the same grad year.

DA/GDA kids don't play high school (except those on waivers), so they don't deal with the trapped player issue. However, if college coaches preferred showcases where players are grouped by grad year, that would certainly be something to think about.

As for the fact that the rest of the world follows birth year--the rest of the world isn't a crazy pay to play system and for academies in other countries, college placement is not a priority like it is for clubs here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope they do switch back to the age groupings aligning with school year. This current system of birth year is not pretty when they are in HS and have a fall birthday. My daughter's team is mostly a grade ahead, she will be playing with a completely different team her senior year as the rest of the team will have graduated.

Translation, my kid is a September born kid.

I love people who throw this out there as though parents of kids with fall birth dates are looking for an advantage. I'm not the PP, but my daughter is a late October birthday. She plays ECNL at a top club and has totally benefited from playing with "older" players the past few years. That being said, it sucks for these kids when they are in 8th grade and there is no fall club season (our state plays HS in the fall) because the majority of their teammates are playing HS. Moving to grad year lets every kid have a team to play on every year. What is the negative? And if your kid is good enough for YNT camp invites, changing to grad year won't hurt them--they are already known.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hope they do switch back to the age groupings aligning with school year. This current system of birth year is not pretty when they are in HS and have a fall birthday. My daughter's team is mostly a grade ahead, she will be playing with a completely different team her senior year as the rest of the team will have graduated.

Translation, my kid is a September born kid.

Anonymous wrote:I really hope they do switch back to the age groupings aligning with school year. This current system of birth year is not pretty when they are in HS and have a fall birthday. My daughter's team is mostly a grade ahead, she will be playing with a completely different team her senior year as the rest of the team will have graduated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where exactly have you been hearing this? I cannot imagine US Soccer would put everyone through a change again so soon, esp given that the rest of the world uses the current system.

Until I see it from the source, this just a rumor.

While I tend to agree it is probably a rumor, I have heard it from a number of different places in the last month or two. I am not sure where there is smoke there may not be a bit of fire. A decision may not be made, but I definitely believe it is being spoken about.

Anonymous wrote:I really hope they do switch back to the age groupings aligning with school year. This current system of birth year is not pretty when they are in HS and have a fall birthday. My daughter's team is mostly a grade ahead, she will be playing with a completely different team her senior year as the rest of the team will have graduated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late Fall Bday and 3/4s of his team will graduate a year ahead of him. I think it should always have followed school calendar.

We are with you. Every player on my daughter's team is a year in front of her in school. She would be thrilled to play with kids in her own grade again.

Anonymous wrote:Where exactly have you been hearing this? I cannot imagine US Soccer would put everyone through a change again so soon, esp given that the rest of the world uses the current system.

Until I see it from the source, this just a rumor.