Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

My December kid is in MLS Next and committed to a D1 school

I can't recall us having any discussions about school grade

Be obtuse if you want.

I guarantee at some point graduating year aka grade in school was discussed or your kids college coach wouldn't know what year to expect to see them on campus.

They of course knew his graduating year.

We provided that when we reached out and they also knew it before we gave them.

My point is that for his soccer development journey, school grade being different than his teammates was never an issue.

The situation is different now. Birth year created a situation where players in a specific grade had to play with kids in a higher grade because they missed the school cutoff. No one minded this because playing with kids in a higher grade feels more challenging and acceptable (of course depends on the players themselves being good, but just generally, a 9th grader playing with 10th graders was fine) College scouts looking at 10th graders might also see the 9th grader and just keep them in mind for the next recruiting year. All good there.

Now, you have a few months of kids who could potentially have to play with a team that is primarily a lower grade. So in this scenario, you have a 10th grader playing on a team full of 9th graders. College scouts aren't looking at 9th graders and probably aren't going to make a special trip over to a field full of 9th graders just to see the 1 or 2 10th graders.

It doesn't change the fact that most recruiting is done by the player/parents, with outreach and direct attendance at ID camps where coaches are - where of course you are aligned by graduation year. But the scenario above isn't really helping player development or recruiting - just clubs who potentially want to win more games. For younger grades, it's fine because maybe some smaller kids need more time in 7v7, 9v9 etc. But by high school, kids should be aligned with grad year if at all possible.

School grade, up or down is irrelevant on the soccer field and training pitch

You're on a certain level of skillet and that's your team level.
Physicality also plays a role which is tied to biological age, not calendar and definitely not school grade

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

My December kid is in MLS Next and committed to a D1 school

I can't recall us having any discussions about school grade

Be obtuse if you want.

I guarantee at some point graduating year aka grade in school was discussed or your kids college coach wouldn't know what year to expect to see them on campus.

They of course knew his graduating year.

We provided that when we reached out and they also knew it before we gave them.

My point is that for his soccer development journey, school grade being different than his teammates was never an issue.

The situation is different now. Birth year created a situation where players in a specific grade had to play with kids in a higher grade because they missed the school cutoff. No one minded this because playing with kids in a higher grade feels more challenging and acceptable (of course depends on the players themselves being good, but just generally, a 9th grader playing with 10th graders was fine) College scouts looking at 10th graders might also see the 9th grader and just keep them in mind for the next recruiting year. All good there.

Now, you have a few months of kids who could potentially have to play with a team that is primarily a lower grade. So in this scenario, you have a 10th grader playing on a team full of 9th graders. College scouts aren't looking at 9th graders and probably aren't going to make a special trip over to a field full of 9th graders just to see the 1 or 2 10th graders.

It doesn't change the fact that most recruiting is done by the player/parents, with outreach and direct attendance at ID camps where coaches are - where of course you are aligned by graduation year. But the scenario above isn't really helping player development or recruiting - just clubs who potentially want to win more games. For younger grades, it's fine because maybe some smaller kids need more time in 7v7, 9v9 etc. But by high school, kids should be aligned with grad year if at all possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

My December kid is in MLS Next and committed to a D1 school

I can't recall us having any discussions about school grade

Be obtuse if you want.

I guarantee at some point graduating year aka grade in school was discussed or your kids college coach wouldn't know what year to expect to see them on campus.

They of course knew his graduating year.

We provided that when we reached out and they also knew it before we gave them.

My point is that for his soccer development journey, school grade being different than his teammates was never an issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

My December kid is in MLS Next and committed to a D1 school

I can't recall us having any discussions about school grade

Be obtuse if you want.

I guarantee at some point graduating year aka grade in school was discussed or your kids college coach wouldn't know what year to expect to see them on campus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

My December kid is in MLS Next and committed to a D1 school

I can't recall us having any discussions about school grade

Anonymous wrote:Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

I dont know if "age down" is the correct terminology although I get what you're saying. In BY your December birthday player was forced to play up a grade. Now since we're switching back to SY again they'll be grouped with players their grade in school which should be fun for them. This was/is the whole intent of switching back from BY to SY.

General fyi but did you know the reason BY works for other countries is because school cutoff for a certain grade is 1/1. However school start dates are usually around Aug Sept. When you think about it this makes it easier because all you need to do is ask a kid what year they were born and that tells you their grade in school. In America we combine school start date with cutoff date this is why BY doesnt work and SY better aligns all players to a specific grade here.

Anonymous wrote:Hate to agree with the troll, he/she is def a troll, but the facts on the ground are that the major clubs seem to be sticking with the age group and denying Aug-Sept kids to play on grade. Promises of caring about recruitment have shifted, exposing a farce.

Its funny that you make this kind of statement when rosters haven't even been announced yet.

But dont worry, I'm sure your right. Clubs won't act in ways that only benefit themselves.

Heres my family situation. My high flyer female with a decmber birthday and a potential in playing in college will age down for maximum visibility. My August boy who plays hg dev will stay with his age to be an older for the time ever. No aspirations other than playing good soccer and translating his level of travel to the hs game. Both win

Hate to agree with the troll, he/she is def a troll, but the facts on the ground are that the major clubs seem to be sticking with the age group and denying Aug-Sept kids to play on grade. Promises of caring about recruitment have shifted, exposing a farce.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bla bla bla we all know whats going to happen but you.

8/1-7/31 happened last spring. MLSN1 staying BY, happened a few months ago. They already happened. There was a belief that this year would have some kind of transition, it didn't. Nothing left to happen.

The last thing to happen is clubs grouping Aug birthday with their grade in SY. Everyone except the mega troll that comments on this thread 24/7 knows its going happen. Players dont want to be on a team thats 95% kids a grade below them in school, it's easier for clubs to manage,, and parents want their kids on grade aligned teams for college recruiting.

You're the biggest troll of them all. When you take a day or 2 off, this thread goes silent, because no one otherwise cares, except to challenge all your bluster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bla bla bla we all know whats going to happen but you.

8/1-7/31 happened last spring. MLSN1 staying BY, happened a few months ago. They already happened. There was a belief that this year would have some kind of transition, it didn't. Nothing left to happen.

The last thing to happen is clubs grouping Aug birthday with their grade in SY. Everyone except the mega troll that comments on this thread 24/7 knows its going happen. Players dont want to be on a team thats 95% kids a grade below them in school, it's easier for clubs to manage,, and parents want their kids on grade aligned teams for college recruiting.

Anonymous wrote:bla bla bla we all know whats going to happen but you.

8/1-7/31 happened last spring. MLSN1 staying BY, happened a few months ago. They already happened. There was a belief that this year would have some kind of transition, it didn't. Nothing left to happen.

bla bla bla we all know whats going to happen but you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stars Blue parents are saying that Stars is picking some Aug birthdays to play with their grade in school team and forcing others to play grade down.

This will go over well.

Seems fine if it's about soccer ability.

Forcing players to play down a grade makes them easy recruitment targets by other clubs.

If they care about grade. Not all do.

They all care about getting recruited and therefore care about playing on their grade in school team.

Who is they?
Parents with the kids highly desired by D1 colleges aren't thinking about this crap.

D3 good academic schools are the ticket anyway. Just get the grades, become a good player in whatever age group and then your set.

Exactly. And beware of parents who just want to rail against kids for following the rules, like playing on age.

Playing with your grade is 100% allowed by the rules.

Playing with your grade isn't guaranteed and the crux of the last 500 pages.

US Soccer choose birthdays instead grades for national fairness and safety and birthdays are factual while grades are more wishy washy.

As shown here

Will players be organized strictly by their school grade? No. Players will be organized by "School-Year Age Groups" (August 1-July 31), not by their specific academic grade.

Here is the difference: While the new system will naturally align most players with their classmates, "Grade Level" is an academic designation that varies from family to family (due to children starting school early or late, repeating a year, or varying state enrollment dates).

"School-Year Age Groups" use a strict national birthdate range (August 1 to July 31). This ensures a nationwide consistent, fair, and objective standard for safety and competition, regardless of a player’s individual academic path.

Why are teams organized by the August 1–July 31 date range rather than strictly by "Grade Level"? While the new age group system is often referred to as "School Year" because it aligns better with school grades than the calendar year, we will use the nationwide age groupings of August 1st to July 31st date range for **safety and fairness**.

We cannot organize strictly by "Grade" because grade levels are variable, whereas birth dates are factual. Organizing strictly by grade can create significant risks:

The Age Gap Risk: Because kids start school at different ages, are held back, or skip grades, a single grade level can include children whose ages span 2+ years.
Physical Safety: We already see significant physical differences within a standard 12-month age gap. If we were to widen that window to 24+ months (as seen in strict grade-based grouping), the physical disparity becomes dangerous. A "held-back" 13-year-old competing against a young 11-year-old in the same grade poses a real safety concern.
Developmental Fairness: When age gaps widen beyond 12 months, the disparity in talent and physical maturity widens considerably. Keeping the grouping within the August 1–July 31 window ensures players compete with and against peers of similar physiological, emotional, and social maturity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stars Blue parents are saying that Stars is picking some Aug birthdays to play with their grade in school team and forcing others to play grade down.

This will go over well.

Seems fine if it's about soccer ability.

Forcing players to play down a grade makes them easy recruitment targets by other clubs.

If they care about grade. Not all do.

They all care about getting recruited and therefore care about playing on their grade in school team.

Who is they?
Parents with the kids highly desired by D1 colleges aren't thinking about this crap.

D3 good academic schools are the ticket anyway. Just get the grades, become a good player in whatever age group and then your set.

Exactly. And beware of parents who just want to rail against kids for following the rules, like playing on age.

Playing with your grade is 100% allowed by the rules.

. I must have missed in the rules where it says a May kid who reclassified can now play with their grade. Only rules I see is your birthdate has to be before 8/1 to play in an age group.