Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:48     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Once rosters for 26/27 are posted with graduating year details. It will be easy to see which clubs are doing this. No matter what the communicate externally. I predict most top clubs will have Aug birthdays play with their grade. Lower level clubs will see whats happening and copy top club actions. Again, because its easier and makes all players aligned.
Nah, sorry, it just didn't go your way. ECNL guy's no exceptions logic is the rule of that won the day.

Appears to be one club in Texas that is playing Aug birthdays with their grade. (Along with all thr NJ PA and Wisconson clubs that announced on their websites)

Nah Done....
So how many clubs do think are in the US? And you found what about 4 clubs that you think are going grade instead of age? These are what are known as outliers.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:38     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:Came back to see if anyone was still posting the age group chart and wasn't disappointed. You all are completely deranged. I say this as a deranged person myself. Just give it up.

Still 100% correct.

This is for next fall when SY starts.

11v11 = U18/U19 = ≤ 8/1/2007 ≈ Senior
11v11 = U17 = ≤ 8/1/2009 ≈ Junior
11v11 = U16 = ≤ 8/1/2010 ≈ Sophmore
11v11 = U15 = ≤ 8/1/2011 ≈ Freshman
11v11 = U14 = ≤ 8/1/2012 ≈ 8th grade
11v11 = U13 = ≤ 8/1/2013 ≈ 7th grade
9v9/11v11 = U12 = ≤ 8/1/2014 ≈ 6th grade
9v9 = U11 = ≤ 8/1/2015 ≈ 5th grade
9v9 = U10 = ≤ 8/1/2016 ≈ 4th grade
7v7 = U9 = ≤ 8/1/2017 ≈ 3rd grade
7v7 = U8 = ≤ 8/1/2018 ≈ 2nd grade
4v4 = U7 = ≤ 8/1/2019 ≈ 1st grade
4v4 = U6 = ≤ 8/1/2020 ≈ Kindergarten

Using U14 as an example what this is saying is...

1. They play 11v11
2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1
3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012
4. Players are most likely in 8th grade
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:36     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Came back to see if anyone was still posting the age group chart and wasn't disappointed. You all are completely deranged. I say this as a deranged person myself. Just give it up.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:35     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Once rosters for 26/27 are posted with graduating year details. It will be easy to see which clubs are doing this. No matter what the communicate externally. I predict most top clubs will have Aug birthdays play with their grade. Lower level clubs will see whats happening and copy top club actions. Again, because its easier and makes all players aligned.
Nah, sorry, it just didn't go your way. ECNL guy's no exceptions logic is the rule of that won the day.

Appears to be one club in Texas that is playing Aug birthdays with their grade. (Along with all thr NJ PA and Wisconson clubs that announced on their websites)

Nah Done....
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 19:29     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Once rosters for 26/27 are posted with graduating year details. It will be easy to see which clubs are doing this. No matter what the communicate externally. I predict most top clubs will have Aug birthdays play with their grade. Lower level clubs will see whats happening and copy top club actions. Again, because its easier and makes all players aligned.
Nah, sorry, it just didn't go your way. ECNL guy's no exceptions logic is the rule of that won the day.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 18:57     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Once rosters for 26/27 are posted with graduating year details. It will be easy to see which clubs are doing this. No matter what the communicate externally. I predict most top clubs will have Aug birthdays play with their grade. Lower level clubs will see whats happening and copy top club actions. Again, because its easier and makes all players aligned.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 18:53     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Yea this is what all teams will do after a while. Its just easier for the club to manage and sets the players up to be aligned when being recruited.
Nah, sorry.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 18:34     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.

Yea this is what all teams will do after a while. Its just easier for the club to manage and sets the players up to be aligned when being recruited.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 18:29     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



At our club (one of the large major Texas clubs) the August kids that are a grade up are just playing a year up across the board. I think that’s an easy solution.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:38     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



It's more of a conversation, so not sure if I Hate Soccer agrees. But this really explains many top tier clubs approach to this. They DO recognize how college coaches want to see players against grade, BUT realize not everyone will always fit within that situation on their journey to recruitment and for those who can benefit from playing on age, they will do it. Why not? They're trying to get them recruited.

Aug grade guy could say what about the kid who went to school where grade matches age and how these kids are taking their time or whatever. I'm sure these clubs will work within the system to help those kids at the top levels, too. They are ALL their customers. Trying to favor one over another doesn't make sense. They need to help both where possible. Of course, not all will make it OR go to the schools they desire, as there are a ton of individual factors at play as well.

In short, stop trying to force kids up into what could be a disadvantage. It's all case-by-case and have the kid work their butt off.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:27     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."



Good summary
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:26     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone listens to the I Hate Soccer Podcast but he had on ecnl director from Michigan and asked what to do with players who are grade ahead and said everyone will play their age group. Any player who has opportunity to play U17 should as its the most watched age group.

As most seniors have committed or checked out.

No he didnt stop lieing. Below is what was started.

"I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"


Keep going. ...

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:25     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Age guy is so pathetic that hes been deduced to copying other people's work and trying to add play downs into it. Too bad hes dumb and doesnt understand math. Which makes his cut and paste job even more laughable.


I think the combined sharing of the maxtrix makes this thread even worse/less useful than ever!

If age guy wasnt posting intentionally misleading and incorrect matrix's it wouldnt be so annoying. But he has an agenda for older players to play down against younger players so what do you do?

People will quickly see that one of the matrixes doesnt make sense if they look closely at the birthdate ranges.

True but its pathetic that he's posting intentionally incorrect info. All to try and normalize playing down. This is against the rules and something only cheaters embrace.
What is against the rules and cheating? Ridiculous. And what team in the DMV let's kids choose to play up just cause? None, the answer is none. All your misdirection has been for naught.

Anybody can play based on their 8/1-7/31 DOB. Calling this cheating is a you problem, nobody else is questioning the rules like they have to be rewritten to help their kid but you. Always has been.

Look at Age guys matrices. A 2010 senior is just not possible unless the skipped 2 grades. This is the issue' hes relaying incorrect information to try and justify playing down.


So, this ECNL director from Michigan basically says they’re going to do what makes the most sense for their individual players (Case-by-case). Play them on age and showcase them on grade, if/when, that makes sense. He does say college coaches want to see all players of a class together but also notes what league, who the opponents are also vital in player evaluation. He says some of their best players they’ve had, including a YNT now a GK at Penn State, were late developers. Also, this club plays year round, so hasn't had to deal with trap players.

The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA

Highlighting key parts:

I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?

ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions.

So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right?

So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years.

Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore.

I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that.

ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again.

Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before.
Title should be ECNL Guy Fixes I Hate Soccer Guy's Mistake.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do?"

ECNL Guy, "So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions." Provides lengthy explanation of the benefits.

I Hate Soccer Guy, "I've never thought of it like that."

Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:17     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Quick guide for the fall 2026

U19 8/1/2007-7/31, Senior and younger
U17 8/1/2009-7/31, Senior and younger
U16 8/1/2010-7/31, Junior and younger
U15 8/1/2011-7/31, Sophomore and younger
U14 8/1/2012-7/31, Freshman and younger
U13 8/1/2013-7/31, 8th and younger
U12 8/1/2014-7/31, 7th and younger
U11 8/1/2015-7/31, 6th and younger
U10 8/1/2016-7/31, 5th and younger
U9 8/1/2017-7/31, 4th and younger
U8 8/1/2018-7/31, 3rd and younger
U7 8/1/2019-7/31, 2nd and younger

Some kids may be even a grade older if they like as long as their birthday makes them eligible for the age bracket.
Anonymous
Post 03/17/2026 17:16     Subject: ECNL moving to school year part 2

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Not sure if anyone listens to the I Hate Soccer Podcast but he had on ecnl director from Michigan and asked what to do with players who are grade ahead and said everyone will play their age group. Any player who has opportunity to play U17 should as its the most watched age group.

As most seniors have committed or checked out.

The guy from Michigan said. That he would play u17 Aug players 2x at the same level if he could.

This is because the simple reality is why play up just for showcases if being misaligned and playing down at showcases is no big deal?

ECNL coach is playing misaligned players up on grade correct teams for showcases because he knows college coaches will ignore them if he doesnt.



Then, if they don't get recruited on grade, he plays them on age the next year, because he's in the business of getting them recruited and realizes younger kids have different development journey. Tell the whole story!