2021 Recruiting: 2002 v. 2003 evaluation

[Unregistered]

Oh my god people!! It really isn’t that complicated. Coaches will come watch the players who have reached out to them, perhaps sent video, gone to an ID camp etc regardless of how the heck the age groups are organized! None of this affects a good player if they put in the work to get noticed. Stop making excuses. It will never be perfect either way.

Bullseye. My D knows the players who got committed. It’s entirely coincidental they were 03’s. They all had extensive exposure and if players knew of them then coaches did too. These players took advantage of dominating their age group but all of them have played up at some point according to my D.

[Unregistered]

Reasonable point that ECNL going grad year alone would put them on an island. They pretty much put themselves on an island anyway, and for the few non-ECNL events they enter they would simply play in the older division. So a GY team of 2021s would enter the 02 division and would have mix of 02s and 03s playing. That would not only be easy enough to do, it would play into the ECNL brand of having to play "up" for fair competition outside the ECNL.

What I think is being lost in this conversation is that we are not advocating for a GY change to benefit our kids - my kids fine in current system - we are discussing purely as a business opportunity for ECNL. We have already seen that parents/players prefer the product with HS rather than the one without. Similarly, I think the market would prefer the GY product over the current BY offering. GY + HS = Winner by TKO

Soccer participation is down 15% and counting since stupid change to birth year. With the recruiting timeline pushed back, even more girls will be looking to get recruited junior and senior years - two full separate junior and senior teams would really help a lot over the awkward and limiting u19/u18 mix. GDA announced new single year u16 (to stop the bleeding at u16 to ECNL) but GDA will still have combined u19/u18 because of the way birth year mixes the different school grades. If ECNL had a team for seniors and another separate team for juniors, players would jump for joy and jump to ECNL!

[Unregistered]

Bingo!

Put recruiting convenience aside (it is a substantive convenience but not a hindrance). It is a fact that a large number of players have no teams to play on ft or part of the year. It is a fact that kids aren't playing with their classmates. Sure some players will be fine and soldier on, but some will not. The above poster is right. Soccer is losing players rapidly. The constant changes, cost and travel are sucking the fun out of it. I'm all for keeping and many kids playing soccer as possible.

[Unregistered]

What are you talking about? 39 ECNL teams are represented in Jeff Cup this year alone. Considering that it is a regional tournament other similar events throughout the country would be similarly affected.

And the suggestion of the teams "playing up a year" in these events at a COLLEGE SHOWCASES goes against the whole point of playing graduation year to begin with.

So ECNL should go Graduation Year to make recruiting easier for college coaches forcing the teams to play up in non-ECNL events in the name of keeping things simpler.

You really want that RAE advantage back in the worst way. LOL

Clearly you are frighted by the possibility of return to grad year if you actually went through all the teams to count up 39 attending! I think that is BS but certainly not worth my time to dispute!

[Unregistered]

Soccer participation is down 15% and counting since stupid change to birth year. With the recruiting timeline pushed back, even more girls will be looking to get recruited junior and senior years - two full separate junior and senior teams would really help a lot over the awkward and limiting u19/u18 mix. GDA announced new single year u16 (to stop the bleeding at u16 to ECNL) but GDA will still have combined u19/u18 because of the way birth year mixes the different school grades. If ECNL had a team for seniors and another separate team for juniors, players would jump for joy and jump to ECNL!

Not to mention the little elementary school classmates who all go to sign up for club (after playing Rec together by grade) and find out they have to play on separate teams because...sad...wait, let’s go try lacrosse-we can all play together! Happy again. Wake up. Birth year change is killing youth soccer from ulittles thru high school!

[Unregistered]

Not to mention the little elementary school classmates who all go to sign up for club (after playing Rec together by grade) and find out they have to play on separate teams because...sad...wait, let’s go try lacrosse-we can all play together! Happy again. Wake up. Birth year change is killing youth soccer from ulittles thru high school!

Baseball & lacrosse tried moving to calendar year & moved back to graduation year after seeing similar declines in participation, to what soccer is going through right now. It's just a matter of time before not just the ECNL, but all soccer leagues move back to graduation year.

The only thing birth year registration does is encourage young kids to play other sports.

[Unregistered]

Not to mention the little elementary school classmates who all go to sign up for club (after playing Rec together by grade) and find out they have to play on separate teams because...sad...wait, let’s go try lacrosse-we can all play together! Happy again. Wake up. Birth year change is killing youth soccer from ulittles thru high school!

Lacrosse does combined grade years so one year you are the oldest and the next you are the youngest. But there is no true cohesion as the the younger year you might not make the A team so you play with different kids on the B team. The following year when you are older you make the A team and the roster is again different.

[Unregistered]

Lacrosse does combined grade years so one year you are the oldest and the next you are the youngest. But there is no true cohesion as the the younger year you might not make the A team so you play with different kids on the B team. The following year when you are older you make the A team and the roster is again different.

Same with hockey.

[Unregistered]

Baseball & lacrosse tried moving to calendar year & moved back to graduation year after seeing similar declines in participation, to what soccer is going through right now. It's just a matter of time before not just the ECNL, but all soccer leagues move back to graduation year.

The only thing birth year registration does is encourage young kids to play other sports.

No. It. Isn't.

If a kid is going to quit DA or ECNL because they are't playing with their friends then they are playing for the wrong reason or at least the wrong level.

Graduation year vs Birth year certainly affects the less serious more social player but stop with the nonsense of serious soccer crazy kids quitting over a cohort designation.

[Unregistered]

Not to mention the little elementary school classmates who all go to sign up for club (after playing Rec together by grade) and find out they have to play on separate teams because...sad...wait, let’s go try lacrosse-we can all play together! Happy again. Wake up. Birth year change is killing youth soccer from ulittles thru high school!

So guess what - they get to make some new friends and adapt to a different group of kids. Gasp!! Birth year has nothing to do with killing high school soccer as you'll have multiple ages playing on one team anyway.

What a bunch of whining snowflakes.

[Unregistered]

RAE is a real thing, but changing the cutoffs from Grade to Birth Year just moves the RAE from the middle months (May/June/July) to the later months (Oct/Nov/Dec), it doesn't get rid of it.

There is an argument to be made that US Soccer would be better aligned with college recruiting if it stayed with Grade/Academic Year teams, but we all know that USSF doesn't give a hoot about college soccer and the truth is that college soccer would be better off changing to be more like the rest of the soccer world (length of season, substitution rules, etc.). The reality is if you are one of the youngest players on a team during the recruiting years, you may have a physical disadvantage, but that disadvantage is easily overcome with additional training (SAQ, Weights, Track-work). By Junior year, there really should be no RAE
impact for girls if they put in the work.

As to ulittles quitting soccer because they can't play with their friends, all the Rec leagues I know still go by grade. Only competitive travel and club go by birth year. My kids never had any of their close friends play competitive soccer. They made friends on whatever teams they played on, both grade-based and birth-year.

The truth is that competitive sports, including soccer, isn't for everyone, and if socialization is the primary reason for a kid to play, they will likely drop out when the game becomes difficult and requires significant work to continue to be competitive. Whether they drop out at 4th grade or 9th doesn't really matter, as they never had the mental attitude to be successful competitively. Nothing wrong with that, and you see a similar drop out in 8th/9th grade across many sports.

[Unregistered]

Simple question, what is the downside of grad year teams?
What is the positive of birth year teams to all but the national training camp attendees?

[Unregistered]

Simple question, what is the downside of grad year teams?
What is the positive of birth year teams to all but the national training camp attendees?

The downside of grade year is the same as the downside of birth year, the negative effects of RAE through the early developmental stages of youth soccer.

[Unregistered]

The downside of grade year is the same as the downside of birth year, the negative effects of RAE through the early developmental stages of youth soccer.

RAE is the constant and will effect no matter what. Beside RAE as it effects both options equally.

[Unregistered]

RAE is when the bigger faster young kids are given more opportunity at an earlier age because of their earlier physical development. By the time these kids get to ECNL and puberty happens, the RAE effect drastically slows down.