Going back to school year vs birth year

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Never going to go back.

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Here is the thing... ECNL is about college recruiting. That is the platform they appeal to and a key purpose of the organization. It then makes sense to have college coaches looking at a field of all players that will all graduate the same year.

You are coming out this year or next and you can play or you cant ... I dont care about your age. I will not factor it in as a coach, I would merely look at where you are now and how much time you have before you start my program ... will you be where I need you to be when you start college? I dont care if you are 19 or 15 .... if I think you can play at the level i need when you get here, I will try to win you.

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How can a DA team have *any* trapped players??

Trapped means most of the team is in 9th grade and playing high school soccer while their club team is dormant, and the trapped players are those in 8th grade who don't have school or club soccer in the fall. Since DA plays in the fall and doesn't allow school soccer how is it possible to have trapped players?

Not to mention, they have composite years for HS aged kids AND they allow kids to play down. It's a complete joke. Again, your kids can play or not, stop trying to fix the system to make them more competitive. Play more soccer and work harder.

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Never going to go back.

A lot of things that are NEVER going to happen, actually do happen. "They will never go to birth year", "Stars will never get to have both DA and ECNL". "Stars will never drop DA" Stars will never get two ECNL teams."... Wait and see.

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It is actually really funny how everyone is so afraid of those few trapped 8th graders coming to get their precious little child's spot.

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Not to mention, they have composite years for HS aged kids AND they allow kids to play down. It's a complete joke. Again, your kids can play or not, stop trying to fix the system to make them more competitive. Play more soccer and work harder.

Stop being so afraid of the kids that are born in the fall (and in the same grade) taking your kid's spot.

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Stop being so afraid of the kids that are born in the fall (and in the same grade) taking your kid's spot.

I don't see anyone objecting to their child's spot being taken by older players coming down. What most seem to object to is having trapped players play down, play with a borrowed team, and having to overly communicate grad year with college coaches. Those coaches absolutely consider positional requirements for each entering class. Plain and simple, it would better for all involved if the ECNL were organized by graduating year - at least for the HS years.

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How often does a younger kid take PT from an older kid? Not that often. I don't think anyone is really "afraid" of their kid losing PT. Most I know feel sorry for the trapped kids. My D's team lost one last year - had no place to play, tried fencing, loved it, never came back to soccer. She was a good top 3 player too.

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I don't see anyone objecting to their child's spot being taken by older players coming down. What most seem to object to is having trapped players play down, play with a borrowed team, and having to overly communicate grad year with college coaches. Those coaches absolutely consider positional requirements for each entering class. Plain and simple, it would better for all involved if the ECNL were organized by graduating year - at least for the HS years.

While I agree with part of what you say, I do think those who like the birth year are indeed afraid of the Sept -Dec birth kids if teams are reshuffled. And they should be. Those kids have effectively been playing up a year. But as someone just said earlier, either the kid can play or she can’t

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Towns are grade plus birth year but waivers can be granted for players. Want to talk about a mess.....

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Towns are grade plus birth year but waivers can be granted for players. Want to talk about a mess.....

Whole thing is crazy. But honestly only place grad year grouping is really important is u16and up ecnl and probably npl

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You are coming out this year or next and you can play or you cant ... I dont care about your age. I will not factor it in as a coach, I would merely look at where you are now and how much time you have before you start my program ... will you be where I need you to be when you start college? I dont care if you are 19 or 15 .... if I think you can play at the level i need when you get here, I will try to win you.

Going grad year for teams would add big bonus points to ecnl teams over gda teams, just like ability to play high school ball. Lacrosse went to grad year and never looked back because it’s the best for college recruiting and also for recruiting at ulittles because little kids want to play with their friends from class. No brainer for ecnl to switch to grad year!

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You are coming out this year or next and you can play or you cant ... I dont care about your age. I will not factor it in as a coach, I would merely look at where you are now and how much time you have before you start my program ... will you be where I need you to be when you start college? I dont care if you are 19 or 15 .... if I think you can play at the level i need when you get here, I will try to win you.

Exactly. You don't care about age, but you do care if they are coming out this year or next. When watching a u15 you want to know if they will have 1 more year or 2 to get to the level you need before you commit them. Sure would be nice to walk up to a game knowing the entire field is on the same timeline.

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Stop being so afraid of the kids that are born in the fall (and in the same grade) taking your kid's spot.

That was not what I was saying. After making such a huge stink about converting the country to birth year USDA now allows boys to play down so they won't lose them. Playing down as a 2002 on a 2003 team that was not a composite team last year. It's a complete joke and US DA can't even observe their own stupid rules. My other point was that it really doesn't matter which day you make the cutoff ..... There will always be a 364 day gap between the oldest and youngest and some will think it unfair so stop worrying about which specific day is used whether it is 12/31 or 7/31 simply doesn't matter.

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So your kid is DA. No one in ECNL is worried about DA kids. Our kids are just looking to play with their graduating class for recruiting purposes. If it doesn’t matter where the 12 month cut is, make it easy and do it by school year.