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Going back to school year vs birth year

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    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
    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.
    You bring up a good point many outside of DA might not be aware of - DA allows for a few younger/smaller players to play down an age when a club deems it appropriate. No one else gets to do that but they do? "Do as we say, not what we do" by USSF.

    In an ideal world kids would be clustered by skill, not age or size. But obviously that will happen when unicorns dot the landscape (many clubs are incapable of executing it right, some clubs would abuse it to rack up wins, parents would have fits). So since that's not viable we need one cutoff. The preferred cut off that impacts the least # of kids negatively and has more positive benefits is school age (keeps kids with peers, helps in recruiting). DA can keep calendar age if they want.

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      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      I'm pretty sure this was the town team. At that age the play a combined 7th-8th grade
      No, it wasn’t the town team. I know what team my own son played for, idiot! A lot of the public middle schools in our area offer after-school sports teams, including fall soccer. We paid a small after-school fee (<$200) and the public school paid the rest (coaches, refs, buses to away games, etc.). They practiced 3x and played 1 or 2 games per week right after school. He also played on the town league run seperately and club on the weekends.

      There must be hundreds of kids playing middle soccer soccer in public schools here in MA. I mentioned our school in Waltham and a half dozen other local districts that I know of that offer middle school soccer, including Boston.

      I’m just bringing this up as an option since there are parents saying their 8th graders are “trapped” with nothing no team to play on in the fall. I’m not going to say it’s as good as club, but it beats doing nothing and is competitive with HS since it’s pretty much the same format.

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        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
        No, it wasn’t the town team. I know what team my own son played for, idiot! A lot of the public middle schools in our area offer after-school sports teams, including fall soccer. We paid a small after-school fee (<$200) and the public school paid the rest (coaches, refs, buses to away games, etc.). They practiced 3x and played 1 or 2 games per week right after school. He also played on the town league run seperately and club on the weekends.

        There must be hundreds of kids playing middle soccer soccer in public schools here in MA. I mentioned our school in Waltham and a half dozen other local districts that I know of that offer middle school soccer, including Boston.

        I’m just bringing this up as an option since there are parents saying their 8th graders are “trapped” with nothing no team to play on in the fall. I’m not going to say it’s as good as club, but it beats doing nothing and is competitive with HS since it’s pretty much the same format.
        If a kid is used to training with their ECNL/NPL team (referring to girls here) and they have basically been playing up with kids the grade above for years, middle school soccer is not a place where they will continue to improve. For kids at that level, it does matter.

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          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          If a kid is used to training with their ECNL/NPL team (referring to girls here) and they have basically been playing up with kids the grade above for years, middle school soccer is not a place where they will continue to improve. For kids at that level, it does matter.
          Why can't they just play for fun with their friends and run circles around everyone up and down the field, scoring 5 goals a game .... oh, they can't run circles around these kids and score 5 goals on these kids? .... oh, they need the other players from their team to move the ball and score? .... oh, it's not real soccer? ... oh, they aren't capable of doing the heavy lifting even against these cones????? got it.

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            No, talented players do *not* always need to pl as y with their peers to improve. The boys national Gatorade player of the year plays on a low level prep school team every fall. Certainly didn't hurt him. Playing at a lower level can let a higher level player try other positions, or riskier/more creative moves than they might try when the stakes are higher. Finally burnout is real -- keeping it fun is critical! Bottom line, playing middle school soccer for 3 months in 8th grade (i.e. one time in their lives) will not stunt a top player. Get a grip, parents.

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              I am not the other poster but I will chime in since you are kinda being a jerk. Great for you that you have a middle school program. The vast majority of the state does not have them. Everyone seems to have a solution for a single player. The fact remains that when we went to birth year, we broke a system that was actually working in our country. The problem may go away for each kid after they survive that trapped 8th grade year but it happens again every year for a whole new crop. Any why? No need for it.

              The biggest issue remains that kids should be grouped by graduating year for recruiting purposes. I could give a crap what DA does or what lower level teams do. But for ECNL, where the end game is college recruiting, USSF broke the system. Since ECNL and USSF are no longer "playing nice" the system should just be fixed so that players in the same graduating classes can be directly compared.

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                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                No, talented players do *not* always need to pl as y with their peers to improve. The boys national Gatorade player of the year plays on a low level prep school team every fall. Certainly didn't hurt him. Playing at a lower level can let a higher level player try other positions, or riskier/more creative moves than they might try when the stakes are higher. Finally burnout is real -- keeping it fun is critical! Bottom line, playing middle school soccer for 3 months in 8th grade (i.e. one time in their lives) will not stunt a top player. Get a grip, parents.
                Of course it won't. But not many schools have it so theres more kids facing the prospect of no team at all. Some clubs let kids train with the younger team but they can't play games due to registration rules. Many more kids are harmed by calendar year than helped + it complicates recruiting. Time.to fo back to grade based

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                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  I am not the other poster but I will chime in since you are kinda being a jerk. Great for you that you have a middle school program. The vast majority of the state does not have them. Everyone seems to have a solution for a single player. The fact remains that when we went to birth year, we broke a system that was actually working in our country. The problem may go away for each kid after they survive that trapped 8th grade year but it happens again every year for a whole new crop. Any why? No need for it.

                  The biggest issue remains that kids should be grouped by graduating year for recruiting purposes. I could give a crap what DA does or what lower level teams do. But for ECNL, where the end game is college recruiting, USSF broke the system. Since ECNL and USSF are no longer "playing nice" the system should just be fixed so that players in the same graduating classes can be directly compared.
                  Correct! Plus, it would be a big added draw to ecnl over gda in their current competition over players.

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