Birth year /school year relative age effect

[Unregistered]

The drop off from mod soccer is massive from children born from
September to December . Actual total numbers Have fallen by 20%, last quarter 80%!! Basketball has had the biggest rise in participation in a decade (they play by school year)Let’s not come out with stupid statements if we don’t understand the underlying impact of a poorly thought out plan by US soccer . Little kids want to Play sports with their friends . Not everyone is getting smoke blown up their ass being told they are the next messi .

If you like this then you will love US Soccer's bio banding initiative.

They are going to check for presence pubic hair and penis size before placing your son on a team.

[Unregistered]

I’ll certainly be back ground checking you . You sound like the sort of person who shouldn’t be let anywhere near kids .

[Unregistered]

I’ll certainly be back ground checking you . You sound like the sort of person who shouldn’t be let anywhere near kids .

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/201...ing-initiative

[Unregistered]

https://sports.vice.com/amp/en_uk/ar...th-development

Much better in depth explanation . This is explained without the dumbness of being a whole school grade behind in maturity as well .

[Unregistered]

Maybe a little reading comprehension would help you ? Or do some research on ‘trapped’ players . Kids born in the summer months never had to deal with the fact that they didn’t have a team to play for did they ? Kids that are born from September to December now have no teams to play for during the transition from middle to high school for a whole year ! Same at u18 . Just in case you are too dense to understand they will have no team to play for during college Recruitment years. I hope that’s simplified it for you enough to understand ?

This is true and it's mind boggling that people don't understand it. My November born daughter will be a senior next year. Her club has already told her they won't have a team for her. Her choice is to join the three other fall born kids and form a carpool to commute to the nearest "big city" (2.5 hours each way), or be a practice player on the 2002 team her club has.

This is a kid who is already committed to play D2 soccer in college and who has been a committed member of her club since u8. I don't blame the club - it's a numbers game. But thanks US Soccer for screwing over kids like mine to provide another advantage for the very tip of the pyramid.

[Unregistered]

This is true and it's mind boggling that people don't understand it. My November born daughter will be a senior next year. Her club has already told her they won't have a team for her. Her choice is to join the three other fall born kids and form a carpool to commute to the nearest "big city" (2.5 hours each way), or be a practice player on the 2002 team her club has.

This is a kid who is already committed to play D2 soccer in college and who has been a committed member of her club since u8. I don't blame the club - it's a numbers game. But thanks US Soccer for screwing over kids like mine to provide another advantage for the very tip of the pyramid.

Only someone who lacks any real Intelligence would think otherwise . It’s actually scary that there is people within our game who lack the thinking skills to figure this out . I guess the big clubs need to get their 3rd team coaches from somewhere !!

[Unregistered]

This is true and it's mind boggling that people don't understand it. My November born daughter will be a senior next year. Her club has already told her they won't have a team for her. Her choice is to join the three other fall born kids and form a carpool to commute to the nearest "big city" (2.5 hours each way), or be a practice player on the 2002 team her club has.

This is a kid who is already committed to play D2 soccer in college and who has been a committed member of her club since u8. I don't blame the club - it's a numbers game. But thanks US Soccer for screwing over kids like mine to provide another advantage for the very tip of the pyramid.

Exactly! Some people aren’t the smartest. Unless they switch to Grade/graduation year, not only do about a third of players have no team to play on at 8th/9th transition and for a third of seniors but also a third of juniors can be bumped off teams to make room for the fall born seniors who are leftover when the rest of their team heads off to college. Hence, next year the single year 2002s will have to combine with the remaining 01s that are current juniors playing with seniors. Today’s full 2002 teams will have to join with a third of a teams worth of 2001s who won’t be seniors till next year. U17 to U18/19. Right in the middle of new prime recruiting time! Grad year leaves no one behind and gives everyone a full team to play on. Great for recruiting. More money for the club and everyone is happy. ECNL runs their own league so they could switch first with no downside. Everyone would flock to ECNL if they ran Grad Year age groups even if GDA switches to allowing high school soccer. Grad Year is a no brainer.

[Unregistered]

Exactly! Some people aren’t the smartest. Unless they switch to Grade/graduation year, not only do about a third of players have no team to play on at 8th/9th transition and for a third of seniors but also a third of juniors can be bumped off teams to make room for the fall born seniors who are leftover when the rest of their team heads off to college. Hence, next year the single year 2002s will have to combine with the remaining 01s that are current juniors playing with seniors. Today’s full 2002 teams will have to join with a third of a teams worth of 2001s who won’t be seniors till next year. U17 to U18/19. Right in the middle of new prime recruiting time! Grad year leaves no one behind and gives everyone a full team to play on. Great for recruiting. More money for the club and everyone is happy. ECNL runs their own league so they could switch first with no downside. Everyone would flock to ECNL if they ran Grad Year age groups even if GDA switches to allowing high school soccer. Grad Year is a no brainer.

Great post ! Why don’t Washington state soccer just over rule the governing body and say ‘look it’s just not working’ and go back to grade ? If the supposed very top feel they have international capable players in their ranks why don’t they just play between themselves ? Why affect 99.9% of kids just to give a tiny percentage a hand up ?

[Unregistered]

Great post ! Why don’t Washington state soccer just over rule the governing body and say ‘look it’s just not working’ and go back to grade ? If the supposed very top feel they have international capable players in their ranks why don’t they just play between themselves ? Why affect 99.9% of kids just to give a tiny percentage a hand up ?

Yes, everyone should do it but. Since ECNL runs their own league, they can do it first with no down sides and only up sides. Right now, all these “elite” options have the same multitude of problems birth year age groups create. Offering full grade/graduation year teams across the nation in ECNL would set ECNL apart and offer what the players and colleges want. Slam dunk! Then other leagues would be likely to follow. Don’t forget that youth soccer participation is down over 15% and dropping since the change to birth year. The smartest will switch first and switch soon. ECNL doesn’t want to wait until GDA announces they are allowing high school play. ECNL needs to provide a different and better option than GDA.

[Unregistered]

Yes, everyone should do it but. Since ECNL runs their own league, they can do it first with no down sides and only up sides. Right now, all these “elite” options have the same multitude of problems birth year age groups create. Offering full grade/graduation year teams across the nation in ECNL would set ECNL apart and offer what the players and colleges want. Slam dunk! Then other leagues would be likely to follow. Don’t forget that youth soccer participation is down over 15% and dropping since the change to birth year. The smartest will switch first and switch soon. ECNL doesn’t want to wait until GDA announces they are allowing high school play. ECNL needs to provide a different and better option than GDA.

Does ECNL only offer league status to the big clubs ?

[Unregistered]

Birth year/school year relative age affect

I've been following all of the conversation about birth year/grad year and the recs and hings that ECNL might go down this path, but can't find a shred of this talk anywhere else on the web. So curious if there is more meat here, or just 10 or so of us chatting about what makes sense.
Secondly, does ECNL have the power to switch? My understanding was that this is a mandate handed down from US soccer and no entity under them can go against birth year.

[Unregistered]

I've been following all of the conversation about birth year/grad year and the recs and hings that ECNL might go down this path, but can't find a shred of this talk anywhere else on the web. So curious if there is more meat here, or just 10 or so of us chatting about what makes sense.
Secondly, does ECNL have the power to switch? My understanding was that this is a mandate handed down from US soccer and no entity under them can go against birth year.

From what I have seen US soccer has done everything it could possibly do to bury it . You can’t tell me that we are the only people who think that they have made a massive balls up ? Where is a social medium to find out ? Who do we actually take this issue to ? I have personally sent a number of emails to US soccer without a single reply ! We should just tell US soccer to go screw themselves and start our own league and governing body . They will
Listen like everyone else when everyone starts to refuse to send them money .

[Unregistered]

I have interviewed a dozen homeless people about this very subject about US Soccer and they all laughed at me. I just don’t they get how serious this is.

[Unregistered]

I have interviewed a dozen homeless people about this very subject about US Soccer and they all laughed at me. I just don’t they get how serious this is.

As what the OP wrote above . Maybe your intellegence levels can’t comprehend it ? Much like none of us get your terrible attempt at humor?

[Unregistered]

From what I have seen US soccer has done everything it could possibly do to bury it . You can’t tell me that we are the only people who think that they have made a massive balls up ? Where is a social medium to find out ? Who do we actually take this issue to ? I have personally sent a number of emails to US soccer without a single reply ! We should just tell US soccer to go screw themselves and start our own league and governing body . They will
Listen like everyone else when everyone starts to refuse to send them money .

US Soccer is trying to bury ECNL with GDA so I don’t know why ECNL would follow their mandates any more. I don’t know whether it was a mandate or a strong suggestion either but it is literally killing youth soccer and making it way worse even for the national teams.

If ECNL is somehow forced by USSF to do birth year age groups, then (because they are their own national league) the easy work around for ECNL is this for next year:

ECNL teams for the 2019/20 Season
2001 (U19) = All Seniors - born in 2001 or later (ex: many 2002s)
2002 (U18) = All Juniors - born in 2002 or later
2003 (U17) = All Sophomores - born in 2003 or later
2004 (U16) = All Freshmen - born in 2004 or later
ETC.

-This is completely “legal”. In fact, USSF encouraged players to play up so having, for example, 2002s who are seniors play with their 2001 senior peers makes perfect sense.
-This splits the current cluster of having to combine the U18&U19 birth year groups into one team. If no change to grad year next year, ALL the current U17 2002s must combine with the remaining seniors born in 2001 currently juniors on the 200/01 combined teams. This leaves about 10 current players out of a team period. With Grad Year, all the current 2002s AND the remaining 2001s have a team at their current ECNL club - (unless they quit or get replaced as always).
-Double Bonus for ECNL: GDA still has to combine U18/U19 so the 10 or so GDA players that are out of a team will come knocking on nearby ECNL doors.
-Triple bonus: with the current recruiting scandal and new, tighter, stricter NCAA recruiting rules that are set up by GRADE (the NCAA doesn’t care what year a player was born - ONLY what grade they are in), ECNL grade team players would all be on the exact same recruiting timeline and rules! All could either talk or not talk to college coaches, etc so rules would be easy to follow and there would be great transparency to the NCAA that ECNL players are not violating any NCAA recruiting rules. College coaches, next year under MUCH more scrutiny wouldn’t have to worry at a showcase that they are illegally talking to one of the ten 2003 sophomores that’s on the U17 team with all the 2003 juniors. Easy to follow the rules on both sides of its a known team of all juniors. And, yes, of course players could still play up and guest and that would have to be pointed out as an exception but it would be an exception to the rule.
Quadruple bonus: If an ECNL team wanted to play in a non-Ecnl tournament, they can! Some of the birth year team players on the other team might be from the older grade and be some months older, but then the ECNL team has a perfect excuse if they lose and are otherwise being a little more challenged anyway.