Changes to age groups

[Unregistered]

Birth year is the only fair way to do it country-wide. Sorry, hurts some kids in the shoulder seasons but you can't quibble with the year of your birth as the delineation.

Other sports go by grade and the system worked perfectly fine for soccer before as well. The most fair system is the one that leaves the least number of kids left without teams. That is grade based.

[Unregistered]

Other sports go by grade and the system worked perfectly fine for soccer before as well. The most fair system is the one that leaves the least number of kids left without teams. That is grade based.

Yeah it worked perfectly. The big boned kid who was held back a year and was a foot taller than everyone else could walk all over the competition and score goals at will against smaller younger kids. And as a result the coach taught his 'just pass it to Bobby' philosophy for a few years to the developmental detriment to the other 11 kids on the team. By the time Bobby's lack of athleticism and skill catches up with him around U12 its too late to start teaching skills to the few kids who haven't abandoned soccer yet and your travel games start to resemble rec games. Worked perfectly.

[Unregistered]

Yeah it worked perfectly. The big boned kid who was held back a year and was a foot taller than everyone else could walk all over the competition and score goals at will against smaller younger kids. And as a result the coach taught his 'just pass it to Bobby' philosophy for a few years to the developmental detriment to the other 11 kids on the team. By the time Bobby's lack of athleticism and skill catches up with him around U12 its too late to start teaching skills to the few kids who haven't abandoned soccer yet and your travel games start to resemble rec games. Worked perfectly.

doesnt matter thats how they go to college and HS so it is the only metric that makes sense

you want your kid to learn foot skills
he needs to train as an individual

[Unregistered]

Keep lowering the bar so no one gets left out.

[Unregistered]

Yeah it worked perfectly. The big boned kid who was held back a year and was a foot taller than everyone else could walk all over the competition and score goals at will against smaller younger kids. And as a result the coach taught his 'just pass it to Bobby' philosophy for a few years to the developmental detriment to the other 11 kids on the team. By the time Bobby's lack of athleticism and skill catches up with him around U12 its too late to start teaching skills to the few kids who haven't abandoned soccer yet and your travel games start to resemble rec games. Worked perfectly.

You weren't allowed to play with younger kids if you were older and held back. What an idiot.

[Unregistered]

Yeah it worked perfectly. The big boned kid who was held back a year and was a foot taller than everyone else could walk all over the competition and score goals at will against smaller younger kids. And as a result the coach taught his 'just pass it to Bobby' philosophy for a few years to the developmental detriment to the other 11 kids on the team. By the time Bobby's lack of athleticism and skill catches up with him around U12 its too late to start teaching skills to the few kids who haven't abandoned soccer yet and your travel games start to resemble rec games. Worked perfectly.

I was a big honored kid

[Unregistered]

I don’t know the talent yet of my ulittle guy. He just loves to play but plays with kids he does not know from the grade above him. My understanding is that this is going back to school year.

The whole thing is stupid. I have heard of kids that are 8th graders screwed out of playing in the fall because their team they play with was in high school. These people in charge don’t think things through at all.

It does not matter when you move the dates. They are arbitrary. Always going to be kids 12 months older and younger. Always going to be kids left out of grade (unless you did grade).

[Unregistered]

It does not matter when you move the dates. They are arbitrary. Always going to be kids 12 months older and younger. Always going to be kids left out of grade (unless you did grade).

Under the old system, no one got trapped.

[Unregistered]

I hear ECNL considering going to graduation year for teams.
ECNL wants to be the pathway to college soccer
This would make recruiting for college coaches slightly easier

[Unregistered]

I hear ECNL considering going to graduation year for teams.
ECNL wants to be the pathway to college soccer
This would make recruiting for college coaches slightly easier

This comes up every year

[Unregistered]

Under the old system, no one got trapped.

Untrue. Always were kids that were left behind in 8th grade when team went to HS. Same in 12th as others went off to college. Just different birth months.

[Unregistered]

Untrue. Always were kids that were left behind in 8th grade when team went to HS. Same in 12th as others went off to college. Just different birth months.

Please explain. To my belief there were never trapped players before birth year switch. Trapper players still really not issue here but is issue in most other states. How would player get trapped previously?

[Unregistered]

This comes up every year

It should come up until it gets fixed.

[Unregistered]

First, there were trapped players before, it hasnt changed the numbers from what I see. Clubs usually allowed them to be practice players for the Fall with a younger age group.

Second, the biggest issue with the age change was the stupid application. They are going by birth year, but the seasonal year is from Fall to Spring. So players that are turn 13 in Dec 2020, had to play U13 in Fall, though they were 11. It causes parents in the younger ages to go berserk.

Third and most important, everything the idiots in USYSA set-up for ages to help develop our youth (4v4, 8v8, 9v9, heading rules), all go by the old age set-up. So when they said they wanted players not to play 11v11 till U13 for example, they now are playing at 11 years old due to their incredible lack of vision and stupidity.

[Unregistered]

First, there were trapped players before, it hasnt changed the numbers from what I see. Clubs usually allowed them to be practice players for the Fall with a younger age group.

Second, the biggest issue with the age change was the stupid application. They are going by birth year, but the seasonal year is from Fall to Spring. So players that are turn 13 in Dec 2020, had to play U13 in Fall, though they were 11. It causes parents in the younger ages to go berserk.

Third and most important, everything the idiots in USYSA set-up for ages to help develop our youth (4v4, 8v8, 9v9, heading rules), all go by the old age set-up. So when they said they wanted players not to play 11v11 till U13 for example, they now are playing at 11 years old due to their incredible lack of vision and stupidity.

To clarify the trapped 8th grade issue. In the current system, up to 4/12 of the players (those born between Sept and Dec -- 4 out of 12 months) are likely to be on a lower grade and therefore, don't have a team to play for come fall of 8th grade because the rest of their team is playing high school. 4/12 (simplified to 1/3) of a team does not make a team so therefore these kids have to play down. In the old system, 4/12 of the players born Sept to Dec are the OLDEST players on the team and therefore are playing in High School when the rest of the team is in 8th grade. 8/12 of the team remain (simplified to 2/3) which is typically enough to make a full team. If not, then a couple players would play UP to that team. There was no playing down.