Are we changing back to the old age system

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Put the fat kids together. A holes together. Rich kids together. LOL

This would be so much more entertaining than our current system!

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Swimming and Baseball use May 1st; Basketball and Rugby use Sept 1st. As far as I'm concerned a date is a date, put one and stick with it.

Easy: use GRADUATION YEAR! Like lacrosse switched to and lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the country. Colleges recruit by GRADUATION YEAR, they don’t care what month you were born nor when your state’s school cutoff is. Graduation year is all they care about so it makes perfect sense. Heard ECNL was switching to grad year to corner 90% of the youth soccer market. If USSF changes, it helps everyone and keeps their GDA alive.

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Easy: use GRADUATION YEAR! Like lacrosse switched to and lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the country. Colleges recruit by GRADUATION YEAR, they don’t care what month you were born nor when your state’s school cutoff is. Graduation year is all they care about so it makes perfect sense. Heard ECNL was switching to grad year to corner 90% of the youth soccer market. If USSF changes, it helps everyone and keeps their GDA alive.

why should school graduation have anything to do with it? what ends up happening is that crazy parents hold their kids back a year for athletic performance reasons. happens in basketball. you end up having 16 year old 9th graders. sports and school should not be tied together.

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Easy: use GRADUATION YEAR! Like lacrosse switched to and lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the country. Colleges recruit by GRADUATION YEAR, they don’t care what month you were born nor when your state’s school cutoff is. Graduation year is all they care about so it makes perfect sense. Heard ECNL was switching to grad year to corner 90% of the youth soccer market. If USSF changes, it helps everyone and keeps their GDA alive.

Exactly! Standardized across the country! As long as colleges recruit by grad year, this is the way to go. There is no money in soccer in this country like there is for football, basketball, baseball, hockey. Parents aren’t holding their kids back in school so they can do better in youth soccer. As it is, the change to stupid birth year actually “held back” the players born in the first 9months of the year (for most state’s Aug/Sept cutoffs) and put them on teams with the younger grade. USSF thought this would give those older grade players an edge and help US Soccer. It didn’t. All it did was create major problems and drop soccer participation by over 15% and still dropping!

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As long as there is college athletic money, youth sports in our country are completely tied to school. College soccer is the goal for 99% of youth soccer players. Graduation year age groups is the only grouping that makes any sense.

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As long as there is college athletic money, youth sports in our country are completely tied to school. College soccer is the goal for 99% of youth soccer players. Graduation year age groups is the only grouping that makes any sense.

there is no money in college soccer on the men's side. maybe $10,000 a semester? if that. on the boys side, 99% of youth soccer players do NOT dream of college. they dream of playing professionally. it is just not a realistic goal, so instead of hanging up their cleats they play in college. No good boys player cares two sh** about playing in college, they just do it because the system in this country leaves them with no choice. but if you think on the boys side they are motivated by playing soccer in college, you are crazy. boys dream of national team, MLS, europe. They don't care about playing for north carolina or clemson. that's a parent thing trying to get return for our investment.

tying youth sports to college is a mistake with boys. they should go to the college they will thrive at academically and continue playing soccer however they possibly can (semi pro, summer in europe, etc.) college soccer is generally not worth it for most boys - its not what they dream of and they will not be happy. for boys there's no reason to view college and soccer as a grouping.

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Exactly! Standardized across the country! As long as colleges recruit by grad year, this is the way to go. There is no money in soccer in this country like there is for football, basketball, baseball, hockey. Parents aren’t holding their kids back in school so they can do better in youth soccer. As it is, the change to stupid birth year actually “held back” the players born in the first 9months of the year (for most state’s Aug/Sept cutoffs) and put them on teams with the younger grade. USSF thought this would give those older grade players an edge and help US Soccer. It didn’t. All it did was create major problems and drop soccer participation by over 15% and still dropping!

With all the many shortcomings of the US Soccer youth model....you think this age cut off date is reason for dropping participation by 15%?

Some one needs to explain the difference between causation and correlation.

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But, but, but....classmates! whaaaaaaaa

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL at you cry babies. If it wasn't this, then it would something to complain about.

I’d cut your kid cause you a dic less moron.

But but but coach!

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But, but, but....classmates! whaaaaaaaa

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL at you cry babies. If it wasn't this, then it would something to complain about.

Feel better? Need another tissue and another tampon yet again?

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Looking at it from USSF’s side: It’s all about money and participation numbers. Changing to graduation year not only is standard across the country but also aligns with high school and college so will bring in more numbers and thus more money. Bigger player pools mean more possible elite players.

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Looking at it from USSF’s side: It’s all about money and participation numbers. Changing to graduation year not only is standard across the country but also aligns with high school and college so will bring in more numbers and thus more money. Bigger player pools mean more possible elite players.

I am not worried about it breaking up teams as USSF was never concerned about that when they broke up. My kids are both playing up at their club and I would imagine that would continue. The drag about the current set up is the trap for those born in September through December who end up as a senior without a team.

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Looking at it from USSF’s side: It’s all about money and participation numbers. Changing to graduation year not only is standard across the country but also aligns with high school and college so will bring in more numbers and thus more money. Bigger player pools mean more possible elite players.

Graduation year is obviously the way to go. No downsides. Only upsides.
Graduation year > old Aug 1 to July 31st > birth year. Every grade has a team. Simple. Elite youth NT opportunities remain birth year. My kid is born in June so was “helped” by the change but is aging out and the mess that came with birth year was way more detrimental to her development than helpful. Colleges don’t care about anything but graduation year so going with that helps the most and is consistent across the USA.

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I am not worried about it breaking up teams as USSF was never concerned about that when they broke up. My kids are both playing up at their club and I would imagine that would continue. The drag about the current set up is the trap for those born in September through December who end up as a senior without a team.

A lot of 8th graders are left without teams when their 9th grade teammates are playing for their HS teams. Some states restrict even prohibit playing club and HS at the same time (overuse, exhaustion) and clubs basically shut down while HS is in session. Then those 8th graders don't have teams for a few months. It negatively impacts thousands of 8th and 12th graders every year, all to benefit (if it does at all) a few dozen players.

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there is no money in college soccer on the men's side. maybe $10,000 a semester? if that. on the boys side, 99% of youth soccer players do NOT dream of college. they dream of playing professionally. it is just not a realistic goal, so instead of hanging up their cleats they play in college. No good boys player cares two sh** about playing in college, they just do it because the system in this country leaves them with no choice. but if you think on the boys side they are motivated by playing soccer in college, you are crazy. boys dream of national team, MLS, europe. They don't care about playing for north carolina or clemson. that's a parent thing trying to get return for our investment.

tying youth sports to college is a mistake with boys. they should go to the college they will thrive at academically and continue playing soccer however they possibly can (semi pro, summer in europe, etc.) college soccer is generally not worth it for most boys - its not what they dream of and they will not be happy. for boys there's no reason to view college and soccer as a grouping.

You are completely wrong. YEs some boys "dream" of playing professionally, but as you said they know it's not a realistic goal. Then college ball becomes the new target. If you want to go pro you pretty much should skip college all together. But that is a fraction of male players. The rest aim for college soccer, regardless of the fact they won't get much $ to do so. There's nearly as many male players in college soccer as female - the females just have more D1 programs and scholarships.

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You are completely wrong. YEs some boys "dream" of playing professionally, but as you said they know it's not a realistic goal. Then college ball becomes the new target. If you want to go pro you pretty much should skip college all together. But that is a fraction of male players. The rest aim for college soccer, regardless of the fact they won't get much $ to do so. There's nearly as many male players in college soccer as female - the females just have more D1 programs and scholarships.

at 18 maybe as reality sets in, college looks more attractive. you ask any good boys player at 15 years old where they see themselves in 3-4 years and I don't think one will say playing as a freshman in college. I'm not saying it's not reality, just that it's not a "goal" as it is on the girl's side. it sort of becomes the only way to continue playing at a certain age.