Are we going back to graduation year from birth year?

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This seems like it was a Tab Ramos' baby, and now that he has taken his mental midgetry down to Houston, USSF management thought they should accomplish something to placate the masses.

Just a question, if anyone knows, but what do they do for grad year in the case of kids that have stayed back?

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Just a question, if anyone knows, but what do they do for grad year in the case of kids that have stayed back?

I assume they would just play with their grad year. For the majority of kids who want to play soccer after high school, college is the goal. For recruiting purposes, grad year is what matters. If you are an "older" 2021 because you started school late or repeated, you're still a 2021 grad for recruiting purposes.

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I assume they would just play with their grad year. For the majority of kids who want to play soccer after high school, college is the goal. For recruiting purposes, grad year is what matters. If you are an "older" 2021 because you started school late or repeated, you're still a 2021 grad for recruiting purposes.

Exactly. Colleges don’t care one bit what month or year a kid was born. Colleges recruit by grad year. Period. It all evens out age wise in the high school years for soccer anyway. I think there is a one or two year older limit though to stop say an 18 year old hs freshman from playing with the freshman class. That’s the way it works in Rec soccer that goes by grade as well. If you’re stupid enough to hold your kids back several years to get some small advantage in youth soccer, you (and genetically) your kids aren’t smart enough to go to college anyway.

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Just a question, if anyone knows, but what do they do for grad year in the case of kids that have stayed back?

Precisely why redshirting is a huge thing in the DC area. As in, all the way down to kindergarten. That area is so full of type A parents, many hold their kids back a year before school even begins, just so they'll be the bigger, faster, stronger kids on all the teams. I was surprised to find it wasn't nearly as common in this area when I moved up here.

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Precisely why redshirting is a huge thing in the DC area. As in, all the way down to kindergarten. That area is so full of type A parents, many hold their kids back a year before school even begins, just so they'll be the bigger, faster, stronger kids on all the teams. I was surprised to find it wasn't nearly as common in this area when I moved up here.

If you're trying to game things to help your kid play a sport in college, this would be one way to help them. But is the goal of USSF to help more kids play in college, or to improve the national teams? If they were to change back, and I don't believe this rumor for a second, it would be like waving the white flag on the international level.

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is the goal of USSF to help more kids play in college, or to improve the national teams?

"the Federation’s mission statement has been clear and simple: to make soccer, in all its forms, a preeminent sport in the United States and to continue the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels."

School year cutoff helps 99%+ of youth players in the country.

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If you're trying to game things to help your kid play a sport in college, this would be one way to help them. But is the goal of USSF to help more kids play in college, or to improve the national teams? If they were to change back, and I don't believe this rumor for a second, it would be like waving the white flag on the international level.

Just how is birthyear helping our national teams? Less participation means fewer players to develop. Most national team caliber players, are playing up from a very young age anyway. Developing players should be the goal - not for any particular path.

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If you're trying to game things to help your kid play a sport in college, this would be one way to help them. But is the goal of USSF to help more kids play in college, or to improve the national teams? If they were to change back, and I don't believe this rumor for a second, it would be like waving the white flag on the international level.

Birth year does nothing for identifying YNT talent. Those kids are going to be found regardless and many are playing up an age group or 2 already. YNT camps can still be based on birth year, but that doesn't affect 99% of players...

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Meh, I've got one kid who is a march birthday and has benefited as she is one of the older kids on a roster and has been since the change in 2016. Not saying she doesn't get where she is now without the BY change, but it helped her when she was younger as the shake-up on teams gave her an opportunity. She had to prove herself, and did, but it was the shakeup that created the player movement and opportunity. Relative age effect is real.

Going back won't mean much for her now as she is midway through HS and her path is locked in. For my other kid, he's a young kid for his BY and will get caught in the 8th grade/Senior year orphan BS in the current system. He would actually benefit from going back to the old system at this point.

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Those kids are going to be found regardless...

If I was drinking coffee I would have spit it out at this point. You really think all the best players have been found? This is a pretty big country with a pretty small scouting pool.

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If I was drinking coffee I would have spit it out at this point. You really think all the best players have been found? This is a pretty big country with a pretty small scouting pool.

The point is not that every talented kid will be found and get a YNT call-up... It's that the bitrh year model doesn't really do anything to help find these players. Try to keep up.

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Meh, I've got one kid who is a march birthday and has benefited as she is one of the older kids on a roster and has been since the change in 2016. Not saying she doesn't get where she is now without the BY change, but it helped her when she was younger as the shake-up on teams gave her an opportunity. She had to prove herself, and did, but it was the shakeup that created the player movement and opportunity. Relative age effect is real.

Going back won't mean much for her now as she is midway through HS and her path is locked in. For my other kid, he's a young kid for his BY and will get caught in the 8th grade/Senior year orphan BS in the current system. He would actually benefit from going back to the old system at this point.

From what I see the biggest problem with graduation year teams is the many, many, many repeats at private schools who play on club teams. Some of my daughter's grade mates are fully two years older than her. I suppose it won't really matter in terms of scouting, she's still competing with them for college spots, that's why their parents did it. Kinda annoying though.

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From what I see the biggest problem with graduation year teams is the many, many, many repeats at private schools who play on club teams. Some of my daughter's grade mates are fully two years older than her. I suppose it won't really matter in terms of scouting, she's still competing with them for college spots, that's why their parents did it. Kinda annoying though.

You put three manys in your post. That's a lot.

Dare I say it...that's many...

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From what I see the biggest problem with graduation year teams is the many, many, many repeats at private schools who play on club teams. Some of my daughter's grade mates are fully two years older than her. I suppose it won't really matter in terms of scouting, she's still competing with them for college spots, that's why their parents did it. Kinda annoying though.

We should probably just ban private school kids from participating in youth sports. It would solve this issue once and for all.

[Unregistered]

From what I see the biggest problem with graduation year teams is the many, many, many repeats at private schools who play on club teams. Some of my daughter's grade mates are fully two years older than her. I suppose it won't really matter in terms of scouting, she's still competing with them for college spots, that's why their parents did it. Kinda annoying though.

We kept one child back in pre-school who was a later birthday and wasn't ready emotionally or developmentally to move into K. He was the youngest boy in his class and we saw no reason to force him forward and see him struggle. Best decision we ever made and had nothing to do with sports. That's just a secondary benefit.