ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

I'm not sure how all of this works, so help me out. If the ECNL did want to switch away from birth year, they don't need clubs to agree, do they? Don't the leagues set their own rules? Similarly, if the ECNL changes, that doesn't necessarily mean lower level/age group leagues such as the NECSL would have to change, does it? I do not know how everything is set up, but I was assuming each league sets their own rules. Do I have that wrong, or generally do the leagues align with each other for major changes like this? Is there a scenario where ECNL switches but the NECSL decides not to? Or does that just become a logistical nightmare? When the switch happened before, did all of the leagues announce at the same time? It seems like from the leagues' perspective it would be an easy switch, but from the clubs' perspectives it would be more complicated to implement across all age groups - lots of teams will get shuffled around as fall birthdays bump out kids from the previous age groups.

[Guest]

I guess I don’t see what’s hard about this. Tryouts happen in spring again, everyone tries out with the new cohort, teams are made. Just like every year just trapped kids will be trying out for a different team? So parents who’d be upset are the ones on that younger team who might get cut but if they have trapped players who also move down the spots should more or less even out. I just don’t see the logistical hurdle here.

[Guest]

This is not a large project, I work in M&A integration. Buying a company is a large project. This is a spreadsheet exercise and since it’s pay to play there a lot of forgiveness involved for what is a unilateral decision.

Then you must know communication and change is essential to success. You have 300+ clubs and thousands of impacted people. Is the actual change hard no but everything surrounding it is. And for what? So we fix a non-existent problem only to replace it with another? lol keep dreaming

[Guest]

I guess I don’t see what’s hard about this. Tryouts happen in spring again, everyone tries out with the new cohort, teams are made. Just like every year just trapped kids will be trying out for a different team? So parents who’d be upset are the ones on that younger team who might get cut but if they have trapped players who also move down the spots should more or less even out. I just don’t see the logistical hurdle here.

I know but that’s why you’re a parent and not running a club.

[Guest]

Then you must know communication and change is essential to success. You have 300+ clubs and thousands of impacted people. Is the actual change hard no but everything surrounding it is. And for what? So we fix a non-existent problem only to replace it with another? lol keep dreaming

Each club handles their team assignments separately. Just stop it. It was a bit of a pain in 2017 and yet, youth soccer survived. Just because a problem does not effect your kid, does not mean that it is non-existent.

[Guest]

Then you must know communication and change is essential to success. You have 300+ clubs and thousands of impacted people. Is the actual change hard no but everything surrounding it is. And for what? So we fix a non-existent problem only to replace it with another? lol keep dreaming

Sounds like a 2-email, one optional zoom thing to me.

[Guest]

Each club handles their team assignments separately. Just stop it. It was a bit of a pain in 2017 and yet, youth soccer survived. Just because a problem does not effect your kid, does not mean that it is non-existent.

again not a problem now. Trapped players play the same number of games as anyone else. This isn’t happening and it shouldn’t.

[Guest]

again not a problem now. Trapped players play the same number of games as anyone else. This isn’t happening and it shouldn’t.

For ECNL, it’s more about the recruiting years and the difficulty of the combined u19 age group (although the 8th grade trapped year is frustrating). Birth year makes it more difficult for college coaches. ECNL caters to college coaches.

[Guest]

again not a problem now. Trapped players play the same number of games as anyone else. This isn’t happening and it shouldn’t.

Explain how trapped players play the same number of games than kids in their grade?
You could be right but I can’t imagine how NECSL trapped players get as many games in as the non trapped players in their grade?
Also in GA looks like the older groups about u14 play less games.
Maybe ECNL? But the younger age groups are probably doing tournaments during the winter so the younger age group u14 is playing more soccer than a trapped player.
Also like to point out what about when the trapped players are seniors and most of their teammates are in college what happens then? I know you will probably say it will happen to the kids are on the older side when they are seniors also. But is that 4 months worth of players like it is now?
Im assuming you are new so I won’t hold that against you but the school year cut off date wasn’t an issue no one complained. For the most part because those kids in that age group break down were the players that were competing for college roster spots come recruitment time.

[Guest]

Explain how trapped players play the same number of games than kids in their grade?
You could be right but I can’t imagine how NECSL trapped players get as many games in as the non trapped players in their grade?
Also in GA looks like the older groups about u14 play less games.
Maybe ECNL? But the younger age groups are probably doing tournaments during the winter so the younger age group u14 is playing more soccer than a trapped player.
Also like to point out what about when the trapped players are seniors and most of their teammates are in college what happens then? I know you will probably say it will happen to the kids are on the older side when they are seniors also. But is that 4 months worth of players like it is now?
Im assuming you are new so I won’t hold that against you but the school year cut off date wasn’t an issue no one complained. For the most part because those kids in that age group break down were the players that were competing for college roster spots come recruitment time.

For ECNL they get a full season with their team, it just starts in November instead of September. They can play middle school soccer in the fall and train with their club team a year down in the fall during those 2 months. No ECNL games or showcases missed. In fact, for their teammates riding the bench on varsity high school teams, trapped players may even see more soccer than their non-trapped teammates if they get in a few games with the younger club team or play middle school.

[Guest]

For ECNL they get a full season with their team, it just starts in November instead of September. They can play middle school soccer in the fall and train with their club team a year down in the fall during those 2 months. No ECNL games or showcases missed. In fact, for their teammates riding the bench on varsity high school teams, trapped players may even see more soccer than their non-trapped teammates if they get in a few games with the younger club team or play middle school.

Most towns do not have middle school teams so they do in fact lose a season while their half year older club teammates play all fall.

[Guest]

Most towns do not have middle school teams so they do in fact lose a season while their half year older club teammates play all fall.

Many freshman do not make high school teams. ECNL/GA level
freshman might, but their 8th grade teammates have trapped options at club.

[Guest]

Most towns do not have middle school teams so they do in fact lose a season while their half year older club teammates play all fall.

They don’t lose a season. That’s just a fallacy. They play literally the same number of games just starting 2 months later. And they train with the younger club so
they lose no trainings and they can play in friendlies. So no they don’t miss a season. I don’t get what’s so hard to understand

[Guest]

Changing to class year seems like an absolute no-brainer. A lot of reactions seem to just be claiming that the current problems (trapped kids, more difficult recruiting trips for colleges, kids being forced to split across teams from school friends with similar ability, teams splitting across social maturity levels associated with class) just don't exist because they aren't personally experiencing them. It reeks of people scared that their Jan-June birthday child will be forced to play with Sep-Dec kids from their *same class*, who they would be competing with in HS and college recruiting anyway. ECNL is domestic club soccer, not international team play which need to align with other countries. As for the difficulty in implementing the transition, it would just be a particularly chaotic tryout season. There's always an annual process in place to tryout and adjust teams, so the only difference is that coaches/clubs will need to move more people than usual, and kids who feel they are on the bubble may have to stress over tryouts when they thought they had a safe spot on their old team. Some years tryouts are filled with drama, and some years they aren't. This would just be a drama year.

As for the concerns over the (relatively rare) egregious redshirting or kids who skipped a grade at school, those are easily solved by putting safeguards on the birthday range for the class year.

Listening to some of the podcasts, it appears they focused quite a bit on the fact that the switch to birth year was sold as if it would help combat relative age effect (RAE). But a new study came out that essentially said RAE has instead stayed the same or gotten worse. Given the total failure of the switch to deliver on a core part of the sales pitch, combined with all the new problems it introduced, it's certainly worth considering fixing the mistake. As evidenced by this thread, however, even if it was an overall mistake, there were some who benefitted from the mistake. And those people will aggressively rationalize why it should stay as is.

[Guest]

Most towns do not have middle school teams so they do in fact lose a season while their half year older club teammates play all fall.

Freshman on high school teams do not play all fall as they are subs and the trapped 8th graders can train with and play league games with the younger club teams. Then still get a full ECNl season. They end up with net more, not less.