ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

ECNL is not changing to help trapped 8th graders. They are changing for the college coaches.

[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.

lol you seem to think this is related to fear. For example my kid wouldn’t be impacted at all in anyway. But the push to change this is completely driven by parents and parents only for late in the year born kids. This isn’t changing but it’s interesting how people who argue some negative problem with the current set up are arguing for nothing. They lose nothing. They don’t have 1 negative impact but are fighting because Mia may not play an ecnl game for 2 months. They don’t even know what they are fighting for

[Guest]

lol you seem to think this is related to fear. For example my kid wouldn’t be impacted at all in anyway. But the push to change this is completely driven by parents and parents only for late in the year born kids. This isn’t changing but it’s interesting how people who argue some negative problem with the current set up are arguing for nothing. They lose nothing. They don’t have 1 negative impact but are fighting because Mia may not play an ecnl game for 2 months. They don’t even know what they are fighting for

The change is about recruiting. ECNL caters to college coaches. College coaches openly talk about how BY makes recruiting more difficult. They would much rather have kids from the same recruiting class playing in the same games.

[Guest]

lol you seem to think this is related to fear. For example my kid wouldn’t be impacted at all in anyway. But the push to change this is completely driven by parents and parents only for late in the year born kids. This isn’t changing but it’s interesting how people who argue some negative problem with the current set up are arguing for nothing. They lose nothing. They don’t have 1 negative impact but are fighting because Mia may not play an ecnl game for 2 months. They don’t even know what they are fighting for

Assuming this was a troll post, but the change is being driven by college coaches and club/league administrators to address problems which you refuse to acknowledge.

[Guest]

The change is about recruiting. ECNL caters to college coaches. College coaches openly talk about how BY makes recruiting more difficult. They would much rather have kids from the same recruiting class playing in the same games.

Actually there’s been several college coaches and recruiters that chimed in on this thread and they alll said it doesn’t matter. Coaches watch players not teams. They know the grad year of the players they go to watch. It doesn’t make a difference to them. Try another angle

[Guest]

But with school year they can watch juniors in one game, let's say 08's, not 08's and 09's in two different fields.

[Guest]

There is absolutely no change coming . Knock this nonsense off

[Guest]

There is absolutely no change coming . Knock this nonsense off

Wrong…. Colleges are asking for it. So that’s that.

[Guest]

Not sure if it will change or not, but I do agree that college coaches would prefer it.

[Guest]

Wrong…. Colleges are asking for it. So that’s that.

Lol I mean do you believe in unicorns? Once again did you read the thread? The coaches and recruiters said they don’t care. And once again, the coaches don’t come to watch teams, they watch PLAYERS. PLAYERS. Not teams. They know the grad year of the PLAYERS they are watching. That’s why they don’t care.

[Guest]

Actually there’s been several college coaches and recruiters that chimed in on this thread and they alll said it doesn’t matter. Coaches watch players not teams. They know the grad year of the players they go to watch. It doesn’t make a difference to them. Try another angle

The “college coaches and recruiters” on an anonymous message board? Yes, I will definitely put stock in that vs. actual college coaches having conversations about it on an actual showcase sideline in front of me while handing out rosters. Not to mention the college coaches at our club who speak openly about it.

You are correct, coaches watch players. But they have to watch 2 age groups per recruiting class with the current system. My kid played in a showcase game this spring where there were only 8 players between the 2 teams on the field (2026’s) weren’t committed. They make it work, but it’s not efficient. It won’t matter for my kid, but the change makes sense on many levels, particularly for ECNL which is VERY focused on college recruiting.

[Guest]

The “college coaches and recruiters” on an anonymous message board? Yes, I will definitely put stock in that vs. actual college coaches having conversations about it on an actual showcase sideline in front of me while handing out rosters. Not to mention the college coaches at our club who speak openly about it.

You are correct, coaches watch players. But they have to watch 2 age groups per recruiting class with the current system. My kid played in a showcase game this spring where there were only 8 players between the 2 teams on the field (2026’s) weren’t committed. They make it work, but it’s not efficient. It won’t matter for my kid, but the change makes sense on many levels, particularly for ECNL which is VERY focused on college recruiting.

Hahaha! So you’re basing your argument on your overheard eavesdropping convo, ok dude. Yeah I would much rather trust this board than your ridiculous conclusion. They came to watch a specific player on the field. It doesn’t matter if they were all committed except for the player they were watching.

[Guest]

There's not really a need to assess which rumors or hearsay sources are correct here. ECNL leadership publicly posted 2 podcasts for all to hear, laying out why they would like to change back to class year. They laid out multiple reasons and analyzed the known counterarguments of the opposing view. At the end, they challenged listeners who held the opposing view to write in with any more arguments in favor of the birth year status quo. If you think you have a good argument for birth year that they didn't address, write it in. Having read through this thread here, I haven't seen anyone with an argument that they haven't already considered. I'm guessing they won't be convinced they're wrong by someone writing in to simply say, "Lmfao, brah, all your reasons are dumb. My kid won't even be affected, but you definitely shouldn't do it."

[Guest]

Hahaha! So you’re basing your argument on your overheard eavesdropping convo, ok dude. Yeah I would much rather trust this board than your ridiculous conclusion. They came to watch a specific player on the field. It doesn’t matter if they were all committed except for the player they were watching.

Let’s try repeating this again since you can’t seem to comprehend.

Yes. Coaches watch players, not teams. But they have to juggle significantly MORE games at each showcase to see kids in the same recruiting class. It’s not that hard to understand.

Well, maybe it’s hard for you to understand.

[Guest]

Let’s try repeating this again since you can’t seem to comprehend.

Yes. Coaches watch players, not teams. But they have to juggle significantly MORE games at each showcase to see kids in the same recruiting class. It’s not that hard to understand.

Well, maybe it’s hard for you to understand.

Ok, we’ll disregard the coaches on here that say they don’t care. But your one sample butting into a conversation you weren’t involved in definitely matters more. But hey keep hitting refresh on your phone until you get the news that’s never going to come.