ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

But you get a whole extra year at showcases starting when you’re in 8th grade so you get the earliest looks for your class, get to be on radars early. Most aren’t waiting till spring of junior year to make an impression when college coaches can talk a full year before that. Trapped players get the earliest looks for their class and that’s an advantage.

We play girls up for showcases to get the same exposure trapped kids get every match

[Guest]

But you get a whole extra year at showcases starting when you’re in 8th grade so you get the earliest looks for your class, get to be on radars early. Most aren’t waiting till spring of junior year to make an impression when college coaches can talk a full year before that. Trapped players get the earliest looks for their class and that’s an advantage.

But unless you are a YNT-level player, college coaches aren't really looking at 8th graders...so a college coach coming to a U15 showcase that has 15 9th graders to watch isn't really going to pay much attention to the 8th grader on the field unless that 8th grader is really standing out among the 9th graders. The amount of advantage you get by being seen a year early is about the same as filling out the recruiting questionnaire a year early.

[Guest]

Not sure how else to ask it, but I'll try:

Some kids born in, for example, the year 2020 will play with one age group. Others born in the year 2020 will play with another age group. Is this correct?

Yes, this is correct. But those kids are only "the same age" in number-only. Do you consider someone born in Jan 2020 to be the same age as someone born in Dec 2020? And how is that any different from someone born in Aug 2020 and someone born in July 2021? They are both within 12 months apart....but the Aug/July players are more likely to be in the same grade, so no one gets screwed out of a fall season in 8th grade.

[Guest]

Yes, this is correct. But those kids are only "the same age" in number-only. Do you consider someone born in Jan 2020 to be the same age as someone born in Dec 2020? And how is that any different from someone born in Aug 2020 and someone born in July 2021? They are both within 12 months apart....but the Aug/July players are more likely to be in the same grade, so no one gets screwed out of a fall season in 8th grade.

By the time you are in middle school/high school, the physical differences across kids are much more about genetic trajectories as opposed to who is a few months 'older'. So it doesn't really matter either way in terms of what's fair for physical competition. It's more about the other logistical issues.

[Guest]

Yes, this is correct. But those kids are only "the same age" in number-only. Do you consider someone born in Jan 2020 to be the same age as someone born in Dec 2020? And how is that any different from someone born in Aug 2020 and someone born in July 2021? They are both within 12 months apart....but the Aug/July players are more likely to be in the same grade, so no one gets screwed out of a fall season in 8th grade.

12 months apart are twelve months apart no matter what delineation you use

[Guest]

By the time you are in middle school/high school, the physical differences across kids are much more about genetic trajectories as opposed to who is a few months 'older'. So it doesn't really matter either way in terms of what's fair for physical competition. It's more about the other logistical issues.

Birth year vs. Aug 1 cutoff has always been about the logistical issues. No one has claimed otherwise. Aug 1 cutoff has fewer logistical issues than birth year for almost everyone.

[Guest]

Being a trapped player is a bad thing for recruiting because:

1. When you are a high school junior (the most important age group to be seen at showcases for college recruiting), the majority of your club team (at U18/19) will be high school seniors, and as most of those seniors will already be committed, their motivation to attend showcases will be low (especially in the spring). So your chances for attending showcases as a junior with a motivated team is reduced. Most U18/19 teams deal with availability/turnout issues even for league games, especially in leagues like ECNL that require a lot of travel for games.
2. Many college showcases don't even have a U18/19 bracket at their events in the spring.
3. College coaches attending showcases will prioritize going to watch games where they can see the most players they are interested in for a particular graduating class. If you are a trapped player, the games you play in at showcases will mostly be players in a graduating class ahead of you. This may enable you to get on a college's radar a year early as a sophomore, but ultimately the college coach is most interested in seeing you as a junior which will be more representative of what they will be getting when you arrive at college.

Exactly! To add to this, a trapped player plays u18/19 twice. So twice on a team with reduced motivation. If the team even goes to a prime recruiting showcase like Lakewood Ranch, they are stuck all the way out on fields 20,.21,22… quite a hike for coaches where all the other juniors are on fields 3 - 7. With limited time, coaches stay in the central area where they can see a whole lot more players. A u17 sideline has 70+ coaches watching while an u18/19 team has 6 or 7.
And then there is the issue of how to combine the trapped players who stay when their team graduates onto the rising U17 team.

[Guest]

Could someone help me understand what the recruiting impact will be for an August kid assuming an August 1 cutoff but a school cut off of September 1? (So oldest on club team and youngest at school).

It seems like they’d be a year behind everyone else in their graduating year. So coaches would typically be heading to games with sophomores (please don’t make me do the math to
figure out what U year that is - U16 maybe?) while my child also a sophomore will be primarily playing with freshman/U15 game.

Do you think a club would let them play up a year (to stay with their current team and grade)?

[Guest]

Could someone help me understand what the recruiting impact will be for an August kid assuming an August 1 cutoff but a school cut off of September 1? (So oldest on club team and youngest at school).

It seems like they’d be a year behind everyone else in their graduating year. So coaches would typically be heading to games with sophomores (please don’t make me do the math to
figure out what U year that is - U16 maybe?) while my child also a sophomore will be primarily playing with freshman/U15 game.

Do you think a club would let them play up a year (to stay with their current team and grade)?

The challenge for an August kid in an Aug 1 cutoff with a school cutoff in September will also have some issues, but the main one will be when they are a freshman in high school, they will still be U14...which means their club team will have a fall season during the high school soccer fall season. In most cases, high school soccer coaches get really mad when players skip high school practices to attend club practices and games, so these players often have to make a choice...either play club and skip high school soccer or vice versa. There are some high school coaches who are willing to let the player do both, and most clubs seem amenable to allowing the player to prioritize their high school team for that season. But different from the regular trapped player in birth year, the player is in a situation where they have two options to choose from in 9th grade...whereas the birth year trapped player in 8th grade is stuck without any real options during the fall season.

And yes, they do have the option to play up an age-bracket in order to get recruiting exposure along with their graduating class (vs. a trapped player in birth-year system, where playing down to be with their graduating class is not allowed...although ECNL does have a provision to allow trapped players to play down a year at their showcases...but not in league play).

[Guest]

The challenge for an August kid in an Aug 1 cutoff with a school cutoff in September will also have some issues, but the main one will be when they are a freshman in high school, they will still be U14...which means their club team will have a fall season during the high school soccer fall season. In most cases, high school soccer coaches get really mad when players skip high school practices to attend club practices and games, so these players often have to make a choice...either play club and skip high school soccer or vice versa. There are some high school coaches who are willing to let the player do both, and most clubs seem amenable to allowing the player to prioritize their high school team for that season. But different from the regular trapped player in birth year, the player is in a situation where they have two options to choose from in 9th grade...whereas the birth year trapped player in 8th grade is stuck without any real options during the fall season.

And yes, they do have the option to play up an age-bracket in order to get recruiting exposure along with their graduating class (vs. a trapped player in birth-year system, where playing down to be with their graduating class is not allowed...although ECNL does have a provision to allow trapped players to play down a year at their showcases...but not in league play).

Trapped players can play down a year in league games. A team can play up to 2 trapped players in a game. I would never let a kid play high school and ecnl at the same time. If they even made it through the season which is highly unlikely, they would need 2 months off to recover. The injury rate for 14-15 year old girls is sky high as it is and playing both would exacerbate it. This isn’t town travel and u9 necsl. :)

[Guest]

Trapped players can play down a year in league games. A team can play up to 2 trapped players in a game. I would never let a kid play high school and ecnl at the same time. If they even made it through the season which is highly unlikely, they would need 2 months off to recover. The injury rate for 14-15 year old girls is sky high as it is and playing both would exacerbate it. This isn’t town travel and u9 necsl. :)

Good that you would have a choice to play...

[Guest]

I listed to the podcast that started all of this discussion and it seems well thought out etc.

id be shocked if they don’t make the change in ECNL for the 2025 season. weather other leagues follow suit is hard to say but I’m guessing they fall in line as feeder leagues as they will have similar issues as well.

tryouts will be fun next year wo…..

[Guest]

We live in PA. The cut out date in our school district is September 10th.
My kid is born in March so no issues. The issue is there is the cut out date define the youngest age that can start school but not the other way.
We have tons of kids 15-18 months older than some of their classmates in the school (kids born in March, April, May of 2010 are in 7th. grade as same the kids born in July, or August 2011). They almost exclusively play sports defined by the school grade. These kids were hold a grade back by their parents because the advantage in sports..

[Guest]

We live in PA. The cut out date in our school district is September 10th.
My kid is born in March so no issues. The issue is there is the cut out date define the youngest age that can start school but not the other way.
We have tons of kids 15-18 months older than some of their classmates in the school (kids born in March, April, May of 2010 are in 7th. grade as same the kids born in July, or August 2011). They almost exclusively play sports defined by the school grade. These kids were hold a grade back by their parents because the advantage in sports..

But that only applies to school sports, not clubs sports.

[Guest]

But that only applies to school sports, not clubs sports.

Ahh, I got you, but there is no unified school cutoff date in country, so you will still have the same issues. Some school have cutoff dates in August , some in September and so on all way up to December.