ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

Less than 10% of high school soccer players go on to play in college at all division levels. So, how is recruiting enough of a factor to alter something that impacts such a small percentage of players? Honest question, I'm not trying to be a jerk about this.

If you're not trying to be a jerk, then please stop purposely skewing your facts. We are not talking about high school. We are talking about ECNL. FFS

[Guest]

If you're not trying to be a jerk, then please stop purposely skewing your facts. We are not talking about high school. We are talking about ECNL. FFS

Ok, maybe I'm confused... I thought the change back to school grade would apply to all youth soccer in the USA, given that as some already pointed out, if this was to be done at ECNL, then everyone else would follow.

[Guest]

Ok, maybe I'm confused... I thought the change back to school grade would apply to all youth soccer in the USA, given that as some already pointed out, if this was to be done at ECNL, then everyone else would follow.

No one knows what other clubs will do. The only thing we know is ECNL is discussing the change. That's it. It would only change what the birth year parameters are for ECL. Again, that's it. The change would only apply to club (ECNL) and would have nothing to do with school. A change will never apply to ALL youth soccer if you are including school sports. School and club soccer are always going to be different due to how they operate and who governs them.

[Guest]

Less than 10% of high school soccer players go on to play in college at all division levels. So, how is recruiting enough of a factor to alter something that impacts such a small percentage of players? Honest question, I'm not trying to be a jerk about this.

My child has zero aspirations for playing in college. She’s an October 2010 and has been with her club team for 5 years. Yes, there have been people on and off the team over the years, but a core has stayed for the long haul. This fall she will have no club team to play with because 9 out of 14 girls are going to high school.

its not just about recruiting alignment, although that helps. It’s also to fill an unnecessary gap that affects 1/4 - 1/3 of the kids playing.

[Guest]

Less than 10% of high school soccer players go on to play in college at all division levels. So, how is recruiting enough of a factor to alter something that impacts such a small percentage of players? Honest question, I'm not trying to be a jerk about this.

The ECNL is the league that is talking about making the switch. The vast majority of ECNL players on the girls side will go on to college soccer. College recruiting and keeping college coaches happy is a priority for the league. Whether other leagues follow will be up to them.

[Guest]

I think people are way over thinking this?
This just ECNL we are talking about. So if your kid isn’t at one of the 3 clubs that has ECNL don’t worry. If your kid is at a ECNL club and isn’t playing in the ECNL universe don’t worry.
If you still want to worry or are trying to figure things out. It’s pretty simple. Let’s say kids born between august 1 2010 and July 31st 2011 will be on a team. Doesn’t matter what grade you are in. Born between those dates that’s the age group you are in. Stay back skip a grade doesn’t matter. If you have a kid now that has a November birth date and they stay back the kids they play with would be 2 grades a head more than likely.

Did anyone ever use the term trapped when the cut off was around school year?
Only time HS coaches care if a kid plays club soccer during the fall is if they are on varsity.

[Guest]

The ECNL change has nothing to do with school soccer. I don't understand why this has to be explained over and over...

I am talking about club soccer. What aren’t you understanding. If a current fall 08 is a freshman on a Scorpions 08 team but repeats 9th grade next year would they drop down to a scorpions 9th grade team because they both missed August 1 cutoff and are still in 9th grade or move forward with their current team who would be sophomores and juniors?

[Guest]

I think people are way over thinking this?
This just ECNL we are talking about. So if your kid isn’t at one of the 3 clubs that has ECNL don’t worry. If your kid is at a ECNL club and isn’t playing in the ECNL universe don’t worry.
If you still want to worry or are trying to figure things out. It’s pretty simple. Let’s say kids born between august 1 2010 and July 31st 2011 will be on a team. Doesn’t matter what grade you are in. Born between those dates that’s the age group you are in. Stay back skip a grade doesn’t matter. If you have a kid now that has a November birth date and they stay back the kids they play with would be 2 grades a head more than likely.

Did anyone ever use the term trapped when the cut off was around school year?
Only time HS coaches care if a kid plays club soccer during the fall is if they are on varsity.

You mean if a November kid stays back they will be playing with kids two years younger.

[Guest]

My child has zero aspirations for playing in college. She’s an October 2010 and has been with her club team for 5 years. Yes, there have been people on and off the team over the years, but a core has stayed for the long haul. This fall she will have no club team to play with because 9 out of 14 girls are going to high school.

its not just about recruiting alignment, although that helps. It’s also to fill an unnecessary gap that affects 1/4 - 1/3 of the kids playing.

Every single well run club knows how to account for this situation. My daughter went through the same last year. Do you think she simple just didn't play soccer in the Fall because her teammates were Freshman in HS? No, our club provided a solution. Then in November, she was back with her "old" teammates. Zero problems.

[Guest]

But if they switch to the system you’re describing of August 1 cutoff then the September-December kids who redshirt for 9th grade (repeat 9th at new school) will play “down” a year in club soccer. Let’s say this is happening this fall of 2024 (I know it’s not) so as previous poster said a current fall 08 is probably now a freshman playing with a lot of sophomores. If he redshirts as a repeat freshman at SJP Rivers or Nobles for next year he will 1. Miss the August cutoff and 2. Be a freshman again so his current teammates will be playing on a team of juniors in the fall but he will be playing on a team of freshmen because he is a freshman AND missed August deadline. So if I am understanding fall birthdays who redshirt in essence “play down”. They will ultimately be junior’s playing with freshmen instead of freshmen playing with juniors next year.

Any kid who decides to "redshirt" in this scenario, whether they are born in September or July, will be in this situation. The only kids who will be impacted regarding grade placement are the kids born in August before the September 1 school cutoff.

[Guest]

Ok, maybe I'm confused... I thought the change back to school grade would apply to all youth soccer in the USA, given that as some already pointed out, if this was to be done at ECNL, then everyone else would follow.

No one is talking about moving to school grade. We are talking about moving the age-bracketing to use Aug 1-July 31 instead of Jan 1-Dec 31. It's all still a 12 month period for the age group. And none of this has anything to do with "redshirting" in high school soccer. Kids can "redshirt" in high school in either scenario.

[Guest]

I am talking about club soccer. What aren’t you understanding. If a current fall 08 is a freshman on a Scorpions 08 team but repeats 9th grade next year would they drop down to a scorpions 9th grade team because they both missed August 1 cutoff and are still in 9th grade or move forward with their current team who would be sophomores and juniors?

Has zero to do with high school soccer. If a player decides to re-class, that is completely independent of how club soccer deals with age-brackets.

[Guest]

I am talking about club soccer. What aren’t you understanding. If a current fall 08 is a freshman on a Scorpions 08 team but repeats 9th grade next year would they drop down to a scorpions 9th grade team because they both missed August 1 cutoff and are still in 9th grade or move forward with their current team who would be sophomores and juniors?

Again, there is no reason to talk about freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, redshirts, whatever. What kids are going to play at their schools has nothing to do with this change. If this change happens, kids playing in ECNL will play on the teams in the year for which their birthdays fall. Same as they do now except the "year" for those birthdates will change from Jan - Dec to Aug - Jul. What year those kids are at their school and who those kids play with for their schools is up to their schools and has nothing to do with the ECNL change. I don't care if they get held back, flunk, re-classify, redshirt, whatever..IT DOES NOT MATTER FOR ECNL. Regardless of what year they are in school, kids will play with their ECNL "birth year". Done.

[Guest]

Every single well run club knows how to account for this situation. My daughter went through the same last year. Do you think she simple just didn't play soccer in the Fall because her teammates were Freshman in HS? No, our club provided a solution. Then in November, she was back with her "old" teammates. Zero problems.

Yes, clubs have figured out workarounds and trapped players can deal with it somehow. But moving back to Aug 1 cutoff reduces the need to have workarounds and having to deal with it, so why not move to the system that was working fine for just about everyone before USSF decided they wanted to disrupt everything when they created the GDA? GDA is gone now, so birth year serves zero purpose.

[Guest]

Every single well run club knows how to account for this situation. My daughter went through the same last year. Do you think she simple just didn't play soccer in the Fall because her teammates were Freshman in HS? No, our club provided a solution. Then in November, she was back with her "old" teammates. Zero problems.

Keep in mind that the comment below refers to ECNL, since that is the league that is actually talking about changing and what my kid has experienced directly.

The 8th grade year is actually the easy part. It’s junior/senior year that are worse for trapped players, particularly with recruiting (which is the driver for ECNL). My kid is in that stage now. Trapped players are freshmen when the majority of their team are sophomores, so they do get “seen” early. When your kid is a sophomore, the majority of their team will be juniors and, depending on the team, the majority could likely be committed before the spring season. College coaches have to make choices about which games they attend at showcases—even if a kid is on their radar already, they often have multiple prospects playing different games at the same time. In that scenario, they will prioritize seeing MORE sophomores in a game, rather than a game full of committed juniors. (D2 and D3 timelines are a bit later historically, but it seems like high academic D3’s are moving pretty close to the D1 timeline)

Come junior year, those trapped kids have much more pressure to be committed by the winter because showcase opportunities are far fewer for the u18/19 age group. And even when they attend, colleges really don’t watch that age since the majority of kids are seniors.

My kid will be done with the process, but if I had a younger ECNL player that was a fall birthday, I would definitely be hoping that ECNL makes the change. Not because of the 8th grade year—that’s not much of a problem. But junior/senior year are not great.

One more note: birth year will also affect non-trapped players in junior/senior year (most parents don’t realize). When the age group combines, EVERY team is affected. A u17 roster of 18 will suddenly have 5-6 players from the age group above coming “down” for u18/19. That displaces a number of kids that have probably played on that u17 team for years. That’s when parents of kids that were never “trapped players” get blindsided.