ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

Sorry not being sarcastic that’s just what we were repeatedly told. The academic leap to prep school is significant especially with boarding school. The HADES and GLADCHEMMS schools strongly encourage regrading.

Parents who reclass will tell you it's for "academic reasons". But I know (from experience) that it's for athletic reasons. Though I've never seen girls reclass. So that reinforces the fact that boys are reclassed for athletic reasons. Don't believe me? Just attend a boys basketball game at Worcester Acad or a soccer game at NMH.

These players whose parents can afford to pull these stunts shouldn't be allowed to have this same advantage in club[/QUOTE]

They won't be able to. People say grade to simplify the explanation, but it isn't a true grad year system.
August -July births play on same team, which matches grade year for almost all kids. If you re class/hold your kid back your grade may be 8th but you'd still only be able to play club for 9th grade (or 10th+). You can't just deem your 18year old a freshman and they only play club games with freshman. Now can they do that in HS and Prep, yeah, but they could have always done that.

This move is simply meant to making recruiting for the majority of colleges and families significantly easier and the lives of trapped kids better (playing with kids in their typical grade vs. the grade up).

[Guest]

It doesn't screw kids Aug-October. Those kids get to play with their grade level and become the older kids on the specific team.

It doesn't help, but also doesn't screw the kids born June&August, who go from being mid pack in birth year to end of school grade year. But 2/3 of kids on club teams now are born Jan-June. If you have a july-dec. kid the chances are they can hold their own anyways.

More kids playing with their grade level, more college coaches are happy. It seems like a no brainer.

Aug to Oct kids would play the year down, not with their grade level as school cut offs are around mid Oct.

[Guest]

People saying that kids would have the option of playing up obviously didn't have kids playing during the first change. Most clubs and teams, more so the higher up you went in league play, reclassed kids into their birth years regardless of talent. Parents don't ever think about the players coming down from the older age to the younger only the younger to the older. And all this about trapped players...ECNL and GA both don't start their seasons until after the HS season anyway so those few 8th graders don't lose any game time. ECNL even has a rule for the trapped players to allow them to play the year down until their teams start up as the team is allowed to play 2 trapped players at any given match.

IF ECNL is considering this it is only because of the parents that scream yearly about the trapped players eating time from the younger team and the parents who complain about teams not being fair because if they lost it was because of the trapped players.

[Guest]

IF ECNL is considering this it is only because of the ...

very convincing set of reasons they give in the podcasts, which you obviously didn’t bother to listen to before spewing off your uninformed opinions.

[Guest]

Aug to Oct kids would play the year down, not with their grade level as school cut offs are around mid Oct.

Aug to Oct kids will have the option of playing with their grade or playing "down".
Most school cut offs are Aug 31 and Sep 1. Not mid Oct as you falsely claim. So it's really just the August born kids.

Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/st...arten-by-state

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You want to play "up" but when your player gets trapped, then you want them to play the grade down and displace other players. Then again you'll complain in your player's junior year and then in your player's senior year, your player will again displace players from the grade below.

[Guest]

Is the problem that if ECNL makes this change, that the girls on the bubble get displaced by a handful of girls now coming back down to play with their grade? Is that why there’s fear in this thread?

[Guest]

Is the problem that if ECNL makes this change, that the girls on the bubble get displaced by a handful of girls now coming back down to play with their grade? Is that why there’s fear in this thread?

No it seems that the fear is that the Sep to Dec born players parents won't get to brag to their friends that their kids play "up"anymore

[Guest]

No it seems that the fear is that the Sep to Dec born players parents won't get to brag to their friends that their kids play "up"anymore

My kid is a fall birthday. I have never referred to her as playing up. I think it’s probably mostly parents of younger kids in this thread. The focus for parents tends to be the “trapped” 8th grade year, which only the parents of fall born kids care about. What you ALL aren’t realizing is that for junior/senior year, birth year can negatively affect ANY player as kids can be displaced by the older fall-born players who take their spot on a now combined birth year team (u19). As an example , that can mean that a rising junior who has played on an ECNL team for years can find themselves dropped to regional right in the thick of recruiting because a fall-born rising senior takes their spot.

[Guest]

My kid is a fall birthday. I have never referred to her as playing up. I think it’s probably mostly parents of younger kids in this thread. The focus for parents tends to be the “trapped” 8th grade year, which only the parents of fall born kids care about. What you ALL aren’t realizing is that for junior/senior year, birth year can negatively affect ANY player as kids can be displaced by the older fall-born players who take their spot on a now combined birth year team (u19). As an example , that can mean that a rising junior who has played on an ECNL team for years can find themselves dropped to regional right in the thick of recruiting because a fall-born rising senior takes their spot.

Yep, the rising junior kid that’s on the ECNL bubble will disappear into RL land. The fear is palpable!

[Guest]

School and recruiting happen based on grade and grad year. So using age year affects 25-35% of the players on a team at:
- 8th grade, when there is no club because the rest of the team is 9th grade and playing HS
- 10-11th grade, when they should be recruiting but most of their team is juniors or seniors and has less interest in showcases
- 12th grade, when most of their team has graduated and they are combined with one year younger, pushing some of the younger players off that team to make room for them.

Using birth year messes up every year of club soccer.

[Guest]

No it seems that the fear is that the Sep to Dec born players parents won't get to brag to their friends that their kids play "up"anymore

Clearly you are the parent of a u-little. ‘Playing up” is not an advantage in high school years once recruiting starts.

[Guest]

Clearly you are the parent of a u-little. ‘Playing up” is not an advantage in high school years once recruiting starts.

My kid's no longer ulittle but those parents that were bragging a few years ago are now complaining. And are welcoming the change.
I'm guessing that parents here on TS that are against the change are ulittle parents who don't realize what's in store.

[Guest]

There will always be complainers. Just like there will always be entitlement. Switching to the Aug 1 or Sept 1 cutoff is an important change that needs to happen more so for the players in their high school years who hit senior year with no team to be on as their teammates have left for college. I applaud ECNL for making this a priority. We are with a GA team and coaches are already looking ahead to next summer when this will be a real thing. The current trapped 8th graders this fall are losing out. The club will have them practice with the top 2011 team and they can even play tournaments with that team. But they are still robbed a season.

Tryouts will look different next spring. Usually a player would practice with the team they are trying out for. But now if a 2010 fall player heads to a practice in the spring they may be practicing with the 2011 team since the majority of that team will now be the 2010-2011 team (Aug 2010-July 2011).

[Guest]

There will always be complainers. Just like there will always be entitlement. Switching to the Aug 1 or Sept 1 cutoff is an important change that needs to happen more so for the players in their high school years who hit senior year with no team to be on as their teammates have left for college. I applaud ECNL for making this a priority. We are with a GA team and coaches are already looking ahead to next summer when this will be a real thing. The current trapped 8th graders this fall are losing out. The club will have them practice with the top 2011 team and they can even play tournaments with that team. But they are still robbed a season.

Tryouts will look different next spring. Usually a player would practice with the team they are trying out for. But now if a 2010 fall player heads to a practice in the spring they may be practicing with the 2011 team since the majority of that team will now be the 2010-2011 team (Aug 2010-July 2011).

Okay so GA is also looking to change?

[Guest]

There will always be complainers. Just like there will always be entitlement. Switching to the Aug 1 or Sept 1 cutoff is an important change that needs to happen more so for the players in their high school years who hit senior year with no team to be on as their teammates have left for college. I applaud ECNL for making this a priority. We are with a GA team and coaches are already looking ahead to next summer when this will be a real thing. The current trapped 8th graders this fall are losing out. The club will have them practice with the top 2011 team and they can even play tournaments with that team. But they are still robbed a season.

I have to ask: Why do people keep saying the young 2010s are being "robbed" a season in this fall? They started in pre-GA with all the other 2010s, they entered GA and now they will not have club ball during the fall just like all the other 2010s. They literally play all the same seasons that everyone else does.

Tryouts will look different next spring. Usually a player would practice with the team they are trying out for. But now if a 2010 fall player heads to a practice in the spring they may be practicing with the 2011 team since the majority of that team will now be the 2010-2011 team (Aug 2010-July 2011).

Seems like yet another mess waiting to happen. Different clubs will probably handle it different ways. A player "guest practicing" in spring should definitely ask about it.