ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

Simple Facts:
It will benefit college recruiting.
ECNL exists only to provide a pathway to college play.
ECNL leadership has been speaking publicly, multiple times now, about wanting to change back to pre-2017 ways.
Unless you are a D1 coach your opinion on this doesn't matter to ECNL.
As a customer my opinion doesn't matter to ECNL (my daughter is a Q4 player and rising Junior so she won't benefit from the change anyway, too late for her)

you can keep spamming your opinion all you want but what I just posted is reality.

you are not very smart my friend . If you think ecnl only exist to provide a pathway to college you are incredibly uneducated in the soccer world . If that were the case it would be run by USSF.
Ecnl exist because it is making them money !! Money is the main reason not your kids success , not my kids success !!

[Guest]

Stop bursting his bubble, he actually thought his kid was good. You are just reminding him that his Q1 birthday kid simply got lucky on when they were born and has nothing to do with skill, tenacity, IQ, etc.

Do you know how dumb you sound ? Stop blaming your kids athleticism on when they were born . I can tell your the person who stomps their feet when they don’t get their way . Just realize your kid isn’t that good !!

[Guest]

Sorry can you elaborate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYccmMBW9dA

[Guest]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYccmMBW9dA

https://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...ports-at-risk/

[Guest]

Google: House vs NCAA what it means for non revenue sports

Non Revenue means both men's' and women's soccer

[Guest]

Stop bursting his bubble, he actually thought his kid was good. You are just reminding him that his Q1 birthday kid simply got lucky on when they were born and has nothing to do with skill, tenacity, IQ, etc.

both of my kids are q3 birthdays. My daughter sucked and got cut by her travel team in second grade. But instead of quitting I taught her to work hard and get better. Now she’s on an ecnl team. Those studies and I read them don’t control for parents who are the ones in charge. Teach your kids to work for what they want instead of quitting when it get s hard. Maybe they won’t need you to go to their job interviews with them.

[Guest]

No it is not a fair reading. You can clearly see a steep drop off after the first four months of the year in pro, college, and high school. Are there Q4 birthdays on your kids team? Yes, but not nearly as many in comparison to how many kids are actually born in Q4 and enter soccer in U6-U9.

The numbers given for HS aged ECNL girls teams are around 6-7 trapped players per age group. That is about the 1/3 of players you’d expect. Hence the data don’t seem to support a strong relative age effect for MA ECNL teams. I wonder why.

[Guest]

Those studies and I read them don’t control for parents who are the ones in charge. Teach your kids to work for what they want instead of quitting when it get s hard. Maybe they won’t need you to go to their job interviews with them.

We know that age makes a difference in developing athletes. If it were just a question of working harder, we wouldn’t have age groups in youth sports.

The question is whether the current age structure creates more problems than it solves.

[Guest]

you are not very smart my friend . If you think ecnl only exist to provide a pathway to college you are incredibly uneducated in the soccer world . If that were the case it would be run by USSF.
Ecnl exist because it is making them money !! Money is the main reason not your kids success , not my kids success !!

I just cannot. Why exactly do you think the ECNL is so successful and such an economic powerhouse? BECAUSE THEY GET KIDS INTO COLLEGE! It’s LITERALLY their credo. “THE PROVEN PATHWAY” TO COLLEGE.

[Guest]

you are not very smart my friend . If you think ecnl only exist to provide a pathway to college you are incredibly uneducated in the soccer world . If that were the case it would be run by USSF.
Ecnl exist because it is making them money !! Money is the main reason not your kids success , not my kids success !!

I'll skip past the childish part of your response and focus on the useful part.

I will rephrase my statement to make it more clear because you are correct and I left that part out. ECNL exists to provide a pathway to college rosters BECAUSE that is what they are selling; the D1 dream. It's their business and they have been very effective at it since their founding. It has nothing to do with "expanding the game" or making the US better on the world stage.

[Guest]

The facts seem clear from a business perspective, soccer #s nationwide, college recruiting and family/kid perspective making a change to grad year makes all the sense. Only q1 daddies worried about Mia's roster slot can argue otherwise.

[Guest]

both of my kids are q3 birthdays. My daughter sucked and got cut by her travel team in second grade. But instead of quitting I taught her to work hard and get better. Now she’s on an ecnl team. Those studies and I read them don’t control for parents who are the ones in charge. Teach your kids to work for what they want instead of quitting when it get s hard. Maybe they won’t need you to go to their job interviews with them.

My kid is a fall born ECNL player. The 8th grade year is annoying, but her club managed it well with training and a couple of tournaments (none of the trapped kids played down in league games).

Where things get more difficult (and the main reason ECNL is pushing change) is recruiting years and then the junior/senior year combined age group (which can affect ALL players-not just the fall born kids).

As someone before said—ECNL caters to college coaches. My kid (rising junior) played in a showcase game this spring where there were only 9 uncommitted players between the 2 teams (all of the 2025s on both teams committed). With limited time at all of these events, coaches have to split time between 2007 and 2008 games to see the 2026 players. Rinse and repeat for every recruiting class. They do it, but it’s inefficient and it annoys them.

[Guest]

you are not very smart my friend . If you think ecnl only exist to provide a pathway to college you are incredibly uneducated in the soccer world . If that were the case it would be run by USSF.
Ecnl exist because it is making them money !! Money is the main reason not your kids success , not my kids success !!

Why does USSF care about college pathways?

[Guest]

Your pov is pure conjecture. There’s no data to suggest this just your personal viewpoint. If they quit because they don’t “win” that’s on the parents not the kid. They quit because they don’t like it. They don’t like it because they aren’t immediately successful. Parents don’t allow their kid to fail and improve. No mental toughness. Nothing to do with month of birth. More to do with pansy parents who raise pansy children

No one said they quite because they didn't win. They quit because they are young and intimidated by being with a bunch of kids who are a grade older and all know each other from school. And yes, a lot of parents coddle their kids and let them quit because of this feeling of intimidation. Lots of parents today do this. That point supports my POV that BY causes more trapped kids to not play the sport.

[Guest]

We know that age makes a difference in developing athletes. If it were just a question of working harder, we wouldn’t have age groups in youth sports.

The question is whether the current age structure creates more problems than it solves.

It’s not better or worse than any other.