ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

Correct, they are not missing any of the u15 ECNL season. But they don't have a team to play on in the fall while their U15 teammates are playing for conference and state championships in high school.

And yes, it's inconvenient for them to train with a different group. An unnecessary inconvenience.

No one is saying there aren't workarounds. What people are saying is that there would be no need for workarounds if they went back to Aug 1 cutoff. Replace a flawed system with a less-flawed system.

You mean while their U15 teammates watch the older kids play for championships from the bench.

[Guest]

Playing for conference and state championships? Most freshman across the state are not on their varsity teams. Even most ECNL players are part time role players. Lay off the melodrama.

Every ECNL freshman makes Varsity.

[Guest]

It should be Sept 1 cut off if they really want to make it as smooth as possible as most north east states cut off grades at that time. August 1 would cause all the August kids to play down a year.

Or you just eliminate this problem entirely by using graduation year. Town soccer everywhere you check a box and play with kids in your grade. Period. Guess what it works. Kids play with their friends and there is zero confusion as to who belongs where. Could a very small population of kids stay back sure I guess but it’s going to be maybe 1% of kids at most.

[Guest]

Every ECNL freshman makes Varsity.

But the older ECNL kids get the playing time, not the freshman.

[Guest]

In the last ECNL podcast that mentions this, they say “the reality also is that there is a discussion moving more and more in the governing bodies and the sanctioning bodies about changing this for fall of 25.”

Are they suggesting this is being reviewed at USSF level? Who is the governing body?

[Guest]

In the last ECNL podcast that mentions this, they say “the reality also is that there is a discussion moving more and more in the governing bodies and the sanctioning bodies about changing this for fall of 25.”

Are they suggesting this is being reviewed at USSF level? Who is the governing body?

Which podcast number? I haven’t found that line in the transcripts

closest paraphrase I found is along the lines of “we are hoping to gain some momentum of having a conversation about a potential change. Definitely not this year of course, but potentially for 2025”

[Guest]

Listen to the f’n pod cast. If it ever happens it will because of parent complaints and DOCs not wanting to deal with extra programming for trapped players. You are all inserting your own opinions into the situation

I did listen the the podcast ***h0le! It does not mention parents once. The VP of the ECNL is a parent himself living through the trapped player scenerio. But no other parents mentioned. Podcast describes the decision of USSF to switch to birth year as one of “the most tone deaf decisions made in youth soccer” and “that it doesn’t make sense.” ‘The # of players negatively affected by birth year system is huge.” The negative effect on the players was discussed at length just as the negative effect on the clubs and club resources. They see problems from birth year at “induction, 8th grade, and exit years”. The argument in favor are “circular logic” and “patently untrue.” Lavers and Bracken discuss the trapped players “get screwed twice”. The current system causes “loss of opportunity” as well as the eradication of team social structure. An example was given of a u19 team, combining the u17 and remain trapped players from the u19 team to force cuts to be made within that group of 29 players. So big problem for player and big problem for clubs. Parents never mentioned. And the problems for the club are far more that just extra 8th grade programming.

[Guest]

Which podcast number? I haven’t found that line in the transcripts

closest paraphrase I found is along the lines of “we are hoping to gain some momentum of having a conversation about a potential change. Definitely not this year of course, but potentially for 2025”

It’s in # 96, in the first 5 minutes.

[Guest]

“Let's turn topics. We're going to talk, I think, probably about the whole tryout process at some point here in the next couple of weeks. But related to that, a topic that is frequently bemoaned across our league, across, I think, all of youth soccer, parents, coaches, people alike, is age group registration.

Birth year registration, right?

Yeah. The decision in 2017 to go from school year registration, which was an August 1 cutoff, where kids, by and large, played with kids that they were in the same grade with, to calendar or birth year registration, which was January 1, that decision was made by US soccer with significant blowback from the youth ranks at almost every level about why to do this. And it continues to get blowback.

We want to talk about the history of that, why it's a problem, because I think everybody here would sit here and say it's a problem. Maybe debunk some of the arguments for this, because I'm not sure that they're logically very strong. And maybe just kind of stir the pot on this, because it continues to come up.

I would say without a doubt, every month, somebody's reaching out to[…]”

From Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast: Unraveling Youth Soccer: Navigating the ECNL Pathway & Relative Age Effect | Ep. 93, May 8, 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas...=1000654953614
This material may be protected by copyright.

[Guest]

It’s in # 96, in the first 5 minutes.

ok, but the very next word after the quote above is "potentially'. Later, in the very same quote the guy says "to be clear, we're not saying we absolutely know that's going to happen"

[Guest]

ok, but the very next word after the quote above is "potentially'. Later, in the very same quote the guy says "to be clear, we're not saying we absolutely know that's going to happen"

You all idiots know that ussf would have to give the green light here right? It’s not happening ussf likes where it is and aligns with the rest of the world. Give every dumb reason you want to change, none of it is a great reason to move the cutoff. But I do find it funny how much effort you all putting in for nothing

[Guest]

You all idiots know that ussf would have to give the green light here right? It’s not happening ussf likes where it is and aligns with the rest of the world. Give every dumb reason you want to change, none of it is a great reason to move the cutoff. But I do find it funny how much effort you all putting in for nothing

The reason it aligns with the rest of the world is because the rest of the world doesn't have college soccer or college soccer recruiting. In the US, FAR more players are interested in college recruiting than having a pathway to the Youth National Teams.

[Guest]

The reason it aligns with the rest of the world is because the rest of the world doesn't have college soccer or college soccer recruiting. In the US, FAR more players are interested in college recruiting than having a pathway to the Youth National Teams.

It doesn’t matter. USSF doesn’t care enough because it doesn’t cause any real issues. ECNL would first need to convince their clubs and then USSF to solve something that’s not even a real issue. I think they have bigger fish to fry.

[Guest]

You all idiots know that ussf would have to give the green light here right? It’s not happening ussf likes where it is and aligns with the rest of the world. Give every dumb reason you want to change, none of it is a great reason to move the cutoff. But I do find it funny how much effort you all putting in for nothing

Agree but to clarify: US Club Soccer is the one that would have to green light it for ECNL. But to your point USSF would either have to green light USClub Soccer or US Club Soccer would have to make a decision to go against USSF which could then affect their USSF membership status which is unlikely. So in an in direct way, USSF would likely need to allow the change.

Again, agreeing with the above post but proactively explaining to all of the people who will correctly point out that ECNL is directly beholden to US Club Soccer, not USSF.

[Guest]

Agree but to clarify: US Club Soccer is the one that would have to green light it for ECNL. But to your point USSF would either have to green light USClub Soccer or US Club Soccer would have to make a decision to go against USSF which could then affect their USSF membership status which is unlikely. So in an in direct way, USSF would likely need to allow the change.

Again, agreeing with the above post but proactively explaining to all of the people who will correctly point out that ECNL is directly beholden to US Club Soccer, not USSF.

Correct USClub directly but the big stick is ussf. Ussf isn’t going to let usclub and usys have different cutoffs