ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

I hope they address the timeline for a decision in the next podcast.

They already kinda did. Paraphrase: ‘we hope to gain momentum about a possible change for 2025’. Since they announce most things about the next season in March-April. Expect the decision or lack of decision to occur then. If you don’t hear in early April, it’s not happening.

[Guest]

Over/Under 100 before an "official" statement

put me down for a c-note on the over

[Guest]

Agreed. I also think most of the people on this board (bc let’s face it no one else is) pushing for this change are RL players hoping the switch will help their Mia make it to the NL teams

And the people vehemently opposing the switch are mid level National players who know they will lose their spot without the benefit of being the oldest kid on the team.

[Guest]

A friend's trapped kid who played club at a New England ECNL club and ended up getting committed at a good top-half-of-the-table Patriot League team had a lot of difficulties described in this thread attending showcases in the spring of her junior year. She was lucky in 8th grade that that year was the first year of the GDA, so she didn't miss her 8th grade fall season, but the club left the GDA to return to ECNL so she had the recruiting issues after that. In her junior year, the club decided not to send their U18/19 team to any spring showcases, and the U17 coach was resistant to adding her to their team for Jeff Cup and PDA Showcase but ultimately did because 2 injuries to players on that roster opened up a spot. Ultimately got her offer September of senior year, but no question the family was panicking about the process once they realized they would have trouble having coaches see her play in junior year. In college, she has been getting 1000+ minutes per season and the team contended for conference championship.

Another friend's trapped kid played at the same club but on its ECRL team up until U17 (as a sophomore). She was moved to ECNL as a U18/U19 her junior year because the players on the ECRL team were pretty much done with recruiting and the family asked to have her moved up (the club obliged because her younger sister was a superstar player on a younger team and they didn't want to upset the family). She ended up getting committed at a strong academic D3 with a very good soccer program in the MAC conference (usually contends for the conference championship), as the club bent over backwards to get her on the U17 team for spring showcases and leveraged connections to the college coach she plays for now. Good player, not great...has struggled to get decent minutes in college.

So in the first example, being a trapped player clearly created obstacles for a player who has great talent and ability to play in college. In the second example, yes, you could make the argument that the player's talent were more of an obstacle to getting recruited than being trapped was.

Now imagine the second scenario if the player didn’t have a superstar younger sibling. She would not have been recruited.

[Guest]

lol like I said you’re willing to shift the problem not solve it to someone other than yourself. There’s nothing more selfish than that.

But which is it there’s no problem to solve or the change just makes the problem your problem?

[Guest]

Over/Under 100 before an "official" statement

How about before the weekend

[Guest]

They already kinda did. Paraphrase: ‘we hope to gain momentum about a possible change for 2025’. Since they announce most things about the next season in March-April. Expect the decision or lack of decision to occur then. If you don’t hear in early April, it’s not happening.

Do you really think they’ll let something this controversial linger until April right before the spring season? That would be truly unfortunate. Can you imagine the anxiety.

[Guest]

And the people vehemently opposing the switch are mid level National players who know they will lose their spot without the benefit of being the oldest kid on the team.

No. Just people who are logical and not whiny.

[Guest]

Announcement, if any, coming end of August

[Guest]

Do you really think they’ll let something this controversial linger until April right before the spring season? That would be truly unfortunate. Can you imagine the anxiety.

It’s only controversial on this board in this state. Nobody else cares. Nobody else has the anxiety that MA parents have.

[Guest]

It’s only controversial on this board in this state. Nobody else cares. Nobody else has the anxiety that MA parents have.

This became the one thread on here to focus on this topic. LOTS of us aren't from MA

[Guest]

It’s only controversial on this board in this state. Nobody else cares. Nobody else has the anxiety that MA parents have.

Several huge threads at https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/76.page as well. It's a big topic, despite what you may think.

[Guest]

Do you really think they’ll let something this controversial linger until April right before the spring season? That would be truly unfortunate. Can you imagine the anxiety.

Looks like last time when they made the switch (to birth year), it was announced in August. Teams and leagues will need time to plan!

[Guest]

This became the one thread on here to focus on this topic. LOTS of us aren't from MA

And you had to come here to find someone to engage in the topic because nobody in your home state cares. So much angst in this state and the soccer is really bad - that’s the reason you have problems recruiting. A trapped player in CA doesn’t care. They don’t miss anything during a high school season. ECNL is fall and Spring with HS in the winter, Plenty of training options for them. And they don’t have issues getting recruited. Mostly you people are the ones who care this much.

[Guest]

Looks like last time when they made the switch (to birth year), it was announced in August. Teams and leagues will need time to plan!

It was handed down from USSF last time. They didn’t have to lobby and consult with anyone. This time is ECNL trying to change a system which they don’t control. It won’t happen in one months time because of a couple pod casts and some anxious posters. You all are just like Academy Guy.