ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

The Q4 players are being cast aside and discriminated against. Not due to RAE, which of course someone always has to deal with but due two the other two major problems. They don’t have a competitive team to play on the be seen in recruiting years and they don’t have a team to play on fall of 8th grade. Leaving a group out, marginalizing them, dismissing them, because it doesn’t affect you IS discrimination.

Again, I’ll refer you to Stars Blue’s first announced commit for the class of 2026: Trapped player going to a P5. First announced wasn’t one of the Q1 players from the BY behind, it was a Q4.

[Guest]

The Q4 players are being cast aside and discriminated against. Not due to RAE, which of course someone always has to deal with but due two the other two major problems. They don’t have a competitive team to play on the be seen in recruiting years and they don’t have a team to play on fall of 8th grade. Leaving a group out, marginalizing them, dismissing them, because it doesn’t affect you IS discrimination.

Except that they DO have a competitive team to play on during the recruiting years.

Your continued ignorance over The Recruiting Years is astounding, especially in the face of hard facts like 6/15 and the 2026 commitments that have already started to come out.

[Guest]

I predict a documentary on Netflix coming out next year on the waste of time and money spent on youth soccer. The discrimination towards female coaches and Q4 players. The abuse of powers from the top down from monopolies to side deals. The abuse of athletes both mentally and physically by coaches with inflated egos. It could easily be 8 episodes, and when it’s done, ECNL will be exposed as many others will be exposed, club owners, bait and switch tactics. Y’all about to be cancelled and you heard it here first. Companies that know there are issues and let them just lie while they make $$$ and abuse power especially at children’s expense will always be exposed. Popcorn please.

[Guest]

It is a big issue for Q1 and Q3. A change will have negative effects on their respective position within RAE. You can correctly argue that RAE will always have winners and losers, but to suggest a change will not effect the current winners is dishonest.

And stop throwing out catch words like ‘discrimination’. It’s petty and disrespectful to the real victims of discrimination.

lol no it doesn’t. By 8th grade Rae is literally a minor thing if it has impact at all. Some girls will always be small. The average height for girls is like 5’4. Some girls will always be 5’1. Some girls will be 5’8. But that’s just an uncontrollable situation a player has to deal with one of many. There’s no issue with birth year at all. For anyone. It all evens out in the end

[Guest]

So many parents have legitimate concerns about BY but there are no valid reasons for not switching back to graduation year. The only argument presented against graduation year is I don't want to and you can't make me. What possible reason is there not to help solve a problem for a significant number of players? Even if you don't think there is a problem why battle so hard against grad year? There is literally no downside? The only possible concern is current Q1 players now have to play on a level field. I am genuinely asking and please do NOT regurgitate the previous 1700 posts saying there isn't a problem with BY. Seriously just bullet point list any possible problems with switching to graduation year.

[Guest]

In no successful world does dismissing 30% of your customer base work out well. Girls lacrosse, ice hockey and field hockey are surging. Girls soccer is dipping. The ECNL is many things but it is first and foremost a business.

Girls Lacrosse and Field Hockey are surging from a starting point of zero. It’s easy to grow in an immature market. As a business expert, you should recognize this.

You should also recognize there is a finite amount of time in an athletes life. If they choose one sport, they are also choosing not to do the other sport. Go back 10 years or so. Girls choices for fall and spring were soccer softball and cross country. Now they have soccer, softball, cross country, lacrosse, field hockey and club hockey and volleyball have become year round ventures just like soccer. . There are more choices for female athletes which is especially important to girls who have found they don’t like soccer or aren’t good at it. Previously those kids just kept plugging away until they had enough autonomy to tell their parents that they are quitting sports altogether. Now they can shift to a less mature industry and try new sports. They may even find success at the other sport. Dipping participation rates in soccer have little to do with the recruitment process. Especially considering the percentage of kids who wish to be recruited is a drop in the ocean of overall participation.

[Guest]

So you’re a cashier at McDonalds. Got it. Any chance the McRib is coming back. I know they have identified that as a wish list item for a large percentage of their client base. I hope they implement that solution That is my biggest dream …mmmm McRibs

Wow that's super classist and ignorant. You're revolting. Do you recognize this is probably the least secure site on the internet? I truly hope on their way out they release all the IP addresses associated with cesspool content like yours.

[Guest]

I predict a documentary on Netflix coming out next year on the waste of time and money spent on youth soccer. The discrimination towards female coaches and Q4 players. The abuse of powers from the top down from monopolies to side deals. The abuse of athletes both mentally and physically by coaches with inflated egos. It could easily be 8 episodes, and when it’s done, ECNL will be exposed as many others will be exposed, club owners, bait and switch tactics. Y’all about to be cancelled and you heard it here first. Companies that know there are issues and let them just lie while they make $$$ and abuse power especially at children’s expense will always be exposed. Popcorn please.

I will look for you in episode 4 ‘Delusional Parents’.

[Guest]

So many parents have legitimate concerns about BY but there are no valid reasons for not switching back to graduation year. The only argument presented against graduation year is I don't want to and you can't make me. What possible reason is there not to help solve a problem for a significant number of players? Even if you don't think there is a problem why battle so hard against grad year? There is literally no downside? The only possible concern is current Q1 players now have to play on a level field. I am genuinely asking and please do NOT regurgitate the previous 1700 posts saying there isn't a problem with BY. Seriously just bullet point list any possible problems with switching to graduation year.

Bullet point 1- compliance with governing bodies

[Guest]

Wow that's super classist and ignorant. You're revolting. Do you recognize this is probably the least secure site on the internet? I truly hope on their way out they release all the IP addresses associated with cesspool content like yours.

Are you saying no to the McRib then?

[Guest]

lol no it doesn’t. By 8th grade Rae is literally a minor thing if it has impact at all. Some girls will always be small. The average height for girls is like 5’4. Some girls will always be 5’1. Some girls will be 5’8. But that’s just an uncontrollable situation a player has to deal with one of many. There’s no issue with birth year at all. For anyone. It all evens out in the end

So arguments for GY include:
-I want to play with my friends
-I have to play with a different group for 2 months in 8th grade
-I have less showcases my junior year

IMO the only semi-legitimate argument is the last one. But really only here in NE. While Juniors still play the typical amount of showcases, they don’t miss any, other parts of the country play fall ECNL and showcases, so NE is behind when they resume ECNL in December. So our trapped juniors are late to the junior showcases. I don’t for a second think colleges have difficulty figuring out the split grad years and they aren’t going to miss a noteworthy player. But if they are making decisions in the fall while watching other states play, and our kids are playing useless HS soccer, then we may have a disadvantage. Good communication from the player and DOC may overcome that but it is a disadvantage. Again only a disadvantage for our, or similar spring-only regions. But that same disadvantage will remain if the change happens, we are still later in the showcase season.

[Guest]

So many parents have legitimate concerns about BY but there are no valid reasons for not switching back to graduation year. The only argument presented against graduation year is I don't want to and you can't make me. What possible reason is there not to help solve a problem for a significant number of players? Even if you don't think there is a problem why battle so hard against grad year? There is literally no downside? The only possible concern is current Q1 players now have to play on a level field. I am genuinely asking and please do NOT regurgitate the previous 1700 posts saying there isn't a problem with BY. Seriously just bullet point list any possible problems with switching to graduation year.

There are multiple people responding to you, so I can only reiterate that I have never argued against a move away from Birth Year. We should move back. I have only argued (again and again and again) that it is not the Boogeyman problem you are making it. 7 years of Q4 girls (including my own) made good use of their 8th grade fall and landed on college teams. When and where a player commits is a multi-variate issue, and BY has little to no effect on the outcome.

[Guest]

lol no it doesn’t. By 8th grade Rae is literally a minor thing if it has impact at all. Some girls will always be small. The average height for girls is like 5’4. Some girls will always be 5’1. Some girls will be 5’8. But that’s just an uncontrollable situation a player has to deal with one of many. There’s no issue with birth year at all. For anyone. It all evens out in the end

Some girls haven't hit puberty yet in 8th grade. Until that happens RAE is huge. Q1-Q2 kids hit puberty and grow 8 inches while q4 kids are 10months behind, who are you going to start the 5'7" girls or the 4'11" girls. By tenth grade after puberty and is done most girls will be similar height. Then RAE is a non-factor.

[Guest]

Girls Lacrosse and Field Hockey are surging from a starting point of zero. It’s easy to grow in an immature market. As a business expert, you should recognize this.

You should also recognize there is a finite amount of time in an athletes life. If they choose one sport, they are also choosing not to do the other sport. Go back 10 years or so. Girls choices for fall and spring were soccer softball and cross country. Now they have soccer, softball, cross country, lacrosse, field hockey and club hockey and volleyball have become year round ventures just like soccer. . There are more choices for female athletes which is especially important to girls who have found they don’t like soccer or aren’t good at it. Previously those kids just kept plugging away until they had enough autonomy to tell their parents that they are quitting sports altogether. Now they can shift to a less mature industry and try new sports. They may even find success at the other sport. Dipping participation rates in soccer have little to do with the recruitment process. Especially considering the percentage of kids who wish to be recruited is a drop in the ocean of overall participation.

If your business is losing customers you try to make adjustments to retain current customers and attract new customers. One way to do that is to have kids playing club soccer with their fellow classmates (as in graduation year). Q4 girls in a BY system are truly socially marginalized when they are a grade behind 70-80% their team. They also cannot perform as well in early years and are essentially forced out when they can't reasonably compete against kids a year older in the 4th grade. They drop out fast and go play newly emerging sports with their same grade cohorts. Again the ECNL doesn't care that lacrosse is shiny and new they just need to recapture the girls leaving soccer to move to those sports.

Secondly it absolutely has to do with recruitment rates. Right now the two most likely to be recruited sports for girls are lacrosse and ice hockey. I live in a very nice suburb with many savvy parents. The social cannibalism in girls soccer and the disaster of a recruiting process is not lost on people steering their kids into athletics.

Graduation year fixes both of the biggest issues facing club soccer. Again no one has presented a single reason not to switch back to graduation year. Even if you absolutely believe there is no issue for Q4 players you (the collective you) still haven't presented any rational for not going to graduation year other than you don't want to.

[Guest]

Man, you just don’t listen.
A )ECNL isn’t responsible for BY decision
B) The prevalence of Q4s who have successfully committed negates the discrimination, and denied opportunity claim

Just because a player is listed as committed does not in any way indicate it was a succcessful commit. Many of those trapped players are forced to take lower level spots and little or no scholarship money due to timing.