ECNL wants to switch back to school year from birth year

[Guest]

I heard the vote is taking place at Buffalo Wild Wings.

[Guest]

This thread goes on and on, around and around and nobody knows anything. Friday is the vote. Over the weekend the news will be posted or leaked. Then we can move on from this just like the presidential election, move on.

[Guest]

This thread goes on and on, around and around and nobody knows anything. Friday is the vote. Over the weekend the news will be posted or leaked. Then we can move on from this just like the presidential election, move on.

But we need to get to 400 pages

[Guest]

Closed ballot and not live streamed. If history proves correct, when the United States hosts the 2026 Men’s World Cup, there will be a large surge of young players registering to play soccer for the first time. Under the current Birth Year Age Grouping, many of these players will not be able to play with their friends and classmates. If we want to significantly increase the number of children who play soccer in the United States, allowing novice players to play with their friends will help. Based on years of research, US Soccer offered two logical scientific reasons behind its decision: (1)It’s how the rest of the world does it and (2)It’s how the rest of the world does it. This reasoning makes a lot of sense because the rest of the world is good at soccer and they owe most of this success to the simple fact they follow calendar-year age grouping. Brazilians often cite the importance of calendar-year age grouping: “Calendar-year age grouping has been critical to our dominance in soccer,” a Brazilian soccer federation official was overheard saying while juggling a grapefruit then bicycle kicking it to his child. Retired Spanish soccer star Xavi said, “While I don’t want to downplay the importance of calendar-year age grouping, Spain has a rich soccer tradition, some of the most well-funded youth programs in the world, and we are very good looking.

Awww, ulittle parent playing rec/town soccer I see. No one at high levels cares about playing with kids from where they live. But enjoy your orange slices!

[Guest]

Because it's a minimum age cut off for school, not maximum age. In soccer, it will be used as max age cut off, so it makes sense to have a couple of months of latitude. 7/1 or 6/1.

Exactly. People can't get this straight or are ignoring it on purpose. It's a minimum, not a maximum. People aren't "cheating" because they wait to send a kid to school instead of pushing them forward because they made the MINIMUM age by a few days or weeks. Summer born kids aren't cheaters if they wait another year to start school. US Lacrosse recognizes this. I guess they are smarter.

[Guest]

I'm not interested enough to look it up but in one of the ECNL podcasts they mentioned where the meeting was taking place. Salt Lake maybe? The one where they talked about being able to go it alone but that they want the majority.

[Guest]

The "it doesn't affect my kid" crowd baffles me. A change is going to affect almost every kid. For an 8/1 date, Aug-Dec would be moved off their current team, either to be one of the older kids on the team a year younger than the one they are on now or on a team at a better club or playing at a more competitive level. Everyone else will be looking around either for a safe roster spot or a better roster spot depending on where they think they'll fit in the new system. It affects everyone. You will not be on the "same" team. You may not even be at the same club or in the same league. Even if you are one of the kids who stays put, the team you're staying on will be dramatically changed. Hope you're not staying put because you like your current team because it's gone as you know it. You might be the only one still there from this year's roster. A change will affect every single kid in some way. It's going to be the wild west. Keep it BY with whatever warts (mostly perceived and not real) and get on with it.

[Guest]

The "it doesn't affect my kid" crowd baffles me. A change is going to affect almost every kid. For an 8/1 date, Aug-Dec would be moved off their current team, either to be one of the older kids on the team a year younger than the one they are on now or on a team at a better club or playing at a more competitive level. Everyone else will be looking around either for a safe roster spot or a better roster spot depending on where they think they'll fit in the new system. It affects everyone. You will not be on the "same" team. You may not even be at the same club or in the same league. Even if you are one of the kids who stays put, the team you're staying on will be dramatically changed. Hope you're not staying put because you like your current team because it's gone as you know it. You might be the only one still there from this year's roster. A change will affect every single kid in some way. It's going to be the wild west. Keep it BY with whatever warts (mostly perceived and not real) and get on with it.

again - why not keep it BY for the current age groups and phase in SY for the U8s who are just starting the ride? wouldn't this eliminate the chaos - can someone explain what I'm missing???

[Guest]

If one of the reasons that they're implementing the change is to eliminate as many trapped players as possible why on earth would they delay it for some age groups and have the issue remain for several more years? You'd have what? 5 or 6 more years of kids being trapped and having more difficulty getting recruited.

[Guest]

Exactly. People can't get this straight or are ignoring it on purpose. It's a minimum, not a maximum. People aren't "cheating" because they wait to send a kid to school instead of pushing them forward because they made the MINIMUM age by a few days or weeks. Summer born kids aren't cheaters if they wait another year to start school. US Lacrosse recognizes this. I guess they are smarter.

Agree. Sounds like it's a done deal and this is just optics to make people feel like they were given an opportunity to be heard.

[Guest]

again - why not keep it BY for the current age groups and phase in SY for the U8s who are just starting the ride? wouldn't this eliminate the chaos - can someone explain what I'm missing???

You are missing 310+ pages of info. The biggest advantage ECNL has is allowing kids to play high school. As noted on this board very often- only a minuscule % of kids will go on to play pro. So why sacrifice HS for a pipe dream? You only get to be young once. If you want to play beyond HS, ECNL affords you plenty of opportunities without having to give up playing for your school. My other point in showing the results of U12 SCCL was just that until the clubs break off into their separate leagues, they perform pretty evenly in New England. I do not think it is controversial or should be completely disregarded. Again, I think the teams in both leagues are closer than some would suggest.

[Guest]

The "it doesn't affect my kid" crowd baffles me. A change is going to affect almost every kid. For an 8/1 date, Aug-Dec would be moved off their current team, either to be one of the older kids on the team a year younger than the one they are on now or on a team at a better club or playing at a more competitive level. Everyone else will be looking around either for a safe roster spot or a better roster spot depending on where they think they'll fit in the new system. It affects everyone. You will not be on the "same" team. You may not even be at the same club or in the same league. Even if you are one of the kids who stays put, the team you're staying on will be dramatically changed. Hope you're not staying put because you like your current team because it's gone as you know it. You might be the only one still there from this year's roster. A change will affect every single kid in some way. It's going to be the wild west. Keep it BY with whatever warts (mostly perceived and not real) and get on with it.

I do agree with that guy’s point on ECNL and high school, and it is because of that I would never let my kids play MLSN. It would be great though of ECNL was more inclusive and allowed more teams, even if it were just at the ECRL level. As for you, hope is a dangerous thing.

[Guest]

No offense to all you shortbus posters here, but there is no way to glean anything regarding level or hierarchy based on team results from 11-year-olds. It’s fair to say MLS Academy teams will be the top level (maybe not all the time, but most of the time). MLS Next teams that are not associated with a Pro team are a mixed bag. Nationally, there are some that are top notch and some not-so-much. In the Southeast - you would be hard-pressed to say MLSN is a higher level than ECNL. The biggest advantage ECNL has is allowing kids to play high school. As noted on this board very often- only a minuscule % of kids will go on to play pro. So why sacrifice HS for a pipe dream? You only get to be young once. If you want to play beyond HS, ECNL affords you plenty of opportunities without having to give up playing for your school. In reality though, this message board does need some life. I was just told surf combined age group record is 2-15 in ECNL ???? To much emphasis on the birth year vs graduate school debate instead of generating revenue & travel, not enouugh on training and development.

[Guest]

again - why not keep it BY for the current age groups and phase in SY for the U8s who are just starting the ride? wouldn't this eliminate the chaos - can someone explain what I'm missing???

Okay, well, again, I could make lots of statements here but here's one There are many good players on ECNL teams but if you think that ALL of them are college bound all-conference type players, or that such aspiring college bound players need to be on an ECNL team to get college exposure, you would be dead wrong. The composition of these teams will also be threatened by altering the Age Matrix. People here are having the kids compete against other kids no the same team here with this BY v GY crap. We need to focus on building the strangest team here in Mass. As for the art of recruiting, the ECNL is already becoming a well-beaten path and tons of college coaches are purposefully looking at non-ecnl teams or at outside more traditional "town teams" for hidden talent (like every Mass town has a travel team). College coaches are pretty gullible but they aren't stupid. ECNL means "every child needs a large scholarship" and very many are not really deserving. Parents seem to think something magical is going to happen when they move over to an ECNL team and start spending twice the money. I can tell you this - college coaches do not like the first question being asked of them, "so what's your offer going to be"....happens a lot at ecnl events.

[Guest]

I heard the vote is taking place at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Where all important discussions should take place.