Shift to Jan. 1 cutoff next year or year after?

[Unregistered]

Either way, heard they are working it out so existing teams can stay together so no need to get all worked up.

This will not be the case for top division A teams, maybe for select or rec. Premier clubs want to form the strongest teams. Teams with a lot of play-ups for the sake of not hurting feelings vs kids who play a higher level of soccer are going to really struggle to compete.

[Unregistered]

This will not be the case for top division A teams, maybe for select or rec. Premier clubs want to form the strongest teams. Teams with a lot of play-ups for the sake of not hurting feelings vs kids who play a higher level of soccer are going to really struggle to compete.

Exactly. And there will be lots of parents that don't want their kids to play up. So they will try out on age and displace kids trying to play up. PacNW club just sent out an email today saying all play ups will need to be identified by coaches in advance and also be considered in the top 1/3 of the age group they are trying to play up in. No grandfathering of complete teams. This will be the norm at all the big clubs for sure

[Unregistered]

Younger play ups will also have to be better than the bottom roster. Clubs first priority will be to place all their kids in their age groups before placing play-ups because of roster spaces. Everyone will be scrambling to find a team. If that play up takes a roster space and forces a birth year kid off the team with no where to play, how does that help the club? Better to collect fees from two kids than just one. And if you believe clubs care about your feelings more than thousands of dollars per kid they can place, you need to wake up to reality.

[Unregistered]

I am not worried at all about play up or not, I actually am looking forward to my daughter being able to practice with the older, more experienced players in the upper half the age.

What I am worried about it what the solution for the season of soccer she will miss come fall 16 when half her teammates are in high school and there aren't enough girls to fill a team for those who are still in middle school. And then the same for her senior year, when half the team graduated in June and is gone, what will happen that whole season? Might work out sort of if you come from a big club with multiple teams, but really I can only think of 1 or 2 clubs in Oregon who are big enough and don't have a pretty large disparity between first team and the second and beyond teams. What is the fix for that? How do you fix that for rec teams? This is a far reaching problem and while there are solutions, I have yet to hear one that doesn't hurt the kids development.

[Unregistered]

I am not worried at all about play up or not, I actually am looking forward to my daughter being able to practice with the older, more experienced players in the upper half the age.

What I am worried about it what the solution for the season of soccer she will miss come fall 16 when half her teammates are in high school and there aren't enough girls to fill a team for those who are still in middle school. And then the same for her senior year, when half the team graduated in June and is gone, what will happen that whole season? Might work out sort of if you come from a big club with multiple teams, but really I can only think of 1 or 2 clubs in Oregon who are big enough and don't have a pretty large disparity between first team and the second and beyond teams. What is the fix for that? How do you fix that for rec teams? This is a far reaching problem and while there are solutions, I have yet to hear one that doesn't hurt the kids development.

Senior year is not an issue. It's a 24 month age group. The simply play with the younger group that they are playing with now. The 8th grade thing will take some ingenuity for a lot if clubs. Extra training and scrimmages might be the best solution. It is only 2 months after all.

[Unregistered]

All the Aug-Dec kids who are currently on their school year aged-team will want to "play up" next year to stay on their team, which will make room at each birth year for those kids to play up and teams stay together. The Sept-Dec kids only need to beat out any birth year current B team players who will want to get on the birth year A team. Most of them can do that. You're right tho, a lot will depend on numbers for each particular team and some Aug-Dec kids will undoubtedly be out of luck. The August born kids in the grade above will no longer get a free pass to play up either. They used to get one because they were the only month that wasn't with their grade. Now, 5 months of kids won't be with their grade so whole new ball game.

[Unregistered]

Senior year is not an issue. It's a 24 month age group. The simply play with the younger group that they are playing with now. The 8th grade thing will take some ingenuity for a lot if clubs. Extra training and scrimmages might be the best solution. It is only 2 months after all.

It's already been sort of figured out. In 2016-2017 season, the 2002 birth year teams will be u14s and will still have year round club soccer so the 8th graders will be ok because the most of the 9th graders will forego high school soccer so they don't fall behind on their club team. This keeps club kids all going club & only hurts freshman high school soccer. Perfect. Plus, aging bone for the clubs to point out to those Sept-Dec kids: you'll still get to play freshman high school soccer.

[Unregistered]

All the Aug-Dec kids who are currently on their school year aged-team will want to "play up" next year to stay on their team, which will make room at each birth year for those kids to play up and teams stay together. The Sept-Dec kids only need to beat out any birth year current B team players who will want to get on the birth year A team. Most of them can do that. You're right tho, a lot will depend on numbers for each particular team and some Aug-Dec kids will undoubtedly be out of luck. The August born kids in the grade above will no longer get a free pass to play up either. They used to get one because they were the only month that wasn't with their grade. Now, 5 months of kids won't be with their grade so whole new ball game.

The first part above doesn't make sense. Aug to Dec kids would have to play down to stay with their school grade team, and that won't happen.

[Slow Xavi]

The mandate from US Soccer is for the 2017-18 season. U.S. Youth Soccer has decided to implement across the board for the 2016-17 season. All US Youth Soccer state associations (ie. OYSA) must comply.

We are still seeing some conflicting info on the US Youth Soccer state associations piece - notwithstanding what the Utah Q&As say, we have been told that no decision to "go early" will be made until later in the fall. That doesn't mean it won't happen early, just that there has been so such decision "yet" by the state associations. Kind of feels like there is momentum though to go early across the board.

[Unregistered]

We are still seeing some conflicting info on the US Youth Soccer state associations piece - notwithstanding what the Utah Q&As say, we have been told that no decision to "go early" will be made until later in the fall. That doesn't mean it won't happen early, just that there has been so such decision "yet" by the state associations. Kind of feels like there is momentum though to go early across the board.

State associations don't get a say. They have to follow the directive of US Youth Soccer.

[Unregistered]

It's already been sort of figured out. In 2016-2017 season, the 2002 birth year teams will be u14s and will still have year round club soccer so the 8th graders will be ok because the most of the 9th graders will forego high school soccer so they don't fall behind on their club team. This keeps club kids all going club & only hurts freshman high school soccer. Perfect. Plus, aging bone for the clubs to point out to those Sept-Dec kids: you'll still get to play freshman high school soccer.

I don't think your going to talk most kids out of playing high school soccer.

[Unregistered]

All the Aug-Dec kids who are currently on their school year aged-team will want to "play up" next year to stay on their team, which will make room at each birth year for those kids to play up and teams stay together. The Sept-Dec kids only need to beat out any birth year current B team players who will want to get on the birth year A team. Most of them can do that. You're right tho, a lot will depend on numbers for each particular team and some Aug-Dec kids will undoubtedly be out of luck. The August born kids in the grade above will no longer get a free pass to play up either. They used to get one because they were the only month that wasn't with their grade. Now, 5 months of kids won't be with their grade so whole new ball game.

Unless they are good enough to hang. Or the club has multiple teams at each age with a variety of skill levels.

[Slow Xavi]

State associations don't get a say. They have to follow the directive of US Youth Soccer.

The Utah Q&A had implied that the state associations were the ones approving going early (2016 instead of 2017); I have no idea if that is correct or not (OYSA told us it was not correct). Here is what we got from US Youth Soccer last week:

"Per U.S. Soccer, 2016 is an optional year and 2017 is a mandatory change. Look for an official notice from us shortly."

[Unregistered]

The first part above doesn't make sense. Aug to Dec kids would have to play down to stay with their school grade team, and that won't happen.

Sorry, they will want to play up to stay on their current TEAMS (which currently are determined by school year/grade.

[Unregistered]

The Utah Q&A had implied that the state associations were the ones approving going early (2016 instead of 2017); I have no idea if that is correct or not (OYSA told us it was not correct). Here is what we got from US Youth Soccer last week:

"Per U.S. Soccer, 2016 is an optional year and 2017 is a mandatory change. Look for an official notice from us shortly."

Getting kind of late to be deciding to go early (2016)....