DA age groups for 2016/2017

silverback

SILVER
So just trying to wrap my head around this and get things straight because I want to understand (apologies if this was already covered in the old forum). Am I right that they are doing away with the combined age group at the younger years? U12 is new. New age groups for next year are U12, U13, U14, U15/16 and U17/18 for a total of 5 age groups?

And to make it a bit more confusing, for this next year DA U12 is U13 for the rest of us ( ie... 2004 = U12 in DA and U13 in all other leagues). DA planning on transitioning to match after 2016-2017 season.

Am I off? Clear as mud?
 
Silverback, you got it right. To further muddy the waters...

Believe the intention in 2017/2018 is to align the U designations across the board. In that year 2004s will be U14 for both club and DA, and U15 and U17 will be plugged in as well.
 
Does that mean some age-groups like 2002s will lose a year?

For example, a November '02 kid played in BU13 under the old age-grouping. This year that kid jumped up to BU15 for club but still is BU14 for DA. However next year, the kid will be BU16 in DA? So if he's currently in DA, he will jump from BU14 to BU16.

So pretty much no matter how you slice it, kids who have a late birth year are going to miss/skip a year? Ouch... As if late-birth year kids didn't already have enough problems keeping up.
 
That's the way I understand it Eusebio. Pretty much every kid in the DA skips a year, starting with any 05s currently playing with U12s. The "in the zone" U12s next year should be 06s.

I am getting my info from a presentation the DOC at Arlington Soccer Association made to parents. They are a club in Virginia that were recently given DA status for U12-14. Check out the pic posted here (hope I uploaded correctly).

image.png
 
Seems like they have decided the two year age groups were not optimal, otherwise why going to single year groups. And if that is the case, why are they starting the girls DA with two year age group bands. As you see in the GDA discussion, there already seems to be much concern over this. Confusing to say the least.
 
Like late-birth years need help?

They shouldn't have a problem adjusting, since they been focusing on technique instead of relying on size and speed. Smooth transition.
 
Are they creating a U19 age-group? Because under the new system it seems we're aging out late-birthyear kids way too soon.

Using my previous example, a November 2002 kid never actually turns 15 during the u15 season. In fact, he won't turn 15 until almost halfway through the U16 year. The pattern will continue two years later and he'll be entering his last season at 16 years old! After that he has no place to play because he would have aged out of Club and DA completely after a few months of turning 17!

The previous cut-off wasn't that drastic. If a kid was born in July 2002 playing U14, he might not turn 14 during the current season, but he would be 14 at the start of the next season.

Kids born on the wrong-side of the cut-offs have always been somewhat disadvantaged. But the new system seems to exasperate it. Add in the birthyear change, which causes late-birthyear kids to skip a year already, those same kids are now losing a combined two years on the front and backend. The former is temporary, but late birthyear kids aging out very early will always be an issue.

Unless I'm missing something, it really doesn't seem the powers that be thought this all the way through when establishing the age groupings.
 
DA is by birth year and it has been for a long time. Get use to it. So if the kid born in 2002 he is 2002, no matter in what month he was born. 2002 birth year will be U14 in DA this coming season. 2001 and 2000 will be U15/U16 respectively and so on. It's not complicated
 
Also, see the last line on this slide about splitting 15/16 and 17/18 into single age groups in 2017.

Going to be interesting to see what happens in 17/18?

Will the new U12 (04) organizations get dev teams 04 (u14), 05 (u13), 06 (u12) ?

Will existing organizations with dev teams 02(u14) ,03 (u13),04 (u12) get teams in new the single age groups as they move up ie.. 02(u16) 03(u15)

  • 2016-2017 League
http://www.ussoccerda.com/sam/standings/regevent/index.php?containerId=MTYyNzU4NQ==&partialGames=1
 
Going to be interesting to see what happens in 17/18?

Will the new U12 (04) organizations get dev teams 04 (u14), 05 (u13), 06 (u12) ?

Will existing organizations with dev teams 02(u14) ,03 (u13),04 (u12) get teams in new the single age groups as they move up ie.. 02(u16) 03(u15)

  • 2016-2017 League
http://www.ussoccerda.com/sam/standings/regevent/index.php?containerId=MTYyNzU4NQ==&partialGames=1

As far as I know those new clubs that got U12 only got that, no U13 or U14, just 12s. Existing DA clubs got all - U12, and U13 and they already had U14 and up.
There are few clubs right now that only had U14 DA and nothing after. Don't know the reason, plus until U16 there is no standings anyway.
 
As far as I know those new clubs that got U12 only got that, no U13 or U14, just 12s. Existing DA clubs got all - U12, and U13 and they already had U14 and up.
There are few clubs right now that only had U14 DA and nothing after. Don't know the reason, plus until U16 there is no standings anyway.

For 16-17 there are 3 types of DA clubs

1) U12 (04) only ...such as Los Angeles Football Club U-12,
2) Dev only U12 (04), U13 (03), U14 (02)...such as Albion SC U-13, Santa Barbara Soccer Club U-14
3) Full DA; U12 (04), U13 (03), U14 (02), U15/16, U17/18...such as Arsenal FC U-15/16, Strikers FC U-17/18

The question is for 17-18 what will the above translate to
 
Silverback, you got it right. To further muddy the waters...

Believe the intention in 2017/2018 is to align the U designations across the board. In that year 2004s will be U14 for both club and DA, and U15 and U17 will be plugged in as well.

Here is the part I do not know/understand. How are these age groups aligned internationally? I mean if you go to another country are 2004s U12 or U13? Are the DA ages currently aligned to international standards, or will they be next year when the ages shift up a year? I guess I could start with the U23s for the Olympics and work back by years but I am really hoping someone else has done that.
 
The age designation is only confusing because of what Cal South implementing now.
In DA U14 this season will be 2002, but in Cal South they will be U15. It would be a lot easier to make them the same, but that would be too easy ;)
 
Do we really think that the U12 only clubs are going to funnel their talent to the U12-14 clubs at the end of the season, and then those clubs up to the full academy clubs?
Played a season at one of those "Partial" academy clubs and after all the parents got so excited and dumped more money into the club at the end of the year everyone's back to the regular league routine.
USSF is just handing a better Kool Aid recipe to all these money generating machines (Clubs) without regard to development. Have you seen some of these programs.

After many years and dollars I may just be getting grumpy...
 
The age designation is only confusing because of what Cal South implementing now.
In DA U14 this season will be 2002, but in Cal South they will be U15. It would be a lot easier to make them the same, but that would be too easy ;)
That will happen in 2017/2018. For example...USSDA 2002s are U14 this season, U16 the following season.
 
But of course, just as '05s play with the 12-year-olds this year, then next year's youngest team will be '06s combined with '07's, correct? the '05s will be U13 and the '04s will be U14.
 
Just curious,,,with a lot of the top talent now on DA teams, how competitive are the flight 1 teams now in comparison to the DA teams and in comparison to last years's flight 1 teams? It's hard to tell since many of the flight 1 teams have had to start from scratch in regards to rankings and many of the teams have completely new rosters.
 
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