Get ready folks
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rainbow_unicorn
PREMIER
By facts do you mean this?
As I've said before I think you have invested WAY too much into a particular league and club. Focus on your player, do what's best for them, don't trust any league or club or coach.
Changing back to a July fiscal year should revolutionize youth soccer development in our country. Much like the small-sided initiatives, the build-out line, the Double PASS evaluation, the change to calendar year, bio-banding, the DA etc have dramatically improved soccer in this country in the last decade.
Thatonedad
SILVER
Everyone I talk to from the governing bodies said this will be decided in November anyone who says this is or isn’t happening doesn’t know for sure.
You seem to like personal attacks. First it was "conspiracy theory" now it's "way too much time".
What I see is a youth soccer environment that's currently based on calender birth year + everything works as is. I also don't think that trapped players are that big of a deal.
ECNL is considering changing things up and if implemented the change will affect everyone. Ie not just the trapped players.
The "facts" are that if ECNL teams were determined by grade not year it would force all the other leagues to either do the same or give ECNL teams a 5-6 month advantage on players age. Also ECNL teams as they would exist after making the switch to grade would not be able to participate in calender year tournaments. Unless they wanted to shuffle teams around. (Which will never happen). These are HUGE incentives for ECNL. Their players would be older than everyone else's and ECNL teams wouldn't be able to participate in other league tournaments. Guaranteed wins and more money for ECNL what's not to love?
Thatonedad
SILVER
This will not just be an ECNL decision. Everyone will decide what’s best and we will live with that. From what I’m told USYS is no longer on board. US Club is for the change.
But without everyone on the same page it will not happen. Will have a meeting about it in November and more than likely will not change and we will hear that outcome sometime officially around the new year.
pitchplease
SILVER ELITE
this effected my dd back in like 2018 when they switched from school year calendar to birth year. she went from pre ecnl at u12 to ecnl u14. we were told that us soccer wanted to align with international birth years, because they don't do school calendar years overseas. She also had the Girl's DA start, which ended up being a train wreck, back to ecnl after it folded, and college recruiting rules changed also during this time, all in the span of 4 years. we just celebrated her Senior Night last weekend at a top D1 school. when we look back, it goes faster than you realize. enjoy it, enjoy every moment. because nothing lasts forever.
Decide what's best for whom? Unfortunately, its rarely what's best for the kids
Thatonedad
SILVER
What they determine to be best for US soccer as a whole is my guess. We will find out what that is probably around thanksgiving.
The only group I've seen discuss this topic openly is ECNL and their leadership did it in a podcast.
If all the different leagues are discussing this behind closed doors and they all decide that sorting teams by grade is the way to go, great. It doesn't matter what the different leagues choose to do. It does matter that that everyone implements the same changes.
Do you have a link that shows a league or group other than ECNL that's discussing the potential change?
the fact that they changed it and caused all these issues and they are actually thinking about changing it back and causing issues again is very disturbing to me.
pitchplease
SILVER ELITE
after 5 years, who knows. would love to see some data justifying why they switched 5 years ago, and now why they are going back. i have one kid left in the youth soccer world.. he is in the mls next system. and they do what they want. ecnl switches, it doesn't effect them. they are forever combining and realigning age groups, etc. every season is something new. roll with the changes....
Thatonedad
SILVER
If you look at the photo I attached. It’s ECNL acknowledging that this is being talked about on a broader soccer landscape. This is not just ECNL would be a change for everyone.
Will they decide to switch back who’s really wanting/ not wanting the change? I have no idea.
Can you please explain this to me like i am a child? I mean that seriously. When you say U15 is when trapped players are in MS and rest are in HS. And what is a trapped player vs a grade level classmate? Thank you.
That sounds like a yes lol
Here is an example...
"Child" was born in 2008 and whether it's the public school birthday cut off rule, private school rules or personal preference the child didn't start kindergarten until they were 6 (when most were 5). Now Child begins to play soccer and since their birth year is 2008 they play with the 2008 group. Since child started school late, most everyone else on the team is in a grade older. When those teammates graduate in 2026, child will still have their Senior year to complete, since they're class of 2027. So, now Child will play with the 2009 age group. This is what a "trapped" player is. In ECNL, when child is in 8th grade, most of the team will be in HS and ECNL breaks for HS so Child is often left having to train on their own.
Did this make sense or did I make it more confusing?
Karlton Athletic
SILVER
My kid's a trapped player, so when ECNL pauses for high school soccer this November, the club are going to form a scratch team from the remaining middle schoolers on the 3 NL/RL teams and arrange scrimmages / tournaments, presumably against other scratch teams.
Here's how it works with birth year...
Some of the players in say 6th-ish grade will be born before Dec 31st and others will be born after Jan 1st. If you're born before Dec 31st you'll likely be one of the younger players (in 6th grade) on a mostly 7th grade team. If you're born after Jan 1st you'll most likely be a 7th grade player playing on a 7th grade team. When the players are young it doesn't matter. When the players get older college recruiters are looking for players that will graduate on a certain year. The theory is that if teams are of mixed grade in school it causes confusion for recruiters that are only looking for players that will graduate on a certain year.
What ECNL has proposed is moving the cutoff for teams from Jan 1st to something like Aug 1st. With Aug 1st 99% of the players on a team would all be in the same grade in school.
Thatonedad
SILVER
They still have to vote on it. So until that happens we won’t know anything.
Code
GOLD
Trapped players have a birthdate that is in November or December. Because their birthday is beyond the school start cutoff date, which is usually November 1st (it used to be January 1st) they are not allowed to start school "early"; they would be 4 years old in Kindergarten for about half the year, then turn 5 like the majority of their classmates for the remaining half of the school year. Because the US Soccer year group cutoff date was changed to Jan 1st, and not Nov 1st, they are forced to play with a group of players that is in a Grade Year ahead of them, and forced to attended school a grade year behind the Calendar Year Group of their soccer teammates. This is why they term "Trapped Player" was created; they are literally caught in the red tape between two inflexible rules based on arbitrary dates.
You are right about how it works. Just want to clarify that these players would not start Kindergarten when they are 6. They would be 5 years old for about half the school year. My daughter is in this trapped player group, which I'm sure everyone already has figured out by my over involvement in this discussion. When she started Kindergarten (the first time) she was 4 years old, about two months into the school year, California changed the law regarding the cut-off date. The school gave us an option to disenroll her and come back next year, or keep her in the class under a "TK" enrollment. Either way she would have to attend Kindergarten the following year. Because she was already about two months in and enjoyed it, we decided to just keep her in school. Six of her classmates where in the same scenario. They all did Kindergarten twice; the school board refused to let them move into 1st grade with their first Kindergarten class.
Code
GOLD
Hopefully it works out for you. It was a disaster for us. Could never get any other teams to commit to a scrimmage. Had some friendlies with some of the clubs younger teams, but between the youngers league and tournament schedules around the Holiday's it never was much. It is also an age group where one or two years younger is a significant size/development difference. So most coaches/parents don't want their younger players scrimmaging the "Highschool Players". Don't expect the U15 Trapped Player to see any meaningful games from the end of Nov until March. I would heavily recommend a good training schedule focused on fitness and individual skills. The teammates playing in Highschool will see a lot of games against older players in this timeframe and will usually come out of Highschool in good shape, ready to play, if they don't get injured. Most Highschool programs are pure Kick and Run, so the tactical skills of game play will suffer for all players. Your trapped player needs to keep their fitness and touches on point during this three month forced timeout. Club coaches are going to want to hit the ground running in March to fix all the bad Highschool habits; if your player is out of shape from half-hearted training during this time, they are going to be on the bench when they can't catch their breath.