Get ready folks

I literally gave up on not posting rumors and went with the crowd because it didn't seem like people wanted confirmed info. Also it seemed like leagues were leaking info purposefully.

I agree that US Soccer is highly unlikely to not approve switching from BY to SY. When groups that represent 80% of the player pool want something they're probabaly going to get it.

I'm happy that leaders from the different groups made a statement so everyone can make plans and move on.
I've heard from multiple people that it is going to get approved. The real question is which clubs will allow current teams to stick together with kids "playing up" or explode them. It will definitely affect my son's 2016 team, who is 50/50 with the new cutoff.
 
I can't imagine many clubs would ignore the opportunity to set teams at the new cut-offs, and instead choose to play up as a matter of course. Set up new teams with the new age ranges, and then see what things look like for existing rosters as applied to the new rules. In some cases, the team makeup might not change much at all. In others, there may be huge changes. All of this is tied to both the birthdays of the team members, and where each individual sits on the sliding scale of suitability/desire to play up or not.
 
I've heard from multiple people that it is going to get approved. The real question is which clubs will allow current teams to stick together with kids "playing up" or explode them. It will definitely affect my son's 2016 team, who is 50/50 with the new cutoff.
I heard from multiple sources as well.

However, you can see that GA and DPL aren't excited for the change which is why DPL made the statement that they will align with whatever decision US Soccer makes. Which is another way of saying that they dont want to switch from BY but dont feel strongly enough about it to fight against the change.

Ironically as of last Wednesday several high level Coaches and DOCs were not aware of whats going on. I'm sure this has all changed now that official statements have been made and communicated to club leaders.
 
There's now people starting rumors that US Soccer voted internally on BY vs SY and chose to stay BY.

Since nobody is providing sources everyone is equally credible.

The only two official statements I've seen on the matter are from ECNL leadership in a podcast and a response from the DPL president on the DPL homepage.
"rumors"

Clubs have already started communication with parents about the change. There's no way they would have done this if there were still any doubt.
 
US Club Soccer sent out an email to coaches and staff today of our club stating that the next US Board of Directors meeting is on 11/22 and they anticipate this decision to be on the agenda, with a formal and public decision by the end of the calendar year.

US Club Soccer, US Youth Soccer, AYSO statement on forthcoming U.S. Soccer decision regarding age group formation by school year vs. calendar year​

US Club Soccer, US Youth Soccer and AYSO members and participants,

In 2017, U.S. Soccer decided to change age group formation by school year (Aug. 1-July 31) vs. calendar year (Jan. 1-Dec. 31). Since the change was made, we have been reviewing the impact on our sport, specifically for players of all ages and competitive levels.

Over the past few months, U.S. Soccer, at the request of its Technical Development Committee, has engaged in a review of that decision. We support these efforts and appreciate their approach to engage Organizational Members, leagues and clubs in collecting feedback. Additionally, US Youth Soccer, US Club Soccer and AYSO have solicited and shared additional feedback with one another in an effort to make the most informed and appropriate decision for our sport.

US Youth Soccer, US Club Soccer and AYSO have been in constant communication on the topic, recognizing the importance of consistency across the three biggest youth soccer organizations in America. US Youth Soccer’s and US Club Soccer’s leadership teams have met in person multiple times, most recently in September at the US Youth Soccer Grassroots Symposium in Salt Lake City. Additionally, we welcome the involvement of other U.S. Soccer Organizational Members.

We believe that any decisions should be made as a collective with as many youth organizations as possible, and it is our intention to do so.

As chair and vice chair of the U.S. Soccer Technical Development Committee and Youth Representatives on the Board of Directors, Mike Cullina (US Club Soccer CEO) and Louis Mateus (US Youth Soccer Board of Directors member) are directly involved in the conversation and recommendation to U.S. Soccer’s Board of Directors. As chair of the Youth Council and Youth Representative on the Board of Directors, Tina Rincon (US Youth Soccer Board of Directors chair) is also actively engaged.

The next U.S. Soccer Board of Directors meeting is Nov. 22, 2024. We expect this topic to be on the agenda for that meeting and, consequently, a formal and public decision by the end of the calendar year.

As always, thank you for your passion for the sport and commitment to our athletes.

Skip Gilbert
US Youth Soccer
Mike Cullina
US Club Soccer
Doug Ryan
AYSO National President

Oops, late to the party with the email from US Club Soccer... My bad
 
"rumors"

Clubs have already started communication with parents about the change. There's no way they would have done this if there were still any doubt.
The coaches and DOCs that I speak with with had no clue. They are all focused on their current team.

I'm sure this is all changing rapidly and potential trapped players are being identified.
 
Yes, generally older kids are more mature, bigger, faster, and have better coordination.

I find it ironic that parents are worried their child will have to play against older kids( born 5-12 months older) or get knocked down to the 2nd team….while ignoring that those Aug- Dec kids set to benefit…have always had to compete against kids almost a year older.

I always thought the change to BY was stupid..and a decrease in numbers coincided with this change. Especially when kids start in rec, they want to play with their friends when they start.
This is our scenario, and my opinion on the matter would be very different if my son was in his teens. A few of our younger 2016 boys are in the top half of skill on our team. 3 of them are in the top 4 of goal scorers and one is a great centerback. Playing down will benefit them from some folk's perspective, but is that really the case? Sure, they will be able to dominate in theory as the older half of the age group next year, but what's better for long term development? I've always been of the opinion that if my son is the best player on the team, then it's likely not the team we want to be on. I want him to play with better kids. He's an early year birthday and a top player, so at the end of the day i'm good with the change, but I REALLY don't want to break this team up becasue we love our coach and the parent group is good.
 
US Soccer thought it would be an improvement in the development and recruiting of soccer talent in the US (all the way up to USMNT, USWNT). Alignment with how FIFA and much of the rest of the world does it (birth year), seemed to make sense. Since then, it seems that in their view the improvements they had hoped for didn't pan out.
 
I wonder if this change will drive some players to quit soccer. Specifically, for the players that fall into the following: Jan-Jul bday, bottom-end starter or bench player.

After the change, there will be a group of older Aug-Dec joining the team. Where will the Jan-Jul bottom-end player go? They can't drop down to the next year like the trapped players. Only options are to club-hop, drop to a lower level team (ENCL to ECRL, flight 1 to flight 2, etc.), or quit soccer. Club-hopping might not be a viable option as most teams will likely be going through this.

There's probably a handful or so players in this group on each team. End of they day, I think this change will really hurt this group of players.
 
I wonder if this change will drive some players to quit soccer. Specifically, for the players that fall into the following: Jan-Jul bday, bottom-end starter or bench player.

After the change, there will be a group of older Aug-Dec joining the team. Where will the Jan-Jul bottom-end player go? They can't drop down to the next year like the trapped players. Only options are to club-hop, drop to a lower level team (ENCL to ECRL, flight 1 to flight 2, etc.), or quit soccer. Club-hopping might not be a viable option as most teams will likely be going through this.

There's probably a handful or so players in this group on each team. End of they day, I think this change will really hurt this group of players.
Anytime you blow up thousands of teams there will necessarily be a dramatic drop-off in overall participation, so we are looking at a large drop in participation rates -at least in the short term- if they vote to go back to SY.
 
Won’t kids born in June and July who start school late so they are a grade younger and still not be with their school year kids still be trapped under this scenario?
 
Anytime you blow up thousands of teams there will necessarily be a dramatic drop-off in overall participation, so we are looking at a large drop in participation rates -at least in the short term- if they vote to go back to SY.
Probably. I think those who were top of the food chain and Jan-July birthdates who don't like or want to deal with the challenge of competing with older players will possibly be disenfranchised. I’ve seen very good early birthdate players get the opportunity at playing up and not be able to deal with not being the better player on the pitch so never do it again. It can be a bit of an ego check for some. I also think some multi-sport athletes may use this as an opportunity to choose one sport over the other if they don’t want to deal with the drama. The true footballers will grit it out, casuals who don’t care much will go along with it and hopefully long term there’s more participation. And IMO, MLSN will do whatever the hell they want.
 
Won’t kids born in June and July who start school late so they are a grade younger and still not be with their school year kids still be trapped under this scenario?

The cut-off has to be somewhere. At any point if an individual is born in a different "soccer year, Aug 1 201X through Jul 31 201(X+1)" compared to their "school year, often Sep 1 201X through Aug 201(X+1) ", there is the same issue if their "soccer year" is older (they are playing up). The closer the soccer year cutoff is to the school year cutoff, the less kids fall into that space.

It's not rocket science, but as said in prior pages, the complication is IMO one of the advantages of the existing BY setup. It's much harder for coaches/parents/clubs to feign ignorance.
 
wrong, you would be able to play for 2013's now
Not the 2012 born after the 8/2012 cut off date. Only the early year born 2012s play with the 13s.

Each Birth year will get cut in half.

Those born after August have to play up with the next birth year. Jan-July birth play down.
 
Back
Top