........Cont. from previous post
Going into the U17 Season many players are sending emails back and forth between College Coaches, getting some good interest in events, setting up visits and ID camps. The Trapped Players, still can’t communicate with College Coaches, they are feeling left behind and pressured to make decisions about College intentions at the same time. They are in a different place than the rest of the team but trying to be in sync with what is happening not only on the field, but in their developing social circle and events. SAT testing, AP testing, Boyfriends, Girlfriends, Dances, etc.. All happening with their Teams, but not necessarily with their Grade. It is a little odd, but not as difficult as previous seasons.
U19/U18 season is a crowded group. The older Trapped Players in their Senior Year are moving down into teams in their Grade Year. Some of them, don’t find teams. The issue now, is that the U19/U18 group encompasses players across a 16 month period. Yes, some youth players drop off during High School, but the competitive players, they are still very much in it. Now the Clubs have to decide, if they drop some players down a team, or go with heavily inflated rosters. Who do they move down? The new players on the team, who are also the legacy players at the Club? Or the younger players on the team who will get another round of this next season? Yes, it should be based on performance, but let’s not pretend players who have been with a Club for a decade don’t get some consideration.
Either way, some players who are great, just don’t get the playing time they need. Other players don’t like the new team dynamics, some are getting ready for College, some don’t finish the season. Many are committed to College, and don’t prioritize the Club team performance like they previously. It is the dynamics of the Senior Year of soccer. The problem is that for the Trapped Players, it is the Junior Year of Soccer; they are in the heat of the recruiting hustle, and a lot of the team Seniors are checking out or phoning it in on the field. For the Seniors, the process is over, and they are taking it easy before College starts ramping up. The younger Trapped Players are counting on the Seniors to put in work, but it doesn’t always work out. When the season ends, the Trapped Players get another round of the U19/U18 scenario. However, this time it is with a completely new team and they are Seniors now.
This unnecessary grade year and age group offset has a cumulative effect on Trapped Players. Each season they are faced with just a bit more stress and adversity than the rest of the team. They are at a disadvantage for College Recruitment opportunities during their U16, U17, U18 seasons. At U16 most college recruiters are going to be observing the Sophomores who are reaching out to them, the Trapped players are still getting their footing in their Freshman Year. At U17 College Coaches are communicating with Junior players, and the Trapped Player Sophomores are sending out emails into the abyss. At U18 the team is struggling to keep the momentum of the Seniors going, so the Trapped Juniors can show out at events. At U19 they are struggling to find a new team, and get integrated into a new roster, while enduring all the distraction of a Senior.
This is a significantly greater problem for players than the perceived age advantage problem of Relative Age Effect or a misalignment of the year cut-off with other countries that the Birth-year Registration Calendar decision was based upon. U.S. Soccer’s decision to create this misalignment does not seem to have taken into consideration that they do not have authority over the Governing Boards of High School or College Sports. We need to realign soccer birth-year and school grade-year; this can be accomplished by changing U.S. Soccer rules or through the policies of the Boards of Education in each state. As there are over 13,800 public school districts in the U.S., it seems obvious that the solution will not come from a consensus of the School Districts.
I have two questions for which I have not been able to find a logical answer. Maybe someone could answer them for me. If U.S. Soccer has been unable to find a resolution to an issue caused by the controversial Birth-year Calendar change, in seven-years’ time, does that indicate there is not a viable resolution for the conflict it created by misaligning school Grade-Year and a Calendar-Year registration? If the Calendar-Year registration “solution” creates a larger problem than it resolved, a new problem with apparently no solution, does that not justify a serious and immediate reconsideration of the change?
Expecting thousands, probably tens of thousands, of Trapped Players to accept the loss of an entire year of development prior to starting 11v11 play, nearly half a season during U15, an entire repeat of the bloated roster U18/U19 season, finding a new team during their second U18/U19 season, extra challenges and obstacles during College Recruiting processes, all for the purpose of avoiding some simple math calculations regarding a handful of International Players seems incognizant at this point. Keeping the Calendar-Year Cut-Off date, for the benefit of a very small amount of International Players at the cost of every Trapped Player in U.S. Soccer seems like a poor strategy for long term development. How can you justify such an immense disadvantage to every Trapped Player just to shift the cut-off date to the calendar year? U.S. Soccer needs to provide a logical and effective solution for each year of the Trapped Players obstacles or realign with Grade-year; seven years is long enough to find a resolution.
