US Soccer changes ( Age Pure)

The lack of compassion for the existing kids that are effected from US Soccer is deafening. If they REALLY cared about the youth, they would phase this in and not alienate those caught in the middle. A grandfathered approach wouldn't be that difficult. But instead, they choose the heavy handed approach. Quite telling...if you ask me...

Will any of these changes take effect if the leagues don't implement the changes?

Reading the announcement I believe the mandate says "Recommended by 2016 and mandatory age pure by 2017".

CCM wrote:

SnookumsConCarne wrote:

Number13 wrote:

Rancho4C wrote:

rocketpop wrote:We have some boys on my son's team that have played together since they were 5 or 6 years old.  Now they will have to separate because of this new rule.  Unless the whole team plays up.

That's the key, having the whole team play up and hopefully your coach doesn't start to replace younger players with older players.

Yup, same boat, four kids who started playing together in U6 and now are U13.   Two 02s, two 03s.  Ah well.

The issue is not going to be kicking out younger players, its that your younger players are going to leave on their own.   The siren call of being the older kid is going to be very hard to resist.   That is where the "older" Jan-Jul kids that might come to your team are going to be coming from.   Kids who were younger and now are looking to play a few hands at that soft seat in Queens.  

I guess it doesn't really matter what the motivation is, but I would expect a lot of movement of Jan-July kids.  

I don't see my "BB moving up" to '01.
He'll have January 2001 kids 1 1/2 years older than him out there.

And there you go...Didn't take long.  We're already apparently going to lose Con Carne's son due to this.  BLAH.  

In this scenario, his son would leave our team and either find another D1 or requalify with a different team.  One way or the other, it's unfair to somebody and it make me both mad and sad.  CC and son are good peeps.

Thanks for the compliment, Sir.
But, I don't see playing up.

CCM wrote:The lack of compassion for the existing kids that are effected from US Soccer is deafening.  If they REALLY cared about the youth, they would phase this in and not alienate those caught in the middle.  A grandfathered approach wouldn't be that difficult.  But instead, they choose the heavy handed approach.  Quite telling...if you ask me...

The vast majority of the kids that this affects have no interest in any of the grand plan of the moment by US Soccer to make us more relevant.  The Academy system is already on the calendar year, and is the primary indentification/eliteness vehicle used by US soccer.

It does make some sense to have everything on the same calendar, and "year" is a little more clear and easy to explain.   This is going to be ripping off the bandaid, at which point the worst is over and you just move on I think.   Maybe US soccer can get the schools to change their general calendar as well.

If I got too worked up about this month's annoying global initiative dreamt up by somebody who is probably underqualified, I sure as hell would never show up for my job.  

NTX is moving to this in Fall 2016.  So unless you go with an outlaw registration entity, your league is going to be going with this.

hahaha!! "OUTLAW REGISTRATION ENTITY".

My kid is a 12/31 kid. Im thinking about starting one of those whose Calendar will be from 12/31 to 12/30! Problem solved!

I think this is a great idea. My son has not bee playing with the same kids since u-6 and he is a may birthday. This will put him on level playing ground with other kids. because select soccer is still competitive competition...at the Academy level 6 months is a big deal

My son plays for a very small club, its not like we have other teams to shuffle the kids around with. If you are not a 2003 then not only will you not get to play with your friends, you may have to find another club altogether. I doubt we will play up just to keep a few players. We can barely hold our own in the age group we are in now.

If my BB has to re-qualify for '02 age pure.
Then, so be it. That's 1 year from now.

SnookumsConCarne wrote:If my BB has to re-qualify for '02 age pure.
Then, so be it. That's 1 year from now.

Re-qualify how? I would guess if you are a Jan-July '02 currently playing in D1 CL, you can walk out on June 1 to any current 03 team and will be welcomed with open arms. This would, of course, require you to suffer the '03 parents who are a notoriously obnoxious and foul-smelling lot.

Number13 wrote:

SnookumsConCarne wrote:If my BB has to re-qualify for '02 age pure.
Then, so be it. That's 1 year from now.

Re-qualify how?    I would guess if you are a Jan-July '02 currently playing in D1 CL, you can walk out on June 1 to any current 03 team and will be welcomed with open arms.   This would, of course, require you to suffer the '03 parents who are a notoriously obnoxious and foul-smelling lot.  

The long drive to Coppell from the South with my oldest BB already kills me.
I'm trying to avoid that.
But, there's a whole lot of soccer between now and then.

Plus, next year starts 9th grade football.
So, this whole restructuring may be a mixed blessing.

bigtex75081 wrote:Knowing that this change has been coming, have many academy programs already started making this switch on their rosters?  Or will most of them wait until August 2016 before making the change?

Even though there have been whispers of this since January of this year, the final decree did not come down until late July at the national meeting in Tulsa. Most teams had already signed their contracts long before that. I doubt many had started positioning prior to that.

CCM wrote:The lack of compassion for the existing kids that are effected from US Soccer is deafening.  If they REALLY cared about the youth, they would phase this in and not alienate those caught in the middle.  A grandfathered approach wouldn't be that difficult.  But instead, they choose the heavy handed approach.  Quite telling...if you ask me...

Personally, I was hoping they would first initiate this on the recreational side, let them work out the wrinkles there then slowly move to the competitive side. Doing both changes at the same time just compounds the confusion. In addition to helping with my son's competitive team when needed, I currently coach a boys U7 rec team. This year we are moving to a 7v7 with goalie format. Next year as U8 we will be back to 4v4 without a goalie. Talk about creating confusion.

I have mixed feelings about the year change. My son has the great pleasure of a very late June birthday (poor planning on my part). Like others here, he has been on the younger smaller side of things. Now he will at least be mid pack in age but will still falter a bit in size (due to my ex wife's genetics who gave him hispanic genes but not a lot of vertical potential).
The part that disappoints me is fact he has played with same team and same coach for about 4 years now and has really started to blossom again in last 6 to 8 months. Now will he get replaced by true 02 players next year? There are not many current 04 options out in the Keller area to choose from. Not sure where he will end up. That is part I find discouraging. It would not bother me as much if we were in the soccer rich areas in Dallas. This is a gut punch.
Luckily, he has taken attitude that he will just have to work harder in next 11 months to make himself an asset the coach can't replace with older player. I do love his attitude.

Personally we are glad for the change, can't wait

My first choice will have to be the closest Liverpool team around, since my BB will have another year with this new LP gear.
But every D1, D2, & D3 are in the North.

That's going to be way in the future.
So, no rush.

Number13 wrote:

SnookumsConCarne wrote:If my BB has to re-qualify for '02 age pure.
Then, so be it. That's 1 year from now.

Re-qualify how?    I would guess if you are a Jan-July '02 currently playing in D1 CL, you can walk out on June 1 to any current 03 team and will be welcomed with open arms.   This would, of course, require you to suffer the '03 parents who are a notoriously obnoxious and foul-smelling lot.  

Is Ody going 03 or 02 pure and if so which year?

PremierLeagueFan wrote:

Number13 wrote:

SnookumsConCarne wrote:If my BB has to re-qualify for '02 age pure.
Then, so be it. That's 1 year from now.

Re-qualify how?    I would guess if you are a Jan-July '02 currently playing in D1 CL, you can walk out on June 1 to any current 03 team and will be welcomed with open arms.   This would, of course, require you to suffer the '03 parents who are a notoriously obnoxious and foul-smelling lot.  

Is Ody going 03 or 02 pure and if so which year?

Unless I am missing something, I can't imagine it working where a team would get to choose.   I would think that the leagues would institute a uniform policy and say you get to keep your slot in whatever division you are in and you are now classified as '02s.  If I had to guess, they will simply call the '02/03 boys U14 next year and rosters will fill with '02 boys and whatever '03s wanted to play up.  But '02/03 teams will effectively be '02 teams.  If they didn't do it this way, there could be more teams vying for slots available -- in the extreme case, all 20 teams in D1 and D2 for '01 and '02 want to be '02 teams and keep their slots in U14, while '02/'03 teams would want to keep their slots and move to U14. That wouldn't be manageable.

The only way I could see teams choosing is if basically they just have requalification tournaments for all age groups. I am guessing the players are the ones choosing, and the teams are slotted where they end up.

Yeah, there is no choosing.  You can't just decide to switch years.  Unless you are at a club with infinite byes in each age and they can just massage the whole process (i.e. move you into someone else's bye) to best fit situations.

Based on results from this year's CL, all D1 CL 03 teams will earn a bye in D1 or D2 of U14 CL next year.   So it will be able to take anybody born after Jan 1, 2002 in July 2016.  Which includes everyone currently on the roster.   If they somehow decide they want to be an '03 team they have to steal somebody else's bye or else go start over in PPL.  

Lord knows what will happen.  We are in the middle of cross country season right now, so that is my focus.

Fanofson wrote:I have mixed feelings about the year change. My son has the great pleasure of a very late June birthday (poor planning on my part). Like others here, he has been on the younger smaller side of things. Now he will at least be mid pack in age but will still falter a bit in size due to my ex wife's genetics who gave him hispanic genes but not a lot of vertical potential.
The part that disappoints me is fact he has played with same team and same coach for about 4 years now and has really started to blossom again in last 6 to 8 months. Now will he get replaced by true 02 players next year? There are not many current 04 options out in the Keller area to choose from. Not sure where he will end up. That is part I find discouraging. It would not bother me as much if we were in the soccer rich areas in Dallas. This is a gut punch.
Luckily, he has taken attitude that he will just have to work harder in next 11 months to make himself an asset the coach can't replace with older player. I do love his attitude.

The boys forum used to be so dull, but I think it's better reading than the girls forum now.

Do you guys know if the big clubs have any plans about how to deal with this?
I guess the plan is let the parents figure out.

My understanding is Solar is already on the ball and has started having teams practice together so that when teams start to split up next year, everyone already know who will coach which team and the coaches are familiar with the potential new players.

Fanofson wrote:My understanding is Solar is already on the ball and has started having teams practice together so that when teams start to split up next year, everyone already know who will coach which team and the coaches are familiar with the potential new players.

Nice! I hope the rest of the clubs follow their example.

Sho'nuff wrote:

Fanofson wrote:I have mixed feelings about the year change. My son has the great pleasure of a very late June birthday (poor planning on my part). Like others here, he has been on the younger smaller side of things. Now he will at least be mid pack in age but will still falter a bit in size due to my ex wife's genetics who gave him hispanic genes but not a lot of vertical potential.
The part that disappoints me is fact he has played with same team and same coach for about 4 years now and has really started to blossom again in last 6 to 8 months. Now will he get replaced by true 02 players next year? There are not many current 04 options out in the Keller area to choose from. Not sure where he will end up. That is part I find discouraging. It would not bother me as much if we were in the soccer rich areas in Dallas. This is a gut punch.
Luckily, he has taken attitude that he will just have to work harder in next 11 months to make himself an asset the coach can't replace with older player. I do love his attitude.

Try living in Granbury and finding a team

My son has played with the same team down south, and this change will split our team down the middle. Which stinks, because there is a shortage of players in our geographic area. There is alot of great talent, but finding dedicated parents to travel for their son to play is difficult. We will have to find at least 4 new boys when this all goes down.

Well start looking..

We are/have been. Thats why I said its difficult. Up North there are hundreds of kids around, down south, its completely different. Much more limited on players and teams.

Well its always been that way. The better kids always go north because if your child is not Hispanic your child typically doesn't get a fair chance to compete.because Hispanic coaches play favorites to Hispanic kids. That's why most non Hispanic kids go north. Better coching and besides nothing worse than being the only non Hispanic player on the team And the coach screaming spanish from the sideline. Jut my oppinion