osa announces changes in 2016-2017

A september 03 (currently an "04" for team purposes) will, in 2016, be considered 13 years old (January 1st-December 31st 2016), and will play UNDER 14--hence the name, U14.....at least that's the rumor. t-town 05 said he/she heard it from OSA, which must have heard it from USYS, I'm thinking....

OSA can't find its butt with both hands, unless OFC tells it how (state cup 2015?).  Soccer rumors are a dime a dozen.

It's not going to happen unless they revamp the whole system (up to the national level), and it would be silly to do so, particularly when they wanted to normalize the age groups with ODP and the rest of the world.

Currently, U12 means "age 12 or younger", not "younger than age 12".  All kids in the current 04/U12 age group not playing up will be 12 before the season is officially over July 31, so all are age 12 or younger throughout the season.  That the definition of U12 includes kids who have reached age 12 is the way it has always been done by USYS, and there is no reason to think it will change because eligibility will now be measured by birth year (because soccer seasons will still track with fall/spring school years).

Under this rumor/theory that 03s become U14 because they will be younger than 14 in 2016, the older 03s (born first half of 03) will become 14 during the spring 2017 portion of the 2016-2017 soccer season and thus will not still be younger than 14.  Again, the soccer seasons will not convert to calendar year but will remain fall/spring, which may be part of any confusion any of the brain trust at OSA has on the issue.

It would take 5 minutes change the age chart and if USYS was going to do it that way it would have happened.  This rumor really makes no sense.

Seems like it would follow the current ODP schedule and that is what USYS has published... 03 birth years are U12 on the ODP schedule and next year will be U13.

It does get weird when you look at the club year of 8/1 - 7/31.... it would mean that some players will already be 13 when the teams are selected and would finish their club year in the spring of 2017 and would have already turned 14.

Agree USYS will do it they way ODP is done and will use the currently available chart.

I have been trying to find an international age chart since this is why US soccer is changing things, but have been unsuccessful.

I did find this on a Pennsylvania youth site that states for 2016/2017 season U13 will be true age 2004s. Which is also what we are hearing from OSA.

Again, I don't think it makes sense and hopefully this will be proven wrong.

http://www.centresoccer.com/Default.aspx?tabid=189749

It can only happen if USYS accounts for/protects the older kids who would age out of ECNL because they would jump to U19 while still in high school.  It would require USYS to examine age requirements for (for example) the U17 national team (since national team considerations were part of the motivation for the change).  USYS would only create a system where the U17 national team players were all 16 if that's how everyone else was doing it.  I don't think that's how it is done now.  It seems unlikely IMO, but we will see.

This may be a debate over nothing. Presuming they do reclassify the ages in that manner and change the overall system to accommodate the change, and all US kids are classified in the same manner, what would it change beyond the fact that all kids in particular age group will be born in the same year, which is what is happening anyway. Wouldn't jumping everyone forward a year from the age group "number" in the chart just be applying a different (older) age label to each age group? Not sure how that new label would change anything if all 03s are playing other 03s, whether you call them U14 or U-whatever. Changing the chart by moving every group up a year should not change the significant impact on current teams that switching to pure age will bring.

According to OSA's meeting true 04s will be u12 next year and true 03s will be u13. The discussion regarding TSC's not playing up rule is probably a prudent rule in this early phase of implementation. If you fail to have that rule, the likely result will be coaches from the same club recruiting against each other for players and teams. As a club that will be the last thing you want. This next year may be pure pandemonium at tryouts given uncertainty in what the teams will look like et al.

From the Tx Boardhttp://www.txsoccer.net/t28737-birth-year-age-matrix-update#247044

http://www.txsoccer.net/t28737-birth-year-age-matrix-update#247044

Also, this:

http://www.soccerwire.com/news/clubs/which-year-determines-your-age-group-youth-soccer-organizations-move-to-clarify/

So '04's will be U13 and '03's will be U14 next fall season?

04s will be u12 next year.

2004s will be U13 next year according to new matrix published this weekend.

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/15/US%20Youth%20Soccer%20Birth%20Year%20and%20Season%20Matrix.pdf

wow. after almost two months to change it. Oh well, don't have to worry about 9 v 9.

Bird04's link above says:

year season ends - birth year = age group

2017 - 2004 = u13

There's also this they linked to as well:

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/15/US%20Youth%20Soccer%20Birth%20Year%20and%20Season%20Matrix.pdf

Does anyone know how OSA will be determing which teams play in gold and silver? The teams will all be different next year, will there be a play in tournament?

yoyokix wrote:Does anyone know how OSA will be determine which teams play in gold and silver? The teams will all be different next year, will there be a play in tournament?

They will probably put all the teams in the state names in a hat and out. First four for gold and rest for silver.

Truthfully, does anyone expect that OSA can get this right?

It will definitely have a big affect at the now pre-competitive ages, vaulting some group immediately into 11 v 11.   Otherwise I don't yet see what practical difference it makes.

 The chart makes clear that U-X means age X or under:  "When determining the age group for a season, the year the season ends should be used for determining the birth year. Also note that the format “U followed by age” really means that age and younger."  I think the change was to make sure that a kid did not get older than their U-X age group before the end of the spring part of the (for example) 2016-2017 season, which is the historical situation that existed with the school year age groups -- ultimately they had to account for birth year age groups playing in school year seasons.

For example, the original chart had 99 birth years as U17 next year.  All birth year 99s would be U17 by the end of 2016, but in the spring of 2017 many would have turned 18 and thus would no longer technically be under 17.  So the new chart now makes 99 birth years U18 so no kid ages out in a particular fall/spring season.

It seems the change will make the U-X national teams a year younger.  It should also put 03s into ECNL next year (although ECNL should now add U19 to account for the 98 birth year HS seniors).

For most, the changed chart still splits up existing teams along birth year lines.  For 04-99 birth years, is there any other effect from moving the age chart columns by one year?

The unfortunate thing is August through December kids will essentially lose a year of playing soccer as kids currently playing 04 but technically an 03 will jump from u12 to u14. Otherwise the only other major issue is for 05s who have been playing 8 v 8 but since born in 04 will make the jump to 11 v 11 whereas their contemporaries will be playing 9 v 9 next year.

Meanwhile on the TX Soccer Forums....

FC Dallas 04G AP
Post by OneTouch Yesterday at 11:07 pm

FC Dallas will be forming its Age Pure (AP) 2004 team this fall/winter, coached by the club's Jr ECNL Coordinator and current 04G Elite coach Lee Weddall.
All players will be initially evaluated at a Player Development Program (PDP) session on November 15 at Toyota Sports Complex with team(s) formed to play futsal (Nov/Dec) and 11v11 Primetime league in the spring. The team will attend Jr ECNL events in 2016-2017 while competing in LHGCL.
To attend the upcoming PDP session, interested non-FCD players will need a signed permission/release from their current coach. No release will be required for futsal training, futsal league, or outdoor league play.
Please contact LW at lweddall@fcdallas.net or 469-688-1446 for more information.

"The unfortunate thing is August through December kids will essentially lose a year of playing soccer".

Although I see where this is arguably technically true based on the chart, not really sure any kid as a practical matter is losing a year of soccer.  Everyone will be able to play club soccer through their senior year in high school - those late-in-the-year 03s have six more club seasons left and then they graduate, but the same is true for the first-half-of-the-year 04s who are in the same school year as the late 03s.  Although the chart shows birth year 04s get an additional U19 year, for the first-half-of-the-year 04s, all that does is let them play club while they are freshmen in college.  Doubt that happens very often.

FC Dallas has the right idea, let's have tryouts now so teams can move forward instead of feeling like they are on "pause" until tryouts. Coaches (and many players) are thinking about and planning their teams for next year, this year feels like a waste.

It would be smart for any club to get started on sorting out next year.  My 00 now/99 next year just finished SRPL, so other than tournaments and state cup we are done for 2015-2016.  It is hard not to start thinking about next year.  
Next year 99s will definitely be interesting, since early in the year 99s (who will be HS seniors) will be allowed to play up with the 98 birth year kids they play with now. Going to be a smaller pool than most of the age groups.