Newbie from NC with a question: What are the chances that USYSA (and thus their state affiliates) will go to a calendar year age bais for teams (1/1/xx vs 8/1/xx) on 1/1/04 to completely align themselves with ODP/National Teams and compete with Super Y and their partners? If they do, what will the fall season be like? A half year season for the younger ages and older girls full season? New tryouts in November? Most teams will be split up badly, it will be a tough transition, whenever it happens. If not 1/1/04, will it be 1/1/05? I believe it will be sooner rather than later. If not 1/1/04, will the major clubs field their top U-13 & U-14 teams for the fall 2003, just to disband them to form new Super Y teams that will begin play 1/1/04? Or will they try to do both in 2004? Questions, questions, questions!!!!
I think it will happen gradually, but over the next 3-5 years. Super Y is NOT going to calendar year with the U14 group, but will next year I believe. Nike Cup is going calendar year. I think, frankly, state associations will be the last to do it, unless the competitive leagues pressure them. There is a tradition of doing school year cutoffs so kids can play with the classmates in their own grade. That will only go away over time.
I agree with Karl. USYSA and the state associations won't do this until they are dragged into it. My personal OPINION is that you'll see a kind of two pronged approach... Some of the older established teams will more or less stay as they have been and just play in the next older age group. For example, my son's team is currently U17. For next year's Y-League team, rather than split the 85's from the 86's and a couple 87's, they'll likely just keep more or less the same team and play as U19's in the Y-League. They'll also like NOT add any older 85's so that they'll still be eligible to register as U18's in the State Cup and USYSA's National League and USYSA affiliated tournaments. For the kids that are in the 88 & 89 birth year that would be split across U16 and U15 teams, I think you'll see more of them split things up. These guy have many more years of play ahead of them to gel as new teams and compete at the highest levels.
no chance! not a chance. USYSA did use the calendar year until the late 80's early 90's. They changed because FIFA used the August 1st date for all age group competitions. When USYSA changed to the "FIFA date" all hell broke loose in our state! Coaches and clubs thought it a stupid idea to change everyone because of a FIFA rule that affected ONLY national teams. Guess what? Two years later FIFA went to the January 1 date. My state president has told our club that there is no chance that USYSA will go back to the old date.
Re: no chance! Maybe so, but the betting (from supposedly very knowlegable sources) here in NC is NOT whether they change, but on how soon they will change.
North Texas of course is about as pro-USYSA as you can get. The USYSA president agreed to consider at a recent summit of youth orgs called by the Fed. US Club and Super Y, as well as AYSO and SAY by the way, reportedly agreed to do it. The same report (one of the rival orgs mind you) said USYSA prez agreed in principle, but would have to talk with his state orgs. One of the chief criticisms leveled by big clubs against usysa is that it is paralyzed by its structure re the state orgs. Now to me, the key questions are 1)does everybody agree that the calendar year format is better for the competitiveness of U.S. soccer in the long run? I think most agree, the Fed certainly does, that the answer is yes; and 2) what is the main objection of state orgs in switching dates? Anecdotally, it seems to be that registrars and other administrators in those states, many of whom are volunteers, think it is too much work to make the switch. Secondarily, people will mention that the Aug 1 date fits in with the public school year. Perhaps there are other reasons that haven't been mentioned to me.
I think the two issues you mention here -- the administrative pain of the transition and the "play with classmates" bias -- will be the two main impediments to going to a calendar year system. As for switching to a calendar year making us more, or less, competitive, I think that is a bit of a red herring. I think the things that will make us MORE competitive are --a thriving 1st division professional league (a 20 team MLS sounds nice) --an extensive academy system or professional youth development scheme that has 200 to 300 top U17 to U19 players nationwide --elite youth programs that start professional level training for gifted players at ages 12 to 14 (and by that I mean, 35 to 40 outdoor games a year, and 175 to 200 training sessions annually). I also beleive, as mentioned elsewhere, that there is a distinctive age-bias that is probably eliminating high potential talented players from this pool of elite players. Switching from a school year, to a calendar year, would simply shift the bias to different parts of the calendar.