With Academy and now Pre-Academy league in the works being age pure, wouldn't it make sense for Classic League to go age pure? This sure would make things much easier for people, especially at the younger ages.

Happy Feet, what's your take on this?

Exactly. I can understand the August cutoff for local rec associations. Kids get grouped together by grade level. In the competitive environment, the kids should be grouped by birth year from the start...

The German wrote:

finish1 wrote:Exactly. I can understand the August cutoff for local rec associations. Kids get grouped together by grade level. In the competitive environment, the kids should be grouped by birth year from the start...

You mean do it like everybody else? OHHH NO.

Agree, do it the ODP way. Unfortunately, a shift to the metric system is more likely to occur....

I certainly would be open to listening to the arguements for either position. I don't like NOT changing something just because "it's always been like that". Consistency is always preferable; however, please remember that the number of boys playing in the calendar year format (pure) will be a very small minority when considering the number playing on the CL, PPL and APL.
I'm all ears...pm me your reasonings one way or the other.
Jim

When I played select in Dallas many many moons ago it was done by birth year as the academies and ODP are done. I believe it was this way until the early 90's. I graduated HS in 89 and it was birth year then. One downside going with birth year is with the older age groups. For example when I was a Junior in HS I was on a team made up about 13 Seniors and 3 Juniors. At the end of the season there were only 3 of us left with no team to play on. Made it almost impossible to find a team. At least this way you can stay with a group that you will graduate with your entire playing career.

CLASSIC LEAGUE ISN'T THE ONE WHO DECIDES ON CALENDAR YEAR VS. SCHOOL YEAR. THAT IS A NORTH TEXAS POLICY. GOOD LUCK GETTING NORTH TEXAS TO DO ANYTHING TO HELP OUT COMPETITIVE SOCCER.

I didn't know that! If that's the case...I will just sit back and enjoy the banter.

I don't believe it is only North Texas. I am pretty sure this is coming from USYS.

MKGBK wrote:CLASSIC LEAGUE ISN'T THE ONE WHO DECIDES ON CALENDAR YEAR VS. SCHOOL YEAR. THAT IS A NORTH TEXAS POLICY. GOOD LUCK GETTING NORTH TEXAS TO DO ANYTHING TO HELP OUT COMPETITIVE SOCCER.

Are you kidding me? Competitive soccer runs NTX. If you don't believe it try to get release, recruiting, or even card rule violations in rec soccer heard at the state level.

CL needs to consider far more than birth year issues in aligning better to DA.

We have 2 completely different leagues. Why would the CL and USYS ignore this basic issue. IS DA just going to get the best players/teams while USYS just keeps on trucking along with the same old strategy? The differences between the two are stark.

The best example I can give is Clint's Texas Red 94's. Between CL, PL, National League, showcase tourneys, and the run up to Nationals they will play well over double the matches that the Texans DA U18's will play this year.

Forget about ODP, who's got time for this when you are playing so many matches. It's lost relevance...