U.S. Soccer's Missed Goal: The Case for School-Year Age Groups

U.S. Soccer deserves a red card for its mishandling of the youth soccer age vote.

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Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

A decision that could impact millions of soccer families was supposed to be finalized at the U.S. Soccer BOD meeting on November 22nd. Months had passed since U.S. Soccer first floated the widespread notion of switching its team formations from birth year back to school year. Months had passed since U.S. Soccer, its governing bodies, and clubs let families know about this possibility. Months and months of anxiety was finally coming to a head. At least families would know either way. Except they didn’t because no real decision was made. U.S. Soccer gave us the worst possible outcome, they punted.

“Starting with the 2026-27 season, the U.S. Soccer Federation will provide youth soccer governing bodies with flexibility in determining their player registration and age group formats.” - U.S. Soccer

This is serious weak sauce, folks. Not only did U.S. Soccer neglect to provide a definitive, they went silent in the hours and days that followed. My inquiry to U.S. Soccer Communications went unanswered. I assume other media folk were in the same boat. Then finally, a leak.

This breaking news was found in a Facebook group from the Michigan State Youth Soccer Association. It took a few more days for word to actually come from U.S. Soccer and even that was buried on its registration page. Talk about avoidance. So the only change was no change. Will there be a change for 2026-27? Maybe? Probably? Who the hell knows?

This should not be hard. Reverting back to school year (August 1st-July 31st) is the right path for 99.9% of youth soccer players and their families. There are some valid points for keeping birth year but they are rather thin.

The keys arguments for keeping the status quo:

• The rest of the world does it

• Change sucks

That’s really it. The rationale behind U.S. Soccer’s switch from school to birth year in 2017 was to align with international standards. This was supposed to strengthen our US national and youth national teams so we had more success in international play and set up more players to go pro.

But the USMNT has remained stagnant and is mostly uncompetitive versus any soccer powerhouse. And the USWNT, once atop the international mountain, lost in the round of 16 at the 2023 World Cup and most of its superstars have retired in recent years. There are loads of talent on both rosters but there is no credible claim to be made that either roster has improved since 2017.

Perhaps relatedly, U.S. Soccer’s switch to birth year has likely contributed to the sport’s downward participation trend. The latest State of Play report found that regular participation in youth soccer among ages 6-12 has fallen from 9.3% in 2013 to 7.6% in 2023. The retention rates are even bleaker with a 6.3% drop in core participation among those 13+ from 2022 to 2023 alone.

It’s easy to pinpoint financials as a motivating factor in the possible switch back to school year. More participants = more money. But the best reason from a culture standpoint is guaranteeing kids in the same grade play together. Not only does this eliminate the “trap players,” the younger grade kids with fall birthdays who become stuck when their teammates start high school or graduate. Many clubs with high school-aged players shut down for the winter so players can partake in high school soccer. Some clubs will try and find training opportunities for the younger trap players, but some will not making those kids SOL. But really, it’s just inherently more fun to play with kids in the same grade and better for team chemistry. Most 5th and 6th graders are living completely experiences socially and homework-wise.

ECNL (Elite Clubs National Leagues) President Christian Lavers recently summed it on a pre-vote episode of The ECNL Podcast (yeah yeah, that’s a thing.)

“The transition will be messy as teams are destabilized and rosters are redone but the long term positive of eliminating the trap, the 18-19 year old glut and inherent issues of not playing with school year friends makes the long term is worth the short term instability.”

There’s also the recruiting aspect. I spoke with multiple coaches who coach both high school and ECNL and they all said college scouts need a streamlined process. Think about it, they go to these showcase events and have to look up the graduation year of a player. With NCAA recruiting rules, they might be able to talk to one but not the other. Besides, working with a school-age calendar would make synchronizing events more fluid.

So yeah, a body like the ECNL, whose goal is to get its athletes college exposure, is naturally going to be in favor of the switch back to school year.

Doesn’t U.S. Soccer understand that the rest of the world doesn’t value playing collegiate sports like we do in America. Nor is the concept of “multisport athlete” or even “student athlete” a thing. For better or worse, America has a unique sports culture. An outfit like U.S. Soccer should cater to it, not pretend like babies born here automatically going to be soccer fanatics. You’re not the NFL!

It’s time to get back on the right track and choose school-aged team makeup.

The international prospects can go to the academies and do their own thing. As long as all other youth soccer bodies are aligned and everyone switches to birth year, with a little wiggle room for differing school district cutoffs, we’ll be just fine. And yeah, the short term will suck for many kids like mine with spring birthdays who will suddenly be among the youngest on their teams. The silver lining of having the shared experience of soccer with kids in the same grade is worth it. It makes all the sense in the world…or at least in this part of the world. Let’s do this school-age calendar.

Here’s hoping that the leaders of the governing bodies from AYSO to GA and everyone in between can band together, offer some direction and leadership, and ultimately arrive at the right decision. But given U.S. Soccer’s indecision, I wouldn’t hold your breath.