FC Alliance

Birth Year Age Changes 2016-2017

U.S. Youth Soccer and U.S. Club Soccer have both recently announced changes to age classification guidelines that will take effect for the 2016-2017 season. This statement is intended to clarify FC Alliance’s position as we look forward to our upcoming tryouts.

This chart breaks down age group denominations for the upcoming 2016-2017 soccer year:

Season / 2016-2017 / 2017-2018 / 2018-2019 / 2019-2020 / 2020-2021 / 2021-2022 / 2022-2023 / 2023-2024 / 2024-2025
Birth Year
2020
2019 / U6
2018 / U6 / U7
2017 / U6 / U7 / U8
2016 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9
2015 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10
2014 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11
2013 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12
2012 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13
2011 / U6 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14
2010 / U7 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15
2009 / U8 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16
2008 / U9 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17
2007 / U10 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18
2006 / U11 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2005 / U12 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2004 / U13 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2003 / U14 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2002 / U15 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2001 / U16 / U17 / U18 / U19
2000 / U17 / U18 / U19
1999 / U18 / U19
1998 / U19

Position:

The FC Alliance adherence to the age classification changes is based upon literal guidelines for age denominations as detailed in the chart above and our philosophical approach to development.

Guidelines:

There will be mandatory changes governed solely by the year in which a child was born.

FC Alliance, like other clubs, has no say in this matter. Many cases will result where players are viewed as skipping an age group. For instance, a player on the older end of his or her current team with a birth date between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 will transition to an age group that is two levels above their current team.

Example: Kathy is an Under-12 FC Alliance player born in October 2003. She will NOT be eligible for U-13 events in the coming soccer year under the new alignment based upon her birth year. Players born in 2003 will instead be identified as U-14 players for the 2016-2017 season.

Kathy's current U-12 teammate, Audrey, was born in January 2004. Audrey is eligible to play U-13 under the new alignment. She may also be pulled up to play with an older age group if the FC Alliance Staff feels this is beneficial to her development as a player (see Philosophy).

Philosophy:

FC Alliance will use a flexible and logical approach to tryouts

Two factors will determine the player’s appropriate placement:

1) Level of play against the standard – We will recommend that players ‘play up’ in an older age group if we assess their level as being considerably ahead of the standard at a particular age group. This determination is subjective. We consider the player’s performance and attitude as they relate to technical, tactical, physical and psychological development.

2) Quality Playing Time – Our goal is for all players to be placed on a team where they will earn the most playing time. If a player wants to tryout an age above their age they are encouraged to do so, but if the staff feels the player will not earn enough playing time we will place them in their appropriate age group, to further their development.

Application:

Current FC Alliance Players:

FC Alliance directors and coaches will make recommendations to all current players in advance of upcoming tryouts regarding which age groups to attend for the 2016-2017 soccer year.

These recommendations will be based upon the level against the standard detailed above for younger age groups. High school graduation years will also be considered for U-15 and above.

We will recommend that players compete at the ‘older’ level if we feel this is beneficial to their development.

Example: Fred is a current FC Alliance U-11 player born in March 2005. Some of his teammates will move to U-12 upon the transition. Some will jump to U-13 (those born in 2004). Fred remains eligible to play U-12 during the 2016-2017 season as this group will be primarily comprised of players born in 2005. Alliance staff may recommend that Fred attend the tryouts for the U-13 group if he is considered to be significantly above the standard of the current U-11 group that will transition to U-12.

Implications for players in ADC program (U8-U12) – We will implement the philosophy of weighing players’ level of play against the standard in these youngers ages. However, we anticipate the majority of our younger players will be placed in their appropriate age group (see chart on page 1) due to how quickly players change and develop in younger ages.

New Players:

We recommend that players attending the FC Alliance tryouts that are not currently involved with our program are registered for the tryouts correlating to the child’s birth year (in accordance with the chart on Page 1).

Our directors and coaches may recommend that advanced players return to be evaluated against an ‘older’ age group based upon their performance at the initial tryout.

All players entering the program at U-15 and above should contact our staff in advance of the tryouts for recommendations based upon graduation year and prior playing experience.

We may make recommendations to new players that would see them trying out at an age grouping different to that signaled by the chart above where we are familiar with the player based upon prior involvement with our programming.

Trapped Players:

Players in eighth grade who participate on teams primarily filled with ninth graders and seniors that have teammates who moved on to college are commonly referred to as ‘trapped’ because they are left without a team when their teammates are playing high school or college soccer. The trapped seasons for high school are the fall season for girls and the spring season for boys.

Certain club tournaments permit teams to include trapped players on younger age group rosters during the fall season. FC Alliance will proactively pursue these opportunities for affected players. We will be heavily focused on training during the season and we will work with ‘trapped’ players to provide the best possible environment in which to improve through these few months.

FC Alliance has and will continue to offer a full fall training program for players in high school. This is offered to players who wish to participate with FC Alliance instead of high school soccer. This is not mandatory training. FC Alliance does not require players to opt out of high school soccer. This is the player’s decision. Our aim is to support the development of the player through this process.

1