Birth Year Registration and Small Sided Games Update
NorCal Premier will be implementing a plan for the U.S. Soccer birth year mandates and small-sided games soon – here are the details.
The youth soccer world is ablaze with the impeding implementation of the U.S. Soccer mandates for better player development. All across the country, US Youth Soccer and US Club Soccer state associations are planning how they are going to meet the demands of U.S. Soccer and embrace the new guidelines and rules.
US Club’s NorCal Premier has just rolled out how it will implement the U.S. Soccer mandates and follow the guidelines from the implementation plan from US Club Soccer. Director of Operations, Dan Chamberlain, and the NorCal team, have spent many hours working the best way to roll out the the new youth soccer player mandates and will be among the first states to kick off the changes. NorCal has a prestigious lineup of clubs and a winning record of successful player development.
- Birth Year Registration:
NorCal Premier competitions will transition from scholastic year (Aug. 1 – July 31) based age groups to calendar year (Jan. 1 – Dec. 31) based age groups in 2016. Birth year 2003 and younger age groups will transition prior to spring 2016 competitions, while birth year 2002 and older age groups will transition by Aug. 1, 2016.
- Age Group Classification:
NorCal Premier competitions will transition to the international age group classifications in 2016 (details below). Birth year 2003 and younger age groups will transition prior to spring 2016 competitions, while birth year 2002 and older age will transition by Aug. 1, 2016.
- Small Sided Games:
NorCal Premier competitions will begin transitioning to the U.S. Soccer small-sided mandates in our spring 2016 competitions, and be fully compliant with the small-sided mandates by fall 2016.
NorCal has chosen to split the Birth Year transition timeline along the lines of their Premier competition calendar. What does the mean in English? Simply that 2003 and younger divisions will begin playing in birth year divisions for the spring 2016 league and 2002 and older divisions will remain on scholastic year age groups through the State Cup finals weekend in May.
How will NorCal handle the U.S. Soccer’s decision to eliminate the two referee system? All games must either have a one or three referee system and NorCal will continue their current requirement of 1 referee for small-sided games.
The Important Dates from US Club:
- US Club Soccer members are required to transition age grouping of teams from school-year based (Aug. 1-July 31) to calendar-year based (Jan. 1-Dec. 31) by Aug. 1, 2016.
- US Club Soccer members will be required to follow the U.S. Soccer mandates related to small-sided games, which also includes changes to field and goal sizes, by Aug. 1, 2017.
Just as a reminder – the improvement in youth development standards from U.S. Soccer came out in the late summer. Click here for the PDF on the Player Development Initiatives.
“Our number one goal is to improve our players down the road and these initiatives will help us do that,” said U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team head coach and Youth Technical Director Tab Ramos. “With small-sided standards what we’re trying to do is to help players develop by putting them in an environment where they are constantly involved in the play and our changes in birth-year registration will make age groups easier to understand, while aligning our calendar with the international calendar.”
This coming year will prove to be very interesting as it is a time when everyone will embrace change and the youth soccer world will be in flux.
As the beautiful game emerges this transition period in the USA, the road traveled may be new for us, but the results at the other end should prove time tested with more touches on the ball for our youth and better player development for all ages.
