What changes are being introduced for the 2026–2027 season?

As everyone is now aware, for this upcoming soccer season 2026 to 2027, most US youth soccer organizations will be going back to a school year model. So from August 1st to July 31st, that will be where teams will be formed with players based within these birthdays. Prior to 2016, this was how it was always done. It had always been teams formed based off a school year. And then in 2016, US Soccer made the change to go to birth year, which we've now seen up until this point. And now obviously we're going back to a school year model, which will come into effect this tryout period heading into the 2026- 2027 season. In reality, this will affect everybody. All teams will change to some extent. Some teams may change significantly, some teams may only change a little bit, but ultimately all players will be affected by this and all teams will be affected by this. When something like this happens, there is always a lot of misinformation, there is always a little bit of anxiety. And people not necessarily knowing the full extent of what will happen and knowing the positive changes that are going to happen, so the purpose of this video is to provide our membership and any prospective player on what this age change entails and why it is something to not be so concerned about and will actually be a positive in the long run.

How will your club manage player placement under the new structure?

As a general rule, FC Wisconsin will place the majority of our players based on the new school year legislation. So from August 1st to July 31st. That will enable us to get the majority of our players playing at their correct school year with their peers, where they should get the most success, which ultimately helps benefit and aid their long-term development, which is the most important factor to any type of decision making. There may be a few cases of players who we may keep with their current team, even though they might then technically be playing up a school year, but that will only happen if they are excelling at that age group. If they are not excelling at that age group and are not in the top 3 on that team, it does not make sense to continue to play that player up a school year when they could get more success within their current age group in terms of their school year and with their peers. As always, every decision that we will make will be based on each player's individual development and what we feel is best for them long term, and we will be guided by that in terms of our decision making.

Why is this expected to be a positive change for players and families?

I think the first thing to note here is that even though US Soccer made the change in 2016 to go to birth year. Other countries did not go to birth year and during this whole period of time, most other countries, especially in Europe, have stayed on a school year team model formation. To use England as an example, all of the top clubs in the Premier League, all of their academy teams are formed based off a school year. So if the top clubs in the world like Liverpool, Man City, Man United are forming their academy teams based off a school year, there must be some positive merit to doing it that way in terms of long term development. So now with the US going back to this system, it crucially now will eliminate the majority of trapped 8th graders and the majority of trapped junior issues that we have. This will significantly improve scheduling and college recruiting continuity throughout their recruiting process. There will still be some trapped players cause no matter what the date was, somebody is always gonna be affected by it, but this will now help to have more players playing at their correct school age, which can only be a good thing. From a social and emotional perspective and in terms of overall holistic development, players playing with their peers within their school grade is a positive. Now it will be far better and more appropriately placed to develop in all areas among their peers within their true age group.

There is sometimes too much of a rush from clubs, from players, from parents to have kids play up, and there's almost a race to get your kid playing up, and if your kid isn't playing up, he's not considered a good player, and that is not always the case. Players playing within their correct age group, excelling within their correct age group has been proven to be far better from a developmental standpoint long term than just kids playing up all the time. We try and use the analogy of generally speaking at the younger ages. It's not normally the gold medalist at year 11, year 12 that becomes the top player. Generally, it is the bronze medalist at these younger ages that is a slow burner and continues to develop over a prolonged period of time that becomes the top player. So it is not the be-all and end-all about your son playing up an age group. It is not the be-all and end-all of your son being the best player at year 13-14. OK, it is about the journey and the process and how they develop over a long period of time. And getting more players playing at the correct school age, being more appropriately placed, will have positive benefits long term for every player.

Are there any negatives with this change?

I wouldn't say there's any negatives per se with this change in new legislation. Obviously teams will change. And that can bring anxiety and that can be stressful, probably more so for parents than players, to be honest. Players are more resilient than parents and coaches give them credit for. It is more how parents perceive it and how they handle it and how they process it, and then how they convey it to their child as well. If a player is currently on a U- 15 team, and because of this age change, they get to stay at U15. That does not mean that that player is now playing down. All that means is that player is now playing at their correct school age. So there is no player playing down by staying on the same age group moving into next season. I think that is the biggest piece that players and parents have to wrap their heads around. It is not a negative. It is not a negative if your child is not playing up a school year. Players will now be appropriately placed playing within their school age. That is what this is. It is not players playing down; it is the majority of players playing within their school year, with their peers, which is a positive for long-term player development.

But having said that, like anything, change does create anxiety, right, and people wanna know how this is gonna pan out, how this is gonna transpire. The biggest thing I would say is whatever club you're at, trust your club, clubs, coaches, directors try and make decisions that they think is best for each player's individual development. Does that mean everybody will get it right? No. Mistakes will happen during this process; that will be part of it. But ultimately, the majority of decisions will be the correct ones and long term, your son will now be playing within the correct age group with his peers, which over a long period of time will be better for their long-term player development.

How will this impact your child(ren) and your club teams overall?

In reality this change will affect all of our teams at FC Wisconsin. For us looking at our makeup of teams, the core and the majority of teams will stay the same. For us as a club, I think we are excited as directors, as coaches, that because of our vast player pool, we actually perceive that the majority of all of our teams will get stronger because of this change. So it is probably coming at a really good time for us as a club, and we are excited in terms of how our teams now will form and how they will shape up going into next season because we feel across all platforms, within all of our programs, our teams because of this will become stronger. So it's an exciting time for us. Yes, there are nerves and there are stress that are gonna come into it in this tryout period, but ultimately we are extremely confident that our teams will come out of this stronger than they already are across all platforms. Players and parents should look at it that way and be excited that it's almost like a reset for us as a club, for us as teams, where we can go into it being positive and really have an impactful and successful season next year.

Will my child(ren) have the opportunity to play “up,” or will they be required to play “down”?

I think it's important to reiterate again that players are not playing down by playing with their correct school age and playing with their peers. If they remain at the same age group heading into next year, that is not playing down, that is playing at their correct school age. So I think it's important to again highlight that as pedantic as it sounds, playing up, playing down, there's a positive connotation with playing up; there's a negative to playing down, so we never use the terms up and down. For us as a club we will use the term playing across rosters and things of that nature. But in this instance, if a child remains at his same age going into next year, that is playing at their correct school age; that is not playing down. Again, I cannot say that enough, in terms of playing up, if it is right for a player to play up as a club, we will do that. But for a child to play up, they must continue to excel at that level. And the moment you play a player up, and they no longer excel playing up an age group, they should not play up, they should play at their correct age. So there is a lot more thought that needs to go into whether you play players up or not, and I think too many clubs are guilty of just playing players up because that's what some parents want. And then they just play them up and they keep them up and there's not enough thought, and there's not enough evaluation in terms of when it's right to have them play up, but when it is also right for them to go and play their correct age at times to remind them how good they are at their own age. That is important as well, so even if a player is playing up and excelling. You should still have them go and play their own age at times, just to remind them how good they are at their correct age. Having said that, if a player is playing up, they need to be in the top 3 on that team. They need to be excelling playing up an age group. If they are not, again, they should play their correct age, and maybe they train with an older age group once or twice a week. So you can supplement their training by having them train with an older age group, and that can help enhance their development. Sometimes that is far better for a player than actually just playing up, where then they're not maybe getting as much success as they would at their own age, but they're still getting pushed by training with an older age group at times as well.

In terms of us as a club, by us training age groups together consistently, our players generally get that anyway, in terms of their own individual development plans and how that can ultimately benefit their development. Obviously, there will be a few unique circumstances for players where you might have a 10th grader who, next year, that means they're a U16. But because they're maybe born in August, yet they're in 10th grade, they could stay and play at a U15 age group. Those will be individual circumstances that we'll look at and say, OK, yes, by the new age change, this player could play at U15. But he is actually a 10th grader, which means he could or should be playing at U16. Those are circumstances we'll look at, and we'll make decisions based on that in terms of what we feel is best for that individual player at that moment in time.

Why is your club better positioned than most clubs to successfully navigate the age-year realignment?

I think one big aspect why us as a club we're so confident that we can navigate this age change in a positive manner is the fact that our club and our culture has been built and developed upon a methodology where we train teams and age groups together. Unlike most clubs, we are not a collection of individual teams just under one club umbrella. It is not the U15 coaches over here doing their own thing and the U16 coach is over there doing his own thing, and U14 teams are over here doing their own thing. And they're just individual teams where players don't really know each other and never train with each other and don't experience being around each other. Our club and our programs are completely different to that. So we train multiple age groups together on a consistent basis. We have a collaborative coaching model whereby coaches are working in different programs with different teams so they all know different teams. So our evidence and our evaluation of players will be far greater than maybe other clubs will have. So our players are training with players on different teams consistently. Even though they may not be on their team and may not be playing games with them on a Saturday, throughout the week, they are training with different age groups, they are training with different players, they are training within different programs. It's far easier for them to transition to a different team within our organization than maybe at other clubs, where it is, like I just touched on, separate teams just under a club umbrella, but yet those players and those teams don't really know each other.

I think that is a big factor for us, and as a club, what we have done for years is we play players across different rosters anyway. So players get to know each other, and often players will go and help out different teams and things of that nature, so it would just help with that transition, whereby our players, if they are moving to different age groups and different teams, it is not in essence a new team for them. They are just moving on to a different roster where they will know those players already cause they're all part of the same club and probably part of the same program. For us as a club, we have always said. Every decision we make, the most important factor is based on individual player development. It is what we will continue to do. As a club, we will continue to do what we have always done in terms of making decisions based on what we feel is best for each individual player's long-term development. So I think that is a big aspect of why we are positioned in a really good spot to be able to navigate this age change. I think it can be comforting for players and for families. It's something we've already done, ultimately, in terms of moving players across rosters anyway; this is not new to us, it's just gonna be at a bigger scale, going into next year. I also think as a club we try and communicate with our families, we want to keep them involved, we wanna keep them engaged, we want them to be informed of what we're doing heading into next year, and I think we are as open and as transparent as we can be when giving feedback to players and families in terms of what's coming next and we'll continue to do that as well.

What key message or reassurance would you like to leave parents with?

I think part of the reasoning for this short video was obviously to hopefully keep our membership informed, keep them involved and also keep them included. I think nowadays it's vital that parents understand what clubs are trying to do. If we're gonna develop players to their real potential, we need parents on board and we need to be aligned with parents. So hopefully this video is able to give some substantial and good information regarding what's gonna happen going into next year. I think most importantly, for parents and players to remember is, yes, anytime there is change, it can be stressful, there can be anxiety. Change always makes people doubt what's gonna happen, but ultimately I think the biggest thing to remember is. This change is nothing to fear, it is just teams being more realigned to players playing at their appropriate age and playing with their peers and playing at the correct school age. When you break it all down, ultimately that is all that is happening. More players are now playing within their correct school age. This will be a positive long term for player development. Will there be some teething pains, will there be some social changes for some players, probably more so for some parents who enjoy spending time together off the field and things of that nature. But ultimately it is almost a fresh start for a lot of players, it should be exciting, as we've touched on, we expect our teams to become stronger because of this, which we are excited about.

And as I touched on earlier, if the best professional clubs in the world are forming and basing their academies off the school year, it can't be a bad thing long term. So yes, with change comes stress, comes anxiety, and people have to adapt to that, but I think long term this will be a good thing for the majority of players and ultimately. This should not be a negative, as long as players and parents are open-minded and they understand the process, and they understand why it's happening, and they go into it with a positive attitude, players will come out of this for the better, clubs will become stronger because of this. And everybody will improve and get better along the way.

I think a big thing for, for parents and players, whether you are part of FC Wisconsin, whether you're part of another club watching this: Just have a little patience with clubs, have a little grace for clubs and directors and coaches; everybody is trying to do the right thing. They are trying to make the right decisions for your son. Nobody goes into this to try and make a deliberate bad decision to negatively impact any player. I just don't believe that happens at any club. Everybody is trying to make the right decision; everybody is trying to do what's right. I think ultimately everybody will come out of this in a better position. As long as we can show respect and empathy towards each other, people will end up where they should end up, people will be on the correct teams, and people will continue to develop and will continue to love the game, and that is the most important part of everything.