US Soccer Changes

4/4/2016 

Regarding the number of players on the field, 6v6 teams will move to 7v7, and 8v8 teams will move to 9v9. This affects the U12 LPDA teams starting in spring 2016, and the in-town and travel teams starting in fall 2016.

Regarding the age change, for the in-town and travel programs there will be no change for 2016-2017.  The age groupings will continue to be grade-based.  For more details, see https://lexingtonunited.org/lusc-age-group-policy 

On the other hand, the MAPLE league that our LPDA teams play in will be adopting US Soccer’s calendar year change starting fall 2016.  The chart below shows the teams we are planning for next year.

LPDA teams planned for year 2016-2017

TEAM	BIRTH YEARS	NOMINAL GRADES
BOYS
U11	2006	Older 4th, younger 5th
U12	2005	Older 5th, younger 6th
U14	2003, 2004	Older 6th, all 7th, younger 8th
U16	2001, 2002	Older 8th, all 9th, younger 10th
U18	1999, 2000	Older 10th, all 11th, younger 12th
GIRLS
U12	2005, 2006	Older 4th, all 5th, younger 6th
U14	2003, 2004	Older 6th, all 7th, younger 8th

Notes:

The Skills Academy teams will continue to be grade-based, for 3^rd and 4^th graders.  Older 4^th graders will have the opportunity to try out for LPDA as well.

For LPDA, older 8^th graders are grouped with high schoolers in U16 (who play high school in the fall).  Since they won’t have a team to play on, the older 8^thgraders will be invited to practice with the U14 teams (boys in the fall, then join their U16 team in the winter; girls for the whole year).