Regardless of whether the "break date" is January 1st or August 1st, the fact is that soccer maintains through the USYSA a very rigid and well constructed player pass system. In the system, the player is tied to one team within one club for the seasonal year (except for the midseason transfer window). Soccer maintains the August 1st-July 31st seasonal year due to the structure of the State Cups (often, May/June), regionals (June/July), and national championships (end July, just before the start of tne new seasonal year).
Yes, soccer is looking at systems such as the recent proposal from USCS that allows the player pass to be allocated to the associated club rather than binding a player to one team.
Lacrosse is screaming for a similar methodology as a first step to what the USCS has proposed. At very least, a player picture together with a birthdate would be a major step forward as opposed to using simply the honor system in place at this time.
Lacrosse has "grown up" in the last ten years - the US Lacrosse foundation provided needs to grow with the growth of the sport.
Why does anybody care who plays on what team? Isn't this supposed to be about being seen?
Do people really think that parents are holding their kids back so that they have an advantage in girls lacrosse? This would be a 4 or 5 year girls we're talking about.
The topic in question involves the creation of audited age groups which are checked via authenticated, centrally-issued passes.
Since you do not care who plays on which team, you should have no issue with age-group brackets being created and player passes being created that prevent a player from playing-down in age level.
Again, the discussion is not about showcasing, but the creation of age validated teams.
