I agree the August 1st cut-off day is wonky. The thing is, any cut-off date is somewhat arbitrary. Every school district, for instance, uses different cut-off dates for new kindergartners. I think I could get behind a birth year cut-off.
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.
