|
|
Post by Keeper on Sept 9, 2014 6:54:33 GMT -5
Ok I'm new to the whole Athena thing this season so my sister and I were talking about when they move teams up and down? Is that just after the spring season or can teams move after the fall? It's a U13 team too.
|
|
|
|
Post by spectator on Sept 9, 2014 7:53:01 GMT -5
Movement takes place after each season - Fall to Spring and Spring to Fall. It's based on performance or if a team completely disbands or loses more than 50% of the original roster. For this Fall's crop of U13's - you could expect something like this:
Athena A - bottom two drop to Athena B in Spring
Athena B - top two move up to Athena A in Spring - bottom two (or more depending on performance) drop to Athena C
Athena C East and Athena C West - the top one - maybe two based on performance will move up to Athena B - the rest will be broken down to form one Athena C with the bottom of that bracket possibly going to Athena D
Athena D East and Athena D West - same scenario as Athena C brackets Bottom of this group will fall to Athena E
Athena E - top teams move up to D - the rest will combine with the Athena D teams dropping to either form an Athena E bracket or adding an Athena F bracket
Process repeats itself in Spring for Fall Teams.
If they are starting RPL at this age now, the top four teams in Athena A will completely move out of the bracket and start competing in Region 3.
There's no real set guideline and much of the placement can be determined by which clubs lobby for the slots most. And U13 is a crap shoot - no one really knows how these teams will compete against each other so there may be a lot of movement in spring or in Fall if clubs gain new players. Everything shakes out by Spring U14 and up (sort of).
Good luck
|
|
|
|
Post by Keeper on Sept 9, 2014 12:23:52 GMT -5
Thanks! That's what we were thinking but weren't exactly sure and figured someone on here would have a true answer instead of the normal automated club or Ga soccer response.
|
|
|
|
Post by SoccerMom on Sept 9, 2014 12:27:31 GMT -5
It will depend on the standings at the end of the fall. also theres no clear answer how many teams will move to R3PL in the spring, leaving more room for other teams to move up and down
|
|
|
|
Post by sidelinemama on Sept 12, 2014 10:58:19 GMT -5
This confuses me too, now that there is RPL and ECNL involved. What if RPL takes 3 or 4 teams? And what about the ECNL teams? If the 3 Pre-ECNL teams leave Athena A to play ECNL and then they take 2-4 different teams for RPL, do they really move the bottom two teams down? And wouldn't they need to move more Athena B teams up? GA Soccer says there will be 12 Athena A teams in the Spring. It seems to me that they will need quite a few Athena B teams to move up to make that happen, and then more C teams to move up to round out B. Yet they keep saying only one team from each C Division would be guaranteed to move up. Did they forget ECNL was starting earlier this year? Would love some input on this.
|
|
|
|
Post by SoccerMom on Sept 12, 2014 13:30:46 GMT -5
This confuses me too, now that there is RPL and ECNL involved. What if RPL takes 3 or 4 teams? And what about the ECNL teams? If the 3 Pre-ECNL teams leave Athena A to play ECNL and then they take 2-4 different teams for RPL, do they really move the bottom two teams down? And wouldn't they need to move more Athena B teams up? GA Soccer says there will be 12 Athena A teams in the Spring. It seems to me that they will need quite a few Athena B teams to move up to make that happen, and then more C teams to move up to round out B. Yet they keep saying only one team from each C Division would be guaranteed to move up. Did they forget ECNL was starting earlier this year? Would love some input on this. I don't believe ECNL starts until u14, its only RPL that will start early? |
|
|
|
Post by sidelinemama on Sept 12, 2014 13:46:49 GMT -5
I am pretty sure that they are starting Spring Season of U13 now. That's why all of those teams were called "PreECNL" for all the preseason tournaments.
|
|
|
|
Post by dreaddy on Sept 12, 2014 13:52:34 GMT -5
The call themselves PreECNL to advertise that fact that they will be going to ECNL. ECNL currently starts at U14.
To the original question - you may find some of the U14 Fall groups a bit larger (14 teams) than usual to account for the teams that will leave for Premier League play.
The 2 up/2 down rule was taken out if I remember correctly, allowing some flexibility where an extra team is needed to fill out an age, or when more than 2 teams obviously don't belong in a division.
|
|
|
|
Post by sidelinemama on Sept 12, 2014 13:57:25 GMT -5
I guess I was confused. Not sure where I had heard that. Sounds a lot less chaotic with just losing a couple of teams to RPL.
|
|
|
|
Post by nutmeg on Sept 12, 2014 13:57:46 GMT -5
Sometimes a team will request to move down even if they didn't finish in the bottom two. We had a third from bottom team ask to go down since they didn't win any games - they along with the bottom two were relegated the next season. They went down and regrouped and moved back up in a later season and have done very well since.
|
|
