Team formation for soccer is based upon age groups.  US Youth Soccer and PA Youth Soccer set age groups to help ensure fair and competitive play in youth soccer.

All players on a team need to be under (abbreviated by "U") the required age on Jan 1st of the year in which the playing cycle starts.  For example, if your child was born in 2017, then 2023-2024 is their U-7 playing year.  If there is no separate division for U-7, they would play to one year up, so that player would be a U-8 for both 2023-24 and again in 2024-25.

Players can "play up" to a higher age group beyond a year above them with the permission of the head coach and executive board, but absolutely may not "play down" to a lower age group.

The age grouping does not match completely with the local public school age calendars.  It occasionally happens that a child may not be able to play with the other children in their school grade.