The next few years are going to be rough for boys that are on age, even more difficult for kids that have summer birthdays (or in NY fall birthdays) who started school as they had just turned 5 or in NY they would still be 4. There are some kids who look like giant studs right now not because they are actually better, but because they are older. It will actually be the worst from 8th into 9th, because there will be kids who have already started late (so they were already 6), some then did K and then Pre-first too (adding another year) and then my absolute favorite, then they repeat 8th grade. So these kids look like unstoppable beasts from 4th-9th grade. But trust me, the on age kids catch up and it is hysterical to watch when the kid that has always just run through everyone can't do that any more. My "on age" Rising Soph is seeing that this summer. The gap has closed big time and it feels really good for him to now be able to run just as fast and be just as strong. I can also tell you, it is also hysterical to see these "man-baby" kids (that is what my son called them when they were shaving in 5th-7th grade) now struggle, they (and their parents) are not handling it too well.
I hope you are right because it is such a sh** show right now as I have a rising 9th and rising 7th who are on age and are competing fine but wow are some of these boys "mature". And the arrogance of the parents astounds me. It's hard to believe as you watch the games that anyone takes winning and losing seriously since the reasons for a certain teams success (not all of course but a few are really obvious) is so obviously because they're older. I don't get the pride in that. I can imagine that since they have bought into the fools gold of holding their child back it must really hurt when reality strikes. The skill sets of some of the smaller on age boys is impressive so once they catch up I can totally see them passing everyone by.
