All of the Hawks boys are 13. Some of those games could of went either way but Hawks prevailed. So if the only excuse you have is the holdback card then play it. Its a shame the actions of a few put a damper on such great competition up there. I’m not sure whats worse the few loud mouth parents that dont know the game besides to yell “thats a hold”, “that boy is 20”, “work his back” or the traffic. The boys on the teams were very respectful and showed great sportsmanship.
Congrats to Hawks. That kid is impressive. I figured he might be older too when I watched in spring. A friend who has a kid on your team told me otherwise and I believe him. I hope the boy and his parents take it as a badge of honor that people assume he's older.
I have 4 kids. My oldest is in college, one graduating from HS, a 2020 and 2023. So I've been through the club evolution as a parent and occasional coach. Prior to about 2013 every MD club and tournament was U11, U13, U15. That includes Crabs, Looneys. Breakers, Hawks, Green Turtle, Madlax or any others that were around at the time. All of Crab, Madlax or Hogan tourneys were aged based. I agreed to help a 2020 team that my son made in 5th grade. When the HC coach told me the tournaments would be in NY and NJ I was pissed. The reason was that we couldn't play in the local events is that we had 2 kids born in the summer of 01. They only tournaments by grade were up north. I pleaded with Hogan and the Madlax guy to let us in U11 but they would only let us in as u13. I found it interesting the the NY teams and tournaments organized by grade since it is to their disadvantage. Ultimately all the MD teams and tournaments switched and followed the lead of NY and switched their youth teams and tournaments to grade. So when I hear and read the complaints from LI about playing against older kids I hope you realize where this started.
It's also where this can change. LI has the most clubs and they travel the most. Ie Hawks were probably the only MD team in the tournament last weekend. In other word tournaments need LI teams to make $. If your teams changed to US Lax age guidelines and only played in age based events, the other regions will follow
