Cage - Have you had any conversations with US Lacrosse regarding the U or Aged-Based concerns? I know personally I have written emails and letters regarding this and have never received a response. Maybe someone who has this voice behind you (on your boards) maybe they will listen, or maybe..just maybe they will send out a response or a path forward or at least their ideas.... their silence is maddening in the face of early recruiting and these age discrepancies... and in the end it condones these practice(s) by not leading.....
BOTC had discussions regarding age group structures (one-year vs. two-year U-groups) and player passes during Spring 2012 shortly after the National Conference in Philadelphia. Their answers were that instituting a full-blown player pass system was prohibitively expensive (investment, staffing, audits) and that there were not a sufficient number of documented age-group violations to make the effort worth the expense.
Here is our view. Just like 2011/2012 on BOTC was a year of trying to level the playing field on tournament and tryout visibilty, the theme of 2012/2013 was really one of exposing this age-group problem in more detail as more users have come forward with evidence of issues.
Moreso, several tournaments themselves that had problems in the past with age-group alignments have stepped forward to actually lead the campaign to police their tournament age groups. The Big Time Shootout Tournament was a true leader on the tournament front this year on age policing.
On the one hand, it is great that tournaments are starting to take up the challenge. The downside of course is that US Lacrosse is somewhat "vindicated" in their lack of action with the tournaments now self-policing. We wonder why US Lacrosse sees the need to regulate their U/15 Championships (this week) yet does not recognize that year round obligation.
BOTC works closely with the LIMLF (US Lacrosse's Long Island Chapter) and you can be sure that these issues are front and center of every discussion that we have.
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