Apparently NPYLL has made it official that they are following HoCo in how the divisions are made up for 2015. They are going to "scheduled" Graduation year for Divisions. (No more U9A, U9AA,etc.). This essentially doubles the number of teams clubs can field.
The 2015 season Divisions will be: 2024 AA 2024 A 2023 AA 2023 A 2022 AA 2022 A 2021 AA 2021 A 2020 AA 2020 A 2019 AA 2019 A
As a parent of two young youth players at the bottom of this school grade list I am sickened by the notion that the repeat a grade game goes earlier and earlier down into elementary grades. The club owners have a story and are sticking with it. This makes it easier to field more teams. No, it does not. Do more U13 and U-11 teams or do U13, U12, U11, etc. This makes it easier for college coaches to evaluate players by grade. No, it does not. Girls soccer players and boys ice hockey players play U-15, U15, etc. NCAA coaches in those sports don't seem confused about who they are recruiting at tournaments. And is there a point somewhere that this is making it easier for NCAA coaches to evaluate 4th graders? As a parent I find this pretty disturbing. If my kid is a great player, I can at my discretion risk playing him up with older kids. Have it this way, and my kid is thrust out there with kids much older and physically developed at a safety risk and I cannot have any discretion to manage that except for pulling my kids out of youth lacrosse. This is a horrible precedent for HOCO and NPYLL to follow and the club owners pushing this grade scheme are putting youths at risk. Please write to your NPYLL or HOCO club owners and coaches if you have issue with this. Don't wait for a kid to be seriously brain damaged before caring. These are your kids too.
not sure why the fuss about grade-based leagues and teams. unless you are advocating for single year age groups -- u11,u12,u13,u14 etc -- the age based format leads to plenty of mismatched competition in tournaments since they are always u11, u13, u15. For the record I'm not defending holdbacks. My kids are in the grade they're supposed to be age-wise and my 6th grader is on a 2020 grade team with just 1 kid who was held back when he was 5. when we play in u13 tournaments we play as a B team and we always end up playing teams made primarily of kids in their 2nd yr of u13. Maybe they aren't a u13 A team so they play B. skill levels might be similar but the size difference is huge. When we play grade the size differences are not as pronounced. Someone mentioned on of the crabs 5th or 6th grade team having 7 holdbacks. My guess most if not all of those kids had spring or summer bday. SO i'd rather play a team with 1/3 of the team a little bit older vs. a full team of older players. Now if tournaments and league went to single year age - that would be the most fair. But I have never seen any that do this.
