The issue of age is not going to go away and it cannot be dismissed by arguments made above such as "since I cannot remember a serious injury there is not a problem," or my personal favorite "play baseball, or get better.” Wonderful.
The issue is youth (not high school) lacrosse. From my (and many other’s) perspective, the shift to grade based teams is nothing more than a shameless move by the large, deep clubs to take advantage of their larger base of players at the cost of exacerbating the difference in the height and weight of the players on the field. Physics dictate that increasing the range of height and weight does increase the severity of impacts (which can only increase the risk of injuries). With boys growing and maturing at different rates there are going to be size and weight differences no matter what. That’s just a dynamic of boys/youth sports. However, with age based restrictions there are formal limits that are not subject to manipulation. This is why soccer has gone the age base route. With grade based teams there are no formal limits beyond a boy (regardless of age) being in a particular grade (and that of course is subject to manipulation).
In short, the move to grade based teams seems like an irresponsible decision that at least over the short term benefits the big youth clubs at the expense of making the sport more dangerous for all players on the field.
