Originally Posted by Anonymous
That's because Cyclones White is a 2021 team, not a U13 team. It played in the U13B/2021 bracket. Program is the same as who runs those tournaments.

That said, playing down is rampant in the Southeast. It's a real PITA if you are a quality younger team to have your B bracket populated with older teams trophy hunting. And quite apart from teams that should be in the A bracket based on ability playing in the B bracket, some teams blatantly play down by registering primarily 5th grade teams in 4th grade division, 6th in U11/5th and 7th's in 6th's, etc. I saw a game at a "top" tournament where 4th graders were being guarded by 7th graders. I can understand why tournament directors feel pressure to allow it so they can balance out their brackets, but it's BS.


I question what a team that is talented and well coached enough to finish in the top half of an A bracket gets out of dominating teams 18-0 in the B bracket particularly if you have some 6th graders that are older than other teams' seventh graders. Maybe if the Cyclones had chosen to challenge themselves in the A bracket the week before they could have beaten Igloo.