Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
The whole "holdbacks cheating" argument is ridiculous. First of all, whether you have the $$ to burn or not, you'd have to be an absolute idiot to drop an additional $25-$50K for an extra year of school so your son can get bigger/stronger/faster and play against younger kids to look better and hopefully get a D1 offer and a $5K a year scholarship if he's lucky.

However, with that said, no one is "cheating", like it or not. It's simple - if the league/club is GRADE-BASED (grad year 2020, 2019, etc.), and the players on that team are ACTUALLY GRADUATING IN THAT GRAD YEAR, it is what it is - whether they are 14 or 24. Does it suck? Absolutely! Is it fair? No, not really, but neither are a lot of other things in life, unfortunately. When my son, who's already big for his age, steps on the field and there is a 6'3" 13 year old out there with a beard, I just tell him "play your hardest - it will make you better against kids your own age". Fact is, though, even though it's ridiculous to hold kids back, they're not cheating if they are using kids of that grad year, no matter how old they are.


Perhaps, but when the tournament rules say "placement on a grade-based team is dictated by the highest grade of any player on that team" and the team enters eighth-grade kids in the seventh grade age group, that is cheating.


Absolutely true - grade-based teams HAVE TO BE grade-based, but unfortunately not age based. Playing an 8th grader, who is enrolled in school in the 8th grade, on a 7th grade grad year team, is cheating and the team should immediately forfeit. That's not what everyone is talking about in these forums though (BTW - there is a holdback thread in every single place in this forum, not just Crabs). What most people are saying here is that "Crabs/Looneys/MadLax/FCA (you fill in the blank) are cheating because they have kids on the 2021/2020/2019/2018 team who are old enough to be in the next grade up but were held back in school so they can play with younger/smaller kids and excel". There is no question that is happening - everywhere. There is no question that it is encouraged by several clubs - it definitely is no matter what everyone says. It's just simply not cheating as a violation of the rules when you're playing with grade-based teams. I think it's complete BS, personally, and I love nothing more than when I see my son's team beat one of those cheating teams with four 6'3" 15 year old 2020 starters in a Braveheart (you know who you are - LOL) despite their best efforts to game the system. Unfortunately, though, even though they'll be driving themselves to practice in 8th grade, they are on the LEGALLY CORRECT GRADE BASED team.


how about when the Crabs approached parents and asking them to keep the child back a year? is that cheating?


It's ridiculous, unethical, and in my opinion you are cheating the system and your kids, but unfortunately it is within the grade-based rules as they are defined, so it's not illegal.