First time ever posting here-you guys are funny-you only think about the age of the kids as it refers to sports. What about a child with learning disabilities. Maybe a child that had to repeat a year due to developmental delays-don't think that happens? Not every child who is slightly older is in the grade due to parental influence based on sports advantage. keep that in mind when bashing a child/parent because their child is 1/2 year or 10 months older. In reality, especially for boys, being the oldest in the grade is a not such a bad thing for maturity, socialization, and can result in better academics, which is really what will help most get into better schools and function better later on in the "real world". Reality is, that few will get scholarships for sports. We are talking about 4th graders here. It ain't all about sports.
I have much empathy for the child that struggles. I held one son back because he only made the cut off by days and he is still immature to compared to his peers on grade level, never mind age wise. That said, I never expected that he would be given preferential treatment because I held him back when it came to sports. When he played hockey he played his age, but when he played town soccer he played grade. If he tried out for travel soccer, he'd play age again. Kids like my son are not the worry, but rather the exception to holdbacks. He is not a dominant force, but if he was, I would never expect that he be given an advantage because he might be bigger or stronger than his younger grade peers. The issue is, there had to be some rules set because if you excuse kids with late start to school, then you need to excuse those that hold back for athletic reason later. It becomes a free for all and is quite unregulated. I'm all for developmental programs to be grade based, but once you enter the competitive field of travel lax or any sport- there should be a level playing field at the start, minus genes. The bigger stronger kid with such DNA is who he is, but he can't be called out as he is a proper age as all the kids.
There is an official cutoff date. It's 9/1. It's as arbitrary as the dates picked for soccer or hockey. Vast majority of holdbacks would meet the age cutoff anyway. Now for all you fall birthdays playing on grade you're technically playing up by lax standards.
You need grade based as recruiting kicks in around 8th grade. Should go age based until then.
