I know it's a first-world problem, but we all know that it's not cool for your kids to work hard, hit the wall, practice hard, etc., and then not see success on the field in some games just because the other team is older and bigger.
But it's not just the Crabs. If everyone is playing older kids (i.e., older than 9/1 cutoff), it's a bit disingenuous to complain about the team that is just doing it more. My perception is that there is not an AA 2021 team in the country with only on-age kids. That's why [lacrosse]'s and WSYL have 5/1 and 6/1 age cutoffs. I would be most AA teams have 5-10 "older" kids. Full year holdbacks may be rare, but I think parents holding back Spring/Summer birthdays has become very common in metro areas, not just Md. Maybe it's a private school thing, of course, as many metro areas have affluent in-city neighborhoods where private schools attract more kids.
The average bday of my 2021 team is 2/1/03. Replace my 5 youngest kids with 5 Summer 2002 birthdays and the average age of my team moves 3 months earlier to 11/1/02. Replace 10 youngest kids with 10 Summer 2002 birthdays and average age moves to 9/1/02. I don't think those age differences are unsafe or the end of the world, but folks are crazy if they don't think those extra months on average don't affect gameplay on the field - especially when you are talking about 13 olds just starting to hit growth spurts. Anyway, /rant off
