I am a first time poster. I have had kids who played for Madlax over the past 8 years. I think what a lot of the cynical posters writes is unfortunately accurate. My oldest didn't live this early process or was he urged to repeat a grade, but with my younger son who is now a 2020 I see it all the time. It is a family decision, but it is also a family decision on the advice of the club lacrosse people who tell kids and families to reclassify if you want to be a high level recruit. It is basically saying "if you want our help to place your son, here is what he should do".

The prep school people are also there waiting for your buy in to take a kid as a repeating 8th grader. The most top prep schools for lacrosse in Southern Maryland and in Baltimore have middle schools. The ones who don't have "feeder" middle schools. The old joke in Montgomery County Maryland is calling Mater Dei "Mater Delay" and some other jokes about a student parking lot at the middle school.

I had one kid go through Mater Dei as an on-age kid from K-8th, and I was absolutely clueless about other dads joking that my son better enjoy his playing time in 6th grade because come 8th grade there will be a bunch of redshirt ringers coming to keep him off the football field, the basketball court and the lacrosse field. Then I was revolted when exactly that did happen. Lacrosse in our area is basically Mater Delay kids stocking Georgetown Prep and Gonzaga, and then Landon and Bullis with legions of repeat 8th graders stocking their teams every year. One of the reasons why Landon's JV team is better than most public varsities is their team is stocked with 16 year old freshmen and 17 year old sophs who aren't up on varsity yet. It used to be a big deal when a 9th grader was a varsity member on one of these teams. Now it is no big deal at all...there are tons of 16 year old 9th graders now who play varsity, and even if they don't belong there on ability the prep coach rather has to keep them there to keep the peace. These parents would go nuts if their son the commit or their son the recruit was sullied by playing JV. They'd rather be last on the bench varsity than play on a team where their level of play belongs. And none of the prep coaches have the guts to run their own program because the parents will literally run them out of town.

There isn't a need for anyone to be defensive about it. Are a lot of the kids on Madlax Capital repeaters? Yes. Are MOST of the Crabs kids repeaters who did a middle school repeat year and/or a pre-first meaning they are old for grade anyways? Yes, almost 100%. I've heard all the reasoning about pre-first being the Baltimore private school tradition for decades which has nothing to do with sports advantage for boys and frankly I don't buy it. I think that in Baltimore this was institutionalized all the way back in the 1960s and 1970s to give boys more confindence and maturity when they are young. One of the ways all boys gain confidence is sports. Back then it was likely people just didn't notice or think as much about it because the world wasn't like this where college recruiting means kids are in or out once they are in middle school for colleges! It gets a lot of attention because of the crazy things in lacrosse recruiting. Given all that, I just don't understand all the denials and lying. Nearly every single kid playing high level club and MIAA prep lacrosse in Baltimore County is one year too old with the pre-first year or is two years old for his class if he also did a repeat middle school year. The second happens a lot...kids just transfer from one MIAA prep middle school to another. I would guesstimate that over 50% of the kids on any Crabs 8th grade team over the past 5 years turned 15 before the spring NPYLL season. And I know it is a fact for the recent 2 Crabs 8th grade teams.