Well, I don't agree all the way but do see your points. I wonder, was it all magic of being a year older that put you on the field or was it just the odds of the relative talent and experience? You played behind a senior just like many could be cursed by the roster timing. Somebody sat behind Rob Pannell for 2-3 years and then played, but I don't think that one would be explained by just getting older and bigger in the weight room. I also see the point that dooms any argument. If lacrosse coaches see it this way, they will recruit this way. I never really thought of it this way but encouraging a recruit to reclassify or PG is ostensibly selling the kid and family on an unpaid redshirt year. Coaches have so little scholarship money to give and I would guess are averse to awarding it for 5 years to any recruit. So just forget about incentivizing a parent paid first redshirt year. That written, some programs like Maryland and Syracuse have a lot of redshirt freshmen now. Maybe one of the new trends will be to encourage kids to enroll without a scholarship for a redshirt year. I'd presume that it is better for a kid to spend that year on a practice field in college than on a prep school field as a PG. I have been watching Founders League lacrosse for over 30 years, and the current state of it is a joke. These PGs aren't adding anything to their game by blowing up 14, 15 and 16 year olds as 19 year olds. It's just the final act of the pathetic playing down thing in club lacrosse. I wish all the college coaches who are identifying the best 2019s who are 16 as I write. It isn't my job on the line if they are wrong, so to each his own.
Valid points by all. Older athlete doesn't need to redshirt is more developed and mature. No strain on the college coaches scholarship money and can come in and make an impact. Guess it's a no brainer for the coaches who only have 12.6 scholarships for over 40 players. Look at what Syracuse just did redshirted their whole freshman class. Hmmm imagine that paying another year of college just to play lacrosse.
Redshirts receive their scholarship money, maybe not such a bad deal. That is if you're getting scholarship money!
