How about this - the majority (not presumptuous) of parents think it is ridiculous that 8th grade teams have 16 year olds on them? Does that suit you? What percentage of all the 8th graders in the entire Maryland public school system are 16 years old? Care to guess?
Look, I agree with you. I think it's ridiculous. But I just don't care about it like others do. It would benefit my son to have the kids playing up where they belong in terms of staying on his team, but does it benefit him in terms getting better as a lacrosse player? I don't think so. He is able to compete with and in many cases surpass the holdback kids. So why would I prefer he play against lesser kids? Lacrosse has had a 2 year spread for as long as I can remember in terms of U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15. What's the difference?
First lets remember that these are children playing lacrosse that are between 8 and 15. You may not care, which is fine. But many do. Many, of course not all, feel that having select kids playing down is wrong at Youth Level. If you are going to let these select kids (mostly private school prefirst) play down, then change the date and let anyone play down from an earlier birthdate. Make it April? or whatever, but let anyone playdown that wants to.
As far as MYLA and their two year U11, U13,U15, .Yes that was two years, but every other year you were older than some players. As it is now, with single year and grade. Select kids will always be older and the kids that didnt holdback, will always be younger. That is not the way Youth sports should be run.
You might be ok as your son is a superstar and competes with the holdbacks . By your reasoning than play him your son up a year and you can play against nothing but older players. He will get really better than. But for the majority of kids that arent superstars, why are they at a disadvantage while other palyers born in same month as them get to play down???. Why cant they have that advantage???
My son is not a superstar, but he's good enough to play with kids a year or two older than he is. HOCO provided up to 4 levels of play for teams. The Elite divisions were just that. For the Elite teams(elite level players). All the clubs know the deal with holdbacks, and I would guess that every club in the Elite division has at least one over age kid. Is the problem that people's egos will take a hit if their kid's team play in the AA or A division? Like I said, I don't have a problem with it because my son has always played and always will play against boys in a range of ages. It is what it is.
I agree and my son is in the same boat. But after this summer when you start to see the sidelines filled with college scouts it will be hard not to say to your self man if all those kids out there where 15 not 16 and a half he would be doing that much better. I think that is where the anger comes from. Most people like there kids to play up and become better players but when you are paying the extra 200 to 300 dollars per tournament because they are showcase style the reclassing kids get under your skin just that little bit more.
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