I think that the US Lacrosse has come to tipping point. The holdbacks have changed the age categories and no one wants to enforce of correct them. For a boy to play in grade 7 and play against 03/02/01s in ridiculous. I think this will change when insurance gets involved because our game is one that is not that violent but I think this is what it will take to get peoples head out of their asses. Every club owner is now incentivised to register their teams a year younger to compete. We played this weekend and we played 5 games. 4 of those were against teams that have reclassed. The one team that had not was in the same position wondering what division they are now supposed to play in. I understand this puberty thing makes things changed but the difference between most grade 7 and grade 8 lit alone grade 9s is physical superiority. They are faster stronger and mostly smarter. Physical maturity makes this age group a challenge but when you reclassify from a team of boys to a team of men then Lacrosse suffers. People have to start speaking out and doing something about it
My son's 2021 team played in the big four tourney this past week. Everyone on that team is a legit 7th grader, no holdbacks so that means there are 12 and 13 year olds on the team. They played Dallas and Crabs which had numerous 14 year olds playing as confirmed by parents from those teams. It's absurd. They are just too big and fast and it's really a waste of time for them. Do you really feel good about beating up on a bunch of smaller kids? You know it's a problem when you hear the goalie yelling and his voice has dropped or when the kids get off the field and are just laughing that they played a bunch of kids with facial hair. The competitive games were against other teams of "real" 7th graders. It's honestly sickening what's going on.
