Originally Posted by Anonymous


My son is 12 and plays on a U13 rec team. There are kids on his team and other teams that are 14. Lacrosse everywhere had been set-up in U11, U13, U15 for decades in which kids competed in 2 year gaps. Prefirst, holdback,reclass whatever you want to call it was not invented in the past 4-5 years. Rich people who send their kids to private elementary have been doing this forever. In the past the holdback kids just got a second year of u15 while most were off to 9th grade. Having you been saying lacrosse is broken for 30 years?

What Stenerson is hoping for is that by pushing recruiting back to junior year it curtails the "need" to be on the "right" club in 6th grade so that you can be "seen" in 8th. And the to get on the right club in 6th you better get in the system in 3rd. This is the mentality that has killed rec/town. The whole youth game has shifted to club from rec/town and very few of the kids will ever benefit from the added cost and expense.

BTW - US Lacrosse does not dictate the age rules unless they are running the event. Teams, leagues, tournaments decide on their own rules. Not sure why but this whole grade thing started when Long Island teams went to grade. When the LI clubs started traveling to what were rec tournaments in MD - Lax Splash, Beach Lax etc with names like LI Express 2019, Crush 2020 and killing teams the tide turned here in MD. Club directors realized they would have an age advantage by going grade - just because of the different school cut-offs. Before then all MD clubs (even Crabs) were age based as where all the local tournaments. Then all the clubs changed to grade and the tournaments followed so they wouldn't lose revenue. NY has by far the most teams and are the most willing to travel far and wide. If they were to change back to age, the tournaments would change again and other regions would have to follow.


While you are right about the NY teams coming down here with grade based teams. That wasnt the reason MD teams went grade base.
That may have helped , but a NY grade base team is still 2-3 months younger than MD age based team at that time due to NY (DEC) and MD (sept) start dates for school.

The biggest facilitator of Maryland going grade base was the Pubic League of Howard County Recreation going grade base instead of a simple U10.U11, U12,U14,etc. etc.

What jerk came up with this must have had his child in Private school. Every league in Howard County Recreation was age based at the time, probably still is. But somehow these jerks decided to ruin YOUTH lacrosse and start a grade based league. WHY??

Howard County Recreation should get a special award in the HALL OF SHAME for youth sports.