Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Every tournament should be age based. Any arguement against that is illogical .

Cutoff is sept. 1... stack kids born in sept.
There always a way to "work" the system. Hold backs are a joke and are looked upon that way from the parents coaches etc.

When a boy stands out -- bigger faster stronger -- 99% of the time it's because he's a holdback.
Sad because it's just assumed .


This is not meant to be argumentative but just my opinion having been through the recruiting thing four times. The age based vs. grade based argument has no right and wrong answers it just all depends on your goals.

For my kids the goal of a summer team grades 2-7 were to become better lacrosse players, make new friends, have fun and also win some games and age or grade based teams were immaterial.

Once you start playing in the recruit tournaments, prospect cams and prospect days age no longer matters. The college coaches recruiting your kid only wants to see freshman play against freshman not 15 year old play against 15 year old .

IMHO you should not be worrying about winning tournaments after 7th grade, only the clubs care about championships and that is for their web sites and tryout turnouts.

Unfortunately this is not USA Hockey where a kid is registered by age and is on one team and can only play for that team and if he wants to change organizations he needs to get a release. In youth summer lacrosse, your team is who shows up that weekend or even that day and has the same jersey as the rest of the kids. That is not cheating as long as the kid is age or grade appropriate for that tournament.

When a team is selected by grade and then wants to enter an age based tourney you will almost always have to get additional players to make up for the kids that are grade appropriate but not age appropriate, you will see this again in two years when you put together your USL U15 National team.

good luck to all of your sons, don't burn them out and do everything you can to keep this fun for them


I absolutely disagree with this statement - "The college coaches recruiting your kid only want to see freshman play against freshman not 15 year old play against 15 year old." In NY, in the summer, a freshman/rising soph will be a youngish 15 year old, or 14 but close to turning 15. But yet most other hotbed states use a school age system that makes their kids a bit older, and if the kid is a holdback, that compounds it. Thus, it would not be uncommon for a freshman/rising soph from MD or MA to be, say, a summer birthday kid who turned 17 a few weeks before the event. This can be a huge difference for most kids. If the 17 yo (albeit a young 17) is dominating the young 15 yo (or maybe old 14 yo), is it because he is better, or is it simply because he is older. The college coaches don't care how good you when they are looking at you. They only care how good you will be when you are in college. They are in the projection business. They are trying to identify kids who project to be great college players when they are older. If kids are two years (or more) apart in age, at a time when the younger kid is not yet physically mature, then how in the world can you protect whether either of them will be great when they are men and age differences mean almost nothing. If I am a college coach, I want to watch apples play apples and oranges play oranges, which means have the kids go up against kids their same age. Then I will have a better idea who has game. And even then, I will have to use my noodle, because amongst 15 year olds, I will take special notice of a kid who looks very good but still has the body of a 12 year old. I would expect a higher upside for that kid.