People that don’t want to talk about reality or shine light on the extent of this [lacrosse]-backward system like to conflate issues. What does college recruitment and even HS play have to do with how youth sports should be organized as far down the line as 3rd grade and even younger? The fact is - for “2022” boys (at least in the state of NY) a player who is turning 15 within a week will be just fine for HS sports unless things have changed. Most on age kids are 13 and the USLax age cut off has another 2 months to go before some 12 year olds even turn 13. So this July you WILL have a younger 2022 still 12 playing against an older “2022” who can already be 15 and the older boy is in no jeopardy as far as HS sports are concerned. I know I am taking extremes, but the extreme case is greater than 2 full years. The regular reality is that the difference is generally closer to 2 years than 1. So please with the its only 1 yr.
If things ever went age based, “uber elite” players could always play up and then they and they alone would have to deal with the consequences of their decisions not everyone else. Someone please make the argument that this system is better. You won't because you can't - so you'll resort to name calling, insulting me and/or my kid, blah blah blah... As if anyone cares about the insults from an anonymous blog. Save it - only one side of this argument has any merit the other is just a round about way of saying - "that's the way it is and for some of us it's currently advantageous so we like it".
Inflating numbers doesn't help your point. If one is a holdback, he is likely a summer birthday so up to 15 months different, and that is only for the very young 2022. Those are likely 0-5 on a team. The kid that is 2 years older (or greater like you said) just isn't out there. Sure you heard about 1 kid somewhere so I'll give you there might be 1 or 2 in an entire league or tournament, but probably zero. I'm not saying grade is better than age based or vice versa. But if you don't like the system petition the league, club, tournament directors, etc. to have it changed. Just don't make up excuses and say that other teams are all holdbacks 2 years older than another team or make assumptions about how old a kid is based on size. And don't call people cheaters that are playing by the rules of the league or tournament you are choosing to pay and have your kid participate in.
Go back an read what was initially written.
A.) I never made up an excuse for anything. B.) I never said “all holdbacks” were 2 years older – I simply pointed out that under the current system they can be in “extreme” cases - without putting HS in jeopardy. C.) I never mentioned size once. D.) I never called anyone a cheater for exploiting the rules to their advantage – I just pointed out that the current system allows them to exploit the rules to begin with and the ones that do it are very happy with the status quo. That’s not calling you a cheater – I guess I’m calling you an exploiter – better?
See - when you say that you’re not saying grade is better than age based you are actually telling us all exactly where you stand – doesn’t take a genius to make that read. I can’t help it if you don’t want to recognize the reality - which is many times the difference in age between a true holdback and a younger kid on age for his grade is closer to 2 years than 1. It is the reality - especially when you start playing teams from other states with other school calendars to begin with and they add on their 3 or 4 months for Jr. because “he wasn’t really ready for kindergarten at the time – so we thought it was best to give him another year to mature”. If you really believe what you wrote - you should do a little digging about what “holdbacks” really are – they ain’t only a few months for a kid with a summer birthday here and there. And for you guys who’s first kid this is you are in for a treat – this year coming up is a very special and fun year for your son – he’s going to have a bunch of new classmates. “ Jr. just wasn’t ready for HS (for some made up reason or another) so he’s going to repeat 8th Grade for academics or for a little more maturity” - so on top of the holdbacks - next summer your son gets to begin enjoying even more “re-classes”. Great system for youth sports – total Joke.
If your kid likes this game and shows any real promise where maybe he can play at the college level – get him to a proper teaching environment, tell him to hit the books as hard as he hits the gym. He can get there without this garbage – that’s the great big secret nobody wants you to know. You don’t actually need to do any of this nonsense if you play for a good HS team and have great grades. So - regardless of the age differences, the scores of these games and what club your son was or wasn’t on when he was in the 7th or 8th grade means absolute squat. My initial point was and remains this is a jackass way to organize youth sports and nobody has stated one valid reason why it isn't. I am going to go petition my club and all the tournament directors I can think of – so I’m signing off. Done wasting my time on this - but it’s been sort of fun.
