Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
With the topic of prep vs public being brought up ... reclassification (and PG year) helps preps in a major way. It is stupid for national rankings hypesters to even include a school like Deerfield or Brunswick in same category as Cold Spring. Public schools cannot openly recruit 19 year olds to come play for free for a year. And don't get me started on including IMG Academy in the mix. Those "top" prep schools just want to brag about national rankings with their incredibly old and recruited rosters. They know damn well they are an unfair advantage and they love it.

In Westchester and Fairfield, the holdback fever has taken over the youth level because these ultra-rich kids know they are headed to preps where being older than others isn't just accepted, it is encouraged or even forced. It is the "get ahead by any means necessary" approach their parents embrace.

Can you imagine pulling your kid out of one of the best public schools in the country, paying $35,000 to have your kid repeat 6th grade, then relying on a Brunswick varsity spot where the pot at the end of the rainbow is admission to Duke? That is what these types call a plan, not a dream.


I have no problem with an uber rich Westchester/Fairfield kid repeating a grade. Many of these families decide at birth that the kid will be going to Brunswick or a similar school. Lax players or not, many of these kids are 16 or so as Freshman (especially by the end of the year). So its reasonable (maybe) that they don't want their kid to be the odd 14 year old. And if the kid proves to be athletic, all the more reason to repeat a pre-HS grade to advance the lax career and use it too get into an Ivy or Duke when junior's grades are only meh. None of this I have a problem with. Its just that when the kid plays club or town lax, have the kid play against other kids born the same year as him.


What a sane and rational comment. Holdback all you want, but you'll always be playing kids your own age. Who could have a problem with that? Unfortunately, many apparently...