My son has an extremely late August birthday. During all of the years that he played travel rec lacrosse (yes, most everyone used to do that), he always had to move up into the next age group before any of his classmates did. Those age groups spanned two years and every other year he was probably the youngest kid out there. We never looked at it as a disadvantage....we looked at it as an opportunity to challenge himself and led him to perceive it the same way. It's absolutely part of what made him better.