A hold back can absolutely participate in the WSYL. As a matter of fact, 8th graders play with the 7th grade teams every year. As long as their birthday is after 9/1. Word is they are going to change the date to 7/1 to get more interest from the Maryland clubs.
Any human being of the face of the earth can participate so long as he or she was born on or after the cut off date. They can be Doogie Howser and be in college; they can be a 7 time holdback and be in kindergarten; they can be home schooled by a religious cult. Its very simple, and its how most other youth sports organize themselves. No one cares what grade a kid is in.
WSYL should emulate the LLWS (which they openly try to do) by making a player eligible only once. For LLWS, only LL age 12s are allowed to participate. You can be the best player in the world, but if you are a LL age 11, than you can't play. Everyone has their one year to go - if their team makes it. So, the WSYL should settle on 9/1 or 7/1 or 1/1, and stick with it. Than for each year, eligibility will be for kids born on or after the cut off date, but before the cut off date one year hence. The clubs should then be permitted to bring a team to qualifiers and Denver (if they make it) consisting of kids who are bonafide members of the club, no matter what team within the club they are on. So a holdback heavy club can pull kids from say 2023 and 2024. Basically, make it an allstar team from within the club of all kids born within that years 12 month window. For the next year, it will the next successive 12 month window, and so on. All kids will be eligible to play once and only once - if they are good enough to make their club's team, and if such team qualifies.
