To be clear you want your freshmen son to play against just 14 year old's. So when HS play rolls around (in 4 months) they should create a special team just for Johnny! It just won't be fair! Fact is there are plenty of age appropriate players that are just bigger and better and parents with less skilled or athletic kids are just looking for an excuse as to why there son isn't as good. They wrongly conclude the kid is older and they are cheating. Maybe it should be a clue that your son isn't a top player. Perhaps he should be playing on B level squads in B level tournaments where he can compete and work on the skills he needs to get better, or until he goes through puberty. Otherwise be happy he is on a top team and gets a chance to work on his play against better players and stop complaining.
False equivalence.
Club is organized by single grade levels. And while we know this is not perfect it is not unreasonable expect less than a 15 month variance of age (for the most part). Yes, there are legitimate reasons to repeat grades and some kids start late so some 'holdback' is to be expected.
HS is a group of four grades.
See the difference?
If you believe playing your kid against older kids is beneficial for him then by all means, play up. It is that simple.
I strongly support age-based play for pre-HS levels. I am less concerned about it pot-MS. That said, in a perfect scenario, it really isn't a bad idea to go age-based for everyone - otherwise, why even separate out the four different HS levels. Just make it one or maybe two.
