Every team in the Elite division has holdbacks. If you are going to callout teams you might want to call them all out . Right or wrong the playing field is fair . Every team has them. Every team choose to play in the Elite division and every parent agrees to let their kid play on these teams. Right or wrong its the nature of the beast.
Amazing world where a select group of children are allowed to dominate a sport.
Just like Youth sports was meant to be played, dont you think?
My 8th grade son has played football since he was in kindergarten, wrestles and plays lacrosse for rec and club. I don't remember a year in ANY sport where he didn't play against kids that were potentially a year older than him? In football they are called "OBLs". In wrestling as a 6th grader he faced kids with chest hair that were just super light. In rec lacrosse they typically had 2 years combined at several levels. I just don't see the big deal about a 1 year older hold-back, considering that next year as a freshman in High School, he might be on the same team with Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors? However, if your kid is one of the top players in his position as a 7th grader and now he gets bumped down a few notches because new, older players enter his age group, it does kind of put a damper on your parental bragging rights. I will just tell my 8th grader to go figure out how to kick the 9th graders [ChillLaxin], but that's just me.
No one has ever said that a kid can not overcome the holdbacks he is playing with. But just using the life is not fair work harder speech does not make the kids who reclass or play down or PG not cheaters. I tell my son life is not fair work harder and do your best to out preform the kids who have parents cheating for them. There have been several articles written about how kids with birthdays that allow them to be the oldest on the team end up playing in the Pros more often. Lacrosse does not have a real Pro option but the facts still apply to lacrosse. And a sport like lacrosse that has a large skill level aspect the year longer of playing the game allows these kids to out preform the younger kids at a large rate. Because what I read on here over and over again is if you are not good enough "Hit the Wall" well if a kid has been hitting the wall for 18 months longer then the other kids he will be by rule a better lacrosse player. And doing simple math he will always have 18 months longer of "hitting the wall" to help his game.
Very legitimate argument and well stated point. The point I was trying to make was not so much to deny that advantage that some may get, but to point out that from 8th grade on, they are going to play with multiple age groups at a time anyway. If your kid is a Sophomore playing with Freshman who are really Sophomores, or a Senior playing with Juniors that are really Seniors, or an 18 year old playing against a 19 year old, is it really going to keep them from playing in college if they are great players? If you look at D1 rosters there are tons of public school kids who didn't reclass. I personally just don't see it as being a huge advantage. At least not to the point where people are ready to trade blows over the argument. I didn't reclass and had no issues getting recruited from East BF country public school back in the early 90s. We didn't have clubs, recruiting showcases, kids national teams and all the opportunities kids from 8th grade up now have to strut their skills and there were a lot less positions to fill. We went to Hopkins camp and played Hero's in the summer. It was fun.
