My son is a summer birthday. He was young for his grade through 9th grade. He was a very good athlete in multiple sports, but both young and a late bloomer. He went from one of the biggest kids in his grade through middle school to basically average size by the end of 8th grade, but not even starting puberty. While still a very good athlete, older kids and early bloomers had a clear advantage on him which he had to deal with. After 9th grade, he transferred to private school and repeated. Despite repeating, he was nowhere near the oldest in his class and probably even a little below the average age (even for non-athletes). Most of these kids were held back in pre-school..... His school also played in a league were 20 year olds were permitted and not uncommon. So he still had to deal with older kids and early bloomers. By the end of sophomore year (post repeat) the early bloomers and older kids no longer had an advantage and he had grown into a very large athletic teenager. I would laugh when people on the summer circuit would say, "oh he repeated" when he was a sophomore. The kid simply grew into a huge athlete for any age who could run like the wind.. By the time he was a junior, you couldn't help but notice him in any varsity football or lacrosse game. At the start of his senior year he was committed to a top 10 lacrosse program and had D1 scholarship offers for football. Repeating had nothing to do with it. He ended up sticking with his lacrosse commitment and gained some notoriety along the way. And yes, when he went to college, almost all of the freshmen recruits were 19 year olds. In addition, numerous "seniors" / 5th years were 23. Never heard my son ever complain about having to play against older or more mature kids when he was younger - he actually played up when he could - I also never heard him complain about playing with or against kids who were 4 years older than him in high school or college. He actually repeated for academic reasons when he transferred after 9th grade and we (his parents) certainly didn't have him pegged as a D1 athlete in any sport at that time.
This post is a joke. Your kid committed to a top 10 lacrosse program and had D1 scholarship offers? If true, than do you realize how special of an athlete your kid is? Do you really think his experiences were the same as every other kid? Using your kid's experience as evidence of how youth sports should be organized is kind of like pointing to a lottery winner and saying "look, this proves that buying lottery tickets is the best investment strategy for retirement." The large majority of kids (pre-HS aged) have no ability to "deal with", to use your words, older kids. If the owners of these clubs and tournaments (mostly the same people) opened their eyes and realized this simple concept, they would see their participation numbers and profits grow. There can always be AAA teams for the super athletes, as well as the ability to play up if that is the choice made by the family and the coaches. Everyone can have their cake and eat it too. The problem is that too many of the owners benefit financially by the winning done by their older holdbacks, and fear that when the playing field is evened in an age-based system, they will just become just another club. Again, if these stunads opened their eyes they would see that they could emulate hockey's Tier I system and utilize charters to limit entry and monopolize it just like they do now, only they will have more paying customers at Tier II, as more average athletes have a place to compete. Heck, they have it already with NLF.
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