Originally Posted by Anonymous
I, for one, have no problem with a family holding a kid back (or reclassing him if that is the proper word) so that he can be in whatever grade they want the kid to be in. It just should be true that in youth lacrosse, these kids should play vs kids their same age. So if I have a 2005 kid, I want him to play against 2005 kids (or use a Sept 1-Aug 30 year). I don't care if his opponents are in 7th grade, 9th grade, 5th grade, or no grade at all. With regard to school lacrosse (Middle School Teams, JV, Varsity), there is a fair amount of consistency within leagues, conferences, ect. My kids are suburban NY public school kids. There are very few extreme hold backs in the public schools. The extreme holdbacks are mostly at the prep school, catholic schools, ect. The publics and the privates largely don't compete against each other except for non-league games that are voluntarily scheduled.



You may have no issue with it. I do, Ill paint this picture on the academic front; on age kid who is undersized, but always played and succeeded playing up, is a prospective D1 player at a few schools, as well as a top 15 student with 1300's SAT. Had not been for pre-1st hold backs in his school, would have been ranked a top 1, 2 or 3 student (and this in a public NY school) unfortunately, now due to Hold-backs is now ranked 15. So yeah, I think there is an issue, not just in sports. Why, because if "some" didnt hold their child back, their child would most certainly NOT have been a top 5 student, if they were in their state intended/appropriate class/grade. Instead, they changed their child's "stars/grad year" and BINGO they are Top 5 (actually 6 of top 10, 9 of top 15 are hold backs in a NYS public) so yes hold back have more than athletic impacts.

And if you say, in sports everything balances out in college. No, it doesn't, how can it. Each school has a recruiting class of what, at most, 12 recruits. If you are a goalie, a Fogo, an LSM, or a Lefty Attack top 20 schools arnt taking multiple at those positions. Now, over half the top recruits in the top 10 schools have recruits in any given position that is a Hold-back of some sort. Compound this over 4 years and the needle has moved further away from the coaches wanting a true on age athlete.

But I believe the best example I saw saw was when it was shown that, an athlete who works out at the same level at 23 as they did at 21 is in fact much faster/stronger and tougher both mentally/physically at 23 than 21.