When will the Nonstop complaining about age and holdbacks in youth lacrosse come to an end. If you did not notice in this age based wsyl tournament the avg ht of the kids was prob 5'8" + weighing up to 200 lbs, at 13 years olld!! Big kids come from big parents. Kids will always mature at different rates just fact of life. Once the kids hit JV and HS age will mean nothing. For those incessantly complaining about age at this grade level you only care about winning a tshirt and bragging about your kids team success. Having your kid play against better competition will only make him better, regardless of what goes behind it. Holdbacks are a fact of life, nothing you can do about it. Concern yourself more about the quality of coaching and how your kid is developing as a player than the age of opponents on a field. As always too much emphasis on winning those big tournaments than letting your kid develop. With a little hard work and time it all evens out in the end...
Are you insane? The average height and weight was no where close to what you claim. Nice to make up facts to try to fit your agenda.
So I assume you let your 13 year old drive and drink alcohol. Because, as you argue, they will all be doing this at HS, so why not at 13?? Right? Do you realize that the "its grade based at HS" argument is just false. What you do at the youth level should be about what is best for the youths who are playing. It should not be - let's just copy what they do in HS. No other youth sport says "let's do at our youth levels exactly what they do at HS, because you know, they will all be in HS eventually". Otherwise, baseball will have LL play on a ML size diamond, hockey would have checking at Squirts and Pee Wees, football will not use weight limits, etc.
The maturity argument is lame also. Of course kids mature at different rates. So do the older holdback kids. An on-age kid who matured early has an advantage; an older holdback kid who matured early has a bigger advantage. The strawman arguments don't work. No one is looking to eliminate kids who mature early. An age based system will just limit their effect (because they will just be more mature - not older AND more mature).
The "better competition" argument is also lame. Just find your kid's level on age. Or have your kid play up. Under any age based system, a parent will still be able to have their kid play up if that is what they want. Further, your team can play up if they seek better competition and the organization thinks its best for their development.
"Concern yourself more about the quality of coaching and how your kid is developing as a player than the age of opponents on a field." Just more of the same boring lame arguments. Maybe you are not capable of such, but most adults are able to multitask - their brains permit them to monitor their child's coaching and development while also "concerning" themselves about the ages of kids on the field. You may be able to do only one of these at a time, but most adults can handle both.
