I know some late summer 2005 kids that are some of the better athletes in the 2024 elite division. I also know some late summer 2005 kids that frankly aren't that good. I think it is unfair to say that a late summer 2005 kid is better just because he may be slightly older. Most of the summer 2005 kids that I know didn't start playing club lacrosse until around the third grade. I happen to have a kid that has a late summer birthday (he missed the 9/1 cutoff by a couple of weeks). When he started playing lacrosse, he only played rec and he was the youngest kid on the field. He was constantly playing kids that were 1-2 years older than he was. When he got run over by older kids, it just made him tougher and practice that much harder. Even when he started playing club, it was still age based. So again he was playing kids that were 1-2 years older. But now they weren't just older, they were skilled too. Have you ever considered that some of the late summer 2005 kids that play 2024 are not better just because they may be older? Maybe they are better because of all those years they spent playing older kids before they eventually ended up on a grade based team? As I have posted before, if Long Island kids are having to play kids that are older than they are, they will get the last laugh come high school when everything levels out. So rather than hating the "holdbacks," just enjoy the ride and be thankful that your kid is getting better from having to play older kids! Team rankings should mean nothing at this age. It should be about having fun and getting better before high school.
Just for the record, no one is hating holdbacks. The really annoying Madlax parent, who posts like a kid, but I'm sure is an adult... him, we hate.
That guys has been on the LI thread for several years with the same juvenile posts that he has just started putting on here... "we are Madlax, we are the best, blah, blah, blah"... really annoying stuff, every single day... for y-e-a-r-s. It's particularly annoying when Madlax is SECRETLY a year older than our kids, and still intensifies the trash talk (and mostly losing), as though their kids are all on age. Apparently the child-like adult doesn't like playing second fiddle to the younger LI teams.
So when you hear the hate form LI, it's towards that one guy. The rest of you folks, we like, a lot. I've never seen any posts from any MD parent that resemble the Madlax parents posts. You people are class acts, all the way around.
The holdback problem is really not a big deal for us, since there really aren't many on LI. If we go to MD and lose, no biggie... our boys are playing up. You MD folks are the ones that are getting hurt by it, not us. My only purpose is to let you know that this holdback issue is so out of control (you already know that) and in the end, it is probably hurting your region more than you know. I've got several kids, of a wide range of ages, so I've been doing this a very long time. And, as a former player, like many of you, with a real passion for the game, I care deeply for the sport and it's continued growth. Holdbacks are absolutely not in the best interest of the sport. Club's think it is in their best "business interest", but they are taking a very short term view of their strategy, and not anticipating the long term consequences, of which there are many. Sounds like another topic??
