Some points on the discussion above. I posted some of these comments on the MD thread a couple of weeks ago. I have fairly decent knowledge of the MD 2024 scene. I am not trying to be difficult here but trying to frame the debate with some facts as I know them. The cutoff date for age based is 9/1/2005. This means on average by the beginning of March the average age of 2024 kids is 13, not 12. Of course if your team has more summer 2006 birthdays the average will be 12+, but in that case even an "on age" team could be 6-9 months older if it had more fall birthdays. The vast majority of the MD "holdbacks" I have encountered have summer 2005 birthdays, the reasons for this have been talked about a fair amount (private vs. public focus, etc.). That being said not every kid who starts private school starts at age 6 thereby making every MD 2024 a year older. The best lacrosse in MD is played at the private schools (and these tend to also be better academic choices in the area) but a large number of the kids start in public schools before they go private.
Now let's assume every kid on a team was born in June 2005 (which is a stretch as I know for a "fact" that the teams talked about here have "on age" players because it wasn't that long ago MD was age based as well and these kids continue to play together or are on other 2024 teams) then by March, on average, the difference would be 9 months as opposed to the 1 to 2 years talked about a lot on this board. Of course talking in averages does not take into account outliers but since none of the LI or MD clubs post birth dates or birth certificates no one here really knows exact age or birthday. We can make some assumptions pre/post 9/1 but I also know for a fact that some of the assumptions made on these boards are wrong, such as Madlax 2024 is 100%/95% holdback team. This is a completely false statement.
On the “double holdback” issue if a summer 2005 birthday was playing “on age” or up (because of the grade they were in) at 2023 and then plays on grade for 2024 it does not make them a “double holdback”. We are all aware that within a 12 month bracket at these ages there can be huge differences in size and athleticism that no system can ever even up.
To your questions and comments about how good MD teams are and why they are not "as good as they should be" since they are all 1/2 years older I would say it is because they are actually closer in age than it is made out to be on these boards. I am not saying a 9 month age difference (which is a high end estimate) is not an advantage but it is a whole lot different than saying a 1 to 2 year difference and it is an age gap that can occur in “on age” systems. The reality was it was not that long ago that these kids were all playing age based and there were some great games between the LI & MD teams with LI coming out on top a fair amount but MD teams holding their own and winning as well.
To the question of down the road, college, etc. when I did a quick check of one of the top 20 Div I college teams and looked at the average age of the freshman the average was a little over 19, in a purely age based world this should be 18+ so not so sure if the things will even out argument is a solid one either but I guess time will tell.
I never played lacrosse but have come to love the sport and a couple of final thoughts. My kid is an “on age” 2024 and I have always believed that pre high school kids should be playing in age based systems. I also agree that the lacrosse culture in LI is likely higher than in MD and in an “age based” world there are likely to be more top LI teams as there are more kids playing the sport. In MD the talent pool is smaller so would be more diluted across multiple clubs. I also think it is patently notIntelligent to “rank” or make claims of “the best” at this age. The reality among most of the MD parents I know is that they obviously care about winning now but it is more about high school and college down the road and setting their kids up to be in the best local high schools for both academics and lacrosse. Just my thoughts and some rebuttal on "facts" that are thrown around on these boards. Troll away if you like but happy to engage in discussions with reasoned responses. Good luck to all of our boys this spring and summer.
