It’s all fun and games for the tournament directors and holdback parents until a 6 ft tall, 190 pound, 15 year man child ends up seriously injuring a 100 pound 13 year old age on kid. As this perverse grade vs age loophole continues to be increasingly exploited, we’re going to see more concussions, broken bones and sadly perhaps a paralyzing neck injury. I really hope the insanity stops before we hit that tragic point. It’s one of the many reasons other more evolved youth sports run by responsible adults don’t let that match up ever happen.
Most big kids I know play cautiously around smaller kids because they know the refs will call the game so as to protect the smaller kids. If a big kid hits a small kid, immediate flag. If a small kid slashes a big kid in the kidneys with a baseball swing, no foul. I watched a Legacy Launch (ahem, Taz) versus Edge game in Delaware a couple of weeks ago. The Edge team, which was twice the size of the Taz kids, were completely in control and played clean. It was the Taz kids that were swinging wildly. It got so bad that finally the refs had to start calling the Taz kids and they spent the rest of the game in the penalty box. Guess it was frustrating to go 0-5.
