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.
That may or may not happen in B games but that absolutely does not happen in A games. A teams have holdbacks for the sole purpose of getting an advantage over on age players. There is NO holding back by any player if they want to keep their job. There is only one goal and that is win the game. Kids are not thinking at all about the possible repercussions of their actions. If they do, then you will be watching them in B games.
Regardless of whatever the waivers say, at some point a seriously bad head/neck injury will happen and some rightfully upset parents with money will find a personal injury attorney and stop at nothing in going after the tournament, the club and the holdback parents for gross negligence, willful misconduct, intent to do bodily harm, etc. In this day and age, chances are good that damaging video of the incident will be available, too. We’ve all seen the way too old midi with a huge size advantage play superhero down the middle and truck kids because he can. It will take years and tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to litigate, not to mention the ongoing stress of litigation casting a cloud over the tournament, the club and holdback family and inflict a lot of reputational damage along the way as it won’t escape this small world of lacrosse. Hope it never comes to this, but as we get to 2+ year holdbacks with 75+ pound weight differentials colliding into small age on kids, it seems inevitable something very bad will happen.
