Originally Posted by Anonymous "Completely agree with you. Interest and hard work will lead to skill improvement and being a better player, and if the better athlete has those attributes as well they are going to remain at the top of the class. Not deranged at all. The three freshman from LI starting at Duke this year were all studs from fourth grade and up, they didn't just appear and they didn't fall off. The four best kids on our PAL team in 2nd, 4th 6th and senior year were still the four best...one kid that was spastic early on was passionate and became a highly skilled good player as he got older. The best kids on our rival team were still the best kids from 4th grade to sr. year. They don't magically regress. So those instances are where my astute observations come from. If I ranked the kids from 1-24 in 6th vs 12th there would only be minor shuffling of their rankings. Does anyone really disagree with this that has already seen it unfold? Maybe my group was an outlier, I don't think so though.
You obviously haven’t done this before because what you aren’t realizing is that come 9th grade, a ton of kids who “used to be” 2027s, will now magically become 2028s and all of a sudden your 1-24 rankings will be meaningless. Also, most undersized attack and middies who are “better athletes” won’t be able to keep up when they are 5’7” and a hundred and nothing lbs playing against men who are over 6’. Puberty is a game changer for many and there will be plenty of kids who were among the best in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades who are simply average come high school. Sure, many will remain among the top but your list of the top 24 will change by a minimum of 50%. I’ve seen the slow, fat kid turn into the tall, slim and super fast kid. I’ve seen the average sized, forgettable kid grow into the average sized, fastest and strongest kid and I’ve seen the biggest and strongest attack turn into the average sized attack. It will happen, don’t fool yourself."
Ah, you sound angry at life. What you described above is a change of circumstance, not the relative standing of a player compared to the same group he has played with and against his whole life. When was the last time you saw an in school holdback at a public school, um never. ok, kid may go away for a year and come back the grade below. Again, rare. The age advantage is ephemeral and far less relevant at 17 and almost non-existent at 18. Yes the fat kid grows and blossoms. I'm speaking in general from what I have witnessed as a coach. Of course there are outliers.
