Really, your 2026 kids are on par with your over-age 2025s? In that case, it sounds like your club did them a massive disservice by not bringing them up and giving them a shot. Especially, when this tournament is within driving distance.....
It would be much better for the sport if all tournaments had standardized age-verification. Then we could stop with all the back and forth about who is bringing older kids down, who is playing over-aged kids, etc.
If we bring up our 26s then they are missing practice time with their 26 team who has 4 tournaments to play one tourney with 25s. The disservice would be to bring them up for one lightly regarded tourney while potentially harming the 26 team for multiple more high level tourneys.
If your team could field a competitive on-age team they would be there. The teams that miss this tournament are giving themselves away - they are relying on over-age kids and are far less competitive if they have to field a verified age-eligible team.
