Hold backs and reclasses are not about youth lacrosse and winning t shirts. It’s about college. It could mean the difference between D3 and D2 and scholarship $. Or D2 and D1. It’s about using lacrosse to get into the school that maybe as a regular student applying you get wait listed.
If it were only about college then the best approach would be to play on-age for as long as possible and only reclass in 8th or 9th grade. That lets the kid develop against the best competition and still be older during their hs sophomore season. The fact that many parents choose to hold back as early as 4th and 5th grade indicates it is about bragging rights and t shirts.
Exactly. After 9th grade no one cares about the holdbacks.
