As cage quoted in the past. USL likes the U based designation because because other parts of the country would not be able to put competitive teams together using grade based designation. You will find grad year tournaments in the hotbed areas, and u based in the non-hotbed areas. This is the reason team LI has always entered 2nd tier lacrosse tournaments outside of NY. They would never go into a grade based tournament until recently with maybe one or two teams. You are on long island(Team LI), there is no need for any program to go u based unless you are going to florida for the U-15 nationals. Get a grip people and organizations. If you all say this is ok, then leave the boys from crush alone. They have late birthdays and are in the 6th grade. Not a 91 parent but just sick of reading all this nonsense.. Put together U15,13,9,12,10,8 teams if you are in Utah, not LI. By doing so it just states that you know you can't compete so you cop out using USL rules.
Just for the point of clarity : US Lacrosse currently advocates two year U-age brackets (U/9, U/11, U/13, U/15) due to the ability of other (non-East Coast) regions to form teams and have enough players.
US Lacrosse expressly told BOTC that they believe the New [lacrosse] to Maryland corridor SHOULD BE using U-age groups for every age group (not groupings of two years) given the player liquidity we have in the region.
The idea of U-age and grade level tournaments in different regions is not accurate. If a region was just starting now, US Lacrosse would have them use U-age groups across the board. Unfortunately in our area, the graduation year became the standard before US Lacrosse stepped forward with their rules. As a result, you have this hybrid model that will not change without US Lacrosse directly pressuring tournaments to align with the U-age standards.
