There are kids on my son's 2017 team who were 2016's that reclassified. The problems I have as a parent are: 1. What happened to the term "held back" or "repeating a grade"? That's what we called it when I grew up. Did Dr. Phil come up with the term "reclassified" to make the self esteem issues a bit more managed? For the self esteem of the parents I mean. 2. Most of the reclassified kids in MD on these clubs aren't getting a second chance to be showcased, they are actually screwing the 14 year old out of his only chance unless his parents join this mentality. So you have a smart kid making good grades and having friends in his age peer group and you send him to a MD prep school to repeat 9th grade?!? 3. Most of the kids that reclassify aren't good enough anyways to attract attention from top schools anyways regardless of this repeating grades stuff.
I too heard the same stat from Jake Reed, and at the seminar at the 3d thing down in Florida heard the same general statement from Munro about reclassifying kids. I don't see how people can't think it is big deal. A nine to fourteen month age advantage at this level can be the difference between getting recruited and not, especially with college coaches lining the sidelines of 2017 games.
It is a game we won't play, but honestly don't know how a coach can evaluate that. I know they only care about grad year, but if the kid is running by people because he is more or less fully developed what happens when he can't?
There are exceptions. I think Munro's kid is one of them, if there was another Powell, Gait, Stanwick, or Bocklett, would probably be doing my best to get them as well, but for just about everyone else wait and see how they do in high school against kids in their same developmental category.
