That may be true that he should be in 8th grade but unlike lacrosse when it comes to tournament play he has to play with kids that were born his same year. Wish US Lacrosse would adopt the same system. I believe that a large percentage of the NHL have birthdays in the first three months of their birth year.
That's because age matters... It's all about physical maturity and development. Why else would all these sleaze bag parents do this? For academics? No, to gain an unfair advantage, period!
That is ridiculous. The number of kids that do not start kindergarten or repeat kindergarten are doing so because they are not ready emotionally, academically, physically or socially. The percentage of parents that are thinking about their kid being a D1 player some day are very small. Most parents spend many nights worrying about their kid not being on par with their peers, and you are going to say they are cheaters? The few that do think that holding their kid back at kindergarten for athletics will have other issues down the road, but like others have said- most sports require player passes with birth dates- so if they want to play hockey or baseball or another sport- they will play with their correct age. It would be smart for US Lacrosse to follow in their lead, but clearly there is a huge difference in someone repeating kindergarten or starting a year late, as opposed to parents holding their kid back in 8th or 9th grade.
Don't be so surprised how big the number of kinder holdbacks is for more than emotional, academic or physical reasons. They know what they are doing. Academically, If you are lucky enough to be in a town with an accelerated program how many of them are the kinder hold backs. An overwhelming majority. Why?because their parents held hem back not for sport but to gain another advantage, an academic year advantage over a new set of younger peers. Sports or academics doesn't matter still Gaming the system.
I wonder how many of the accelerated programs in the LI schools are made up of the "older" student body for the grade. And how many are made up of the younger "sept -dec".
In one of my child's grade, over 60% of the students in the ap program have a prior years birth year. 30% are grade birth year jan/mar and 4 (yes 4) are kids with June through Dec birth years correct for the grade.
So why are the 60% in the wrong year, simply because the parents wanted to game the system and make sure their kids were the top in their grade.
I see this in two scenarios. One, well educated wealthy families who saw their college friends do this for years and the moms didn't have to return or go to work. Two, families are doing it with their second or third child. Who after seeing it first hand in their other older children's classes figured why shouldn't I too.
Argue all you want. One side says I'm doing it to further my family and put them in the best situation I can. Why is that so wrong? The other side says by doing what you do you have put my family at a disadvantage. Life is more dumb luck and timing than being good at something. It is truly better to be lucky than to be good.
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