Why can't lacrosse do it like soccer now? Everything is aged based and the players have to present photo ID cards to the ref before each game. And why do we still have to go every other year, U9, U11, U13, etc... I know they used to have to do it that way because some teams could not field a team in each age group so they paired them up, but I think at this point in time we could to single year divisions like soccer. U9, U10, U11, U12..... Just my two cents...
It is going to take an organizing body like US lacrosse to level set this. Requiring rosters to be accompanied with a players US lacrosse#.
It's actually going to take the directors and coaches of the travel teams to start following the U based system and not playing in grade based tournaments. But that will not happen because parents are OK with gaming the system and holding back Junior so he is bigger and stronger than his playpen pal in Kindergarten! The parents of the players have to be educated and start holding the travel teams responsible for the safety and level playing field that should be out there. If an entire team wants to play up a year for "better" competition that is one thing, but having your ten/eleven year old play on a 3rd grade team because he started Kindergarten a year late is unacceptable. If you don't want to teach your son to work hard to be better than the next kid, instead tell him to be a bully and just go play with the year younger kids. Great life lesson!!!
We are the consumers of this product and we should dictate how the market is structured. Be part of the solution not part of the problem!
