I reached out to U.S. Lacrosse (www.uslacrosse.org) on the subject of single year age guidelines. I was pleasantly surprised by the timeliness of their responses and their readiness to engage on this topic. It was quite apparent that this is a subject that is very much on their radar. Below are the responses I received to my email questions (which I removed to keep this post somewhat concise). Most importantly, the last paragraph highlights how you can reach out to USL and voice your point of view. If this issue is really that important to you, then take a few minutes to have your opinion count.

From U.S. Lacrosse

I appreciate your email and the concern about age eligibility. The age vs. grade has been a big debate and huge issue of contention for many areas. US Lacrosse has been fervent in their support of an age based system. I can tell you personally, that US Lacrosse has not been silent on this topic.

US Lacrosse spends hundreds of thousands annually in health and safety research, and coached and officials education. Additionally, we review the rules we put forth each year and have pushed those rules and recommendations to groups, leagues and events. It is at events we see the largest age discrepancies, we unfortunately do not have any oversight of those events unless they are run by US Lacrosse.

While we set forth best practices annually, many tournament directors either choose to not adopt or enforce our recommendations. Furthermore, many of these directors turn their head once the check has cleared. This doesn’t provide the best experience for any individual whether it be a participant, coach, official or parent.

US lacrosse has been proactive in ensuring the best experience for everyone in the game. Our membership department is testing an age verification product this summer, with a larger deployment next summer. Our Gold Stick program, identifies leagues who use the best practices and rules of US Lacrosse. In the summer of 2015, we plan to have a Gold Stick Tournament sanctioning model in place, I suggest you attend these tournaments and events. Finally, work with your fellow parents and coaches to choose tournaments that offer USL certified officials and US Lacrosse Rules.

There is risk related to every sport, and to each time an individual steps onto a lacrosse field. US Lacrosse has advocated for no more than 24 months in age difference between youngest and oldest player for the fact that many developing areas cannot field a full team at one age. We will continue to evaluate our age grouping and engage individuals like yourself for their insight as we move forward.

To give you some history to this, the age groups came out of the high school structure, where the age difference can be anywhere from between one and five years. The move by the organization was to reduce it to less than twenty four months to create a safe, equitable, enjoyable, and level playing field.

Going forward this may be reduced to a year, but in 2014 the age guidelines will remain the same. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we review this every year. I encourage you to complete our rules survey and even submit a rule change, both of these can be found on the following webpage:
http://www.uslacrosse.org/rules/boys-rules.aspx
The deadline states May 20,014, but it can be considered for next year and can be used as a reference point in meetings going forward. Since the age guidelines are not a rule, just write “Age & Eligibility Guidelines” where it asks for rule name. Use the number 1 for page, section and article.