Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
My 13 year old 8th grader brought up the hold back/reclassify issue last night. He goes to a MIAA school and plays lacrosse. As club tryouts in Baltimore end, the issue is being widely discussed at school. I asked him for his thoughts and what his friends think:
If they could, they would play up, not down. It would be an honor to be able to play up and their friends that play up are considered special players. The assumption is that playing up makes you better, playing down makes you worse. If you have to play down, you are likely over your head and playing with the wrong organization. There are plenty of good teams to play for. While there are no hold backs at their school or on their team (yet), they said that those kids are likely treated differently (not good differently). If the kid is staying back for academic reasons, he likely gets cut a great deal of slack. If for a sport (it is not just lacrosse) and it is obvious, the kid is likely given no slack at all. He did say that the grade above his -2018- has an abundance of good lacrosse players and that is likely driving the decision to repeat. Lastly, with regard to recruiting, they all think that the college coaches will eventually see through this. In most cases, a 15 year old should be able to beat a 13/14 year old at a sport. In a few years, when the kids are all the same size, age will no longer matter.


My son is in 8th grade at BL and there are not holdbacks. There are a couple of 14 year olds but that is due to prefirst.


Yes there are. Many of us could, but won't or shouldn't, name names.