There are two consistent counters that people bring up whenever someone questions the current grade based system:
1. You are a whining baby whose son must stink. Tell your 8, 9, 10 year old boy to man up! Deal with it, life isn’t fair. 2. My son is in this grade and was born xxxx and we’re not cheating.
In regards to the first point, you’re probably right my son just needs to grow some hair on his chest and be a man. And yes, he does stink and I am a whiner so I guess you’re argument is right and mine is wrong.
As far as the second point goes, I am not calling out anybody for playing within the rules. I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with a parent of a 4th grader playing their son on a 2023 club. Those are the rules as they stand and I would never argue with anyone on that. I would only question why it is that the rules are set up like this? In a grade based system, you can have a child born in January 2004 competing against one born in October 2005 in a 2023 tournament. Why is it right to have a potentially 22 month age advantage over another boy? What is fair about that?
The problem with a grade based format vs an age based format is that grade based can be manipulated and let's not be naive, there are plenty of parents who make the decision to hold their children back just for lacrosse. Age based cannot be manipulated.
What is so unreasonable about going with the ‘U’ systems that so many other sports use? Children who are skilled enough to ‘play up’ would be allowed to but no one can ‘play down’. If you want to capture the ‘grade based’ ages, then simply make it based on a Dec 1 – Nov 30th year, which aligns with many of the New [lacrosse] State grade cutoffs.
