My advice is to ask around to see if anyone has an old shaft that he can use. It's essentially a high priced rental because he'll need to cut it down dramatically and get a new one in two years. That's a lot of coin to drop for something that he won't use forever. Again, like some above posters said, it may be a little early. Defense is played with the feet more than the stick. At his age, he may become too dependent on the stick before he masters the defensive fundamentals. I'll take a kid with a short shaft and fast feet over a weak defender with a long pole every day and twice on Tuesday.