If you have not seen a 13 year old get plowed by a 15 or 16 year old, then you weren't at any Hogan or Madlax tournaments this fall. We had one kid knocked out cold by a knee to the head at the faceoff X. There was nothing dirty at all about the play, but the injury was definitely exacerbated by the fact that this was a tiny 12 year old 7th grader playing on a 7th/8th team
(1) I thought Hogan tournaments enforced age rules, although they are adding 2024, 2022 and 2020 divisions this year where presumably older kids can play with their actual grade. Is this not correct? Important to me as I plan our team's schedule this Summer.
(2) Like others have posted, single year divisions with some holdbacks still seems better than double-year age divisions. Still, 6 months matters competitively. What I ask is that tournaments clearly lay out their age and grade rules and then follow them.
(3) While a lot of BOTC posters essentially say "toughen up" when someone voices safety concerns, I'll bet none of those posters are parents or coaches with sons or players who have had concussions. It's very serious, very scary and can end an athletic career. Your son can get a concussion sledding or roughhousing with his brother - you can't bubble wrap your kid - but you can take a break from tackle football and try to make sure your son plays lacrosse against kids his own age to mitigate risk. It's BS when you try to do that only to have teams play down or tournaments not follow their own age rules.
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