US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

where does that one player generally fall on the roster - top, middle, or bottom?

I'm an official "Who cares, go hit the wall" dad, but it's tough when your kid is bumped to 3rd line by a 2x holdback (1st line) and a 1x holdback (2nd line) where the roster carries only 2 at that position. "Go hit the wall and let's drop you a grade" is more like it.

Monuments or capital?

On what team?

Every national team has 2008 birthdays. Most are in the class higher and they travel with the team because the national teams can't get enough on-class families to travel so frequently. The kids all talk to each other and the national team kids don't hide it when they are off the field and mingling with the other kids. Their guard is down and they start to compare how many older class kids they have compared to each other.

On what team?

huh? if somebody is a 2028 with a 2008 birthday, people can have different opinions about whether that is "fair," but it is perfectly legal as long as the player in in school as a 2028. But if national 2028 teams have players that are actually in the 2027 class in school, isn't that blatant cheating?

Leading Edge has 8th graders. So does 2way. They are cheating.

What you see with some teams will be a kid has actually reclassified in school but still plays with their on age team. Some of these national teams will pull those kids to play with their actual grade year. Which is fine I guess but it causes sideline and botc drama.

Gotta be a Crabs or FCA Blue dad. Your kid would probably start on 2 other clubs right in the area who are good teams. Not too many parents happy with 3rd string.

I can confirm that half of every “nationals LC” team is holdbacks. And that dude promotes it. Which is why if you read the article and it references the “circuit”, you should also know that they are completely full of [Censored].

I say the only fair and decent thing to do is have one rule....Let everyone play down a year of proper age if they want...holdback or not...

So my son who isnt held back can play down with the rest of the holdbacks if I think it will help him...eventually many will say it is either worth holding their son back or " the heck with it " and keep him there or back on age..... But it does make it even for everyone if they want...

Nope.

hes not hes the old ML 2027 goalie

Thanks for the confirmation.

Fantastic idea except you will have the true hold back parents mad that their sons advantage is now gone. They will then hold him back again causing the same issue but with double hold backs now. The only true fix is to go to age based.

Why have any rules? Why not let any player play on any age team that they want?

You guys are clowns. Put in a 12-month age-based rule like every other respectable youth sports program. Not that complicated.

No accommodations need to be made for cheaters. Age based is the only way to go!

While the age based rules are being worked out, wouldn't it be nice if the organizations doing the rankings (USCL take note) required each club to state how many players on their roster have birthdays before September 1st 2009 for 2028 (and accordingly for other years). . Or even better, include some sort of adjustment into their formula calculations of team ranking based on the number of players above age? Bring it out into the open.

Without getting to specific does anyone know why bored MD dad threw in the towel on his rankings and recaps?

Did Hawks only play three games this fall?

Heard his son got benched due to the holdbacks. At least give us a Top 10 in Maryland.

Maybe require every player to wear their month/year of birth on their jersey beneath the number? Then every time little Timmy gets beaten for a goal, his Mom can yell "it's ok Timmy, that boy is 9 months older than you so the goal doesn't really count and you're still the best!"

it will never happen

This is the best post yet!

This is the best post yet!

Or— how bout everyone just plays on age??

Holdback Dad afraid his little Timmy will never score another goal when he has to play kids his own age.

Because “Timmy, you are not good enough to play against kids your age. But don’t worry, Daddy will fix it and will teach you how to cheat the system - we are buying you another year of private school” is so much better!

My holdback 2028 son is old enough to remember when BOTC created a separate page for holdback whiners…so we could use this board to talk about lacrosse.

Especially since we’re arguing about something that will not really impact this age group.

I’m just amused by parents who try to make a distinction about when a child was held back.

The “he was held back in kindergarten/first grade” crew are weirdly acting like they are not in the same boat as the reclass parents who just made the decision.

The end result it the exact same. Kids older than everyone else in their grade due to a parental decision to give an advantage OR remove a disadvantage.

But yes - none of this matters for the 2028 class anyway.

There is a very clear distinction. Holdback decision is mostly made for an academic reason. Reclass decision is mostly made for an athletic reason. I can respect the holdback decision.

In either cases, no concession or grace period should be extended with this policy change.

They need some excuse for holding little Johnny back and justification. How would you feel if you had to say that you want your son to get an advantage other children born on exact same day dont get. Wouldnt look good.

Every kid who enters a certain class (or repeats a grade) does it for a unique set of reasons. In some cases sports is part of the calculus, but in others it is not. For example my son repeated a grade for a set of reasons totally unrelated to lacrosse and now he is playing in 2028 instead of 2027. He is a decent player but nothing special, so nobody knows or cares that he repeated a grade. based on position need, he actually plays a bit less on his 2028 team than he played in 2027. But if he happened to be a dominant player in 2018, then people focused on the holdback issue would assume that he reclassed/held back, because our family wanted him to play against younger kids in lacrosse, which would be a false assumption. And conversely, there are lots of kids who are incredibly good at lacrosse and/or big, who everybody assumes are holdbacks or somehow much older than their peers, but they are not. So this debate has a lot of false assumptions built into it, which is one of the reasons why it is kind of pointless.
Everyone should just worry about your own son and not cast aspersion on little Timmy or whatever snide name you call the hypothetical kid who is supposedly standing in the way of your own son's success.

Once again you miss the point. There are many many players that are better than your son playing ON AGE . Give these players that holdback year and they will be much better than the holdbacks they play against every day. Why do they have to sit on bench when another player year older plays?? It is a totally wrong system to use grade at youth level.

Your post is really hard to follow. I get that there are plenty of current, on age superstar 2027's who are better than the former, average 2027, who is now a 2028, that the prior post used as an example. But I don't get your point after that - are you saying that the superstar 2027's are being victimized because they did not re-class to 2028 as well? Or because they are riding the bench on their 2027 team because 2026's are reclassing onto their team? or something else?

If your kid has academic reasons to be held back that’s not an issue it becomes an issue when your kid plays lacrosse. Hold him back a year but play with your age in sports, not a hard concept.

You are allowed to “play up” ya know…like still play with the 2027s.

But hey why would anyone do that???

Are there other box programs around for 28s? I know about crease but was told they are full.

news flash, the sport is grade based, not age based. if it bothers you that much, encourage your son to play one of the many age-based sports. the lacrosse world will get by.