Originally Posted by CageSage
Originally Posted by Anonymous
NOBODY will follow the rules until they are enforced and that will never happen. Lacrosse is DECADES behind travel soccer, baseball and even PAL football. Tournament directors don't care as long as payment is made. Someday a kid will be injured by an "older" player and those involved will be held accountable. Till then lacrosse will be continue to be the subject of jokes regarding age, rosters etc.
This is actually a brlliant post. You are correct that it will take one massive lawsuit to change the operational model en masse. That lawsuit will be founded in some tragic event (similar to something like soccer goals blowing over or football uprights collapsing) where insurance and field usage starts to get questioned.


What is with all this gloom and doom? We need a travesty to start making a change? The Tournament Directors would have no problem accepting proof of age. It starts with providing the proof. Nothing is stopping us from getting our children their own Player Passes and volunteering them. Most of us are required to have US Lacrosse memberships anyway so why not ask them to provide a Player Pass service? Easier yet, have US Lacrosse distribute member ID #'s by age and require a copy of a Birth Certificate when registering. Tournament Directors can then make this a required field in the roster forms to cross reference.

From this point break the Tournaments up into 2 Categories:

YOUTH and HIGH SCHOOL

YOUTH
Age requirement plus player may not have attended any High School class. Age Groups should be yearly (U14, U13, U12, etc.). Age cutoff date as US Lacrosse has it now. Players can play up but never down.

HIGH SCHOOL
Grade based by year of graduation (2012, 2013, 2014, etc.) plus must have attended a High School class. Players can play up but never down.

The above is not a drastic change. Really more of minor revision to what we already have.

No system is fool proof but to say NOBODY will follow the rules until they are enforced is pessimistic. My boys have been on 7 teams with 4 different Clubs and not one has ever had an ineligible player.

Should 7th and 8th graders playing for their High School programs? That's a personal choice for the player, his or her parents and the school. It has absolutely nothing to do with Club Teams.