Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
I dont care if kids are reclassified. My son has been playing up his whole career. In fact he got his offer because he went to a school camp and played up as a 7th grader against Varsity. He is actually small for his age. The reality is in college you have to play against older bigger faster stronger kids. Get used to it now and you will be much better off for the experience. In the meantime do lots of wall ball. The wall doesnt know your age.


If your son, as a 7th grader, played against varsity players and earned a scholarship offer, than he is/was one of the top 1% players in the world at his age. You can not take the experiences of a kid this athletic and talented and use it as a guide for all kids in general. It would be like a lottery winner advocating that buying lottery tickets is a sound investment simply because it worked for him.

The large majority of youth players, even including many that play on high level travel teams, will not be able to compete adequately against older players, and as such, will not develop and not have fun.

Moreover, as someone else has said, there is a big difference between choosing to have your son play against older kids (because he is uniquely athletic and talented) vs having it forced upon someone who signed their kid up for a 2020 team, drove him 200 miles to a tournament, only to see him walk onto a field opposite a group of 15 year olds.

And please stop with the wall ball. Yes, tons of wall ball will make you a better player, but it will not affect a boy's inherent speed, athleticism, quickness and strength. For 99% of 7th graders, all the wall ball in the world will not make them competitive against varsity players. For most of them, tons of wall ball is necessary to simply make them competitive against elite kids their own age.

As for the analogy to college, the last I checked, no one is playing college until they are 18 (some may be 17 when they start college but they all should be at least 18 by the time the real games start). At this age, these individuals are essentially men, and can compete with 20 year olds. Telling a 12 or 13 year old to suck it up and play against older kids because they will have to play 20 year olds when they are 18 is just plain silly.


Thank you well said