Yes, Talk about taking advantage of age . Kid was always older by a year to two years his youth career and in High School. Total in line with how youth sports should be. Giving advantage to some.
Kids in any system (grade or age based) can be a year older than the youngest kids (unless you plan on breaking down by 6 month groups). The September 02 kid would have been older than most kids in 2021 class, but would have been in the correct grade. So he is a single year holdback. :shrug:
Being "technically" a single year holdback doesn't make the situation look better. It's lame unless the kid has a LD or some other academic or personal challenge going on (and maybe he does - no one else's business). Clearly, though, there is a pattern of holding back kids to gain a competitive advantage and at some point the practice becomes questionable.
My 2020 who is now a freshman at a top D1 lax program was born in 2002. Very hard worker and high level of natural ability, was able to stand out among older and bigger kids. My 2023 was born in 2005 and is undersized and a very late bloomer physically. We were relieved when he lost interest in travel lacrosse because we knew if he decided to pursue playing in college he would not be on the front end of recruitment for his class. He's also on a path academically to get his foot in the door that way and get more merit money than most lax scholarships are worth. The scales are tipped to favor the older kids, but things will work out for the younger kids if they have the grit and work ethic to stick with their goal of playing in college. Long term they are the bigger winners, having earned it honestly instead of gaming the system.
