I'll give you a specific example of the holdback advantage. 2 sophomores ('24), one was the 1st SSDM on a very good public HS varsity team. Played a ton on varsity, will move to O next Spring. Other was a good JV player, hardly saw the field on varsity. The JV player is moving to one of the nationally ranked prep schools and reclassing. This summer the "JV" player has already made 1 national all star team as a '25 and the AS game for a large well known recruiting event. The on-level kid didn't make either, but is the better player b/w the two. Same build/height etc., 6 month difference in birthdate. Right or wrong, holdbacks are an advantage. The kid staying in the public HS can't reclass for obvious reasons, so the question is if he wants to play in college (don't know if he does) should he reclass next summer and plan on doing a PG. If he does a PG, where does he go?
So the answer is-the sophomore who was on JV that hardly played, who is reclassing cannot compete successfully on age as a 2024. He moves to 2025 and becomes a stud because he is playing against younger boys. No surprise here. I hope he and the family feel great about the move backwards so he can go forward in an unfair way. Hard work against younger boys does pay off....
