If you wait this long hopefully your child is very good and will stand out. By 8th grade fall/winter most teams are pretty much decided. I had a friend who is a very good player and she tried out for yellow jackets, fall 8th grade. She had an o.k. tryout but nothing spectacular. The people who evaluated her did not know her and she was stuck on the "D" team. Now if she proves herself she can be moved up through the ranks but if you are not on the first two teams "A" or "B" you are not going to get a lot of college looks/ Thats just the way it is. On Long Island it is super competetive. Most good clubs have 3 or 4 teams IN EACH AGE GROUP with 22 or more players on each team. There are not enough scholarships to go around. | 
