The only way to change the culture is for the tournament directors to stop making the tournaments for the travel circuit based on class year.
College coaches going to recruiting tournaments want to see 2014's playing 2014's and 2015's playing 2015's plain and simple - all trough PAL they pay grade based and obviously in school they play grade best - it just makes the most sense to have 8th graders play 8th graders
Actually it doesn't make any sense at all! It makes more sense for a 14 year old to play a 14 year old not a 14 year old play a 12 year old because he was he was left back or his parents held him back. This is especially true at the 7th and 8th grade level. When a kid is in his second year of puberty because he is old enough to be in High School is playing and dominating pre pubescent kids who does that benefit? It's still youth lacrosse, its about kids developing their skills. News Flash, The college coaches aren't at the 8th grade games! Once the kids are playing on varsity all bets are off and they can play at that level which would be u-17. The colleges will figure out what grade a kid is in. There are plenty of coaches at the under Armour tournament or Jake reed etc.. which has a mix of all grades! Give them credit they know what they are looking for.
do you cry like this about school ball too? when seventh graders play against 7th graders but one is older then the other? they play by grade in PAL and School but you want them to play by birthdate in the summer? makes no sense and by the way Jake Reed has different weeks for different graduating years so every kid at a certain week will be of the same class regardless of age because nobody cares about age.
crying? lol If Someone doesn't agree with you then it is crying? If you read the post, it said it was fine for town play and tournaments. There is a huge drop in level of skill and athleticism over all. At the travel level it is a whole different story. I understand that many parents hold their kids back to give them an advantage, but when a rule or proposed rule that makes the playing field fair is suggested you get twisted because your kid may not dominate? The post also noted that when they are playing varsity it doesn't matter. If you want to use graduating year from 9th grade up then fine.
Reply
Quote
