I have a child who reclassified and I think the repeated references to cheating is way off base. In my child's situation he was an incredibly late bloomer. His peers finished growing before he even started. Trust me, he took his lumps as the "small guy" in middle school sports. Reclassifying gave him an extra year to catch up from a growth perspective. His skills were always advanced for his age and he worked his butt off on the things he could control (lax IQ, fitness, stick skills). If coaches are going to look at kids in 8th grade which advantages the early bloomers, why shouldn't a child reclassify to remove the disadvantage of hitting puberty late? My experience has been that the parents who complain the loudest about reclassifying are the parents of the kids who started shaving in sixth grade. The kids I do feel bad for are the kids who are late bloomers and whose families do not have the flexibility (financial or otherwise) to reclassify them. I think most would agree that the current recruiting timeline leaves a lot to be desired. But I don't think it's fair or helpful to flame a parent or child for doing what benefits them in a flawed system.
I get your frustration, but to then hold your kid back and have him essentially "bully" the younger kids once he did mature is an incredibly selfish act. Our son was always a big kid and matured on time. Instead of having him stay on age for some sick advantage, we always have him play up. JV as 7th grader, Varsity as a 9th grader. Its called doing the right thing or sportsmanship. What you're doing is the right thing for your kid at the "expense" of other kids in sport. That's why parents of the bigger more mature kids have such distain for your actions. We also think, my god if I did that with our kid he might really hurt someone. When your kid grows and he's now bigger than all the littler, younger kids, what then? Going to drop him back? No, because your a scumbag that was looking for a leg up or crutch for your kid. Sad. Here's a little something to chew on. Went to a recent College prospect day, they broke the kids up by AGE, oops there goes your advantage....
