BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls 2019-9th Grade Fall 2015 Summer 2016

What is the estimate of the average age of the MD teams? Bet at least half have birthdays in 2000. They are a year older. If they played true to age, they would not be nearly as "good".

Wrong. That may be the case on the boys side, but for girls it is not. I've been in the game a long time and I do not know even one girl who was "held back".

Maybe that's wrong in MD, but it goes on in Nassau County? I easily thought of 4 girls - all HS players who were holdbacks with fall birthdays

I have never heard of anyone intentionally holding girls back but I can tell you this is impacting soccer with US soccer moving to calendar year age groups. Will certainly see some changes to many travel clubs and is going to make for an interesting year.

As a reminder, just when things start to get interesting in travel lacrosse and teams begin to gel and skills really peak... these tournaments turn into all showcase formats, you play 4 games and go home.. equal playing time ( as it should be in a showcase) wins don't matter, top teams in different brackets etc etc.. was a little frustrating because you think your kid is on a really good squad.. but those big time match-up showdowns never materialize..
it's all good in the end when the commitments start to pile up, and you see the kids from rival clubs are applying to the same schools as your daughter and they are more interested in hugs for their friends on the other team after the game then who won

Then you probably don't live in a wealthy Nassau County school district.

Great post, I agree 100%. Priorities change for the best

Not following you? Please expand on your thought. Are you saying wealthy families are intentionally holding girls back, especially in NC?

I don't know if it happens especially in Nassau County, but our school has several girls who are holdbacks. It's rampant with the boys too . Girls are more fall days but boys born in the summer are held back from starting shook based on age guidelines

I don't believe you. I'm sure there are a few when they switch from public to private repeat a year. But the real issue is that I believe the girls start school later in MD. Particularly in the private school systems. The MD club teams don't participate in age-based tournaments (see U15 Nationals) because their teams don't qualify. Produce the birth certificates. I will bet that there are a number of girls on M&D 2019s that were born in 2000. To be "on age" and in 2019's you should be born in 2001.

BTW easy solution. Lets go to age-based divisions, like every other sport. Can anyone tell me a REAL reason that shouldn't be done? The college recruiting thing is ridiculous. EVERY other sport can recruit while playing age-based divisions. The only reason I can come up with is that rich people (a lot in lax) want to be able to buy an advantage for their kid. Anyone have a better reason??

Believe it. I said, I do not know of any girls who have been "held back". Is it possible that a few have, sure but I've never heard of any. As far as starting later here in MD, if it's true then that's not the fault of the girl. As far as Public vs Private, I cannot answer that. My daughter is a current senior at a public school. She has a friend that is the "star" at McDonogh and that girl was not held back. As far as "producing birth certificates"...that's ridiculous. I think even if a girl is "on age" in your opinion, it would depend on when in the calendar year she was born, wouldn't it?

In soccer, birth certificates are presented to the coach or club director (I forget which) and player cards are assigned and shown to the ref at every game. No card, no play. Soccer plays by birth year, not school year.

This is the first year of birth year for soccer and the mandate goes into effect in August/16

Rich people buying an advantage by holding kids back? I got news for you, the rich people are more focused on the right education their kids get and can afford college. Trust me, they are not doing it for the slim chance of some academic aide.

Meant athletic aide

Who cares how old your opponent is ? once you get to High school you play against girls of all ages for the rest of your playing career. If it's a tournament championship you seek, go buy your kid a trophy and stop complaining

Well, my kids started playing before the new millennium and birth year was how it was done then, so I'm not sure what has changed or what your saying. Or did they change the cut-off date? Is that what you're saying? It used to be August 1.

Um because people get on here and pound their chests about how good such and such team is etc. And if you've got a group of 15 year olds playing a group of 14 year olds, one would hope they would be "better". As a separate issue, as early recruiting has gotten younger and younger, it is starting to bleed into the growth years for these girls. Being a year older in 8th and 9th grade makes a huge difference physically. Not so much later on. These Maryland teams don't pass the eye test on that. They are definitely older. As far the rich people, they don't do it for athletic money, they do it to get their kid into a better school through athletics. Sure beats having to get 1600s and 4.0 in all AP classes right?

From US Soccer;


As previously announced in September 2015, US Club Soccer will be implementing the U.S. Soccer Federation’s birth-year registration mandates on Aug. 1, 2016.

This means that all youth competitions beginning Aug. 1, 2016 will be based on age group cut-offs of January 1 for each age group. Due to additional interpretative changes by U.S. Soccer since this announcement in how competition age groups are labeled, US Club Soccer and other sanctioning bodies are now clarifying the age group structures for the 2016-2017 season.

Beginning Aug. 1, 2016, all youth soccer sanctioning organizations will form competitions based on birth-year age groups.
Beginning Aug. 1, 2016, US Club Soccer will be using the following birth-year “labels” for competition, based upon the season in which competition ends. For example:
Players born from January 1, 1998 – December 31, 1998 will be labeled as Under-19s.
Players born from January 1, 1999 – December 31, 1999 will be labeled as Under-18s.
Players born from January 1, 2000 – December 31, 2000 will be labeled as Under-17s.
For any birth year, the age group “label” will be determined by subtracting the year in which the players participating in the competition were born from the year in which competition ends.

Can lax please follow? Anyone want to argue against? Hockey does same thing.

From a recruiters point of view it would be more interesting to see them play in proper age group. Then the extra year is an added bonus, not the reason they r playing better than the competition.

This is too funny - my daughter plays on one of those top two Maryland teams and the parents on that team pretty well feel the same way. That there is no need to beat our chests when others talk about us enough. Regarding the ages of the girls whether held back or not - that advantage seems to wane after 8th grade. Besides - when a 9th grader is on the varsity squad - I don't think she is concerned about how old that 12th grader is coming up on her 6.

I would definitely agree. You see the biggest physical change from 7 to 8th . By 8/9 most girls have peaked and any advantage is a mute point. When the girls were 4,5 and 6 the advantage was clear and we saw it in both soccer, town and club lax. By 7th grade they were no longer the tallest, fastest and biggest and all of a sudden they just blended in. By 8th grade many of the older kids just got flat out passed by. Its much easier to be a stud in grade school when you have 25lbs and 6-10 inches of height. Those kids were just more aggressive, physical and weren't intimated. It's almost comical now because they still think they can run through 3 girls and go to go and now 9 times out of 10 lose the ball. With all that said, I don't believe any of them were intentionally held back for the athletic advantage.

I doesn't really matter whether the kid was held back intentionally for sports, or for some other reason. who cares. the best way to compare two things(obviously these are young people don't get the wrong idea) is on an apples to apples basis. soccer and hockey are spot on and lacrosse should get with the program.

an added benefit is it will be safer to play against girls closer in age than not..

Ok so it sounds like you are admitting that the girls are older. Thank You. We are not talking about high school lax, we are talking about single year, club lax. But while we are on the subject of high school lax, if McDonogh's players are 15-19 and are playing 14-18 year olds, hmmm, that might explain some things out of region ... in region maybe many schools have the same age drift.

Please ... the advantage doesn't wane in 8th grade. By that logic, since all age advantage goes away in 9th grade, a high school team should beat a college team, a typical freshman in high school will have no physical disadvantage to a senior etc. Stop trying to justify it. Lets go to age-based divisions in club lax, just like other sports have done. Thank you.

I think you are missing their point and forgetting about the extra four years of experience and skills development that a college player has over a high school player. And since you did bring it up - I think that McDonogh can probably beat quite a few of the college teams out there.

I think you are making my point. Each year of physical and skill development does matter. Therefore the extra year keeps being an advantage and does not end in 8th grade as posited above. There is no sensible reason not to go to age-based divisions for club lacrosse. And there are many reasons to do it. The only people who argue against it are the ones whose kids are older and gain an undeserved advantage.

A lot of 2019 recent commits to top ten schools for such a horrible team?

How's all the recruiting going for the 19s? Lot of talent in this age group. Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

Which team are u talking about?

Yes on the talent. College coaches have said the 19's are extremely deep relative to a "normal" year and definitely relative to 18's. Many more commits at this time than at same time last year in 18's. Partly it's the talent and partly it's that the competition for players continues to push younger. Still the big wave of numbers will likely be over the summer into the fall.

'20s much, much deeper group than 19's by far

Not sure about 2019 as a whole across the nation, but certainly the LI clubs top teams are off at this age group.

Yellow Jackets

Oh yeah- you would know- guess you got out your slide rule and did a scientific regression analysis of 19s vs 20s - nice work!- as if there were a statistically significant variance between these two very large groups of players? Keep sippin

not according to D1 coaches. Not sure why u would think that.

Maybe on LI, but not nationally.

The '20s are a much bigger group - numbers wise. But, it's watered down talent. I'm seeing whole 2019 teams being recruited by D1 programs - I don't see many 2020 teams where from #1 all the way to #24 on the depth chart are D1 players. If you look at the top 5 2019 club teams - that's the case. Besides - this is the 2019 forum - you can discuss how deep 2020 is on that forum.