BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums PENNSYLVANIA LACROSSE PENNSYLVANIA FORUM Boys 2025

There are two different classes of athletes out there. Those that can play for HHH and all the rest.

HHH 2025 hands down best in Philly and whatnot, and shots to be tops,

Agreed. They are competing really well against the other 13 year olds.

There are two different classes of athletes out there. Those that can play for HHH and all the rest.


There are two different classes of athletes out there. Those that play kids 1 or 2 years younger than they are, and all the rest.

Thanks HHH parents! We get it, your kids are the best in the country.

Sorry your team got beat bad.

I saw the HHH team hit the Bagataway tavern for a few brews after the big win.

That is pretty funny from team ten minus ten. Maybe team one hundred

If they are the best athletes, than why need hold backs? Cream rises to the top, unless your cant compete with kids your own age and dad has to give you a few years to catch up. Without the hold backs you are mediocre at best. Not a parent of either side but watched the game. If you compare apples to apples, ten has more talent at the 14yr age.

Not really a fair argument since all the other teams also have hold backs right?

not true

I have no dog in this fight but I know 3 people on HHH...all 3 are hold backs...great players just the same. They may set the bar for most hold backs on a club team. See how they do in HS in a year. Club ball is fun but it is becoming a joke with all this malarkey.

How is that different from any Maryland or Philly club or school at 2025 or older? No different. Sure they have tryouts.

Who cares if there are holdbacks at this age? All the kids on the field are hoping to make varsity as soon as possible and guess what that means playing older kids. With Covid everyone lost a year at least so there are going to be a lot of holdbacks and not to mention look at college, kids are not leaving which pushes everything back. It is a business decision at this point a lot of kids will be doing post grad years who graduate this year and next because of the logjam. It is what it is it really is only an advantage pre-puberty. Once everyone is on same playing field age doesn't matter.

Correct, however 14yr is right in the middle of puberty. some have hit it, some haven't quite yet. Its a game changer when you play a young man vs a boy. By high school it doesn't matter, but at least at that point all of them will have had the time for puberty to run its course.

Yawn at false outrage as every 2025 team in MD,PA and NY is majority hold backs

Not true in NY. Occasionally there are a couple but not the norm like other states.

Take a look at the 2025 BBL World Series team. No hold backs and they are gigantic and have no problem with other AA teams with lots of holdbacks.

Change my mind, going the holdback route, unless for a non athletic reason, is the cowards way.

Amen

This ain’t D1 Football. There are 12 scholarships available for a 50+ man roster at a D1 school. L Most college lacrosse players receive very little financial aide. There is no money in “pro” lacrosse either. So this whole idea of holding back is totally flawed and propagated by parents with delusions of grandeur (most likely to overcompensate for their own insecurities). I’m guessing most of these holdbacks show up to practice on corvettes too.

Many of these conversations revert back to the parents: holding their kid back, thinking their kid will go pro, living vicariously through their kid for numerous reasons. Funny that this forum is for “Boys 2025” but it ALWAYS turns into the parents bashing holdbacks. Rarely is there talk about actual lacrosse at 2025 on this forum. holdbacks aren’t going away, especially with the points being made about the logjam in college. If you have been around Philly lax club ball then you know EVERY team has holdbacks. Every. Single. One. Other states do too (even you NY guys). Some teams just have better talent and this is true all the way down to 2031 when parents “held back” their kid because they weren’t ready for school at 5 years old. holdbacks happen with a reclass, post graduate, JUCO and other scenarios. It’s not a big deal. If you’re son has talent he’ll get noticed whether he’s a hold back or on age.

Full disclosure: my son is a 2025 and would love for a chance to play D1 (he’s on the right track so save your the bashing). It’s fun to watch a kid have a dream and work hard to make it a reality. That’s a life lesson right? I’m sure someone will bash this post, and that’s okay, but it won’t change the current landscape.

I agree with everything you stated. Well thought out response, which is increasingly unusual here. Respect...

It's great that your son would love a chance to play D1 and that he's on the right track. I'm sure your son hasn't kicked around the idea of repeating a grade in order to make that chance more of a reality. That idea to repeat a grade is only coming from a parent and is a pretty heavy move for a kid to deal with in middle school. What kid do you know wants to sit through 5th grade ELA or 6th grade ELA again with the kids he gave wedgies too on the playground the previous year.

Before, kids that couldn't make it were given a post grad year. Now that happens in MS along WITH a post-grad year at IMG.

Do the math people.
There are generally 48 kids on a lax team.
12 full scholarships at D1-
Split up across 4 recruiting classes (grad years).
12 kids per recruiting class. So you're looking at 3-4 full scholarships SPLIT among 12 kids.
You'd be much better off putting all that money you're spending on club, swag, and SUV decals into a 529 account.

Appreciate the response and well said. I agree the parents plant the seed. Kids, especially in middle school, want to play with their friends. I think the repeats are happening when changing from one school to another (public to prep/Catholic schools as an example). From what I can tell with “holdback” kids that we’ve met is that it helps some kids but not all to get an athletic advantage. Would love to see a study done to see if holding back matters. I’m guessing it doesn’t based on how many “holdbacks” we’ve seen. It all evens out in high school.

Holding a kid back in MS for lacrosse purposes is idiotic. If the kid has the chops but is undersized, send him off for a PG year after HS.

The thought process that holdbacks are for scholarships is wrong. You holdback to get a chance to play varsity earlier at a great school (in this area, Malvern, etc.). The goal is not a scholarship for college, but simply admission to a top school. Most of the top lacrosse schools are stellar academic institutions. And it has become incredibly difficult to get into many of those schools without some type of "in." See the entire Varsity Blues sandal.

The ones I know who held back their kids at younger ages, knew it would give their kid an extra year of development, training and playing. Extra year to develop better skills and a chance to be bigger is an advantage!. Yeah sizes catches up, but skill is being developed all
Along. Extra year of skill development at the younger age is huge

Well said...and true.

Yeah so he misses the window to get recruited....makes sense

Yeah....and tack on another $50k to your education costs.

Big 4 HHH is the oldest team in the 2025 class in the COUNTRY.... period!

Does it make all of you HHH parents happy knowing that the lion's share of your team is single or even DOUBLE holdbacks?

This reminds me of HHH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4gNFL2upZE

Not surprising you are a complaining Eagles fan after a loss. Instead of crying, get better fella.

Get better? You and your sons are jokes dude... get a life and keep playing down. Worse than the MD clubs.

Embarrasing

Not surprising you are a complaining Eagles fan after a loss. Instead of crying, get better fella.[/quote]

Get better? You and your sons are jokes dude... get a life and keep playing down. Worse than the MD clubs.

Embarrasing[/quote]

Had to look in tourney machine what crazy parents lost to HHH recently, seems like team 100 or whatnot from philly taking their drubbing pretty hard last weekend from HHH? Eagles fans and stunards.

Get better? You and your sons are jokes dude... get a life and keep playing down. Worse than the MD clubs.

Embarrasing[/quote]

Had to look in tourney machine what crazy parents lost to HHH recently, seems like team 100 or whatnot from philly taking their drubbing pretty hard last weekend from HHH? Eagles fans and stunards.[/quote]

The HHH 25 team is an aberration within the organization. They are good...have always been good. Look at other teams in that org. Not quite the same product. Some teams at age group are just better fellas. You will have Great War stories to tell your buddies watching games on Memorial Day in a few years...."played against that kid for years...he's a beast!" Celebrate seeing great lacrosse in our area (even if it isn't your team...at least your team gets to measure up against them).

Had to look in tourney machine what crazy parents lost to HHH recently, seems like team 100 or whatnot from philly taking their drubbing pretty hard last weekend from HHH? Eagles fans and stunards.[/quote]

The HHH 25 team is an aberration within the organization. They are good...have always been good. Look at other teams in that org. Not quite the same product. Some teams at age group are just better fellas. You will have Great War stories to tell your buddies watching games on Memorial Day in a few years...."played against that kid for years...he's a beast!" Celebrate seeing great lacrosse in our area (even if it isn't your team...at least your team gets to measure up against them).[/quote]

How old is the kid the NLF showed yesterday from the 2025 HHH team? Is he the double holdback?

Where are all those HHH dad’s at this weekend and they didn’t even play the top teams......

Probably taking a few of them to driver's ed.....