If your kid was one of the youngest, did it impact their ability to make competitive HS teams?

[Anonymous]

It’s the kid, not the age.

-Youngest in my class. Varsity all 4 years of HS and then D1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the kid, not the age.

-Youngest in my class. Varsity all 4 years of HS and then D1.

I disagree, unless "it's the kid" includes factors such as age, age at the onset of puberty, the popularity of the sport, and the training received prior to high school. The most talented kids might be able to overcome being the youngest, smallest and latest to puberty in a competitive sport, but quite often, kids who are the youngest (less mature), small in size, and late to puberty wind up having fewer opportunities before high school than athletes who are older, bigger, or earlier to reach puberty, no matter how hard they work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the kid, not the age.

-Youngest in my class. Varsity all 4 years of HS and then D1.

This may be true for the phenom, but not for the kid on the bubble. It's also an issue for the pipeline.

I have a 9 yo who adores basketball. She's pretty good, but was born the day before the AAU cutoff. That made her the absolute youngest at tryouts. She was still 8 yo in a gym with kids who were mostly 9, with many only a month or two from being 10 yo. It showed in her size, attention span and coach ability. She's still wearing girls size 7 jeans and a size 13 shoe and not yet 50 lbs. There were kids in her group who were into puberty and easily over 5 ft in a size 14 with a size 5 shoe. She played hard but looked really little and young--like the baby sister of the girls she was trying out against. I don't even know if she would have made the team because she was so frustrated at being outmatched and pushed around that she wouldn't go back for the last day of try outs. I was frustrated for her. Unfortunately AAU is the pipeline for improving in basketball in our area and I suspect that it's not going to work out for her. If she'd been born 30 minutes later she'd be a grade down and I really think it would be an entirely different outcome. She still wouldn't be the biggest, but she wouldn't have as many girls who were so so much bigger and already well into puberty. Perhaps it wouldn't matter if she was a kid who would go through puberty eary, but she's not. She'll probably shoot up around 13 yo given her family history. By then club and travel teams are established and kids will have years and years of skill development on her.

[Anonymous]

In high school? By then- Generally no. However:

Puberty status/size is a major factor in the middle school years. Smaller and/or late to puberty kids tend to be weeded out, as coaches have a clear preference for more physically developed kids. Being one of the youngest in middle school is more likely to place a kid in this category. The early developers make all the top teams, get advanced training etc and the late developers get left behind.

So IME the weeding out process of later developers actually occurs PRIOR to high school. So by high school, is not really an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had three boys play high school sports. In our experience, I honestly don't think age has any impact on making the team. I do think when someone goes through puberty can make a huge difference, especially with boys. And work ethic and talent. The kid who puts in the work will have a much better chance of making a competitive high school than the gifted athlete or the older kid who never puts in any effort.

I have one DS who was an early bloomer and was heads and shoulders taller than everyone else his age when he was a freshman in high school. But he never grew another inch, or really gained any weight. By his junior year, he was one of the smaller one's in his class. He does work at his sport so he's managed to stay competitive. And my youngest was the exact opposite. He was average sized when he started high school. He really started growing at 15, and is now 17 and still growing. He is now one of the tallest in his class and works out and it shows in his physique and on the playing field. He's actually on the young side (late April birthday.)

It's this - when they hit puberty. If they're young AND late to puberty, it is tough. One of my spring birthdays was early to puberty and played varsity as a freshman. The other spring birthday was still growing freshman year and didn't hit is stride with varsity sports until junior year. Ability level roughly the same - just the size difference between a little boy body and a fully grown man body is hard to overcome.

Maybe a sport like wrestling or a skill sport like squash would go easier on a later puberty kid

[Anonymous]

I have a September sophomore son who runs cross country. This year there were cuts by time and each grade had a different cutoff. He made the sophomore cut by 2 seconds. So just barely made the team and really struggled to make that time. But if we had red shirted him he would have made the freshman cutoff by 32 seconds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a September sophomore son who runs cross country. This year there were cuts by time and each grade had a different cutoff. He made the sophomore cut by 2 seconds. So just barely made the team and really struggled to make that time. But if we had red shirted him he would have made the freshman cutoff by 32 seconds.

Wow. That’s wild.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a September sophomore son who runs cross country. This year there were cuts by time and each grade had a different cutoff. He made the sophomore cut by 2 seconds. So just barely made the team and really struggled to make that time. But if we had red shirted him he would have made the freshman cutoff by 32 seconds.

Wow. That’s wild.

How do you red shirt a September birthday? If you send them on time, they are already the oldest if the cut-off is August 31?

[Anonymous]

APS is September 30 cut-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've had three boys play high school sports. In our experience, I honestly don't think age has any impact on making the team. I do think when someone goes through puberty can make a huge difference, especially with boys. And work ethic and talent. The kid who puts in the work will have a much better chance of making a competitive high school than the gifted athlete or the older kid who never puts in any effort.

I have one DS who was an early bloomer and was heads and shoulders taller than everyone else his age when he was a freshman in high school. But he never grew another inch, or really gained any weight. By his junior year, he was one of the smaller one's in his class. He does work at his sport so he's managed to stay competitive. And my youngest was the exact opposite. He was average sized when he started high school. He really started growing at 15, and is now 17 and still growing. He is now one of the tallest in his class and works out and it shows in his physique and on the playing field. He's actually on the young side (late April birthday.)

It's this - when they hit puberty. If they're young AND late to puberty, it is tough. One of my spring birthdays was early to puberty and played varsity as a freshman. The other spring birthday was still growing freshman year and didn't hit is stride with varsity sports until junior year. Ability level roughly the same - just the size difference between a little boy body and a fully grown man body is hard to overcome.

Maybe a sport like wrestling or a skill sport like squash would go easier on a later puberty kid

This.
In early years age matters because you're going to have kids who are right at the young end of the cut off you are going to have them competing with kids who are a year or 1 year and 6 months older in some cases.
In late elementary and middle school puberty matters a lot and by HS it does matter less but the problem is by the time you are at that point the kids who were bigger got higher level training and praise for being good that they may be better. If you are young, small and late to puberty you can rule out a sport like basketball and some of the popular physical team sports unless the child is really exceptional.

[Anonymous]

I believe Freakonimics looked at this for hockey. And the majority of pro hockey players had birthdays at a certain part of the year. I don’t remember the details but I think that was the gist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe Freakonimics looked at this for hockey. And the majority of pro hockey players had birthdays at a certain part of the year. I don’t remember the details but I think that was the gist.

Freakonomics, sorry typo.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, it’s puberty/size that makes the biggest impact. Being one of the youngest increases the chance of being one of the kids who grow later.

From 6th-9th grades puberty/size is a key factor.

By 10th grade or so, things even out- to some degree- for most. There will still be huge kids and small kids but most of the kids in the middle will have physically evened out. The problem is, if you have 2 typical/average sized kids (Kid A) who is 5’8” in 7th grade, and 5’10” in 10th grade vs (Kid B) who is 5’2” in 7th grade, and 5’10” in 10th grade (not at all uncommon scenarios)…kid A will have had a massive advantage and kid B won’t have had the same opportunities (many kids like that end up quitting in frustration before high school). An extra year may have helped kid B to stay in the sport (certainly wouldn’t hurt in any way). It is unfortunate but nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the kid, not the age.

-Youngest in my class. Varsity all 4 years of HS and then D1.

This may be true for the phenom, but not for the kid on the bubble. It's also an issue for the pipeline.

I have a 9 yo who adores basketball. She's pretty good, but was born the day before the AAU cutoff. That made her the absolute youngest at tryouts. She was still 8 yo in a gym with kids who were mostly 9, with many only a month or two from being 10 yo. It showed in her size, attention span and coach ability. She's still wearing girls size 7 jeans and a size 13 shoe and not yet 50 lbs. There were kids in her group who were into puberty and easily over 5 ft in a size 14 with a size 5 shoe. She played hard but looked really little and young--like the baby sister of the girls she was trying out against. I don't even know if she would have made the team because she was so frustrated at being outmatched and pushed around that she wouldn't go back for the last day of try outs. I was frustrated for her. Unfortunately AAU is the pipeline for improving in basketball in our area and I suspect that it's not going to work out for her. If she'd been born 30 minutes later she'd be a grade down and I really think it would be an entirely different outcome. She still wouldn't be the biggest, but she wouldn't have as many girls who were so so much bigger and already well into puberty. Perhaps it wouldn't matter if she was a kid who would go through puberty eary, but she's not. She'll probably shoot up around 13 yo given her family history. By then club and travel teams are established and kids will have years and years of skill development on her.

Keep trying. You basically admitted she wasn’t ready (attention span and coachability). This is one of the reasons I don’t stack rank my kids against others on a team - it’s more than just ability. Your daughter may be ready for that level of play next year (of the year after).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the kid, not the age.

-Youngest in my class. Varsity all 4 years of HS and then D1.

This may be true for the phenom, but not for the kid on the bubble. It's also an issue for the pipeline.

I have a 9 yo who adores basketball. She's pretty good, but was born the day before the AAU cutoff. That made her the absolute youngest at tryouts. She was still 8 yo in a gym with kids who were mostly 9, with many only a month or two from being 10 yo. It showed in her size, attention span and coach ability. She's still wearing girls size 7 jeans and a size 13 shoe and not yet 50 lbs. There were kids in her group who were into puberty and easily over 5 ft in a size 14 with a size 5 shoe. She played hard but looked really little and young--like the baby sister of the girls she was trying out against. I don't even know if she would have made the team because she was so frustrated at being outmatched and pushed around that she wouldn't go back for the last day of try outs. I was frustrated for her. Unfortunately AAU is the pipeline for improving in basketball in our area and I suspect that it's not going to work out for her. If she'd been born 30 minutes later she'd be a grade down and I really think it would be an entirely different outcome. She still wouldn't be the biggest, but she wouldn't have as many girls who were so so much bigger and already well into puberty. Perhaps it wouldn't matter if she was a kid who would go through puberty eary, but she's not. She'll probably shoot up around 13 yo given her family history. By then club and travel teams are established and kids will have years and years of skill development on her.

At 9, my kid also adored basketball and we were at similar tryouts. We were at the other extreme and she was about 5 foot and in woman’s shoe sizes already. Yes, she made a team.

But, she didn’t grow much more and lost interest. By middle school she didn’t want to play basketball at all. What I learned is that you can’t tell much from early development because you don’t really know when they will stop growing. She happened to have an early birthday and was always one of the oldest at any tryouts.

Compared to my other kids, I think those years positively impacted a lot of her confidence. She was older and hit puberty early so she excelled in a lot of sports early on. Even though she didn’t end up wanting to pursue the most competitive teams later on, it gave her a lot of confidence that carried over in other areas. It’s hard to know how much of this was sports and how much was personality.