How did your young for the grade kids do in grade level sports?

Anonymous wrote:My kid is the youngest in her grade, small for her age (<10th percentile), and a late bloomer re puberty so she doesn't really stand a chance. She plays rec soccer and swims for fun.

She loved basketball as a sport, but the cutoff for the more competitive league is literally the day after her birthday, making her the absolute youngest and smallest. At 11 yo, that makes her 50" tall playing against kids who are 5'9" or even taller. She's roughly the same size as a tall third grader and the other players are adult sized. It's just not fun. When she first tried out a few years ago, her birthday being two days later and playing down a league would have made all the difference. But the late puberty probably would have pushed her to drop it by now anyways.

Just for reference re young for her grade, she'll be 13 for the beginning of freshman year of highschool. And her pediatrician expects her to start puberty as a 13-14 yo. We're not a short family so she'll likely end up around 5'8" but not for a long while.

Honestly PP she’s so tiny it wouldn’t make a difference. My just turned 8 year old is 52 inches and she’s only 60th percentile in height. My 11 year old is 59 inches and he’s only 70th percentile height. 50 inches at 11 is very petite Jo matter the grade.