Age verification - is this going to change club lacrosse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is girls lacrosse going to have the identical age guidelines? I don’t think they are governed by NLF. Hopefully they adopt the same rules.

The rules for girls are already the same for any US lacrosse sanctioned event. The NLF is a aligned group of the top boys clubs and they did not follow US lacrosse. Now that they are following along with HOCO I think it will be the case at most girl's tournaments but it is really up to the organizer of each event. The NLF just happened to manage the to top events and clubs want to align with those. there is still not a high level of enforcement. I think top girl's events will also comply with US lacrosse guidelines. NVYLL already does. The important girls' event through IWCLA are still grade based for HS so that will not change.

Thanks - so girls lacrosse already has the 15 month window as well - it’s just not broadly followed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is girls lacrosse going to have the identical age guidelines? I don’t think they are governed by NLF. Hopefully they adopt the same rules.

The rules for girls are already the same for any US lacrosse sanctioned event. The NLF is a aligned group of the top boys clubs and they did not follow US lacrosse. Now that they are following along with HOCO I think it will be the case at most girl's tournaments but it is really up to the organizer of each event. The NLF just happened to manage the to top events and clubs want to align with those. there is still not a high level of enforcement. I think top girl's events will also comply with US lacrosse guidelines. NVYLL already does. The important girls' event through IWCLA are still grade based for HS so that will not change.

Thanks - so girls lacrosse already has the 15 month window as well - it’s just not broadly followed?

Boys and Girls have had a 15 month window suggested by US lax for a few years. For the most part I think girls usually follow age guidelines and do not have most of the top players play down one to two years. With boys, many of the top players are a year or two older than the guideline. Even though the girls teams are grouped by grad year (2030, 2029 ect.) most still stick to age guidelines when forming teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s unfortunate for my son who has a May 2010 birthday and started school late, so he’s in 6th grade. He’ll have to leave the team he’s been on for 3 years with all his friends and classmates. But I guess it’s a safety thing. So from my understanding once you get to HS you’ll be able to play on a team according to your graduation year? So he’ll be on a 2028 team for 7th and 8th grades and then can be back on a 2029 team in 9th since that’s his graduation year?

Our club is making all kids play with the correct year, except for the grandfathered current high schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Does this affect my daughters 2032 travel team? There are at least a couple of girls born before June 2013, which according to the chart would make them ineligible to be on a 2032 team.
But it doesn’t matter unless we enter specific tournaments run by NLF?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this affect my daughters 2032 travel team? There are at least a couple of girls born before June 2013, which according to the chart would make them ineligible to be on a 2032 team.
But it doesn’t matter unless we enter specific tournaments run by NLF?

NLF has nothing to do with girl's lacrosse you will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s unfortunate for my son who has a May 2010 birthday and started school late, so he’s in 6th grade. He’ll have to leave the team he’s been on for 3 years with all his friends and classmates. But I guess it’s a safety thing. So from my understanding once you get to HS you’ll be able to play on a team according to your graduation year? So he’ll be on a 2028 team for 7th and 8th grades and then can be back on a 2029 team in 9th since that’s his graduation year?

Our club is making all kids play with the correct year, except for the grandfathered current high schoolers.

So it looks like holdbacks are fighting back. HOCO's age guidelines lists the ability for someone born as early as June 1, 2009 to be eligible to play in the 2029 (8th grade) HOCO league next spring. Last year, to play in the 2029 (7th grade age group) you could not be born earlier than June 1, 2010.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/8983-3156974/GHCLC_Spring_2025_Guidelines.pdf?_gl=1*i7bfpg*_ga*MTc0MzYzOTYxNi4xNzA3MTU3NjA4*_ga_PQ25JN9PJ8*MTcxODk5NjE4Ni4yMC4wLjE3MTg5OTYxOTIuMC4wLjA.

This definitely contradicts what US Lacrosse stated last May.

[Anonymous]

Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

OK Karen I will get right on that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

OK Karen I will get right on that

Must be a man responding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

OK Karen I will get right on that

What a sexist, dismissive response. Shame on you, troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

Maybe girls lacrosse shouldn't have pushed US Lacrosse to have girls be grade based back in the aughts. Oh well, horse is out of the barn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they should’ve just moved it to age and kept it simple.

Which is much more disruptive based on most kids like to play with kids in the same grade - just like they do at the rec level. Most other sports outside of soccer do not do it by age but based on the school calendar year with some modifications i.e., basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc. The only reason soccer does it based on age is because that is what the rest of the world does it and there were changes to soccer about 8-9 years ago that moved it from grade to age year.

There was a large drop in soccer participation immediately after the change to birth year. Kids mostly want to play with their friends and classmates. It's really that simple. It was a stupid move for US Soccer to make such a change that was only meant to address issues surrounding the national US U-16 type teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Girls lax needs this fixed now. At the younger ages, this is about keeping the girls safe. Being two years older puts you heads above others, literally. I don't care what you reasons were to hold back your kid academically. That's entirely moot. When it comes to their sport, they should play with kids their age, period, for safety and fairness. So your DD won't have friends from their grade on their team. So what! That's part of being held back. Guess what? They'll get their license before everyone in their grade. There are advantages and disadvantages to that holdback decision. Not everything is going to work to your advantage in life.

I agree that there need to be reasonable restrictions. When my daughter was 10, and in fifth grade, she played against a team that had a 13-year-old in fifth grade. She was the same age and size as most seventh grade students.

Imagine what it was like to see a bunch of pre-pubescent 10 and 11-year-old girls play against a teenager. That child was significantly taller and stronger, and it was not fair or safe.

The parents of the 13-year-old didn't hide her age at all and were instead bragging about the fact that their child outpowered all the other girls. Of course she did!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they should’ve just moved it to age and kept it simple.

Which is much more disruptive based on most kids like to play with kids in the same grade - just like they do at the rec level. Most other sports outside of soccer do not do it by age but based on the school calendar year with some modifications i.e., basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc. The only reason soccer does it based on age is because that is what the rest of the world does it and there were changes to soccer about 8-9 years ago that moved it from grade to age year.

There was a large drop in soccer participation immediately after the change to birth year. Kids mostly want to play with their friends and classmates. It's really that simple. It was a stupid move for US Soccer to make such a change that was only meant to address issues surrounding the national US U-16 type teams.

Agreed. That was just a change in the calendar date cutoff, so set it for August or September 1 and we're all good.

[Anonymous]

Hearing at least one of the larger boys clubs is not going to follow the age brackets this year because it's not being universally followed across the country.

Lacrosse really should move to a calendar year or school year (e.g., June 1-May 30) to keep it simple.