Rich DC lacrosse parents let kids repeat grades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This stuff stresses me out. I have a summer birthday boy who is small for his age but academically ahead and was planning to let him start K on time in a private school even though he will be the youngest by far. Is he ever going to get to play on any sports teams or am I setting him up to have issues because he will always be the youngest and the smallest? It is easy for parents who are not facing the prospect of their child being the odd one out to frown on the practice.

The good news is you don't hanve to worry about it now. If he wants to play sports in HS you can just redshirt him in 8th. There are a few schools that will accommodate you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article is a joke. Redshirting is common at all area privates for boys -- the schools encourage it and it isn't for lacrosse. However, it isn't occurring at the middle school level, it occurs at the kindergarten level. Notice that the article never mentions when the "redshirting" actually occurs, it just (falsely) implies that it is middle or high school.

You aren't quite understanding -- these boys are DOUBLE held back. Once when they're 5.25, meaning they begin school st age 6, and then again when they're in middle school. So they are almost 2 full years (but not quite) older than some of the girls in their grade at the time of graduation.

They only do this if it does not interfere with eligibility. They have to be 18 on the 1st day of school. So they can turn 19 during the school year.

So enter K as a 5 yo, you eventually enter 12th as a 17 yo. if they redshirt once they are 18 but if they redshirt twice they are 19 ... so that does not work. But for kids that are in 9th right now started school if they were 5 by November 1st (in MoCo). So they are technically redshirted twice if they are born in September or October.

My nephew with an August Bday graduated HS at 17 and dominated Lacrosse. He got both an academic and a Lacrosse scholarship.

You got it or you don't. Let those big dummies hang back.

Where did he go to school, generally... DC, Baltimore, NY?

Hopkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This stuff stresses me out. I have a summer birthday boy who is small for his age but academically ahead and was planning to let him start K on time in a private school even though he will be the youngest by far. Is he ever going to get to play on any sports teams or am I setting him up to have issues because he will always be the youngest and the smallest? It is easy for parents who are not facing the prospect of their child being the odd one out to frown on the practice.

The good news is you don't hanve to worry about it now. If he wants to play sports in HS you can just redshirt him in 8th. There are a few schools that will accommodate you.

Probably better to go later for first than to repeat 8th. I cannot imagine repeating a grade.

[Anonymous]

If they are hoping for money for college, they will never recoup what they have spent

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?_r=3&oref=

If they are hoping to increase the odds of getting in to various colleges, they could just pick any sport or extracurricular. Unless the kid is recruited, a sport is just another extracurricular to a lot of admissions officers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This stuff stresses me out. I have a summer birthday boy who is small for his age but academically ahead and was planning to let him start K on time in a private school even though he will be the youngest by far. Is he ever going to get to play on any sports teams or am I setting him up to have issues because he will always be the youngest and the smallest? It is easy for parents who are not facing the prospect of their child being the odd one out to frown on the practice.

The good news is you don't hanve to worry about it now. If he wants to play sports in HS you can just redshirt him in 8th. There are a few schools that will accommodate you.

Probably better to go later for first than to repeat 8th. I cannot imagine repeating a grade.

That is the point of the article. In this area it's not a big deal to repeat, 3rd, 6th ad 8th.

Multiple kids talk to HS coaches and they are accepted if they repeat 8th grade.

If you say I repeated 8th the reaction is oh. if you say I repeated 8th at Mater Dei it just means a coach asked you to do that or your parents want you to play varsity 4 years and you probably are not going to if you go as a 14 yo. Everybody knows what that means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are hoping for money for college, they will never recoup what they have spent

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?_r=3&oref=

If they are hoping to increase the odds of getting in to various colleges, they could just pick any sport or extracurricular. Unless the kid is recruited, a sport is just another extracurricular to a lot of admissions officers.

These are rich parents. They are not trying to "recoup" money. Whether you like it or not, these kids are going to better colleges than they could have because of lacrosse.

Cornell has 3 Landon kids and 1 St. Albans
Princeton has 3 Landon kids, 3 prep kids and 1 St. Albans

Then they get jobs because they are playing lacrosse, recruited right off the roster.

[Anonymous]

Wall Street jobs only but they can get those jobs by playing lacrosse at any school, no need to go to an ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street jobs only but they can get those jobs by playing lacrosse at any school, no need to go to an ivy.

True, but these are rich parents with huge egos.

[Anonymous]

Nothing in the article is untrue, but the headline, lede, and entire premise of the piece are completely undercut by the story about the Mater Dei hoops team. Lest anyone be left with the impression that Nate Britt and Kris Jenkins are WASPy country club kids whose parents held then back to get into their preferred Ivy, a quick google search should clear things right up. But I guess a more measured account of the realities of competitive adolescent sports wouldn't be nearly as popular viral clickbait, and you prob wouldn't see it a 5 page DCUM thread.

I will say that I attended one of the schools in question in the late 90s and the Mater Dei kids were all driving as freshmen, so this has been going on for at least 20 years at this point. Hardly breaking news, beyond the fact that kids are now verballing their lacrosse commitments as freshmen, meaning there is more pressure to "develop" one way or another before high school. Propriety aside, the outcomes seem to be pretty impressive, and no one has been able to cite any downsides for the redshirts themselves.

Either way, Drew Magary has an unique level of contempt for DC yuppie/private school/lacrosse culture for a guy who went to Exeter and Colby and chose to settle in Bethesda...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing in the article is untrue, but the headline, lede, and entire premise of the piece are completely undercut by the story about the Mater Dei hoops team. Lest anyone be left with the impression that Nate Britt and Kris Jenkins are WASPy country club kids whose parents held then back to get into their preferred Ivy, a quick google search should clear things right up. But I guess a more measured account of the realities of competitive adolescent sports wouldn't be nearly as popular viral clickbait, and you prob wouldn't see it a 5 page DCUM thread.

I will say that I attended one of the schools in question in the late 90s and the Mater Dei kids were all driving as freshmen, so this has been going on for at least 20 years at this point. Hardly breaking news, beyond the fact that kids are now verballing their lacrosse commitments as freshmen, meaning there is more pressure to "develop" one way or another before high school. Propriety aside, the outcomes seem to be pretty impressive, and no one has been able to cite any downsides for the redshirts themselves.

Either way, Drew Magary has an unique level of contempt for DC yuppie/private school/lacrosse culture for a guy who went to Exeter and Colby and chose to settle in Bethesda...

Cool story bro

[Anonymous]

You mean this google search...

"It was sort of my choice," Fenner said. "I took a [placement] test and the teachers were like I could easily be in the eighth grade but I told them I wanted to be with Kris and Nate in the seventh grade. A lot of students get held back at Mater Dei. I wanted to be in the same class as Kris and Nate for all sorts of reasons. You have school, basketball and some other stuff, but mainly school and basketball."


http://www.thesportsfannetwork.com/forums/thread/11293-wash-post-calls-out-gonzaga-mater-dei/

Where it was clear a kid re-graded for reason other that academics.

I know losing to WJS is a bummer, you have to find a way to compete. Lord forbid you don't ring they bell after a game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wall Street jobs only but they can get those jobs by playing lacrosse at any school, no need to go to an ivy.

Who wants a Wall St job ?

[Anonymous]

I conceded that Mater Dei holds kids back for athletic purposes and has for decades- the point was that the "rich lacrosse parents" bit doesn't hold up even within the contex of the article itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ewwww.

Signed,
A normal lacrosse parent

No lacrosse parent is normal from what I've seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ewwww.

Signed,
A normal lacrosse parent

No lacrosse parent is normal from what I've seen.

That is because you don't see or hear the normal ones. You think we are waiting for the next game because we look disinterested in the current game.