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[quote=Anonymous]There are several inter-related issues that parents of boys in youth lacrosse now have to deal with.   I am specifically not speaking of high school and how and varsity junior varsity teams are selected although that issue is not unrelated.

As of this Fall, youth lacrosse in the Washington area is changing subtly but importantly.  As a prior poster pointed out, historically (and consistent with US Lacrosse guidelines) placement on youth lacrosse teams was based on birthdays (just like soccer and hockey).  Unfortunately, there was no requirement of proof of age (as there is in soccer and hockey) and there were instances of over-age players playing on teams.  Nevertheless, officially teams were based on age.  This is no longer the case.

As of this fall the “elite” lacrosse clubs in the Washington area have moved to “grade based” rather than age based teams.  Accordingly, if a player is in enrolled in a particular grade, he is eligible to play no matter how old he is.  This sounds reasonable until you realize that there is a fairly prevalent practice in the Maryland private schools to “hold back” students.  Many of the programs in Long Island have grade based teams as well, but the problem of “over age” / “hold backs” is less prevalent, (if only because more long island players go to public rather than private schools and the public schools (and the public school student parents) are less “pliable” then the private schools in accommodating holdbacks).   Once a player is “reclassified” he stays in the class, exacerbating the age gap that posters above were noting at the high school level.  Without age limits, this problem can only get worse with college recruiting now taking place at the 8th and 9th grade level.  There is just too much incentive to re-classify.

My son has been playing club lacrosse for three years and is playing on what would have been a U-13 team and is now a 6th grade team this Fall.  The league his team played in this Fall and the tournaments he is playing in this month all have his team playing 6th and 7th grade teams.  Realize what this means.  There are players on the field ranging in age between 11 and 14.  The disparity in height and weight are substantial and much more that what used to the norm in the old “U-13” category.  For those who think this post is a rant about my sons’ team not being competitive, that is not the case.  His team has been successful (lost one game this Fall so far), but the danger on the field is real and we as parents are kidding ourselves if we do not acknowledge it.

The real “goat” in this is US Lacrosse. This is an organization to which all of us are forced to belong and support through dues and whose mission is to promote the sport of lacrosse (and supposedly player safety).  US Lacrosse is “leading from behind” on the critical issue of player safety and it really should (and if it is going to be a relevant organization, it needs) to take a strong, unambiguous position as to age based versus grade based teams.  So far, US Lacrosse’s position is to tepidly support age based teams, but to hide behind the argument that “there is nothing it can do” as clubs move more to grade based teams. There is in fact a lot that US Lacrosse can do (if it wants to), including, for starters, taking a strong, unequivocal position in its not so good magazine. By taking this position US Lacrosse would of course risk offending various interests, but that is the price to pay if US Lacrosse is in fact going to lead rather than to be impotent and irrelevant.  It is ironic that US Lacrosse’s headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland (the center of gravity (i.e. the Crabs) for the move to grade based teams).

Lacrosse is a great sport for kids, but the move from age based to grade based teams together with the underlying incentive to reclassify kids to position them for early recruiting is worrisome and is making youth lacrosse more dangerous for the players.
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