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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The ice hockey metaphor is stupid. I think people read Outliers and believe they have found religion. There are reasons why college ice hockey players are 21-25 years old. First, the ones who are Canadian from rural areas often need more academic finishing after high school to be eligible to be admitted to the colleges in the US that recruit them to play hockey. Second, the NCAA scholarship in ice hockey is widely held out to be a consolation prize for kids who didn't get drafted by the NHL. After high school US and Canadian kids will go off to play juniors for 1-3 years in hopes to get drafted by the pro teams.

In lacrosse it is something to do when you weren't good enough to be recruited in your class or weren't good enough to be recruited by a higher end program than the one you were recruited at. PG years for lacrosse players have nothing to do with getting academics up or one more year or getting bigger in the weight room. If that were true these same kids would matriculate to college and take either a redshirt or gap year as a less than full time enrolled student to lift weights, train, etc. You don't need to spend $65K to lift weights at a gym or find a place to do lacrosse drills. You need to spend $65K on a PG year to force a fit, and the places that welcome that are either the traditional NE prep meathead lockers (Avon OF, Taft or Salisbury) or the prep that used to be a top academic powerhouse decades ago but regressed to be the new meathead locker (Deerfield). Kids go to those boarding schools when they aren't admitted to the more selective ones and when their parents need to park them for a sports gap year. Every middle tier or top D1 lacrosse coach has the mobile number of the admissions directors and lacrosse coaches at these schools (and at Deerfield it is the same guy) and know they can make one 5 minute phone call in July to park a kid he deferred in a recruiting class for a PG year so long as he can also assure the prep AD the parents have the dough to wire $65K fast. This year Taft took three lax bros in July who had not even applied earlier, and Deerfield took EIGHT lax PGs this spring/summer.

I went to Choate a generation ago and know several people in these boarding school networks and have been active as an alum. I'm not bragging on Choate like it's the blue blood #1, but I will make the point it is still a school at first. Anyone who thinks a lacrosse PG year at one of those four is a strong move is delusional. It's where mediocrity goes to run and hide for a year. [/quote]

I cannot tell you how many people (including my usually otherwise critical thinking FIL) have been shocked that I haven't "redshirted" (held back people, please stop giving it a cute name to justify it) my summer born DS. "Didn't you read Outliers," they ask. Malcolm Gladwell is a writer with a thesis, not a scientist. It's ridiculous how many  have made important life decisions based on that one unproven thesis.[/quote]

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