My son and his friend are also 6 (turning 7 soon) and they also made Gold. Like your son, they will be playing up a year so he will not be alone. We had very mixed feelings about it but he really wanted to play soccer with his friends. We know three other boys playing gold (two of whom are the appropriate age) and they are good kids. He is also doing another sport "competitively" but he is very into sports and has high energy, so we relented.