Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

Would have your high school freshmen kid play against college freshmen? It's the same age difference. It sounds a tad bit absurd to me.

Look, I grew up in Georgia and skipped a grade, and I played basketball and "touch" (not gently) football against people who'd been held back a couple of years. I know I sound like one of those Gen X meme groups on Facebook in which we all talk about being left at the playground for hours and whatnot, but ...

How about this -- maybe the coaches and parents can decide whether the competition level is appropriate. If I had an eighth-grader on the smaller, slower side, maybe I wouldn't want him in this event. If I were Freddy Adu's dad (or Olivia Moultrie's or Lily Yohannes'), I'd have no reservations about it.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where the Fredericksburg U16 team lies.

I had to coach a U16 rec team -- and a cobbled-together team with some special-needs kids at that -- against a U19 team a couple of times. I didn't like it. We got blown out. I didn't have to send anyone to the hospital. I didn't even have to use my ice packs.

If coaches and refs are sensible, they'll figure it out. If they're not sensible, then NO soccer game is safe. I reffed a game with a U10 girls team whose coach admitted after the games that they "play tough," and it was just too bad that the poor girls on the other team were getting hurt. It can happen ANYWHERE.

If there's a big gulf in talent, chances are pretty slim anyone will get hurt because one team will have the ball the whole time, anyway. The odds of getting hurt in an 8-0 game are a lot less than the odds of getting hurt in a 2-2 game unless the team that's down 8-0 is really angry (which could happen here) and physically imposing (which is exactly the opposite point that you're arguing).

If you're a parent on one of these teams, and you have a problem with it, talk to the coach! If you're not, have a Happy Father's Day.

- BD

Not really. No one is telling these parents OR coaches that their middle schooler is playing "up" against kids 4 years older. You have to know about the teams and leagues and age groups to puzzle out from the schedule who is who. Even you, an experienced referee, did not know that U19 rec included 2005s. Valor is really just trying to fly under the radar on this. People show up for games expecting their U16 kids to be playing other U16 teams, why would they think ANY different? Most people don't even know how to find the schedule and just go where the coach tells them to be. They will probably think the U19 teams are U16 teams cheating.

This is spot on. Valor is simply trying to sneak this through without anyone noticing. They didn't have enough interest to actually have a fully stocked tournament of competitive teams so they are slapping together this Frankenstein tournament of rec teams playing all star teams and middle schoolers playing high schoolers. Then some crazies pop up on this thread in the last couple days to tell us that we're wrong to be concerned with this tournament, "Move along folks, nothing to see here." I call BS on this. FPYC and the Herndon all stars have never done anything like this.

No one's saying "don't be concerned." No one's trying to keep it buried under the rug.

We're saying the hysteria might be a little overblown, and the assumptions that the Inova Fair Oaks facility will be overrun with injured eighth-graders are a tad too dramatic.

And we've all learned a lot about growth rates of the typical American tween and teen.

*marketing guy at Valor frantically googling CDC growth charts*

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

this is the strangest whatboutism i have ever read on here.

OK, let's go into more detail ...

Let's look here:
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/statage.htm#males
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/wtage.htm#males

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 133.7345 cm, 28.6813 kg
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 156.4099 cm, 45.81336 kg

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 164.1418 cm, 51.23096 kg
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 176.185 cm, 67.28993 kg

In English measurements:

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 52.65 inches, 63.23 pounds
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 61.58 inches, 101.00 pounds

That's a difference of 8.93 inches, 37.77 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 13-year-old has grown 16.96% in height and 59.73% in weight.

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 64.62 inches, 112.94 pounds
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 69.36 inches, 148.35 pounds

That's a difference of 4.74 inches, 35.41 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 18-year-old has grown 7.34% in height and 31.35% in weight.

In short:

Growth ... slows ... down.

Need pictures? Here: https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41c021.pdf

I'm assuming you're just trolling, in which case, I do have to congratulate you. You made a stranger on the web spend a bunch of time with CDC growth charts to refute a ridiculous point. That's Flat Earther-level trolling.

But if you really didn't understand the difference between older kids with a wider age span and younger kids with a wider age span ... there. I hope that helps.

It's the same reason these age groups are combined in the first place. They don't have U17 or U18 in rec play here. You skip from U16 to U19. You don't skip from U6 to U9.

Any questions?

TLDR

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

this is the strangest whatboutism i have ever read on here.

OK, let's go into more detail ...

Let's look here:
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/statage.htm#males
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/wtage.htm#males

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 133.7345 cm, 28.6813 kg
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 156.4099 cm, 45.81336 kg

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 164.1418 cm, 51.23096 kg
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 176.185 cm, 67.28993 kg

In English measurements:

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 52.65 inches, 63.23 pounds
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 61.58 inches, 101.00 pounds

That's a difference of 8.93 inches, 37.77 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 13-year-old has grown 16.96% in height and 59.73% in weight.

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 64.62 inches, 112.94 pounds
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 69.36 inches, 148.35 pounds

That's a difference of 4.74 inches, 35.41 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 18-year-old has grown 7.34% in height and 31.35% in weight.

In short:

Growth ... slows ... down.

Need pictures? Here: https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41c021.pdf

I'm assuming you're just trolling, in which case, I do have to congratulate you. You made a stranger on the web spend a bunch of time with CDC growth charts to refute a ridiculous point. That's Flat Earther-level trolling.

But if you really didn't understand the difference between older kids with a wider age span and younger kids with a wider age span ... there. I hope that helps.

It's the same reason these age groups are combined in the first place. They don't have U17 or U18 in rec play here. You skip from U16 to U19. You don't skip from U6 to U9.

Any questions?

You seem really invested in defending Valor's plan here. Just saying.

Your stats are averages and don't even consider the importance of late puberty's effect on strength and speed. Fully grown men playing boys.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

Would have your high school freshmen kid play against college freshmen? It's the same age difference. It sounds a tad bit absurd to me.

Look, I grew up in Georgia and skipped a grade, and I played basketball and "touch" (not gently) football against people who'd been held back a couple of years. I know I sound like one of those Gen X meme groups on Facebook in which we all talk about being left at the playground for hours and whatnot, but ...

How about this -- maybe the coaches and parents can decide whether the competition level is appropriate. If I had an eighth-grader on the smaller, slower side, maybe I wouldn't want him in this event. If I were Freddy Adu's dad (or Olivia Moultrie's or Lily Yohannes'), I'd have no reservations about it.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where the Fredericksburg U16 team lies.

I had to coach a U16 rec team -- and a cobbled-together team with some special-needs kids at that -- against a U19 team a couple of times. I didn't like it. We got blown out. I didn't have to send anyone to the hospital. I didn't even have to use my ice packs.

If coaches and refs are sensible, they'll figure it out. If they're not sensible, then NO soccer game is safe. I reffed a game with a U10 girls team whose coach admitted after the games that they "play tough," and it was just too bad that the poor girls on the other team were getting hurt. It can happen ANYWHERE.

If there's a big gulf in talent, chances are pretty slim anyone will get hurt because one team will have the ball the whole time, anyway. The odds of getting hurt in an 8-0 game are a lot less than the odds of getting hurt in a 2-2 game unless the team that's down 8-0 is really angry (which could happen here) and physically imposing (which is exactly the opposite point that you're arguing).

If you're a parent on one of these teams, and you have a problem with it, talk to the coach! If you're not, have a Happy Father's Day.

- BD

Not really. No one is telling these parents OR coaches that their middle schooler is playing "up" against kids 4 years older. You have to know about the teams and leagues and age groups to puzzle out from the schedule who is who. Even you, an experienced referee, did not know that U19 rec included 2005s. Valor is really just trying to fly under the radar on this. People show up for games expecting their U16 kids to be playing other U16 teams, why would they think ANY different? Most people don't even know how to find the schedule and just go where the coach tells them to be. They will probably think the U19 teams are U16 teams cheating.

I knew U19 rec included 2005. I didn't know the All-Star tournament wouldn't have U15. For the record, roster check-ins at tournaments like this are generally the responsibilities of tournament officials, not refs -- and even if they were the ref's purview, refs wouldn't disqualify anyone for being too *young*. So it would never come up.

But I'll agree with you in the sense that, sure, coaches should tell their teams the nature of the competition they're entering. That's fine. And if you're on one of these teams, by all means, share that info with your fellow parents. Absolutely.

And I'll say again -- I didn't enjoy coaching U16s against U19s. But if I had really good U16s, maybe it'd be different. In our league, there was one game in which a U16 team that had been heavily recruited beat a random U19 team. To my knowledge, no one was hospitalized.

This league no longer has U16s at all, so kids go straight from U14 to U19. I hate it. It's terrible. But when I've reffed games at that level, I've found that it's not particularly an injury concern to see smaller, younger kids matched up against older kids. When you get two 17-year-olds with a lot of testosterone and anger built up against each other ... THAT is what I find myself trying to control.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

this is the strangest whatboutism i have ever read on here.

OK, let's go into more detail ...

Let's look here:
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/statage.htm#males
https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/wtage.htm#males

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 133.7345 cm, 28.6813 kg
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 156.4099 cm, 45.81336 kg

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 164.1418 cm, 51.23096 kg
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 176.185 cm, 67.28993 kg

In English measurements:

50th percentile for an 9-year-old (108.5-month-old) boy: 52.65 inches, 63.23 pounds
50th percentile for a 13-year-old (156.5-month-old) boy: 61.58 inches, 101.00 pounds

That's a difference of 8.93 inches, 37.77 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 13-year-old has grown 16.96% in height and 59.73% in weight.

50th percentile for a 14-year-old (168.5-month-old) boy: 64.62 inches, 112.94 pounds
50th percentile for an 18-year-old (216.5-month-old) boy: 69.36 inches, 148.35 pounds

That's a difference of 4.74 inches, 35.41 pounds. Percentage-wise, the 18-year-old has grown 7.34% in height and 31.35% in weight.

In short:

Growth ... slows ... down.

Need pictures? Here: https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41c021.pdf

I'm assuming you're just trolling, in which case, I do have to congratulate you. You made a stranger on the web spend a bunch of time with CDC growth charts to refute a ridiculous point. That's Flat Earther-level trolling.

But if you really didn't understand the difference between older kids with a wider age span and younger kids with a wider age span ... there. I hope that helps.

It's the same reason these age groups are combined in the first place. They don't have U17 or U18 in rec play here. You skip from U16 to U19. You don't skip from U6 to U9.

Any questions?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

Would have your high school freshmen kid play against college freshmen? It's the same age difference. It sounds a tad bit absurd to me.

Look, I grew up in Georgia and skipped a grade, and I played basketball and "touch" (not gently) football against people who'd been held back a couple of years. I know I sound like one of those Gen X meme groups on Facebook in which we all talk about being left at the playground for hours and whatnot, but ...

How about this -- maybe the coaches and parents can decide whether the competition level is appropriate. If I had an eighth-grader on the smaller, slower side, maybe I wouldn't want him in this event. If I were Freddy Adu's dad (or Olivia Moultrie's or Lily Yohannes'), I'd have no reservations about it.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where the Fredericksburg U16 team lies.

I had to coach a U16 rec team -- and a cobbled-together team with some special-needs kids at that -- against a U19 team a couple of times. I didn't like it. We got blown out. I didn't have to send anyone to the hospital. I didn't even have to use my ice packs.

If coaches and refs are sensible, they'll figure it out. If they're not sensible, then NO soccer game is safe. I reffed a game with a U10 girls team whose coach admitted after the games that they "play tough," and it was just too bad that the poor girls on the other team were getting hurt. It can happen ANYWHERE.

If there's a big gulf in talent, chances are pretty slim anyone will get hurt because one team will have the ball the whole time, anyway. The odds of getting hurt in an 8-0 game are a lot less than the odds of getting hurt in a 2-2 game unless the team that's down 8-0 is really angry (which could happen here) and physically imposing (which is exactly the opposite point that you're arguing).

If you're a parent on one of these teams, and you have a problem with it, talk to the coach! If you're not, have a Happy Father's Day.

- BD

Not really. No one is telling these parents OR coaches that their middle schooler is playing "up" against kids 4 years older. You have to know about the teams and leagues and age groups to puzzle out from the schedule who is who. Even you, an experienced referee, did not know that U19 rec included 2005s. Valor is really just trying to fly under the radar on this. People show up for games expecting their U16 kids to be playing other U16 teams, why would they think ANY different? Most people don't even know how to find the schedule and just go where the coach tells them to be. They will probably think the U19 teams are U16 teams cheating.

This is spot on. Valor is simply trying to sneak this through without anyone noticing. They didn't have enough interest to actually have a fully stocked tournament of competitive teams so they are slapping together this Frankenstein tournament of rec teams playing all star teams and middle schoolers playing high schoolers. Then some crazies pop up on this thread in the last couple days to tell us that we're wrong to be concerned with this tournament, "Move along folks, nothing to see here." I call BS on this. FPYC and the Herndon all stars have never done anything like this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

Would have your high school freshmen kid play against college freshmen? It's the same age difference. It sounds a tad bit absurd to me.

Look, I grew up in Georgia and skipped a grade, and I played basketball and "touch" (not gently) football against people who'd been held back a couple of years. I know I sound like one of those Gen X meme groups on Facebook in which we all talk about being left at the playground for hours and whatnot, but ...

How about this -- maybe the coaches and parents can decide whether the competition level is appropriate. If I had an eighth-grader on the smaller, slower side, maybe I wouldn't want him in this event. If I were Freddy Adu's dad (or Olivia Moultrie's or Lily Yohannes'), I'd have no reservations about it.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where the Fredericksburg U16 team lies.

I had to coach a U16 rec team -- and a cobbled-together team with some special-needs kids at that -- against a U19 team a couple of times. I didn't like it. We got blown out. I didn't have to send anyone to the hospital. I didn't even have to use my ice packs.

If coaches and refs are sensible, they'll figure it out. If they're not sensible, then NO soccer game is safe. I reffed a game with a U10 girls team whose coach admitted after the games that they "play tough," and it was just too bad that the poor girls on the other team were getting hurt. It can happen ANYWHERE.

If there's a big gulf in talent, chances are pretty slim anyone will get hurt because one team will have the ball the whole time, anyway. The odds of getting hurt in an 8-0 game are a lot less than the odds of getting hurt in a 2-2 game unless the team that's down 8-0 is really angry (which could happen here) and physically imposing (which is exactly the opposite point that you're arguing).

If you're a parent on one of these teams, and you have a problem with it, talk to the coach! If you're not, have a Happy Father's Day.

- BD

Not really. No one is telling these parents OR coaches that their middle schooler is playing "up" against kids 4 years older. You have to know about the teams and leagues and age groups to puzzle out from the schedule who is who. Even you, an experienced referee, did not know that U19 rec included 2005s. Valor is really just trying to fly under the radar on this. People show up for games expecting their U16 kids to be playing other U16 teams, why would they think ANY different? Most people don't even know how to find the schedule and just go where the coach tells them to be. They will probably think the U19 teams are U16 teams cheating.

Anonymous wrote:SYA Rosales is a regular u16 rec team playing multiple U19 teams, so it seems there are multiple 8th grader v 12th grader games happening.

Do you know if it's exactly the same U16 team, or if they changed it up for the tournament, or if Coach Rosales is simply coaching a different team altogether?

You can't tell from just the name. Even if it's *mostly* the same team, it might not be *entirely* the same team -- I've seen SFL teams pick up a few players and enter an All-Star tournament under the same vague name.

Or it might be the same team. You just can't assume. If you're in SYA and happen to know, OK. Otherwise, it's conjecture.

If you're the parent of an eighth-grader on Coach Rosales' team and have a concern about it, talk with Coach Rosales. Maybe they could shift you to SYA Cardinals if the "Copa" group is basically U16s. Or maybe you sit this one out.

(Actually, now that the schedule is out, it appears SYA Rosales is in a group with the Fredericksburg team that is explicitly named "U16." So who knows?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

this is the strangest whatboutism i have ever read on here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

Explain the reasons why a 3rd grader boy playing a 7th grader boy is completely absurd and unacceptable, but an 8th grader playing a 12th grader is just fine. Are you implying that an 8th grader is a fully grown adult, like a 12th grader is? How old are your kids and do you have boys?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

It's also the same age span between a 72-year-old and a 76-year-old. Would you want to prevent them from playing with each other, lest the 76-year-old injure the youngster he's playing against?

It's also the same age span between a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old. That's not going to be an interesting game, even if the 2-year-old is Messi in a time machine.

Same reason we have the "half your age plus seven" dating guideline. When a 70-year-old widower marries a 55-year-old divorcee, no one bats an eye. Do you want your 18-year-old dating a 33-year-old?

SYA Rosales is a regular u16 rec team playing multiple U19 teams, so it seems there are multiple 8th grader v 12th grader games happening.

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

It's exactly the same age span. What's the "huuuuuuuuuge difference"?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a huuuuuuge difference between

- 3rd graders playing with 7th graders

and

- 8th graders (and older 8th graders at that) playing with 12th graders

Would I want to do it? No. But apparently Fredericksburg is fine with it.

Would have your high school freshmen kid play against college freshmen? It's the same age difference. It sounds a tad bit absurd to me.

Look, I grew up in Georgia and skipped a grade, and I played basketball and "touch" (not gently) football against people who'd been held back a couple of years. I know I sound like one of those Gen X meme groups on Facebook in which we all talk about being left at the playground for hours and whatnot, but ...

How about this -- maybe the coaches and parents can decide whether the competition level is appropriate. If I had an eighth-grader on the smaller, slower side, maybe I wouldn't want him in this event. If I were Freddy Adu's dad (or Olivia Moultrie's or Lily Yohannes'), I'd have no reservations about it.

Somewhere in between those two extremes is probably where the Fredericksburg U16 team lies.

I had to coach a U16 rec team -- and a cobbled-together team with some special-needs kids at that -- against a U19 team a couple of times. I didn't like it. We got blown out. I didn't have to send anyone to the hospital. I didn't even have to use my ice packs.

If coaches and refs are sensible, they'll figure it out. If they're not sensible, then NO soccer game is safe. I reffed a game with a U10 girls team whose coach admitted after the games that they "play tough," and it was just too bad that the poor girls on the other team were getting hurt. It can happen ANYWHERE.

If there's a big gulf in talent, chances are pretty slim anyone will get hurt because one team will have the ball the whole time, anyway. The odds of getting hurt in an 8-0 game are a lot less than the odds of getting hurt in a 2-2 game unless the team that's down 8-0 is really angry (which could happen here) and physically imposing (which is exactly the opposite point that you're arguing).

If you're a parent on one of these teams, and you have a problem with it, talk to the coach! If you're not, have a Happy Father's Day.

- BD