Age exemption thoughts

[The Man In Blue]

That said ... I teach in Mississippi, the only state that showed gains in 4th grade reading levels in 2019. They accomplished this by systematically failing students leading up to this test. Mississippi has the highest 3rd grade retention rate in the nation.

 

[heman1202]

Wouldn’t you just get a whole bunch of parents saying their kids were premature. How does one prove this? Seems like a can of worms.

 

[krazykat]

Summer babies (birthdays June - September) are more of an issue to me. I have witnessed multiple parents hold their kid back a grade to allow them to be a year older in high school sports.

 

[ang2bmd]

Kids born in December vs kids born in January. There has to be a cut off somewhere. Whether its grad year, age, what have you. Rec leagues will often allow a kiddo with a true disadvantage to play down but travel ball is what it is and it is not for everyone nor should it be.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Nimrod]

? Reclassing by taking a red shirt year?

Some high school student-athletes find a way to graduate early. Happens more often in basketball with elite players. Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the most recent NBA draft, graduated a year early, played one year of college ball when he normally would've been a senior. It's a way to get to the NBA ASAP.

 

[3girls]

My son was born in Aug. and his league cut off date is sept 1. He’s always the youngest and smallest kid out there. It doesn’t bother him, but there is a huge physical difference between a kid that’s 12 playing against late 14/early 15 yr olds.

 

[radness]

By sitting out a year between HS and college.

Yes...and there are players doing that who are red-shirting first year.
Can participate to an extent. Without losing a year of eligibilty.

Think this is a kind of wait in line behind the extended eligibilty players. While securing some sort of spot.

 

[John 800]

Nope, I get it.

This definitely wouldn't be to gain a competitive advantage. We played C level and were 4-12 this year. One of the kids is 47 lbs heading into 5th grade. Moving up to 12u next year.

Wow, My dd is going into 5th grade as well, she looks like she is playing up in 10u when she is actually a second year player and will move up next year. Tiniest kid on her team and in her grade at just under 60 lbs. To hear of a kid the same age that is 13 lbs lighter is eye opening. She will be forced to learn perfect technique for everything she does on the field, if she sticks it out, she could be a beast when she is older

 

[PDM]

The cut off for groups is always the player's age (birthdate) based on December 31. But here's something that I don't think is taken into consideration.

Scenario:
Let's say a mom has an abnormal pregnancy and for whatever reason has a child prematurely on December 1 of 2010 at 27 weeks. The actual due date was to be in February 2011, but for whatever reason the baby was born pre-maturely. A baby that early could be 1-2 lbs at the time of "birth". That baby spends the first 2 months of their life in a hospital and if they're lucky get to go home around February in 2011 and at that point could be anywhere from 4lbs to 5lbs. This would be around the time of the "normal" due date of February 2011. That baby could technically have a birthdate of say December 1 2012, but was realistically (adjusted birthdate) would of been February of 2011 when that baby was brought home. In this case the player would be considered 11 years of age (12U) based on their premature birthdate going into next year, but their adjusted birthdate/home date would be February of 2011 and could be playing another year of 10U if the adjusted home/due date was taken into consideration. Most children that are born very prematurely usually take 2-3 years to "catch up" developmentally with full-term babies. Thoughts on possible age exception for the rare players that might fall into this category?

The date on the birth certificate is all that should matter. I was born more than a month premature and my birthday fell just 2 days prior to the cutoff. I was always the smallest in my class until I reached HS. In retrospect, it might have been nice to be one of the older kids in the age group rather than the youngest, but I have no regrets. It made me work harder and it was probably a net gain. Taking conditions at birth into consideration would just be ridiculous. The parent of every kid born in December would file for an exception and then a lawsuit would follow if that exception was not granted. We are talking about youth sports here. The child's life will not be ruined if she competes with kids a few months older. If it's that important, greyshirt the child (have her repeat 8th grade) before she gets to HS so she will have more time to prepare for her D1 career.

 

[BrianTx01]

I have asked the North Texas USSSA and USA officials if there has ever been any consideration to change to natural school years instead of birth years. Right now kids that were born Sept - December can't play with kids in their same grade....even if they were never held back and started on time. I was basically told that they would never change their age rules. I know saying birth years is easy for tryout posts but they could use grad years just as well....but it isn't going to happen. The good news is the advantage of being older gets smaller over time.