Final Poll USA lacrosse Mag

[coda]

All I'm really trying to say, and I'm not making judgements in any directions, is that when you start your freshman year of college...

17 is young
18 is standard
19 is old

I can see why families take advantages of the loopholes if they are able. I also have to believe college coaches are at least wise to it if not encouraging it.

See that is where people disagree. The age is pretty much set in stone. You should be in kindergarten, if you are 5 years old prior to Sept 1. That means 17 when you graduate HS. Many have blamed the book Outliers for the trend of putting kids in later to school. I think anyone that is over 40 years old would attest that HS graduates are older today, than when they grew up. I am not saying you are making any judgments. I am simply saying there are a lot more players that are graduating in classes that are 2 years later, than the written standard to start school. I can will also say the standard at most of these big private schools is to recruit Sophs and have them reclass. Many of those kids have already started school at a later age. They are considered double reclasses by age, even if they did not take 2 years over. I am just saying it is much more pervasive, than you believe.

That means 17 when you graduate if you were born in the second half of June - August, and you'd still be 18 when college starts. Right, or am I taking crazy pills?

While double declassing (or more accurately, re-classing and PGing) in these instances does not make the kid in question two years older than the competition, they are closer to two years older than they are to being merely one year older.

You reference the age 17 a lot, but it doesn't carrie that much weight in most cases. A kid starting college at 17 is young for his age. But that's the key word, starting. Even in that rare subset of kids, most of them turn 18 within a month of the start of college, so they are essentially 18, and really only a few months younger than they should be for the graduating class they are in. Re-classing for these kids makes sense, as they are now in the "correct" year and not at any development disadvantage. But they are now at the front of the line developmentally speaking, and thus should have no need to PG on top of it.

On a separate note, someone mentioned McCabe Millon on here as a potential double re-class, and that is not the case based on his DOB; he is more similar to Spallina in that he would have been on the younger side of the "correct" graduating class above him. The difference is Spallina is 3 months older than the typical September cut-off, whereas Millon is 6 months older than the cut-off. Whether those extra three months make these cases materially different is hard to say (I find summer birthdays to be maybe slightly more of a grey area, but that is just my own personal take). Either way, I think Owen Duffy is the best player in the class of 2023; when you factor in that he is 11 months younger than Millon, it becomes a no brainer to me.

I was told Millon was a double re-class, but did not see the date of birth. I gave that caveat. You are correct on Spallina. I did my numbers incorrectly. Simply added 13 to the 2008 (counting 2008), but that gets you to the year he started his senior year, not the graduation year. My bad.

[Laxxal22]

You reference the age 17 a lot, but it doesn't carrie that much weight in most cases. A kid starting college at 17 is young for his age. But that's the key word, starting. Even in that rare subset of kids, most of them turn 18 within a month of the start of college, so they are essentially 18, and really only a few months younger than they should be for the graduating class they are in. Re-classing for these kids makes sense, as they are now in the "correct" year and not at any development disadvantage. But they are now at the front of the line developmentally speaking, and thus should have no need to PG on top of it.

Yes, this was the point I was trying to get towards but perhaps not with best clarity.

[Laxxal22]

For an on-age PG that never reclassed, they actually play against the age peers their whole entire life until they get to that PG year, thus they dont necessarily get the recruiting benefit during their high school years. In fact, by the time the PG lacrosse spring season arrives, they will most likely know where they are going to college whether it be for lax or not because they are graduating a few weeks after the season ends.

There's definitely a trend with a couple of the MA based club teams for kids to declare their intention to PG after their freshman or sophomore year and reclass in club but stay on track to graduate with their original class (assuming they haven't already reclassed before). This allows for the recruiting benefit but doesn't handcuff them to another year, the way a high school reclass would, if the right offer presents itself.

[runrussellrun]

The coaches know how old you are (rosters and binder information spells it all out ) So, NONE of this matters in the least.

The only number that matters is 25.

Still (?) the n$aa age allowed to play, without a waiver.
___________________

[justanotherperson]

For an on-age PG that never reclassed, they actually play against the age peers their whole entire life until they get to that PG year, thus they dont necessarily get the recruiting benefit during their high school years. In fact, by the time the PG lacrosse spring season arrives, they will most likely know where they are going to college whether it be for lax or not because they are graduating a few weeks after the season ends.

There's definitely a trend with a couple of the MA based club teams for kids to declare their intention to PG after their freshman or sophomore year and reclass in club but stay on track to graduate with their original class (assuming they haven't already reclassed before). This allows for the recruiting benefit but doesn't handcuff them to another year, the way a high school reclass would, if the right offer presents itself.

Thats very interesting. I did not know that. That requires some clairvoyance at a high level to declare an intent to PG after only their freshman or sophomore year but it makes sense that they can still reclass with club to help with recruiting. Looking at the list from the other thread in the New England West, some of those look like they played club with their original year rather than play down - maybe they were late PG decisions

[LI13]

All I'm really trying to say, and I'm not making judgements in any directions, is that when you start your freshman year of college...

17 is young
18 is standard
19 is old

I can see why families take advantages of the loopholes if they are able. I also have to believe college coaches are at least wise to it if not encouraging it.

It seems to me that high school kids are getting older every year, and not just athletes. I don't know if this is just a weird COVID era thing but I have noticed that a substantial number of kids in my son's kindergarten class have already turned 7 as rising first graders or even a month or two before school ended. I don't think all of these parents are under the delusion that their kids will be D1 athletes. It just seems to be a trend to hold kids back before kindergarten. As a result, my son is often playing against kids 15-18 months older than he is in grade-based sports.

[Farfromgeneva]

Reading this thread is just making me think that my son (who was born September 25, 2017, and started kindergarten in August 2022 while he was still 4) is gonna need a double reclass and then a PG year if he wants to play college lax.

We did a second year of pre K for my son a few years back as Ga is 8/1 and his birthday is 8/23 so his first year of pre K there were 3-5 kids who turned 5 before he turned 4. Obviously had nothing to do with sports as much as learning social skills and implicit “leadership” of being an older kid vs very very young relative to his class. How that shakes out we will see but I think if it’s affordable and achievable it makes sense in that pre 7yr or so old age to consider the landscape. Environment matters when kids spend more time with classmates or similar than they do with working parents.

[LI13]

Reading this thread is just making me think that my son (who was born September 25, 2017, and started kindergarten in August 2022 while he was still 4) is gonna need a double reclass and then a PG year if he wants to play college lax.

We did a second year of pre K for my son a few years back as Ga is 8/1 and his birthday is 8/23 so his first year of pre K there were 3-5 kids who turned 5 before he turned 4. Obviously had nothing to do with sports as much as learning social skills and implicit “leadership” of being an older kid vs very very young relative to his class. How that shakes out we will see but I think if it’s affordable and achievable it makes sense in that pre 7yr or so old age to consider the landscape. Environment matters when kids spend more time with classmates or similar than they do with working parents.

I had people tell me to do that with my son, but the ones who knew him said he should go to kindergarten right away. It's worked out academically and socially, but athletically...man I feel bad sometimes watching him play against kids sometimes 18 months older than he is.

[Farfromgeneva]

Reading this thread is just making me think that my son (who was born September 25, 2017, and started kindergarten in August 2022 while he was still 4) is gonna need a double reclass and then a PG year if he wants to play college lax.

We did a second year of pre K for my son a few years back as Ga is 8/1 and his birthday is 8/23 so his first year of pre K there were 3-5 kids who turned 5 before he turned 4. Obviously had nothing to do with sports as much as learning social skills and implicit “leadership” of being an older kid vs very very young relative to his class. How that shakes out we will see but I think if it’s affordable and achievable it makes sense in that pre 7yr or so old age to consider the landscape. Environment matters when kids spend more time with classmates or similar than they do with working parents.

I had people tell me to do that with my son, but the ones who knew him said he should go to kindergarten right away. It's worked out academically and socially, but athletically...man I feel bad sometimes watching him play against kids sometimes 18 months older than he is.

It’s all idiosyncratic to the kid. I’m sure it’ll work out.