And in some places in the south.. if you're good enough in high and/or big enough. In 7th-8th grade they will let you play high school ball if you keep your mouth shut
Do parents in your area hold back their kids for sports.
- Thread starter wvmystichrome
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And in some places in the south.. if you're good enough in high and/or big enough. In 7th-8th grade they will let you play high school ball if you keep your mouth shut
I see it more lately. And more with kids that are in private school. And the parents have typically been involved in sports at some level.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/16/redshirting
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/16/redshirting
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Same here. I was, unfortunately, held back in kindergarten as well. Some parents do it because they are just too close to the deadline and they want their kids to mature a little more before putting them in. Some feel it's better to start a little older than it is to start "too young".
Are you sure these kids are being held back because of the sports though? Something tells me it's actually due to the kids not having the developmental skills and maturity to progress in school. Is this hear-say or can we prove somehow this is what is happening on a regular basis?
Exactly the same in my area while I was still in school. Nowadays it's becoming more uncommon for my area.
What is a year later? 7? Why?
Yup. It often has to due with the age cutoff. When I was small, from what I was told, you had to be age 5 by Aug 30th to start school. Since my birthday is in September, I was always one of the older kids in my class. I'm told I already knew everything that was taught in Kindergarten so the possibility of putting me into 1st grade was mentioned. That would have then made me probably the youngest, so for that and whatever other reasons, it didn't happen.
Pretty much the same where I'm from. It's funny now because I'm starting to see lots of them show up in the little county paper and on the sheriff's office facebook page as recently arrested and I'm realizing that quite a few of the "athletes" that I played with were 2+ years older than me and a year behind me in school....Suddenly explains a lot about their level of physical development, etc. as compared to the rest of us back then...
I see/hear about it a lot at the kindergarten level as well. Like others said, mostly kids who are either a little behind developmentally or right at the age range where they'll always be the youngest in the class...Parent's like to start them a year later....I see it more with boys than girls so I would assume it's athletics related...
I don't buy into it though under normal circumstances...
Here in MD and VA, it's the way you describe. OP is saying his kid played Varsity HS BBall in the 6th grade...
My wife's family in western PA say they don't have middle school and HS starts at 6th grade. That's why I was wondering how the OP's schools work.
What we see here are parents who think their kids are better than they really are so when a better kid comes and bumps them off the roster they come up with all sorts of wild conspiracies as to why it happened. It probably happens there quite a bit too.
Yes she is in middle school, 6th to 8th grades. My daughter has been good enough to play High school Varsity since 6th grade. She is in 8th now. She actually practiced with the team in her 5th grade year and sat on the bench at home games because she was to small to get in the game. The parents hold their kids back to be "more mature" but in reality it is to control the game/team and take up spots. In fact the ones I am talking about just played in a state tournament involving 7th and 8th graders and they literally blew the other teams off the floor. Did the officials know that 4 or 5 of the 8 players should have been in the 9th or 10th grade. I doubt it but that is the way the middle school coach wants it.
I like you. You are telling the truth but of course my daughter goes to school in Kentucky and this is where it is happening. You get a few go on to college but very few.
Yes they make the point to let people know. Kentucky actually stopped this practice 7-1-13 and if they are caught then they can't play. Also once they turn 19 any sport they play that has started the season yet they are disqualified from. There are about 3 on the current middle school team that will not be playing their senior season. Actually my daughter has followed several kids in school that are now either behind her a grade or in the same grade as her.
Kentucky made it illegal, to a point, as of 7-1-13.
Yes she started playing on the high school JV and Varsity team in the 6th grade. She made a name for herself because many of the nearby schools have recruited her to play for them but my wife says she is going to her old high school and graduating. So I do not have much to say. That's wild western PA doesn't have middle schools.
We always made those jokes about the eastern KY football teams in high school. Considering the number of mustaches we usually saw on some of those teams I think there was some truth to it. I would say its not unheard of.
I'm not sure how it slips past, possibly the parents going along the lines of "he's just not getting this, I think he should repeat it." As far as the scouts go, yea, they'll see the kid is a year older, but that isn't what they are concerned with. They are focusing on who can bring in results quickly as a freshman/minor league player. Or they were overlooked by a certain school/team in scouting that year, so they figure they'll try the next year around.
I think it depends on the situation, age, sport, etc. Most hard core sports parents plan years in advance and won't put their kids in kindergarten until they are 6.
I played football (receiver, DB) and wish I had been held back at least one year as I was one of the youngest in my graduating class at 17; most were 18 and some were 19.
I went from 5'10" 170 lbs. at the start of my senior year to 6' and 190 before I turned 19 which would have made me average to slightly above average in size and strength rather than being one of the smaller guys on the team.
I played football (receiver, DB) and wish I had been held back at least one year as I was one of the youngest in my graduating class at 17; most were 18 and some were 19.
I went from 5'10" 170 lbs. at the start of my senior year to 6' and 190 before I turned 19 which would have made me average to slightly above average in size and strength rather than being one of the smaller guys on the team.
I love sports, but I can't even fathom "planning" my kids life around sports at the age of 4/5/6 years old.
My daughter has classmates with better beards than I do at 55 and they are in the 7th and 8th grades. One walked by us one day and I asked her if he played for the high school team and she said No Dad he just in the 8th grade. That is why our local middle school team has won the MS football championship for the first 2 years of it's inception and playing for a threepeat tomorrow in Lexington. See if you can check out Ihigh sports website and see if you can find the 2012 KY MS championship game. Our boys are a foot taller and 75 - 100 lbs heavier than the other team.
Actually the parents usually make the deals with the principle so they can do it right. 95%+ are not held back because of learning problems but because of playing sports.
At my old high school, you would not be eligible. My brother runs for my old team (he is 19) and is only allowed to participate (he was held back because he is developmentally disabled) because the times he runs are slow enough that he rarely if ever impact the scoring and therefore is one of the 75% of kids in dual meets who are essentially there running competition just to beat their own previous records.
In XC/Winter/Spring track here in Central NJ, 18 is the cutoff. Obviously there is a rare exception for birthday issues, etc. but the rules are in place to prevent something like this from happening. Also, in invitationals (large weekend multiple team meets) there is Varsity, JV, and Freshmen races (freshmen usually run a shorter race than the JV/Varsity 5K). Freshmen can only run in freshmen races, regardless of times. Sophmores and juniors can run JV and may be moved up to varsity if they qualify by times or the team needs them to (you must field 5 runners to officially score as a team). Seniors may only run Varsity, regardless of times. This keeps upper classmen from being dropped down into a freshmen race to stack a team or freshmen from being run too hard too early and burning out.
In XC/Winter/Spring track here in Central NJ, 18 is the cutoff. Obviously there is a rare exception for birthday issues, etc. but the rules are in place to prevent something like this from happening. Also, in invitationals (large weekend multiple team meets) there is Varsity, JV, and Freshmen races (freshmen usually run a shorter race than the JV/Varsity 5K). Freshmen can only run in freshmen races, regardless of times. Sophmores and juniors can run JV and may be moved up to varsity if they qualify by times or the team needs them to (you must field 5 runners to officially score as a team). Seniors may only run Varsity, regardless of times. This keeps upper classmen from being dropped down into a freshmen race to stack a team or freshmen from being run too hard too early and burning out.
I'm not sure if that's the same case out here, it might be. Generally though the guys I knew that were held back were dumb as bricks anyways but always managed to maintain that GPA to play.
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