Johnp2 21 Report post Posted August 19, 2008 My son has always been the youngest player on his team. The first year he played sports, he was was 4 in a 4-5 league. The next season they changed it to a 5-6 league, and then to a 6-7 league. If you have followed the math, you see that each season he was to be an older player, but they moved it up. Last season they did k'2nd grade, which I thought was interesting. My son was in 1st grade, so figure next season in 2nd grade, he'll play among the older players.However, I just found out they are changing it to ages again, and one of them is 8-9 year olds. My son turns 8 on the first game of the season. Thus here we are again with him being one of the youngest players (at least last season he had two players out of 12 that were younger than him).On the plus side, he's always had a maturity level higher than his age, and his best friends on his teams have always been the oldest players. Additionally, I will get back a lot of my strongest players who are now 9 (and his best friends on last year's team). We talked about it, as the league offered to allow me to put him in the 6-7 league seeing how is birthday is right on the deadline, but he's done pretty well playing with older kids his athletic career, and figure when the time does come where he is one of the oldest, he will dominate like few have seen. :-)Do you guys think I made the right choice? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hollad6636 0 Report post Posted August 19, 2008 John,I think it depends on the kid but you would know better than anyone by how your child is reacting. I have three boys. My oldest and my youngest I would have never played up, but my middle son always played up and thrived. Incidently, when by the time he was in middle school I really had to push him as he started to take things for granted as he thought he was all that. I noticed his work ethic was no longer there. I questioned him and it took a little while for him to turn things around and start working hard again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rushbuster70 16 Report post Posted August 19, 2008 I'd have to say if hes up for it and you know he can play with the kids do it...Obviously let him know what to expect but he should be fine.One of the best and most unique players I ever had was 10 and I was coaching 11-14 year olds.His only downfall is you could see it in his height but he was an amazing athlete and was very very good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orange 26 Report post Posted August 19, 2008 I've had 3 kids playing with my team that were "playing up." Two of them could handle it and one was out of his league, literally and figuratively. But even the two that could handle it played towards the lower end of my average players. I always thought how great it would be for them to play at their own age level and actually be one of the stars of their team. Playing up has its advantages, but so does playing at your own level. My son has always played on his age level and he's excelled. This summer he played in a basketball league where he was on the lower end of the 2 year age span. The first few weeks he struggled but he rose to the challenge and was playing as well as anyone. Personally I think it pushed him harder and he thrived under those conditions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johnp2 21 Report post Posted August 19, 2008 Thanks for the replies. FWIT, my son WILL be within his age group, but his eighth birthday literally is on the "cut-off" date between 6-7 and 8-9. Thus he will be the youngest player in the entire league (unless someone has his birthday). I have no doubt he can handle it--just would have been nice to see how much he'd dominate being the oldest for once. Next season, I guess. For now it's time to go to work! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
