Age of High School Players?

It's a huge issue in middle school sports here. There are certain parts of the state that holdback their kids in ms so they enter their hs year at 18. They match it so the kids don't turn 19 before August 1st

This is where I think you guys (as a nation, not personally) have lost your collective minds with the whole "Mississippi redshirt" thing. You're costing him a year of his life for a shot at a little high school athletic glory? I love football as much as anyone, but there's more to life than HS sports.

I agree with you 100%; but there are enough crazy parent who think this is a big advantage to helping their kid get a scholly.

Technically, only a year old than classmates with close to the same birthday. Remember though that even just 4 or 5 months are a substantial percentage of a child's life when they are only 60-72 months old
I agree, obviously if everyone did it, then comparatively any advantage is lost. But everyone doesn't

What is "proper aged" though. Not to go off an an "deep thoughts" educational philosophy trip here but the only reason grade levels are stratified by age is because it is easy and convenient. Not because it is a best practice.

I disagree with you guys. My son will graduate at 17 and is. Very good h.s. qb. I wish he was staying home one more year. Not only for the development of his physical stature but to be to home around family. Costing him a year of his life? I disagree he has the rest of his life to work, I feel like we cheated him out of a year of being. Kid!

A bit, yes, but those examples are pretty uncontrollable, whereas holding a kid back is a post facto attempt at gaining an advantage at the direct expense of some other kid.

See in the schools that do the holdbacks here your kid would be a Soph unless he would turn 19 before Aug 1. We see some difference on the HS level but it is in the MS sports that you really see the difference. Thats were you'll see a team with 13 yr old 8th graders playing teams with 15 yr old 8th graders.

This is very heated debate in KY. There are parts of the state where it is the norm and a regular practice. There are upsides to it and most enroll their child at the normal starting age (due to day care costs) and then holdback the kid in MS. They have to do it before HS because of the rules. If the kid is going to play basketball in HS they hold them back in MS because they can play HS basketball as a MS kid

I turned 18 in Sept. of my senior year, and at 32 I wish I would have been held back. I would have been able to play my Senior year and had been 19 most of it. Here as long as you are 19 after Aug. 1 you can play. Had two friends who failed the 6th grade and they played their senior season of high school while I was a freshmen in college. My son is 9 right now and I haven't decide if I would do it for him or not, one because is sister is only a grade behind so they would wind up in the same grade if we held him back.

The last school I was at has one Boy's basketball state championship, all 5 starters had been held back.

It's one thing to hold off on enrolling a kid in kindergarten because you feel he's not ready. It's pure selfishness hold a kid back in the 8th grade just for sports and let taxpayers pay thousands of dollars to give him an unnecessary year. Yet, it does pay big dividends in athletics, especially if you can get it going program-wide.

For us, we have a couple of kids who were held back in the 8th grade for sports by their father, who's on our staff. One is our 2nd best athlete and a stud WR/DB for us. The other is his younger brother who is starting as a freshman. They should be a senior and a sophomore, respectively, but we are very fortunate to be getting both back and to have had that extra year of them both being varsity ready.

There's a school I know of in VA where it's the norm to hold football players back in the 8th grade. The coaches even pressure kids to go to their parents and insist they do it. They have won multiple state titles over the past few decades and are usually a powerhouse year in and out. There's just a huge difference between bringing your team of 17, 18, and almost 19 year olds in to play teams made up of mostly 15, 16, and 17 year olds.

However, it doesn't always work out as planned. It's fairly common for them to hold back mediocre kids who then get to H.S. and quit, or who flunk 8th grade the 2nd time through, or whatever.

I know of another school here who's a powerhouse year in and out and consistently goes undefeated in the regular season. A lot of this is due to illegal recruiting and simply having more money, resources, and students than their competition, but it's also pretty common for some of their best players to have flunked a year in elementary or middle school and be 16 or even turn 17 during their Soph. season. In their registration manual, they even have special sections of academic classes, like English, Math, and Biology, with the note "must be recommended by a coach to enroll" to ensure they don't flunk.

Also, psychological research data leans towards showing that students who are "overaged" relative to their classmates are more likely to be involved in deviant and risky behaviors, particularly boys, though these studies usually don't account for students who were held back by choice vs. those who flunked a year or two because they were having serious problems or were already delinquents.

Personally, I was barely 17 at the start of my senior season and was playing against kids who were almost 19, many of whom had come into HS as 15 year old freshman benching over 225 and went on to get scholarships. My confidence in my own abilities sucked, though I was just barely big and strong enough to compete, and I never even thought about the age difference. Looking back, I believe I could have benefited in many ways from being held back, though the thought of an extra year of school would have been devastating to me at the time.

"outliers" a must read for all coaches/teachers as far as I'm concerned. Basically a collection of case studies regarding the variables that have allowed the most successfully people in history to become successful. Basic thesis is that success cannot be predicted by any one variable but from a complex arrangement of factors including environment, relative age, intelligence (multiple types), work ethic (and work opportunity), and god given talent. Not only discusses what it takes to be elite in a field but also gives examples of individuals with extreme talent and brilliance who for one reason or another did not achieve the success that they were "destined" for. Obviously the studies are not totally conclusive, but the data presented is pretty staggering regarding children's ages within a relative group. IE, the kids who start their frosh year at 15 have been 6-8 months more mentally and physically mature than their grade level counter parts. At 15, 16, 17 the difference might not be noticeable, but at 7, those 8 months are more than 10% of the kids' lives. That initial advantage and subsequent performance is then parlayed into advanced youth league teams with better coaching/competition for the next 8 years. That 8+ years of advanced level competition is what the author theorizes as the real advantage that a 15 year old incoming freshman has over his 14 year old peers. Interesting. Here in the east bay, we only get 3 or 4 incoming freshman every year who have even played before so I guess it's not that big of a deal for us. Sounds like a circus back east. Good luck men.

I must admit that I am a little biased, because when Ontario went from Grade 13 to Grade 12 in HS a lot of kids started taking a fifth year of HS to take a "victory lap" or "Grade 12+" or a sarcastically termed "Grade 13." Having the most overagers is basically how you win a championship around here. If you're a mediocre athlete but a good student you'll probably never get a chance.

If you're on a team with a bunch of these kids, I guarantee that on your roster is a junior, one who is a decent but not spectacular athlete, works hard, causes no trouble, and knows that if he had a fair shake against kids his own age, could compete for some solid playing time and maybe a starting spot, but now he'll never see the field.

They'll be REAL good band kids.

Here you can't turn 19 before the first game to play... It was a recent rule change.

I was a 16 year old senior and really wish I had been a 18 or at least a 17 year old senior.

Also there was a team famous for having 19+ year old seniors. Like 70%+ of their senior class year after year. We played them my senior year. Wasn't fun... Granted they were probably one of the best public high school teams in the history of high school football.