[Saratoga_86]

This my 21st year of coaching/teaching and I can say that holding a student athlete back is not a bad thing. I held my son back in the 1st grade last year and he was a fine student but he was shy and not very social. The extra year has made him a leader and the teacher that told me that I should not hold him back now says it's the best thing that I could have done for him. My son is now in the 2nd grade and he brings nothing home below a 90 or 95% on all of his classwork, he is very social and he thrives on being the leader of his class and grade. I wasn't sure if he wanted to be an athlete or not but this hold back year has given him the confidence he needed and he is chomping at the bit to go out for pee-wee football next year. I know this is a little different than what some of you are talking about but I also coach 7th/8th grade kids in football and it makes a huge difference in them as well. The hold-backs that I have are the leaders in the hallways, classrooms and in the community and my teachers love having them in class. I agree that holding one back for football and football alone is not a good idea but I have yet to see a 7th or 8th grader that was held back on my team not become more social, better leader, gain more self confidence and become a better student. This is just my story and some other coach may have some horror stories but not in my county or on my team. Why not give a young man one more year at home to develop into a man before they are sent off to college. College and the real world is rough enough so why not give these young men every advantage that we can give them before they have to grow up and become adults. The same people that are saying that it's not right for my 13 or 14 year old little Johnny to be playing against 14 or recently turned 15 year old kids will be the same ones that complain that their 14 year old doesn't get a fair chance as a freshmen to play on the varsity team with 18 year old players. This is a horse that we beat to death every year on BGR and ultimately it really doesn't matter what you or me think about the situation because it's a parents personal decision that they have to make for their child. Currently the only rule in Kentucky is that a student can't turn 15 before August 1st of their 8th grade year along with not being able to turn 19 before August 1st of their senior year. Football/basketball/baseball is just a child's game, if we can do something like holding one back and giving them an advantage in the real "game of life" why shouldn't we do it. I'm sure I will get some negative feedback for posting this as a coach/teacher but my job is to make life easier in the long run for these kids that I am working with. I will be holding my daughter back at the end of this year (1st grade) and I'm not sure if she will play sports or not but I will sleep well at night knowing that I will not have to send her off to college while she is 17 getting ready to turn 18, I like the idea of her being 18 and turning 19 in just a few months after she enrolls as a fresh in college. Wow I wrote a small book and I apologize for that but this is an issue that I am passionate about and I may see it a little different than some folks but I feel strongly that this should be a private issue that should be made by a child's parent and not someone else with an idea that wedges someone under a blanket statement of saying that "Holding a child back is a mistake and shouldn't be done EVER."

:Thumbs: Coach , my family and I , thank you for this post ... You're a class act ...:Thumbs: