[skyhawk14]

Ive never understood this point, or what I would call an excuse.

Every player in the state can be held back in grade school for pretty much any reason. Whitley has done this hundreds of times with girls bball players but not really in any other sports. The only way to rank players is usually by grade. To say a 14 year old is being cheated because a 15 year old is in the same grade is kind of absurd. The 14 years olds parents had the same opportunity and could have held her back as well.

Not to mention its is 100% legal so long as they don't end up turning 19 before August 1st of there senior year. Ive found a lot of Whitleys girls that were held back had summer birthdays and should have started in the grade they were held back to anyways.

No excuse, and never mentioned anyone getting cheated. It is perfectly legal and is justified to do for many reasons. Just saying if you are comparing talent, it is useful to have ages vs grade level. I know on this site and in high school bball discussions in general, grade level is king. However, there is a reason AAU is based on age and not grade level, so talent can be evaluated more accurately and efficiently. I promise you, if you have a college coach trying to decide who to offer between two fairly equal kids and one is a 19 year old senior and the other is a 17 year old senior, the 17 year old gets the nod in most cases. That is my point.... At the end of the day, if holding a kid back is in the best interest of the kid and it helps them develop into a better athlete, in turn, allowing them more time to develop which helps them get a free higher education, that is awesome and warms my heart. However, all of us know of kids who were already well advanced beyond there age level and were still held back by their parents (lots of times against the kids wishes) so the parent can live vicariously through the child and fuel their own need for a higher socio-economic status.