There’s a brewing issue in my recreation league about allowing U11 players to play in a U14 bracket.
In our area, the U14 bracket is considered the “middle school” bracket. Due to a low number of kids that sign up at this age (most of them are playing travel soccer), our league has combined the bracket and allows U12, U13 and U14 to play together in the same bracket.
Now, we do have a U12 bracket for U11 and U12 players. However, we have a growing trend of U11 kids that are 6th graders and want the chance to play with their middle school teammates on the same team.
Our league rules states that a player may not play up more than one age bracket (so U10 can not play up to U12). However, an emergency vote is being requested by a local club to allow 5-6 U11 players to play in this “middle school” bracket. The club has said that if these U11 kids are not allowed to play in this bracket, they will have to turn away 9-10 kids because they will not have enough to be able to field a team.
I’m not to thrilled to have any player play outside their own age group. Honestly, there’s no reason to go this direction.
Unfortunately, I think the league’s board of directors will vote to approve these U11 kids to play in the U14 bracket. I think this might open a can of worms as well as an unwanted liability.
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