MAN CHILD

[Missoula Griz]

MAN CHILD

 

My 12 year old son who is 4' 9" and 90 pounds has competed against Jesse in football, baseball and basketball. My son played QB last year in the same league, and Jesse threw him around like a ragdoll during their first game. It scared the piss out of my boy to see Jesse line up at middle linebacker ready to crunch him at first, but by the second time we played his team the fear was much less.

 

Jesse plays within the rules, but he is so advanced and big for his age that many parents were concerned, as I was, for their children's health. I had no problem with my son competing against him. I never witnessed anyone getting injured, other than the wind getting knocked out of them.

 

I can understand both sides to the arguement. They should have let him play up with the junior high team.

[detlef]

This, of course, is not the first time this sort of story has come up. When I played Pop Warner, we had both age and weight restrictions for all classes that were flexible to a degree, but would likely have pushed a guy like him up a few classes.

 

To be completely honest, if he really wants to play football, it would likely be best for him if they could simply find a way to allow him to compete with older kids who are more his size. My guess is that, like most, he's simply grown faster at a particular phase and many may catch up to him at a certain point. This means that the kids could catch up to him by HS. If, rather than being put in games with kids his size, he could get lazy and develop poor habits because, against kids his own age, he can do whatever he wants.

 

So, assuming football is important, I would hope his parents could figure out a way to get him into a league with older kids. If that is completely out of the question, than I think it's a crime that he can't play at all.