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Who is our message for?

It’s the parents and kids who don’t have experience with or understand the systems at play regarding age and eligibility in high school sports - and the repercussions that lack of knowledge can have down the line.

If you do understand the systems at play.. don’t worry about reading on, because you’re wasting your time - you're already holding your kid back.

The Basics of The Situation

At Pursuit we are first-principle-thinkers and we are very much common sense people.  We believe knowledge is power and that the truth is undefeated.

Our opinion is easily understood when accepting two fundamental truths:

1. The “rule” is that a hold back year generally benefits kids (in athletics and all areas of life).
2. The “exception” is that a hold back year doesn’t generally benefit kids (in athletics and all areas of life.

This topic shouldn’t be taboo.  It hurts a lot of kids and families that don’t understand the systems at play.  We’re leveling the playing field by sounding the alarms and raising awareness.

And to the people who are offended by this discussion, you simply just aren’t accepting of the reality of the situation.  Competitive people don't follow the “recommendation” of when to begin schooling.  They follow the “limit” allowed. 

History shows competitive people plan based on the limit - not somewhere in the middle.  And certainly not somewhere at the bottom of the range.  

So what’s the limit?

1. What’s my kids birthdate?
2. What graduating class can I place my kid in that gets them the closest to the age limit of eligibility in their 4th year of competition without passing it?

In regards to OHSAA In Ohio, once a student attains the age of 20, the student will no longer be eligible for interscholastic athletic competition notwithstanding where that 20th birthday falls in relation to the sports season.

So in this situation, planning based on the limit would mean timing your kid's last year of eligibility for high school athletics to fall as close to the cutoff before becoming ineligible due to turning 20 in relation to your sports timing/season.

This is what competitive people will largely go off of.  Right, wrong or indifferent, it’s the reality of the situation.

But what about the effects of a holdback year on the other components of life?  Academics, Emotional Control, Social Constructs/Friends, etc.

Well, the “rule” is that an extra year of development generally benefits kids in all areas, not just athletics.  The “exception” is that it would be detrimental.  Based on our first hand experience and all of the 3rd party testimonies we hear from people who decided to hold back (along with those who didn’t and wish they did).  It’s overwhelmingly in favor of a holdback year because of the benefits it brings in ALL areas of life.

For some reason there is a mob that gets offended when talking about this.  Every year, lack of knowledge and discussion on the topic is greatly altering kid's lives for the worse across the country. And we are confident that we are not hurting people by raising awareness and making recommendations on what will be beneficial to the vast majority of kids.  

In response to the opinion director & senior opinion at Flo, Christian Pyles:

It is 100% part of our job to be sure that our clubs kids and parents are aware of the facts of this situation.  As a private club we get to make that call.  Anybody that walks through our doors did so on their own accord.  They can all expect to hear/learn the dynamics of age limits and eligibility in high school sports.  And they can also expect to hear our opinion on it.  Ultimately we provide information and recommendations and then the parents make a decision with their kid.  Then we coach the athlete to reach their potential given the decisions the parent made.

Our people know us and they trust us.  It’s why they come to us.  They also know that while we have opinions, they are certainly entitled to their own.   Honestly, we feel ridiculous even having to state such obvious things, but recent slander by Christian Pyles about a range of topics forced us to touch on the obvious here as well.

We’ll also note it’s ironic Christian said his core issue wasn’t that he’s against a hold back year, but rather our “overstep and over reach” given our role as a coach.  While we don’t believe we committed an over reach with our discussions and opinions in our private club, we certainly think Christian greatly overstepped and over reached in his hit piece/slander he put out on us.

But what can we say, virtue signalers are gonna virtue signal.  That boy Christian is always hungry to have his validation-complex fed by people on the internet.

TO BE ADDED:

• List of Potential Benefits

• List of Potential Non-benefits

• Eliminate the Double Hold Back?