Minnehaha Academy's Craig McDonald Ruled Ineligible to Play His Senior Year.

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GFBfan said:
By the bolded then, you are ok with an athlete having 7 season of HS competition?

A student held back for legitimate reasons before kindergarten, could turn 19 in September. They would then be ineligible to ever compete as a senior under your plan.
Also what of an athlete who turns 19 in say Dec., which is semester 7. They are then ineligible for semester 8 which all winter sport activities fall in, so that athlete wouldn't be able to compete for a state title as an individual or with the team in any winter or spring sport.
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I’m not sure how to state it any more clearly than that I think you should get four seasons in grades 9-12, if you’re of appropriate age. If you’re a junior high/middle schooler competing on a high school team, that’s on you (and your parents).

If you’re born just before the semester starts, and your parents hold you back to start that fall, and then hold you back another year on top of that (which is your first scenario), that’s on them. You’ll turn 19 just before semester 7 and be ineligible your senior year. I’m sure there are waivers, so maybe not.

Your second scenario is an incorrect understanding of he rule. It says that you’re allowed to turn the maximum age in either of the last two semesters and be eligible for that whole school year season.
 

Personally I think the kid got screwed. Parents did the right thing at that particular age to hold him back when he switching schools when he needed a boost. It was an academic boost not a athletic boost in my opinion. In reality more kids should be held back but both the kids and the parents don't have the courage to make a decision like this.
 

#2Gopher said:
Personally I think the kid got screwed. Parents did the right thing at that particular age to hold him back when he switching schools when he needed a boost. It was an academic boost not a athletic boost in my opinion. In reality more kids should be held back but both the kids and the parents don't have the courage to make a decision like this.
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Word on the street ( take it for what you want) but the WORD seems solid.. Allegedly there is another kid at the same school who allegedly repeated 7th or 8th grade at said school. Citing the same provision and reasons why. Coincidence?? Hmm ��
 

Roland Brooks said:
Word on the street ( take it for what you want) but the WORD seems solid.. Allegedly there is another kid at the same school who allegedly repeated 7th or 8th grade at said school. Citing the same provision and reasons why. Coincidence?? Hmm ��
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Well, I guess they’ll learn the very easy loophole in the current rules: hold them back a year, before 7th grade.
 




My nephew who grew up in San Antonio Texas said holding kids back a year in school for football is a lot more common than you think.

I guess one would have to compile the statistics of all incoming recruits from Texas to determine their age.

In Craig McDonald's case, IMHO his parents where thinking on the academic side of things. Maturity is a bonus.
 

I have no inside information, but I do have some insight. I was a Minnehaha grad, and I have been teaching 8th grade at private schools for over a decade now.

A few times in the last decade, we have had a students apply or transfer in our out of our school during middle school and repeat a grade. It removes much of the stigma of being held back a year, and removes the student from a setting where they were struggling academically for a variety of reasons. These have included: kid being bullied and missing school, kid with mental illness struggling in school, kid with tough home life missing school, kid with cancer missing school, kid who made poor choices getting a fresh start etc.

I would guess McDonald is somewhere on that spectrum.
 

This has happened before. Back in the 70's a kid from Duluth Central was declared ineligible for using up his semesters of eligibility. What happened was the kid's mother had been very ill and he stayed home to help take care of her. The school in Syracuse NY when they lived at the time didn't remove him from the enrollment rolls so he was listed as a student. After the family moved to Duluth he used up his eligibility. And FWIW the family moved to Duluth as the dad was in the Air Force and was transferred to the then open Duluth Air Force Base
 



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