My son plays baseball in Canada, yet his team frequently plays tournaments throughout the United States.

He will be repeating his junior year, in part because of academics and in part because of a need to improve his academic study habits before college (his current SAT score is ~1100 out of 1600, but his high school performance does not match this). Accordingly, he will be graduating in 2008, taking many junior courses this year.

In our province, more than 30% of students follow this academic path

He is young enough to play on our local 17U next year, since he was born at the end of August. In my understanding, in some states he would actually be entering his junior year in high school at his age.

My question is "would he be eligible to play in tournaments designated "junior" next year?" (as opposed to tournaments designated 17U).

He will be graduating in 2008, and he is the right age for a junior.

But perhaps there is some other consideration regarding eligibility other than age and graduating year?


thanks for any clarification

The only restrictions I'm ever aware of are age. Seems to me he should be fine with his "junior" class.

Gruffy- welcome to HSBBWeb. On my team and teams in the past I've had several experiences with kids that havev been "held back". In fact, there have been times that a kid has been a 2009 grad. (I'm a 2008), yet is nearly a year older than me. If a tournament specificies "junior" or 17u or whatever, it only matters what your son is classified as at that very moment. So yes, he would qualify

We always go by school class---that takes care of the age situation by itself--if you are older than the school requirements you won't be playing HS baseball anyway

After reading this thread I'd like to get some clarification. If a 2010 grad will be 18 in the spring of '09, will he be restricted from playing 18U summer? His age has caused problems in the past due to tournament age rules and his team being set up as a class age team.

Is the HS requirements different for each state or standard and what is that age cutoff?

Thanks!

Let's take the easy stuff first. For straight age based play (e.g. USSSA, etc), for the player to be eligible for 18U in the spring and summer of 2009, he must be born on or after May 1, 1990.

In CABA, an 18 year old is eligible for the high school division if he will return to high school the following year.

I can't comment on American Legion or Connie Mack.

For Perfect Game tournaments like the World Wood Bat, he could play in the 2010 grad/17U tournament held in 2009, and the following year in the 2010 tournament.

For play in Spring 2009 in high school, there should be no problem. In Spring 2010, it depends on the state. NFHS recommends that a player who turns 19 before September 1st of the senior year is ineligible, but the actual rules vary by state. I believe that Texas is fairly lenient, with a process to allow play until age 20 is reached.

Thanks 3FingeredGlove and zombywoof you've answered my questions and actually gave us more opportunities to look into.

Connie Mack uses the May 1 birthday.
Texas is not lenient in high school.
Like you said a player can't turn 19 before his senior year in Texas. If he does he can't play any sports.

I don't know about Canada, but in California, your son would not be eligible to play high school varsity baseball when he was a Senior, if he repeated Junior year. I don't believe there is any restriction on the Fall Ball Junior tournaments, but what about the idea of playing up?

I was confused initially when reading this thread, so I should have mentioned this in my first reply, but the first 4 posts are from 2006, and I believe are not related to the recent inquiry from 4RHPTX21, except for the consideration of age.

Thanks again for all who have give me input. My son repeated 1st grade due to medical issues. He will turn 19 the spring of his Senior year. Fron what I have read in the TX UIL manual that as long as he is not 19 prior to September 1st, 2009 he is fine. He has played 18U for the past 2 seasons just so we don't run into age problems. But since he's recovered from shoulder problems last spring, has worked hard to get on back on track with his pitching. We just want to make sure he has ever opportunity to get on the radar.