Posted on 08/17/2012 4:11:21 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
A Texas Pee Wee football league has ruled that a 300-pound seventh-grader is too big to play, according to Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW Fox 4's website.
Elijah Earnhardt, 12, was informed this past weekend by the Mesquite Pee Wee Football Association that he is not allowed to play in the league, according to the report posted on MyFoxDFW.com.
The league's rule is that any seventh-grader weighing more than 135 pounds is barred and must play in his school's league, according to the report.
But Earnhardt, who is more than 6 feet tall, and his mother, Cindy, told the website that they still are pushing for admission into the league.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
1) I refuse to believe that in football-crazed Texas, there are no school teams in Jr. High (now often called “Middle School” lest self-esteem be injured).
2) Show us the birth certificate. This kid looks not just big, but old, for twelve.
That, I think may be the real issue. I remember a few years back reading about a kid playing in the Little League World Series that was way bigger and better than the other kids. He had a forged birth certificate from another country that made him a few years younger than he really was.
This is a common tactic for some sports-obcessed parents. Thinking of the big bucks for pro athletes, they do things like hold their kid back a few years in grade school, so they can be the biggest, oldest football player in high school and be a standout star, recuited to a major college, etc.
My question to all this is why is the mother against letting her son play for his Jr. High/Middle School?
For what it’s worth.....
snip
Elijah’s size hasn’t prevented him from playing football until now. And he and his mother said he’s not ready to go up against kids with years of playing behind them.
“I don’t want to play in school right now because it’s people that’s had experience and I want to get some experience first and then start playing,” he said. “I just want to play because my teammates are my friends. I know them. I don’t want to go play for somebody else I don’t know.”
Coach Marc Wright is protesting the decision. He said there are a lot of seventh graders over the weight limit and they are being allowed to play.
“If they’re over 135 they have to wear a symbol on their helmet, which is the X. So if they’re an X-man they have to play offensive line, defensive line only,” he said.
Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/19266464/boy-12-ruled-too-big-to-play-football#ixzz23oaI288h
Mom’s a big ‘un. I wonder what Elijah’s father thinks about this; would he prefer a team where his son would face players nearer his own size?
I played in a league that had a division for 95 lbs. and under. (there was another weight division above that for heavier kids).
Anyway, I remember playing the Buckhead Red Devils who had won a national title the year before. It looked like every one of their players had to strip down to their jock straps to get under the limit and I could swear some had mustaches.
We lost 69-6 (p.a.t. failed)
I know deport I read that too....but come on, really?
This kid is the size of a grown adult. At that size the kid is going to be just fine regardless of the experience of the other players! And who’s better to give this kid experience: a teacher/coach whose job it is to coach football and teach kids a system that they will need to move on to the next level within his school district, or a part-time volunteer coach whose real job is something else? No disrespect to Pee Wee League coaches, but coaching is not their real job.
Seem to me this is just another example of an overprotective, helicopter mom and a kid that is a bit of a wuss and afraid to test himself against a higher standard.
I agree. The kid needs to step up to the plate and go into the school program if he really wants to play. With his size if he has any mobility at all would make him a shoo in for some playing time.
It's not PC, there is a difference. In a system where elementary school is K-5, you have middle school before high school. In a system where elementary school is K-6, you have Jr. high before high school. Both systems are in use in the U.S.A.
For what it's worth, and there are exceptions, but typically middle school systems have high schools that are 9-12, and Jr. High systems have high schools that are 10-12. My first wife moved to Colorado from California when she was high school aged. She was horrified that HS was only three grades in Colorado Springs. With only three grades there was no upper vs lower classmen culture in HS, and since she was a junior that chapped her shallow hide.
Amazing the difference a digit makes, no?
This is my real point about parents holding their child back so he will be the biggest seventh grader and make the middle school team and then be the biggest high school freshman and make the varsity team and be a standout hs football player and get recruited to LSU.
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