That's my assumption as well. Most of the pub is him at the plate.

Yup. It happens a lot. We see it more in football players though.

Sean98 said:

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Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

These days? Hell, it's been happening forever, and gives a great advantage by the parents. They're held back specifically for this reason, even thought they're often not needing to stay back for academic reasons. One method to do this, timing wise, is to just move or change schools to help facilitate the process.

I remember playing ball with Josh Barfield as a kid, and went to middle school with him in the same class year. But after middle school he left and went to Klein high. A couple years later he showed up as a big time prospect as I was leaving for A&M in 2000. But josh was just starting his senior year, and about to be drafted...so during the transition to a new high school, he was held back to the year after me. That gave him another year to work with his dad (former pro player) and to mature physically, which at that age gives a HUGE advantage over kids a year or two younger. Josh was not a stupid or lazy kid (from what I gathered), so being "held back" had no academic basis. Purely strategic. Can't argue with the logic, but in terms of fairness to other kids in your schools, you almost have to do the same just to remain competitive on the field.

TarponChaser said:

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Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

It happens a lot. I even know a bunch of kids whose parents have taken them out of school to repeat 8th grade via homeschool and reclassify them. And not just summer birthdays either but kids born in the middle of the school year like in January.

There's a lot of disagreement over whether or not it's a good move.

---

Maybe that's what josh did now that I read your post. He probably repeated 8th grade after we took it together, when transitioning to the Klein school district, or was homeschooled for a year before going to Klein high, as you brought up. It seemed to work for him. He never impressed me when I played against him, but another year to mature physically can help tremendously, so he clearly progressed dramatically following this strategy. Might've pushed him from a decent prospect into a higher level prospect, with just that additional year of development.

TarponChaser said:

---

Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

It happens a lot. I even know a bunch of kids whose parents have taken them out of school to repeat 8th grade via homeschool and reclassify them. And not just summer birthdays either but kids born in the middle of the school year like in January.

There's a lot of disagreement over whether or not it's a good move.

---

I've seen that but that can be a problem in baseball. When my kids played played youth ball was grouped from May 1 - April 30. If you are held back and born April 30th or earlier you have to play up from your grade anyway. It also creates a problem your 8th grade year when you are 15 and the rest of your team are freshman in HS while you are in 8th grade.

Braden Montgomery was born in April and he was young in his grade. It didn't matter for him. There are many reasons parents hold kids back - academics, maturity, and sports are the usual reasons.

I like the commitment! What is the likelihood he actually gets to campus as opposed to going pro?...not sure if he is at that level, but considering he is ranked a top player in LA...

https://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news/LA/PBR-Louisiana-State-Rankings-Update-2026-Class-8501796432

PBR had him #1

Season is already paying dividends. Love the momentum and traction.

When my kid played baseball for Westlake, there were two twenty year old sophomores on the team. Our kid was a senior in college when he was twenty. They do hold them back in the 6A schools.

Ha. Brain fart. 18 year old sophomores that turned 20 before graduating HS. Still, shockingly old. Both held back once for sports and once by academics.

Prep Baseball also has/had him ranked #22 nationally (end of fall). Hopefully he's not ranked that high by the pros (in 2 years) or he likely won't make it to campus. As for PG, ranked #7 in Louisiana is only good for #500 nationally? Mmmkay. Good news for us. He'll make it to campus if close to true. I'll take it. I'm guessing LSU won't stop recruiting him though. Long way to go.

He's already 6'3, 190 ish. From what I'm seeing, he's 17 years and 2 months. So early summer birthday. He's either among the oldest in his current grade or youngest in the grade ahead. Not a full year ahead. He'll be 17 through his junior year.

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞

‘26 OF/RHP J.D. Alexander (Barbe HS)

6’3” 195 lbs.

The former Future Gamer & ✌️ way prospect checks in at No. 2️⃣2️⃣ in last week’s National Rankings update. #BeSeen@prepbaseball

Full Rankings: https://t.co/lr98q4b5di pic.twitter.com/lgC5HpwTfB

— Prep Baseball Louisiana (@PrepBaseballLA) December 12, 2023

Biggest competition will be the MLB draft. Still it's a very good get.

Reminds me...there was a kid in my junior high (6th-8th grade) that had classes in each grade in the same year. He was in my 6th grade English class. He got suspended because he kept parking his motorcycle in the Principal's spot. Still funny.

But yeah, Tarpon is right, we lost our best WR right before our Senior year because he was too old (an old 19, birthday before a certain date thing). That was in the 80s. Sounds like those Westlake kids (if true) simply got away with one. Time to revisit Westlake's records? Lol

You just made Buttermaker proud!

TarponChaser said:

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HECUBUS said:

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When my kid played baseball for Westlake, there were two twenty year old sophomores on the team. Our kid was a senior in college when he was twenty. They do hold them back in the 6A schools.

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20-years old and sophomores in HS?

Unless there's some weird situation I'm 100% the UIL won't let you play sports in Texas high schools if you're over 19.

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Yes, I would say that a 20 year old sophomore playing sports in a Texas high school is a virtual impossibility.

From the UIL:

"are less than 19 years old on September 1 preceding the contest or have been granted eligibility based on a disability that delayed their education by at least one year…"

TAMU1990 said:

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TarponChaser said:

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Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

It happens a lot. I even know a bunch of kids whose parents have taken them out of school to repeat 8th grade via homeschool and reclassify them. And not just summer birthdays either but kids born in the middle of the school year like in January.

There's a lot of disagreement over whether or not it's a good move.

---

I've seen that but that can be a problem in baseball. When my kids played played youth ball was grouped from May 1 - April 30. If you are held back and born April 30th or earlier you have to play up from your grade anyway. It also creates a problem your 8th grade year when you are 15 and the rest of your team are freshman in HS while you are in 8th grade.

Braden Montgomery was born in April and he was young in his grade. It didn't matter for him. There are many reasons parents hold kids back - academics, maturity, and sports are the usual reasons.

---

There may be other governing bodies in youth baseball that I'm not aware of but all of the big ones EXCEPT Little League Baseball have April 30 age cut-off dates. Those are Perfect Game, USSSA, V-Tool, NCS, and Pony League. Little League Baseball has an August 31st cut-off date.

I don't know about other sanctioning bodies but Perfect Game has grade-level exceptions (last I saw it was limited to 2 per team) where a kid can be too old for an age group by birthday but maybe they were held back a year so they can play with a younger age group. The caveat is they then have a 12/31 date cut-off. For example, I know a kid on the #2 rated 13U team in the country, Elite RBI National (they're starting their 14U season) who will be 15 in January but he was held back and is just starting 8th grade. So he'll be 19 when he graduates HS. When you take a look at the Perfect Game rosters for all these nationally & regionally ranked teams at 14U and below you'll see they're stocked with kids who have been held back or even playing down in age thanks to grade-level exceptions and so they're physically more mature than a ton of kids they're facing.

Below HS age gets pretty wild and even some HS kids who are 14U by age but are freshmen in HS will play 14U instead of 15U like most of their graduating class.

Both of my boys have summer birthdays and we didn't hold them back so they will both be 17 when they graduate HS. For example, our HS freshman just turned 14 about 3 weeks ago and our 5th grader won't be 10 for 2 more weeks. So they're eligible by age to play 14U and 10U respectively but we have them playing with their graduating class- our 14-year old skipped from 10U over 11U to play 12U a couple years ago and our younger one skipped from 8U to 10U this past year and is now playing 11U. There have been and will be some growing pains for both but it's definitely for the best.

Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

I graduated at 17, 30 years ago. I was shocked to find out how old some of my classmates were later in life. I was 2 years younger than a lot of them. That's a huge difference. Still didn't redshirt though! Ha! I see kids now with fall birthdays being held back at kindergarten. Crazy to me.

WoMD said:

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TarponChaser said:

---

Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

It happens a lot. I even know a bunch of kids whose parents have taken them out of school to repeat 8th grade via homeschool and reclassify them. And not just summer birthdays either but kids born in the middle of the school year like in January.

There's a lot of disagreement over whether or not it's a good move.

---

Maybe that's what josh did now that I read your post. He probably repeated 8th grade after we took it together, when transitioning to the Klein school district, or was homeschooled for a year before going to Klein high, as you brought up. It seemed to work for him. He never impressed me when I played against him, but another year to mature physically can help tremendously, so he clearly progressed dramatically following this strategy. Might've pushed him from a decent prospect into a higher level prospect, with just that additional year of development.

---

WoMD, it's funny that you posted this as the first thing I thought about when reading Sean98's post was about the time my son was doing hitting lessons with Jesse Barfield (Josh's dad). My son was 9 at the time and he has a May birthday, Jesse made it a point to tell us we should hold him back a year so that he would do better in sports. My son is 13 now with all A's in all honor's classes, holding him back would have been a monumentally ignorant decision in our situation.
He still plays baseball and although he is smaller with lower power/velo than most of the kids on his team, he is still the best catcher and infield glove they have going into 8th grade. He's just hitting the beginning of his growth spurt so the power/velo will catch up but the skills and baseball IQ he developed to stay competitive with the bigger kids has turned out to be much more valuable for him in the long-term.
Again, this is specific to our situation, for some kids holding them back a year is absolutely the right decision.

Could have held back my daughter but she is one of the smartest kids in the class and is also one of the tallest. Wouldn't make any sense with a kid like that. Her cousins on the other hand are smaller and not mentally as mature so their parents rightfully held them back. As other stated its different for each kid.

I remember a guy that drove his car to school in eighth grade

Wow. Great add.

Not only did Earley and crew land this guy, but imagine the hits when they get time to work with him.

TarponChaser said:

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TAMU1990 said:

---

TarponChaser said:

---

Sean98 said:

---

Can I ask a related/unrelated question? And to be clear, I'm excited for this commitment but it brings something up that I've been wondering about... particularly as it relates to projectability.

This kid will be 19.25 years old when he steps on campus. Do parents intentionally start their kids late in school these days? Do they hold them back at some point? I was 17 when I walked on the A&M campus. I looked at his pitching stats and thought "he's a junior to be so he'll add 3-5mph" and he may. But he's almost the same age I was when I graduated HS.

And this isn't a JD thing, it happens a lot it seems these days. Just curious.

---

It happens a lot. I even know a bunch of kids whose parents have taken them out of school to repeat 8th grade via homeschool and reclassify them. And not just summer birthdays either but kids born in the middle of the school year like in January.

There's a lot of disagreement over whether or not it's a good move.

---

I've seen that but that can be a problem in baseball. When my kids played played youth ball was grouped from May 1 - April 30. If you are held back and born April 30th or earlier you have to play up from your grade anyway. It also creates a problem your 8th grade year when you are 15 and the rest of your team are freshman in HS while you are in 8th grade.

Braden Montgomery was born in April and he was young in his grade. It didn't matter for him. There are many reasons parents hold kids back - academics, maturity, and sports are the usual reasons.

---

There may be other governing bodies in youth baseball that I'm not aware of but all of the big ones EXCEPT Little League Baseball have April 30 age cut-off dates. Those are Perfect Game, USSSA, V-Tool, NCS, and Pony League. Little League Baseball has an August 31st cut-off date.

I don't know about other sanctioning bodies but Perfect Game has grade-level exceptions (last I saw it was limited to 2 per team) where a kid can be too old for an age group by birthday but maybe they were held back a year so they can play with a younger age group. The caveat is they then have a 12/31 date cut-off. For example, I know a kid on the #2 rated 13U team in the country, Elite RBI National (they're starting their 14U season) who will be 15 in January but he was held back and is just starting 8th grade. So he'll be 19 when he graduates HS. When you take a look at the Perfect Game rosters for all these nationally & regionally ranked teams at 14U and below you'll see they're stocked with kids who have been held back or even playing down in age thanks to grade-level exceptions and so they're physically more mature than a ton of kids they're facing.

Below HS age gets pretty wild and even some HS kids who are 14U by age but are freshmen in HS will play 14U instead of 15U like most of their graduating class.

Both of my boys have summer birthdays and we didn't hold them back so they will both be 17 when they graduate HS. For example, our HS freshman just turned 14 about 3 weeks ago and our 5th grader won't be 10 for 2 more weeks. So they're eligible by age to play 14U and 10U respectively but we have them playing with their graduating class- our 14-year old skipped from 10U over 11U to play 12U a couple years ago and our younger one skipped from 8U to 10U this past year and is now playing 11U. There have been and will be some growing pains for both but it's definitely for the best.

---

Technically Tarpon, PG is your age on or after 5/1. I've been knee deep in determining we got kids on the right team for the non-profit I coach at here in Houston.

Also, the exemptions you mention, from how I read PG rules, limit the team exemptions to 2. Also, it is for kids who turn over a year w/DOB's from 1/1-4/30. We had 2 sign up to play, 9th graders but age eligible for 14U. We sent them to their HS coaches to find options for the Fall.