Homeschool Teams (Age Rule?)

[coachjgordon]

I have received information regarding a Home School team in the panhandle. My question for anyone familiar with home school regulations is, are they governed by any type of league or rules in general? I have been told that this particular team fields a 20 year old (very obvious when you see him) and two 19 years olds. The other part is that these 3 players are not considered seniors and will be playing again next year!

 

[bulldawgs]

Homeschool teams are just like any other private or public school. They can all choose to play as an independent which means they dont have to follow any sanctioned league rules, or they can choose to belong to a league. TAIAO and TCAL allow homeschool only teams and TCAF allows blended homeschool/private school teams. These leagues all follow the age requirements that UIL and TAPPS follows. Speaking for TAIAO, they are not eligible to play if they are 19 as of Sept 1. They also get 4 years of eligibility the same as UIL and TAPPS. Point being is to find out if they are Independent or in a sanctioned league. If they are in a sanctioned league, then you can contact the league with your concerns and they will investigate the concerns and based upon their findings, issue appropriate discipline if they are in violation. If they are independent then they can do what they want and it is up to you as to whether you wish to play independent teams regardless of whether they are homeschooled, private, or public.

 

[bschupbach]

My opinion for what it's worth ,I do believe this is very possible for any homeschool team to pull off regardless of what sanctioned league. I believe all leagues require a team roster with a birthdate but no proof of age. So you rely on a coach to fill in the correct information. Now at a school the paper trail is a little longer than just that roster produced for most homeschools. Not saying this is happening just saying it could be easy to do!! As a coach I have only ran into this problem on a JH level with a team claiming a 9th grader to be 8th or the age requirement was different but I have learned to ask their requirements especially for that level , second to are you playing any boys that would be considered 9th grade by any schools rule, then I make the choice.

 

[bulldawgs]

An unethical coach or program will ignore the rules regardless. I have seen this from all levels. A private school using JUCO players, a public school gave free housing to an out of state stud quarterback so he would live in the district, and a homeschool program using a player that should have aged out. Point being, I schedule with coaches and programs I trust to try and do the right thing. I think it is easy to cheat if that is your character and sadly so many out there care only about wins and not about building character. I have confidence though that all of the leagues take appropriate action when they are notified of potential infractions. So if you see something that you feel is not right, please notify the respective league so they can follow up.

 

[reddogblitz]

If true this particular kid (man) would be out of bounds, however the rule is for a 5th year student senior in high school to be able to play he would need an exemption and that exemption would consist of (the student missing a semester of school his soph. (10 grade year) then those circumstances would be taken under consideration as of the why and so forth.

Final point you must be sure this kid is really out of bounds first, simply because he looks a little older doesn't mean its evidence, I know of a 16 year old kid coming to play in the 16u world showcase games who stands 6'7 325 he looks like a man but here he's only 16 he will be at Cowboys stadium (AT&T) in January 2017.

We have an academy sixman team that plays as a 16u meaning players in 10th grade we play both a JV and Varsity schedule, this could be considered a disadvantage for some programs, but we use this team to develop skill position players for our 11 man academy 18u high school team.

So if you defeat us that's great too because we are playing for development of athletic talent, while enhancing the academic aspect for college if the talent is there for a scholarship possibility senior season.

And if we play you we find no reason to recruit your players, our program is not dependent on your one maybe two good players, our system for building or reloading for the next season requires putting in the work to find talented students some of which are not playing any sport.

 

[freeagent]

One of my home school coaching friends told me that the age rule for home school kids was to leave their wives and kids at home.

 

[FCSA football]

We are an independent and we play by UIL standard rules and regulations.
Having been burned in the past we set the proper expectations when booking the game.
We have our kid's birth certificates so have yours handy as well.
We don't worry about public schools, never had a problem there.
When we discover a program is not adhering to the UIL, then we purge them as a possible opponent.
If you ask around and are careful you should be able to avoid a lot of potential problems.
However, you MUST BE PREPARED to go get back on the bus and go home if the other team doesn't want to cooperate at game time. I've seen this happen too.
You have to back your commitment up, not back down because they waited until game time to say they don't have them OR they appear altered in any way.
It's your responsibility to insure your kid's safety not be blackmailed into playing a game you shouldn't.