Think the kid on the other team looks older? He may be

Wonder what middle school parents said about him

Whether you were at the top of the school's Honor Roll or the last kid to turn in homework, there's one thing no kid ever wanted to do: Repeat a grade. Seems that doesn't matter much anymore in the world of high-stakes athletics where the NBA justifies the means.

Matthew Stanmyre of the Newark Star-Ledger reported on a pretty disturbing trend in youth sports earlier this week. He specifically looks at four top recruits over the past two years. Kids are intentionally repeating grades in middle school to gain an athletic advantage in high school basketball. A kid only has four consecutive years of high school eligibility. What can he do if he hasn't grown into his body or needs to work on his game?

Most people would just say that kid should work hard and things will take care of themselves. By his junior and senior years, the kid should be fine. This scenario isn't good enough for those who want to separate themselves from the pack on day one. Instead of entering high school as a 14-year-old freshman who will turn 15, a kid can enter at 15 and turn 16.

A 16-year-old freshman who's already good will look dominant among younger teammates. The young man becomes a "freshman sensation" or a "man-child" and colleges take notice. Wait a minute! A kid still has to complete four years of high school. Wouldn't this strategy backfire and create a ton of 19 and 20-year-old high school seniors?

Theoretically, yes, but high school is not necessarily a four-year proposition. High school is about credits and students are classified based on the number of credits earned. Many school districts now offer online classes and kids blaze through coursework in the summer, reclassify to their original graduating class and leave high school at 18.

Fair-minded people can argue all day about the merits of college versus the NBA, but no one ever intended for this type of manipulation to occur at the middle and high school levels. There are legitimate reasons for having a kid repeat a grade. Working on his jumper is not one of them. It makes a mockery of the educational system and is unfair to all of the kids the superstar is competing against.

How does this happen? Why do school districts allow children to repeat for athletic reasons? There is an irony in all of this, though. It appears superstar kids have no problem staying in eighth grade an extra year, but don't ask them to stay in college.