I'm not sure if you’re concern is the lifting or that it is "rigorous." At any rate, we feel comfortable with lifting on a rigorous or regular schedule/program. We feel he is at an age that it is fairly safe. It's a low to mid-weight, high repetition program in conjunction with a good amount of plyometrics and band work.
As for surgery, we have discussed it and if necessary, will probably push for a post-season operation. Obviously, we would prefer another option such as PT but if it's necessary, I would prefer to fix it now. It's a difficult choice but I know he would be much happier playing the game later (High School) when it really matters and being at his best. I'm not saying he has a chance of going on (college) but if he does, we would like to afford him that opportunity. He has played at a high level for many years and put in a great amount of work. We would simply hate to see it go to waste if HE wants to move forward with it.
But trust me when I say we are much more inclined to choice an alternative to surgery. I'm certainly not gunning for that as an only solution and would like to avoid it if at all possible.