I have a June birthday and graduated when I was 17. In my day the only kids who were in your class that were a year older, were the ones who had failed. Now a days there are 17yr old sophomores everywhere.
When did it become necessary to hold your kid back to give them an advantage in sports? 1st it was "summer birthdays", that's why they're held back. Gradually the acceptable cutoff has moved up every year. This past draft saw a Texas HS pitcher drafted in the 4th round, he had turned 19 in January. At what point does it go from being acceptable to deplorable..as long as they graduate before they turn 20?
As a father of a 2019 who turned 16 a little more than a month ago, it's extremely frustrating to see these kids promoted and celebrated. I got a tweet just yesterday from PG about a 2020 pitcher who was throwing 88 and how he's ranked in the top 20 in his class. So I looked the kid up, and of course he's 5 months older than my 2019. Do you know where he would be ranked if he was truly playing with his class as a 2019..he wouldn't be ranked at all! So at what point does this get called what it really is..cheating! To me it's no different than a player using PED's to get an advantage over his competition. Being a year+ older, bigger, stronger, more mature is a big advantage!
Tex, many are making the decision to hold their kids back. Certainly not the majority. Some are doing so mostly with athletics in mind, some with academic or social aspects in mind. There can be significant pitfalls to making that decision. You can search many threads here on that topic. For some, it is the right thing. For others, not so much. That said, it is not cheating (and, no, we did not hold any of our kids back - in fact two were like you and faced the other end of the spectrum, always being the youngest). Many kids are a year older and stronger just based on their birth date. Do you consider that no different than a player using PED's?
Most HS federations have age limits. Can a player be a year, maybe close to two, older than most of his peers based on birth date and whether or not held back? Yes. Can it be an advantage at that time? Yes. So can size, speed, a good arm, baseball smarts, natural ability to barrel the ball, desire, work ethic, right situation, good coaching, good instruction, good home situation, grades, etc., etc.
At some point, your son will just have to overcome all obstacles, take advantage of his own strengths and beat out all the others, no matter what strengths and advantages they may have. Control what you can control. Focus on being the best you can be. Everything else is just noise.