IT SUCKS TO SKIP A GRADE.

Despite the creation of gifted and talented programs, that is, until the Harrison Bergerons of the world get after them, the school administrators still have trouble assigning the kid who shows up in kindergarten reading full-length books or newsmagazines, or has already forgotten more mathematics (or astronomy?) than the elementary ed major teaching the class ever learned ... and into the next-higher grade or two the kid goes.

That has knock-on consequences outside the classroom.

The Glenwood Cougars football program fields numerous teams with players up to 14 years old. Tremayne Gandy Jr. is 13 years old, but he's academically advanced and just enrolled in high school as a sophomore. That's great for his academic progress, but a problem for his football team.

The league has suspended the team for having a high school player on the roster.

The logic is straightforward under ordinary circumstances, although if youth football has the same mix of early adults and late toddlers you see in Little League, the rationale of not having the early adolescents run over by kids who have access to high school weight rooms is strained.

The circumstances, though, are not ordinary.

"Here's a young man that is 13 years old doing a 10th grade education and he is being penalized," team president Gary Richardson said. "Not just him, but the whole program is being penalized."

The league rules clearly state no player shall be registered if he or she is entering high school. The league issued a statement saying "...it is regrettable to enforce a disciplinary action that affects the wider organization, however, each of the 13 franchises in the league have agreed to honor these bylaws in exchange for fair play." The suspension affects all 200 players and cheerleaders in the program.

Would there be "fair play" if young Mr Gandy played for his high school team?

Coaches said Tremayne has been in the program since he was 6 years old. But the 13-year-old is 140 pounds, and his coaches say he's not physically or emotionally ready to play with other high school sophomores.

He read a letter of apology to his teammates, which has gotten thousands of views on YouTube, but other parents say he has nothing to apologize for.

"It bothers me as a parent," Tyrone Blatcher said. "We should be celebrating something like this, this kid."

The Cougars plan to play four more games left this season and they will have to forfeit all of them and will not be allowed to go to the playoffs, unless the board reverses its decision.

That strikes me as a situation where a little parental interaction with the governing board, and some quiet conversations between the business owners who support league activities and the governing board might go a long way.