Our experience has been that it’s a mixed bag. You’re going to have some good experiences with coaches and some bad experiences with coaches. I have six sons. Five are married now. All played some youth and high school football.
A miracle happened with our youngest son. He was selected to play for a team that had six amazing men as his coaches. Most of them had played college football and all of them had a lot of experience coaching youth football.
On that team every boy was a starter at some position.
That team lost 1 game in four years (by 1 point). They were 3 time WFFL champs (northern Utah) and they swept 4 games against top division Ute league teams, winning 2 post season tourneys. Most of those boys are wrapping up their missions right now. It was there best experience with sports we’ve ever had.
The sophomore and JV football at our high school ended up being a train wreck. Also, there are not opportunities for that many kids to play varsity at a 6A high school.
If your kids are gifted athletes, it won’t hurt them to start later. For many others, I say play while you can.