Alarming new trend dominating youth sports: repeating 8th grade. Families pay thousands for it.

Alarming new trend dominating youth sports: repeating 8th grade. Families pay thousands for it.

At 14, Jake Mercado stands 6-foot-3, weighs 187 pounds and wears size-14 sneakers. The eighth grader throws 80 mph, but it’s his cutter that his father, Joel, calls “a killer.” In March, Jake grabbed 22 rebounds during a game for Lyndhurst’s travel basketball team. On the football field, he routinely catches passes before stiff-arming would-be tacklers to the turf.