US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

First of all, 91, FCA White, and Predators are basically all the same kids and kids move fluidly between the three clubs every year. Crabs is a solid half-step higher. Maybe a full step. In all cases, these are kids who will have a good chance to play at good high schools.

In order of your ask:

91: Roster is just waiting to be turned over for HS age. 100% Dad coaches including the Towson HS varsity coach, who I assume will be funneling players between the school and the club a year from now. The price is very reasonable, the practices are high speed and high quality, and if the team was bracketed where it should be, you'd see kids improving due to attentive (dad) coaches. Kids who play (or ride the very large bench) for 91 seem to leave and be successful elsewhere, even if they had a bad experience, and that's something to consider.

FCA White: Army of Dad coaches. The team is bracketed to their talent level, are very well coached, and generally the parents and players seem happy to be there. I think for some families it's frustrating that the club has bracketed them at their "B team" (this team) while some favoritism exists in placement for the upper (Blue) team, when really, the 3rd line of FCA Blue seems pretty interchangeable with the starters of FCA White.

Predators: Very new club, lots of questions. Only seen them twice. 1 coach for the whole team, both times (when's the last time you saw that!), and in one game (as I was leaving Troy Park) the players ran their own warmup, picked the starting lineup, boys call out their own plays, ran the box, etc. Kind of cool to watch. They appear to be doing pretty well but from a dad perspective I have to ask, could they be even better if the coaches and parents took a little stronger leadership role there? Are literally no parents willing to help out? I assume great access to McDonogh and St Pauls facilities (their coaches own Predators MD), I guess that has to be said.

Crabs: Have seen them play the least since my son's team left their division a few years ago. How bad does your son need to play (or even sit) on a national top 25 team? I'd say that almost every starter in the MIAA played for Crabs at least one year. Many of them, for only one year. Crabs has an aggressive, detail oriented coaching culture which they are very transparent about, and the truth is that about 10% of kids thrive in that environment (or it goes over their head, despite being directly screamed at), 40% can survive it (and eventually move on), and the other 50% struggle with it so badly that they not only quit lacrosse, but many quit all sports as a result. You can find Crabs helmets for sale across the country. The big X factor for the 2028 Crabs will be what to make of the new holdback rules, with the incoming boarding students at BL especially? How many 2027 Crabs will move down to 2028 this summer? I'm honestly not sure, but it should be a key question if you're in talks with the coaches.

Good luck.