BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Westchester NY/Fairfield CT Youth Lacrosse

Primetime beat LIE North last summer by 10 goals. Unless they got better talent I don't see LIE North competing with PT.d

which westchester programs have a 2024 age group? 91, express, eclipse i saw. any others?

Primetime has no players. Tristate 91 is awful. Long Island express has 10 good players. Not sure superstars or eclipse

That's not true. Primetime 2024 has 2 very good players and a kick [lacrosse] goalie. Tristate has 3/4 real players Bottom line every 24 team is aB team at best because they all have a load of c players

PrimeTime 2019 tied LI EXpress North last yeAr. North beat crabs last year by 4 goals

Freshman is grad year 2019. Express North is the better team by a sizable margin. Didn't Eclipse lose to the New Fairfield town team last summer?

I don't know what year you are talking but the 2019 teams tied in their only meeting last summer at NYIT. LIE North beat Dukes and Crabs, they have talent.

I was talking about 2021. Things got a little confusing answering posts. Anyone paying attention knows LIE North 2019 is the class of this area. It was a great tie for PT last summer.

Regarding the 2021 teams, I believe PT and LIE North should be a terrific battle. My son plays on the LIE 2020 team and we watched the PT v LIE N game last summer. Overmatched by PT's size. From what I have seen, the LIE N 2021 team is a lot better and bigger. Should be fun to watch them play against each other.

Anyone playing on Columbus Day on Long Island?

Good to hear LIE North 2021 got better, unfortunately we (PT 2021) lost a few good midfielders but gained a couple. Can't wait for Yale to see how we look.

What age is this? If you think it was 2019 you were watching the wrong game.

...and Team MN in Philly...didnt play in (m)any of the events with 91/Express/Crabs/Madlax/Edge/etc

This area is going to kill itself by diluting the talent pools - this isnt long island where Team 91's White team would crush most lower AA and upper A teams.

Amen. You got that right. The depth on Long Island at any age level is staggering. Take your kid to a tryout just to see how your kid stacks up. It's an eye opener

Let's not count out 2022 Primetime! Primetime took 2 out of 3 against LI Express A team this past season. Primetime has some very good talent.

Primetime 2022 is a real real real team. As good as any. Seems like the last year for true aa team. I don't have a 22 nor a kid on pt. Their record says it alln

i would love to see a coach or coaches capable of putting together 1 team im each grade level that can truly compete with long island, 2022 PT has done that , question for all the directors in westchester- how can you get the best 5 from each team and get them on one team, especially at the younger ages where it is more fragmented .

Not going to happen. Who is going to give up their kids? Anyway there are several Westchester teams that can already play at the highest levels: PT 2016, Preds 2017, LIENorth 2018. Now that there is a critical mass of teams in Westchester, I would love to see a tournament of local teams. But that too is not likely to happen since team owners are fearful of losing kids to winning teams. A tournament including PT, Preds, LIExpNorth, Eclipse, CTChargers and some others - how great would that be? We could stay in our own beds too.

i agree- im more talking younger ages as these teams are a hodgepodge of a,b, and c players alot of the older teams are already established, but the ideas of a local tourney is a great idea, why travel to play the same team that is in your backyard.

Primetime 2022 has one player (Yorktown), take him away and the team is B level. That's why the never won anything no depth.

I agree with both of you. PT 2021 has real good talent but no depth so when the weaker players play the LI teams take advantage. We played some really good games against excellent competition 91, Sons & Express but always come out on the short end because a lack of depth.

First off that's not the point. They compete very well against the best. And in west Chester that's an accomplishment

It's nice to use LI as a benchmark, especially considering its proximity, but people must be realistic. Especially as it regards depth, the best lacrosse in the world is played on LI. Using lax power as a reference, there are 401 HS teams in NYS playing lacrosse. 101 are on LI. Thats a full 25%. Much of that is within driving range of each other. And a much higher percentage of their youth are playing, which provides them with more of the top athletes. This all means that LI will field more and better club teams.

The Westchester club scene does not need to focus on forming super teams to beat the best from LI. There has been a recent growth in the amount of clubs and teams. In the short term, especially at the younger levels, you will see the talent spread maybe too thin. But this will get more kids playing, and will help improve the overall talent pool, which should grow the game and increase participation numbers over all. The spring town season is very short. More kids need to be getting reps in June and July and in the Fall. The kids will get better, depth will improve, and you will start seeing more deeply talented and better HS teams.

Also, the increase in Westchester clubs has also created room for talent to come in from nearby counties, since these areas do not have developed clubs for the most part.

And BTW, as someone who has been at numerous tournaments over multiple years, there are plenty of mediocre to poor LI teams. My kids have played and beaten them. And this is fine. Having more kids play more lacrosse is never a bad thing.

Excellent last post about how to think about Westchester in the context of LI.

great post , and very true, hopwever , i believe the one very important thing for these programs to do, is be realistic where their teams fit in the landscape talent wise. many would argue, but placing a b level team into a top tourney aginst the best teams is not always best at the younger ages where kids are looking for reps to build up their confidence. so if you are a team filled with B players - which is fine, then place them in a tourney or bracket where they can be competitive.

I get that LI is the mecca of lax, but why is Ct. High schools So much better than Westchester HS's.
Top Ct. teams Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich & Ridgefield are much better than any Section 1 team to include Yorktown. You cant say they have more players there. Whats the reason?

This is just an educated guess, but those might be 4 huge schools that also happen to be big time lacrosse towns. They have huge youth programs, and from what I have seen at tournaments, a lot more kids playing than any Westchester town. Of course someone can look up the enrollment numbers.

Could it be that they are 18 yr old juniors and 19 yr old senuors??

Each of those CT towns mentioned have very large and extremely well run/organized youth programs.

As per Lax Power, they are the top 4 teams in all of CT from last season. So in addition to being better than all of Westchester, they are also better than all of CT.

Also, between the 4 of them, they collectively only lost to each other, plus Brunswick (a prep school), St Anthonys (LI), Ward Melville, Smithtown East, Chaminade and Bronxville. So quite literally, outside of lacrosse heavyweights, those schools are beating everyone.

Does that mean CT. Should have better travel teams than Westchester?

Possibly, but a lot of the good CT kids are sprinkled across the Westchester club teams including PT , LIE North, others. However, with respect to CT, Eclipse has the bulk ... though most from New Canaan and Darien. More Greenwich kids go to PT.

That is it. Left back 19 year old kids playing HS lax. Greenwich and New Canaan have all left back kids.

Wow. Thats another topic. Our kids playing against bigger older kids will only make them better. I'd rather see my son get better than win some meaningless tournament in his youth.

What concerns me most about the development club lacrosse in Westchester/CT is that many (nearly all) of the clubs are based on and run by the coaches and staffs of HS programs. Ask the folks from LI how that plays out particularly when one club is 'directed' by 3-4 private (powerhouse) HS coaches. The conflict of interest can become very troubling and politics are often more important than talent/skill.

From what I've seen on BOTC regarding conflict of interest in the LI club scene, I think the dynamics in Westchester are different, particularly for the elite teams. That's not to say there aren't conflicts of interest. While there may be HS Coaches on club teams, at the elite programs, HS Coaches are not the club owners. Their compensation is not improved by getting more kids from the HS where they coach. While some of the elite programs have a core of players form one or two schools, they tend to draw from a much wider number of schools. Predators, Primetime, LIENorth draw from all over and there is a lot of interest to join and it’s difficult to make their teams. The first two only have one team at each level and appear more interested in performance than numbers, which from what I’ve read, is a source of conflict in LI.

Primetime- yes, Predators and LIExpress North--no.

You are spot on. One organization up in Dutchess County makes a unwritten prerequisite to play for the high school.

That comment about "one org up in dutchess county ..." seems totally off base and not accurate. Somebody with an agenda writing that.

Eclipse couldn't finish today. Lost to the LIE A team in the finals 7-5.