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

South Salem Shootout was fun way to see local youth town teams. Got to see some fun games across a few divisions. Damn, those 8th graders look big, fast, and really good! The better teams in that division would beat a lot of weaker varsity teams I bet. The results for 8th grade division showed a lot of close games.

Yorktown crushed Wilton last night. Score was 2-1 at half. They could.....go...all....the......way. When they share the ball, offense looks strong but they are nothing without the defense.

Crush is usually by more than 5 - and if Wilton didnt "Wilt - in" the 3rd quarter..likely different outcome - 2/1 at half, WIlton won 4th. That said, D much improved since beginning of the year and plenty of options for offense and FO.

Westchester lacrosse is so irrelevant that nobody posts for weeks. Who's the best team in the area? Yorktown. The last 10 years? same answer....Yorktown. It must be boring to play teams that don't have a chance of competing and a deep playoff run is guaranteed almost by default.

Who coaches the HS SUperstar teams?

As for Westchester HS scene being irrelevant and boring as far as top teams go ... you are right. Yorktown then the other teams in their leagues like Bronxville, Lakeland-Panas, Pleasantville, JJ. It's going to require a very special team to bust through. It's too bad the season has to end just when it started to build momentum. Wish they'd condense playoffs to allow for more teams to play in June.

that makes no sense. why would you play deeper in to June. Guess your HS team is out.

Road to the NYS semifinals for Yorktown --Brewster, Somers, John, Jay, Minisink Valley. Other than a diminished JJ team, this is a joke.

Not disagreeing that there are many "lay-ups" in this playoff run, but after Minisink Valley they will be facing Niskayuna (most likely) before the semifinal. To your point, Yorktown has reached the semifinal 31 times in the previous 40 NYSPHSAA tournaments, going 14 - 17, and going 7 - 7 in state finals.

Something is missing this year with Yorktown having a very good chance to win States. I don't sense the Town pride as in years past, even when it was misplaced. No chatter about Town's chances, does anyone care?

SOMERS, N.Y. – Members of the Somers girls varsity lacrosse team said members of the Yorktown High School boys varsity lacrosse team harassed and intimidated them at the Section 1 Class B Girls Lacrosse championship game May 25, at Yorktown High School.
In two statements released June 6, Somers Central School District administrators said members of the Somers girls lacrosse team were preparing for the game in the Yorktown boys locker room when members of the Yorktown boys lacrosse team entered and “engaged in harassing and intimidating behavior,” which caused the girls lacrosse students to leave, and relocate to a different locker room.
The incident was investigated internally and follow-up conversations were had with Yorktown school officials to make them aware of the outcome of the investigation, said Somers Superintendent Dr. Raymond Blanch. He added that the information was also shared with the Section 1 Office of Interscholastic Athletics, and that an update will be released with any new information provided by either organization.
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“We have considered all avenues available to address this situation, including consulting legal counsel,” Blanch, Somers High School Principal Mark Bayer and Somers Athletic Director Roman Catalino wrote in a statement to parents. They added that the school is available to support any students impacted by this incident, and encouraged any students to contact the Somers administration if they need assistance.
Messages left for Dr. Ralph Napolitano, superintendent of schools for Yorktown, and Fio Nardone, athletic director for Yorktown, were not immediately returned.
“As superintendent of the Somers Central School District, I find this incident to be both concerning and upsetting,” Blanch said. “Unfortunately, what should have been a day showcasing the competitive-spirit, athletic abilities and sportsmanship of both teams, was marred by the rude and disrespectful behavior of certain students.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Well that might explain why the Yorktown folks are quiet.....

A few facts. This allegation was brought to the Somers Superintendent's attention via an anonymous letter, days after a situation that may now require counseling. Somers investigated the allegations "internally" and drew their conclusions, meaning they questioned the accusers to determine what happened, but not the accused.

What did the Somers coaching staff hear? It appears the Somers girls were unmonitored in a boys' locker room. Why? Why is the Somers Superintendent characterizing the behavior as "rude and disrespectful" when he has only heard one side of the story? Does innocent until proven guilty not apply in Somers? Did anyone in Somers question why it took nearly two weeks to disclose this information and doing it on the eve of the State Semifinals? Did anyone in Somers ever hear of the Duke lacrosse scandal?

I am not prejudging what happened in this situation, however, I think the Somers Superintendent could have conducted more than an internal investigation before potentially slandering high schoolers.

It may have taken two weeks because they conducted a through investigation and didn't want to rush to judge. Questioning the accused? In what forum would that occur? How would the Super of Somers conduct a full fledged investigation? He is not a law enforcement officer. I'm wondering if the impending retirement of the Yorktown AD & Yorktown Superintendent have anything to do with a lacrosse program that may be going off the rails? There may be other issues behind the scenes that have not yet surfaced, there usually is when one problem becomes public. Win the states and make it all go away?

Where is Marr? Wasn't he suspended for one year. Steading force for Yorktown. I'm sure Town looking forward to his return.

Innocent until proven guilty is a concept that only applies in a criminal case. It has no applicability elsewhere.

From a Yorktown point of view, be grateful that none of the Yorktown players spoke with staff at Somers. If they did, they may have made admissions confirming some or all of the allegations, and such could be used against them if charges are filed in criminal court. If I was the father of one of these Yorktown players, the last thing I would want to see happen is for my son to be interviewed by someone at Somers.

I don't quite understand the relevance of the Somers' girls being unmonitored in a boys locker room (assuming such to be true for purposes of discussion). That is kind of like blaming a rape victim because she wore a short skirt. Are you trying to say that absent direct adult monitoring, male varsity athletes are free to behave any way they choose?

As noted by another poster, Somers SD is not a law enforcement agency. All they can do is conduct an internal investigation. They are permitted to report their findings to the media in the fashion that they did. Slander is not applicable because the report is in writing. Libel would be applicable, but for a variety of reasons not worth getting into in this forum, the Somers SD would not be worried about such claims.

As to your question as to why the Somers SD is characterizing the behavior as "rude and disrespectful", I think the simplest answer is most likely true. They characterize it as such simply because their investigation concluded it to be such. If the reported behavior is rude and disrespectful than its rude and disrespectful - it doesn't matter who is spoken to.

The complaint about waiting two weeks is specious. If they would have reported it immediately, your complaint would have been "why report it right away - this is a rush to judgment - where is the investigation?"

Equating to a rape victim? The allegations are the boys unplugged the girls' music and told them this was their last game because they were going to lose. Let's get the crayons and coloring books and find a safe space.

It is my understanding that the girls were asking the boys to take their jerseys off, but I am sure that didn't come up in the Somers thorough internal investigation.

Somers Superintendent asking for both Yorktown boys and girls teams to forfeit their semifinal games. Definition of overreaction in this PC world.

The Yorktown High School Principal was also called out in the anonymous letter for retweeting a photo of the Yorktown girls celebrating because there was a Tusker crying in the background. A few snowflakes in Somers? No, you have a blizzard.

You apparently don't understand what an analogy is.

Congrats to Yorktown on making it to the state final, let's hope the players don't spit in any girls mouths between now and the game. So much class......

Yorktown defense too strong, Victor doesn't have a chance.

Somers Superintendent apologizes to Yorktown boys lacrosse team for "rush to judgement", as after interviewing the accused, well wouldn't you know, the anonymous letter is deemed not credible.

Let's see if I can figure out what an analogy is:

Somers girls lacrosse team = Crystal Gail Mangum, or maybe Chicken Little, or the boy who cried wolf, or Pretty Little Liars... Should I go on or shall we just say spoiled brat sore losers.

Maybe you can come over to Yorktown and celebrate the boys' success, as I am sure you will never have that chance in your town. Bwahahaha.

Yorktown same result as last year. Not enough offense. 3 goals?

Can we get some summer club youth chatter going? Any local clubs in the NLF super conference tourneys doing good? Saw the Preds across multiple ages won tourneys last week. What happened to the Superstars club from Ridgefield? Come on people!

Preds play B tournments. Superstar are a joke They only teams in the area that are playing the top teams are Prime Time and LI express North and they are holding their own in the top tournaments.

Eclipse is in that mix with Prime Time and Express North. Not sure grade-by-grade if Eclipse can hang with those squads but they at least mix it up at top tourneys. But it's a shame to compete with top clubs nationwide area teams have to convert to holdback squads. Though interested to see how Prime Time does in the World Series thing where ages are actually enforced.

Tier 1: PT, Express North, Eclipse
Tier 2: Preds, 2Way, Chargers
Tier 3: HOS, 91 Tristate, Topside, Superstar

(not including town club teams like Ballers or Pride)

None of the local programs are a joke. There is a place for every kid that wants to play summer lacrosse and some are highly focused on area kids. Predators are southern Westchester as is 2Way. Superstar has always been Ridgefield heavy and Ballers is Yorktown (almost exclusively I believe). LI Express North is Northern Westchester and Western CT. These programs all play in competitive tournaments.

Referring to Superstar has nothing to do with the prayers. From what i hear from all the parenrs is the organization is poorly run with all the attention going to the the two teams the directors son are on.

While it is true, their is a place for every child , only 2 teams are playing against the best teams, that is a fact. That certainly does not mean those kids are better , But the teams as a whole are better and tend to attract similar talent

Between LIENorth, PT, Preds, 2way, and any others... can we compare practice/tourney schedules?

Keep in same format for easy comparison

Predators:
Fall: 6-7 1.5hr practices; 2 Tourneys
Winter: 7-8 1.5hr weekly practices; No Tourneys
Spring: 10 1.5hr practices (2/week); 3 Tourneys

Prime Time:
Fall 4 2hrs practices: 1 Tourney
Winter 12 1.5 hrs skills practices: No Tourneys
Summer 18 practices and 4 Tourneys

Awesome, wanted to clarify a couple things so made a change. Note age group, if it makes a difference. Older groups at Predators may have one more tourney during the fall and 1 or 2 more during the summer than younger age groups. Schedule across age groups though are generally the same.

Yes same with Prime Time. Older PT boys 2021 thru 2018 have a few more tourneys and showcases in the fall and summer. The above is for PT 2025 thru 2022 minus all the World Series extra practice and related tourneys for the 2022 team .

If the westchester programs want to be as competitive as possible , they should playing more and practicing more. Scrimmages, play dates, winter league , etc. this is what the best teams are doing on Long Island.

Just to add a true LI perspective, my son's 2024 program is as follows:

Fall: 12 practices 1.5 hrs, 0 tourneys
Winter: 10 practices 1.5 hrs, 0 tourneys (extra cost)
Spring: 24 practices 1.5 hrs, 5 tourneys

my son's 2021 program:

Fall: 8 1.5 hr practices, 1 tourney
Winter: Winter: 10 practices 1.5 hrs, 0 tourneys (extra cost)
Spring: 12+ practices 2 hrs, 5 tourneys (less practices due to boys playing MS ball and many playing youth PAL as well)

Keep in mind, this is a better mid tier program, NOT one of the 'elite' programs, and with a cost of ~$1,600 and ~$200 for the winter.

Many teams "claiming " to be be top tier or wanting to be top tier are offereing 3/4 fall tourneys, winter indoor/box. 3 spring and 4/5 summer, Regardless. Most travel programs are way too short to truly build the "team" concepts . You travel all over and get stomped on by teams that practice 50 times a year. And played 3 tourneys before you play your first game.

Most clubs share practice and tourney schedules.
2Way:
Fall 6 practices, 1 tourney
Winter 6-8 practices, 0 tourney
no Spring
Summer, 8 practices, 3 tourneys and 1 team overnight camp

As far as one post noting how his son's team has no "team" concepts and get stomped by teams who have been together, I completely agree. See it often. A lot of teams win just because they are organized, players know their roles, and coaches have deployed players the right way. So many club teams struggle to find their identity and it is too late once a tournament starts. You can tell which club teams are scrambling and which ones have a system. Team continuity is important. A lot of lower level club teams have shaky talent, true. But constant coaching changes and player turnover are the real kiss of death. Parents paying $2,000 should demand more than just falling for the word "elite" and the MLL player's impressive resume. I have seen many dad coaches who are much better youth game coaches than young lax dudes.

Our 2020 team from Long Island has played the Predators multiple times and Eclipse. Predators have been superior at this age level the last 2 years, regardless if Eclipse plays in NLF events.

Your funny

What about LIE north? anybody care to share?