BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2022

So if you have a 4th coach on the sidelines then it's ok to keep live stats?

Bethesda API Score was 14-13. Both teams gave up plenty of goals. It was a good game

Any upsets today?

After week 3 how do things look at the Elite and AA level?

Week 4

Week 4 Standings:
Hawks 4-0
Bethesda 3-1
Madlax 3-1
T9-1MD 3-1
Crabs 1-1
Rough Riders 2-3
Diamondbacks 1-3
FCA 0-3
Next Level 0-4

Beside the teams at the bottom all the other teams have been very competitive. BLC and API was great today. RR gave the Hawks all they could handle. I just wish all the teams could play each other twice. There needs to be a better league out there where you not only play teams in MD but also PA , NJ and NY. Our basketball teams travels all up and down the east coast and so does my buddies kids hockey team. Lacrosse needs more organization.

The games I have watched this year have been great.

For any division with odd # of teams the top five make playoffs and then other teams play 1 seeded game. 4 plays 5 on friday night and winner advances to semi final

No good team at this level has four coaches, not really needed . Plus at this level stats are not all that important or needed. Good grief, this is 2022, not top level Div. one.

Well [lacrosse] face, I never coached from the bleachers, always on the sidelines with my team. This is obviously something you have never done or know nothing about. Since you brought it up you are most like.y the loud mouth in the stands at every game, yelling and complaining about every Cana or not call. Plus I would bet you are a coaches worst nightmare, yelling to your kid from the stands telling him what to do. You are such a douch.

Um, perhaps you have noticed the summer tournaments that teams from all these tournaments play in? You really want to be driving up and down the coast in the spring too?

Yes or maybe you stop doing all of these summer tournaments and we have real leagues with managed rosters and a real youth national tournament. Not worried about ages(birth year vs. Graduation year) but some real management/organization from US Lacrosse.

If you are truly a coach talking like this in an anonymous forum, you are your team's worst nightmare.

When are all you people going to realize that US Lacrosse has no real power to do anything? Local leagues are going to do what they're going to do. And until the recruiting scene actually changes, HoCo is likely to stay grade-based.

Maybe the new "recruiting rule" will help with some of this stuff, but unlikely. College coaches will still look at 7th and 8th graders, but only if they're real studs. And they probably won't go out looking for them, it will be that they happen to be there for something else and notice or someone will say "you need to go check out this kid."

Since 7th and 8th graders can play high school in NY (and perhaps PA as well), I'll bet they'll get more looks than MD kids. In my mind, no college coach should be offering anything to any kid until he's played at least a year of varsity level lacrosse.

Is it better to play with a elite AA team and get 2 or 3mins play time in a game or play for A program and play most of the time

Playing time trumps everything.

For 7th grader, what matters is best competition and best coaching at practice. Games are just a reflection of what you are learning in practice, although most parents think games are the most important, because it is the funnest part for the spectator. You get better in practice, so you want to be playing against the best, as long as there is good coaching. A few extra hours of game experience against lesser talent is not going to inherently improve your players game, but countless hours of practice at the higher level will. Then, of course, his/her chances of increased game time at AA will increase with improvement and development.

Completely agree; on the filed play is the only way your son and daughter will learn and develop the skills needed to play at an elite level. I would much rather have my son playing A or B ball then standing on the sidelines watching AA competition.

At some privates around DC, 7/8th grade can play on JV.

I would argue with this statement 85% of the time. If you are the best player on a low A or B team you will be asked to just run around double teams and take bad shots. The practice time with a AA team is worth as much as the game time on a A team. My son is in high school now and he was on the lower end of a top AA team for years he also played on the A team the other years. Yes he did not play as much on the AA team but the practice time with D1 talent forced him to improve his weaknesses. Being really good or great on a lower team gives the kid a false sense of how good he is. This playing time trumps everything is the problem with sports today. Sports will become hard for your son one day and he will have to work for or earn playing time. Playing down to insure this playing time will only make him weaker for when he is forced to earn his spot in High School.

Coaching trumps everything. If you can be coached and PRACTICE with better players the likelihood of improving will be greatly enhanced and accelerated. The goal is to make the roster of the best team possible, work your butt off to playing time, become a starter, and then the best player on your unit. Teams that play in higher rated divisons simply have better resources -- coaches, players, facilities, and growth curves.

Depends on how happy your kid is. If he likes his teammates and learning the game from supportive coaches, he may be ok with sitting on the bench - especially if the team is winning.

If the kid is unhappy never playing, move him to a new team.

Amen...but a lot of parents would have to put their egos aside and let their sons be happy. It's a much better payoff.

Daddy ball and club politics very prevalent at this age. It is always a wise move to your kid if he is behind a coaches kid or a kid from a coach or admin from somewhere else in the club.

Practice and coaching. Games are not for learning. AA if you can for 7th grader. Games are for parents at this age.zt

What's if you just can't get by the politics and the kid is not given a chance ..

The purpose is to have fun not save your parents $ on college tuition.

Playing time is more fun.

So how do you build the kids confidence if they have limited play time

Real easy answer. It's a game. Kids should be having fun. If they are not having fun, move on. Their enjoyment of the game and passion to play will drive them to be better.

Is it to late to add players to the roster?? Some teams seem to add players no matter how late in the season it is.

Hoco rules
"Any additions or deletions must be put in writing and submitted to the Conference Commissioner before the player is eligible to play. Additions must include all information and waiver forms required with the original roster submittal. No player may be added after the fourth game of the season"

Funny to see Annapolis and D.C. Clubs at the top and Balt clubs at the bottom.

Hawks and Bethesda clearly has a number of holdbacks. Deny all you want but several sources know who the players are and should be playing 2021. Heard Madlax also but no verification.

Every one has hold backs it's a cheating game...it is what it is...hoco goes back to birthday everyone will have too. Then we can find something else to complain about.

Madlax has 3 wins versus teams that have a combined 1 win and a loss to Rough Riders. Some teams have easier schedules. Bethesda played one goal games with Hawks and API. There are no easy games in this division.

I can't recall, where are Diamondbacks and Next Level from? So 2 of the bottom 3 are from Annapolis and DC areas also.

This is our first year playing in this division -- it is good from top to bottom! By and large, all of these kids are very highly skilled, been playing for several years, received good coaching, and play on middle school teams in addition to their club team. Most games are 1, 2 or 3 goal differentials and very few are blowouts. These teams are even and any one of them can upset another on "any given Sunday". So it is not -- in my opinion -- a regional or geographic thing. Rather, it is the luck of the draw, and effort on gameday that results in wins/losses.

When the NPYLL had U15/U13/U11/U9 A&B brackets everyone would complain about "older" UXX teams playing in the B bracket

Complaining never stops, parents need an excuse for whey their team loses beyond it isn't as good as they thought

You tell them the truth. They are about a year from high school, so they either want to get better, or they don't, and getting better is hard hard work. If they love it, that will sound like a good plan.

Life isn't fun sometimes, so the earlier you are honest, the better off they will be. If they love the game, they will understand they have about a year until high school, so they better play against the hardest, and seemingly not fun, competition as much as possible. You know what is not fun, not making the team in high school, then all those lower bracket games you played in MS don't seem so fun anymore.

Not a money issue. There's little money to spread around, most just want to make it. Fun is making it to the highest level if you love the sport. Fun is not saying you were the best 7th grade player ever in the B bracket, but never made it past JV.