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Madlax 2024 won at Big4, but the rest of the club laid an egg. Sounds like Madlax is losing kids earlier than before. Probably most because of NL and DCE.

Madlax 2020 team was 4-0 this past weekend by beating Leading Edge, Laxachusetts, Sweetlax and Eclipse and won the Platinum Cup championship last weekend.

And Madlax 2022 went 3-1 with big win over 9d1MD. Their only loss of the weekend was to a Canadian team that was obviously a 2021 team.

I think your call about Madlax being a dying club are a little off. I will agree that the Madlax State teams (second teams) are dying this is correct. The talent of kids on these second teams is way down compared to 3 or more years ago. I think parents can not handle there star child being placed on a second team. So you are correct the best players from the Madlax state teams have left for NL,DCE and VLC this is a fact. And some of these kids are developing into really good players as the get older. But I think this just proves that the DMV has more top players then ever before and they do not want the "insult" of playing for a second team.

How does VLC compare to Madlax? Mainly asking as it would just be logistically easier for VA players.

Which MadLax team? Probably an assortment of players from several ML teams. Did they have to give their jerseys back at the end of the day? Would not be the first time.

best players from all MADLAX teams are leaving...Players and parents have had enough of Cabbell's overpriced over hyped revolving coaches club...bye bye madlax, club blue coming to Virginia

Who washes the returned jerseys?

Well I would say they are very comparable. But I would have to give the edge to Madlax when it comes to the best 2 to 5 players on each team. Madlax has top 10 ranked players in the country at the 2018,2019 age groups. But VLC has tons of high level players for sure. My thoughts are any top NOVA player should try out for these two teams first and see where they line up. I would see where my son fell in line with both teams. If he is 4th attackman on Madlax and 3rd for VLC go to VLC for sure. The other option for the top NOVA players is Blackwolf. But the trend with Blackwolf is your son plays for VLC or Madlax for there 6th to 8th grade years then the dad gets mad at something with Madlax or VLC then he writes a email to Blackwolf and they go play for them. But at the end of the day if your son is a D1 level player and lives in NOVA he should pick one of these three. Or the other trend is play for at least 2 of the three like tons of the kids on the current rosters now.
To prove my point just take a name from a high school roster for any of the three teams and put the other two club names after the name in google you will see the movement of clubs that happens with this top NOVA talent. The biggest offender is Blackwolf every kids name can be found on a old VLC or Madlax roster.

Thanks, perfectly answers my question. It's hard to get good info as most people have pretty strong biases for/against different clubs.

This is a very reasonable post. As you said, as long as you are playing for one of these two or even BW, your son should be fine. It also depends on the year. Madlax has the better team in some grades and some grades the better team is either BW or VLC. All three get their kids to college recruiters and all play in good enough events.

I would also use other factors into consideration other than where my son is on the depth chart for either team. I would look at the quality of the coach, how active that coach is in terms of recruiting help, the other kids/families on the team, how well the team plays together, etc.

In terms of logistics, Madlax seems attract more McLean to Alexandria kids. VLC seems to get more Fairfax to Loudoun kids. Part of it is where they practice.

Thank you for the complement on my post. I agree with 99% of what you wrote. Can you explain your definition of recruiting help? I hear this said all the time but its never laid out what each club does better then the other when it comes to recruiting help. My understanding is no matter what club you play for it really comes down to the player knowing what schools he can and wants to play for, and reaching out to them early and often. A club owner/coach can never lie and up sell any player to get him recruited. This hurts his ability to help a kid who really can play for Maryland to be recruited by Maryland. These three clubs all have the same contacts with colleges I would assume. They all three play in top level tournaments. And its the college coach that reaches out to the club owner 9 our of 10 times I would guess. You sound like a guy who could answer this question.

For recruiting, I do not think anyone does it better than Madlax. It's a brand and part of the sell. He's in tournaments every weekend and seems to seek out solid competition. Now he's worked his way into the NLF group and the college coaches seem to come there to shop.

For playing in college, Blackwolf gets them ready. He seems to avoid competition and make odd (dated?) choices on tournaments to attend. His model assumes that the kids attend private HS so there is an extra boost there.

VLC benefits from the affiliation with the Crabs but they do not seem to go to all of the top-level recruiting events as the Baltimore team does.

In the end, it's about prospect days - particularly with the change in rules. You have to go to the school's camp/clinic so that they can let you know if they are interested.

That loophole was closed last week.

I have spoken with many college coaches. I think many parents new to the process do not understand that coaches in lacrosse do not have the resources to simply go out and "find" players. They do not attend tournaments to "shop" for players. The primary purpose of a showcase tournament is to watch players they are already interested in and "verify" that they fit the bill. Despite closing any "loop hole" about prospect days, IMHO camps will still be a primary way for coaches to spend time with players. They just cannot formally sell the school. If a kid attends a school camp he is allowed to let the coaches know he is interested. They are allowed to see him up close running the drills they will run if he went to that school. They will then attend the tournaments to watch the player v. competition. At that point I do not think the winning % of the club matters to the coach. However, the team does need to be good enough to play in the higher brackets. If a coach does "spot" another high performing player they may or may not add the player to a watch list. The challenge is that unless the player shows some interest in the school how would the coach know if another player he watched had any interest or could qualify for that school? Too much risk to go after a player not interested with too little resources. They key to all of this is do not let the club take care of this for you. Have your son (not you) take the lead and market himself to the coaches he wants to play for. That is THE best way to get the most out of recruiting.

Good advice.

Incredible lineup at Capital Classic this past weekend.

Venom 2019
Ground Control Red
Ground Control Grey
Bandits A
Bandits B
Atlanta Empire 2020
Madlax MDVA 2020
HoCo 2020

Get your sarcasm in this but is what it is. Lacrosse has no governing body like other sports that directs team to tournaments that are skill appropriate. All l tournaments are what they are in lacrosse.

Since you've taken the time to write an intelligent post, perhaps you could provide some insight on when. With the new rules, at what age should kids attend prospect days or start reaching out.

My advice having gone through this, if your child is in 7-8 grade and has a list of 30 or so schools he's "interested in" begin to look at the schools, let the coach know he is interested, contact admissions about the qualifying grades and SAT's and the money it will cost. If all of that is reasonable to the family then continue to keep in touch with the coach via email. (use to be coaches would keep in touch but now it has to be the athlete) so if you are in the 8th grade and the coach is at a tournament that your team is playing in he will most definitely stop by and take a look. If you look like a fit player wise he will put you on his prospect list. He will then continue to follow your progression and he will be able to gauge your interest in his school and will invite you to prospect days. The coaches can still track a player they just cant initiate contact. they can still talk to the players at tournaments they just cant recruit them. Coaches will still be tracking 8 graders don't kid yourself.
They can also talk to your club coaches.

No surprise. Everything that club does is a money grab.

Ok let me ask you a question how is having a bracket of 8 teams play each other a money grab?
1. Are these 8 teams close to the same skill level?
2. Are these 8 teams all in the same age, grade range?
3. Were all these teams aware of the other teams they where going to play when they showed up to the tournament?
4. Was this tournament geared towards the younger teams?

The answer to all these questions is YES.
The teams at the lower level had higher ranked teams for sure. All tournaments are to make money. They had refs and schedules and bathrooms and a place to play. Please explain how this tournament was any different then any other tournament your crappy club plays at?

I hope these guys had a fun time.

Money grab because he makes his good youth teams play in this terrible tournament, beating up on terrible teams. Who profits? Not the kids.

Well I am just guessing they invite more teams then the ones that show up? They have to lock in the Madlax teams from day one to show good faith to the clubs signing up for the tournament correct? So what would you like Madlax to do? This tournament is at least 5 years old could be a lot older then that. Have the brackets and teams always been bad? Are some brackets even this year good/fair? Your angry at Madlax giving 60 or so teams a tournament to play in. Is this tournament ran badly? If this tournament is bad what would you call most of those tournaments ran by Aloha?

I'm sure those 2022, 2023 and 2024 Madlax parents are glad to paid money to play on that crappy tournament just to fill the owner's pockets.

As a Madlax parent, Capital Classic was a nice change of pace. Didn't have to travel. Kids and parents had a blast. Well run tournament. At the younger age groups, the T91MD, Team Carolina, and Sentry teams were very competitive. If you check out the Madlax website, you will see that most of the Madlax teams are playing a rigourous tournament schedule back and forth to Bel Air and Philly. So to be in Poolesville hanging out at the Polo fields was a welcome change. Guess you haters will try and use anything to stir the pot.

Nice try, Dad. That tournament is a money grab. Also, ask the parents who got their cars stuck in the mud years ago and got robbed by a guy who pulled them.out for a small fortune, plus loss of a day with no refund.

Damn you Madlax
How dare you not stop the rain from falling. And how dare you not have a official Madlax tow truck on call for free to fix a Radom problem.

Yeah, the weather really sucked that year. We all were bummed. But what are you going to do? Blame Madlax for the weather too? And continue to berate them a couple of years later? At some point you need to let It go and move on.

Must be nice to give your money to a guy who threatens people. Great example you're teaching your son.

Please tell me the club run in NOVA that is worth anything that is run/owned by a saint. BW for sure no, VLC owned by the Crabs that owner has a long list of haters and then Madlax a owner who lost his temper with a Dad who many will agree was a real Jerk during this email battle you bring up every week for the last 5 years. Is the Madlax owner going to win any awards for Man of the year no. Does his club produce great players that are coached by a long list of really good guys and coaches for sure yes. Please feel free to pick any of the coaches on the list not the owner and try to bash any of them. My son has never once disliked or not in joyed being coached by a Madlax coach for the last 6 years. And this includes the owner.

Boy, the Madlax lackeys at 1345 Chain Bridge Road are busy on the computer trying to do clean-up.....Is that part of the job description?

You seem to have way more time then them to bash a travel lacrosse team. Your problems with Madlax are so harmless its pure comedy.

You really enjoy defending that guy. Great photos, by the way.

And when will my stringing job be ready?

Ok your jokes are very funny and on point. good job you get three gold stars. So tell me again in a none joke format why we should not play for Madlax? Please leave out your hurt feelings from the owners mean words from 6 years ago. Heck have you read our Presidents twitter feed any time this year. Being rude and calling people who oppose or question you bad names and threating them is a sign of great leadership.

Calling the Madlax guy the Trump of lacrosse? The redneck Madlax dad finally said something coherent.

Madlax 2023 coming to NXT and only playing in A bracket come on

I could be called a Redneck I can live with that. But I am smart enough to know you avoided answering the real question in my post. Can you really give good points why a top player from NOVA or S. MD should not play for a Madlax Cap. team? So your list can start with the emails from 6 years ago but you have to expand a little more then that or you are just a cry baby who has not real points.