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They could be called "Gonzo and Sons"

Dukes and Twist Lacrosse are now merging and are gonna practice out of Cabrini. Not sure how this is going to work out.

Has any Dukes merger worked yet, let go through then
Skyhawks+Dukes North=Out of Business
Team Philadelphia+Dukes South=Out of Business
Blue Moutain+Little Dukes BM=Out of Business

Where will twist end up?

Hopefully the Twist/Dukes merger will work out for the kids sake. My son was a Dukes South player and the last season was an unorganized, frustrating, and a wasted summer season of lacrosse. Good luck!

Any ideas why those mergers failed? Seems like the Dukes/Twist merger is headed for the same fate. Dukes/Twist and Dukes Main Line are gonna be practicing 5 miles from each other. Doesn't make much sense to me

My personal opinion and in all candor this is without data to support. These mergers are failing because the fundamentals are not there for the entities that are joining Dukes. All of the aforementioned clubs are struggling independently with rosters, financials, and brand. The Dukes mergers are lifelines from a once venerable brand which has lost some of its luster. Dukes has a lot more competition than it once did and we as consumers have choices. At one time if you were an elite high school player Dukes was the only option and frankly the best. Now a player can go to Mesa, Big 4/Triple H, NXT, and the list goes on. It is attrition, too many clubs and not enough elite players thus the product gets diluted.

Did NXT fold their 2020 team?

Given that they had tryouts for the few opens spots on the 2020 team, I'm pretty sure the answer is no. NXT 2020 appears to be alive and well.

They have not announced any of their rosters yet. In previous years they made a big deal about it and had it out after a week. Even the kids they added to the 2018 and 2019 teams last year.

No

They doubled the size of their club this year with multiple teams for each youth grad year. No surprise that they are behind on this stuff.

Anyone have thoughts on this:

uslacrosse.org/blog/us-lacrosse-pilots-youth-club-rankings-system
uslacrosse.org/blog/us-lacrosse-clarifies-selection-criteria-for-2018-nationals

What I don't understand is how does any team play in one of these tournaments unless they have converted from grade based to age based? NXT themselves is only going age based at their youngest level.

https://nxtlacrosse.com/blog/entry/...-to-adopt-us-lacrosse-age-segmentation-p

If my sons club has not adopted the age segmentation at any level, can we not participate in these tournaments? If we can, then I don't see how it changes anything other than driving more teams to these US Lacrosse compliant tournaments so that teams can be ranked and participate in the US Lacrosse Nationals (which appear to follow a U based format which then could preclude kids on qualifying teams?

To add, I support the age segmentation, I just don't see the path here.

US Lacrosse will have egg on its face if it does not hold to its age requirements in its National Tournament. Can't preach one thing and do something different especially if you are considered the governing body

Ok, so as an example. NXT puts its 2023 team in a bunch of it's tournaments. They have 4 kids with summer birthdays. They garner enough points to make the national tournament. What happens? They can't play because their birthday isn't after the 9/1 cutoff?

I assume they won't keep those kids from playing in the qualifying tournaments, so how do they exclude them from the national?

Did Maryland or Pennsylvania win more games at the Roughrider Battle at the Border today?

I think The PA Roughriders won more games than MD Roughriders

I think that both franchises are struggling to stay above the elite line.

PA wins: 2026, 2025, 2024, 2020
MD wins: 2022, 2021

No 2023 game due to no MD 2023 Roughrider team.

MD RR2022 team is a very strong.

MD definitely won 2024 , 2026 was either a tie or MD win. 2020 PA looked very good.

2025 Pa and 2026 Pa won

US Lacrosse is grandfathering in existing teams. The only teams that will have to adhere to the strict guidelines of September 1st will be the 2027 group. That group has to be birthday compliant. The other teams older than them do NOT have to be compliant and are grandfathered. Bit of a weak methodology and my vote would have been to go cold-turkey like soccer did but the reality is that the landscape of competitive lacrosse is controlled more by the clubs than the governing body. Personally don't even see this really gaining a foothold as the Elite Clubs are setting up their own Tournaments and so they don't even really need US Lacrosse and can thumb their noses at the big tournament players. I think if you ask most elite clubs who holds the better tournaments it would be NLF and they don't need to change. US Lacrosse....Eunuchs.

9/1 is a dumb cutoff for boys. Should be 7/1 or 8/1. Most people with late summer boys held them, why age-based will never work and US Lacrosse will continue to give passes

I just saw Roughriders are adding a Richmond club. It could be a 3 way battle next year. MD vs PA vs VA.

Box Season is upon us. How did Penn Lax tryouts go? NXT tryouts tonight and tomorrow

Penn Lax went well. Good numbers. NXT will be NXT kids in box gear nothing more nothing less.

NXT has the better coaching staff by far.

Not what I heard - PennLax got a few good offense players but weaker transition and D. Neither NXT or PennLax are going to compete with 91, etc in box at this level. Not even sure either beats the Jr Wings. 2022 seems to be a bad year in Philly.

Saw NXT play at the PILC last year at 2021 and 2022 and they got smacked. 91 MD won the 2022 bracket beeting Eagle/Tristate and Annapolis Hawks in the playoffs.

Trisate beat PennLax at the 2021 level.

Saw NXT 2022 get beat by 10 by Tristate and 8 or so by Freedom.

That’s a stretch PennLax is loaded with current and former NLL players as well

The Fusion/Penn Lax guys used to be able to say they weren't daddy ball. Now it's not the case as TS took his kid and buddies for the 22/23 team.

What could go wrong with TS involved?

Dukes Nationals MiniCamp is a disgrace. Unprofessional, Unsafe, NO evaluation at all. 4 inches of snow. Can't see white balls, feet and hands frost bitten and right next door to an indoor facility. G just too cheap to pay or just too stupid and totally unprepared

Fusion Winter Classic was a pretty good tournament, but they really need to train the refs to consistently call the games the same.

Some refs call it like a U7 game and 80% of the game is with one team or the other in man down. No one wants to play like that.

Other games only 1 or 2 calls were made.

Just be consistent from the first game on with all the refs and no one will complain.

Any predictions for this weekend?

https://www.tourneymachine.com/Publ...rnament=h2018020115085402020f9b0c09bd749

8th grade AA looks absolutely stacked

where is 7th grade bl aa?

Game times are a joke for the younger ages. 6:45 & 7:45 on Monday night. Should have put it over two weekends or gone Sat & Sun

Teams know how late the times go before they sign up. If it didn't work for them they wouldn't sign up

They've had a hard time fielding a team this winter. Not sure how that's going to translate into the summer. I doubt it will change much for them. They'll still be tops.