BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Bypassing Middle School Lax for Club Team

Its a town and we do it right. No travel teams and yes we do get recruited to div 1 schools without paying a million dollars and running every day of our lives for lax. It is also a Magical experience when our boys play side by side all year round. It does happen and virtually for free and effortless.

Question about the Syosset Summer Lax program - this does sound good so help out if you know the answers to any of these below questions because it is so rare that a town can successfully pull this off:
Does anyone know if the HS Summer Tournament teams are playing in the Elite division or B division?
Do individual players attend recruiting camps?
What is the cost per player for the summer tournament team?

It would be interesting to find out is the system makes the player or do a few key players make the system look good...

This is a middle school topic that was started, not high school. However....

Elite or B division-- depends on grade
Recruiting camps-- yes, as individuals, many do, representing Syosset
Costs for summer team-- Youth travel Spartans team - very reasonable fee

Many kids In Syosset at every age level play club travel in addition to PAL, school and town travel.

Players benefit the system and the system benefits the players.

But the questions also rolls over to high school and the high school coaches. I agree that if a player wants to improve and compete at a higher level they should play club ball, but what happens during the summer when the high school coaches put together school teams to compete in tournaments and your child can't committ to being there 100 percent of the time because of conflicts in tournaments. Our experience has been that the child that plays for a team outside of the school venue is "punished" for doing so. Their playing time with the high school team is reduced even though their skills are clearly more advanced they play second string. What should a player do? This type of behavior makes the player and the parent feel horrible. As a parent you watch all of their hardwork, the time and committment go down the tubes because the player sits on the sidelines because he chooses to play for a travel team during the summer.

Unfortunately for some of us, we have to play middle school or face the consequences from the JV/Varsity coaches. Just the way it is.....

Unfortunately for some of us, we have to play middle school or face the consequences from the JV/Varsity coaches. Just the way it is.....

Most try to do both, but some times it isn't possible especially when your not at the same location. Trust me, my child doesn't think he is better than anyone else, but he is made to feel like he isn't part of a school team because he chooses to play club ball, that is what we are talking about!!!

play for the club of your choice. H.S. ball does not mean that much. Tell the school superintendent. Do what is best for your kid ,not for the H.S. coach

play for the club of your choice. H.S. ball does not mean that much. Tell the school superintendent. Do what is best for your kid ,not for the H.S. coach

I don't think the St Anthony's or Chaminade superintendent (or equivalent) will ever do anything to stop the pressure (overt or covert) that those coaches use to force boys to play Express. Its still very wrong for those coaches to do both.

Don't most kids from GC and Man play outside the town? Every travel team I see is full of kids with helmets from these towns. Are these towns now putting pressure on the kids to play only with the town over the summer?
If so, it kind of flys in the face of the reasoning to go town only. GC was number one team in the country and the kids all played on outside travel teams.

Don't most kids from GC and Man play outside the town? Every travel team I see is full of kids with helmets from these towns. Are these towns now putting pressure on the kids to play only with the town over the summer?
If so, it kind of flys in the face of the reasoning to go town only. GC was number one team in the country and the kids all played on outside travel teams.

Don't most kids from GC and Man play outside the town? Every travel team I see is full of kids with helmets from these towns. Are these towns now putting pressure on the kids to play only with the town over the summer?
If so, it kind of flys in the face of the reasoning to go town only. GC was number one team in the country and the kids all played on outside travel teams.

there is a big difference between public and private school with regard to conflict of interest, when you sign on for chaminade or st. a it all comes with the territory - no one is holding a gun to your head, you don't like it you leave. public school conflict of interest is another story and the fact that they're paid with tax payer funds and then find the need to manipulate thier students for extra money is disgusting

I would be surpised if they are in the top five this year.

Anyone who doesn't believe that HS ball matters to these kids needs to come down to the Woodstick Classic. I believe its in Manhasset this year, maybe Cage can confirm.

Maybe HS ball doesnt matter in your town, come down to GC or Manhasset for that matter and you will see a different side of this argument.

Anyone who doesn't believe that HS ball matters to these kids needs to come down to the Woodstick Classic. I believe its in Manhasset this year, maybe Cage can confirm.

The recent success of Garden City is interesting, because it highlights the benefits of both middle school and club teams, and I think pretty much disproves the theory that your "elite" kid shouldn't play for the middle school program. Allow me to elaborate ...

The classes of 2011 and 2012 in Garden City had the benefit of a couple of dads starting their own club team, called the Sharks. I believe this was sometime in 2005 or 2006. The Sharks were loosely affiliated with Gordon Purdie's Checkmate program at Adelphi (which is in GC). At least initially, the boys who played for the Sharks were told they could NOT play for GC Middle School in the spring. This allowed for more boys to play lax for GCMS starting in 7th grade, because many of the "studs" were already playing for the Sharks.

You now had a situation where a LOT of boys were playing a lot of lax for very good coaches. The Sharks were dominant. The stuff of legend really. But the GCMS team was still quite good, and some of those GCMS-only players became very, very good players for the High School.

At some point the Sharks relented and removed the "you can't play for the middle school" rule, and there was some back and forth, especially in the summer. It became a little weird when some of the GC school coaches started appearing as Sharks coaches (at least in print), and I can only assume that this indicates there were no hard feelings on the part of the GC school coaches.

The rest is history. GC being #1 in the country is the direct result of two competing programs, GCMS and the Sharks, producing a lot of great lax players, who then combined in High School to create a dominant team, deep with talent.

What remains to be seen is whether this success will continue, since I believe all the original Sharks players have now graduated.

On another note: I don't want to add to the "Syosset lovefest", but they appear to be on the same path -- a strong travel "club" team for boys who live in the town, plus what I assume is a good middle school program, with at least some cooperation among the two groups.

But hey, what do I know!


Not to be a d%&* but the term "stuff of legends" really does not apply to mid school travel team under any circumstances

Um, those GCMS-Sharks boys ended up at Harvard, Yale, Penn, Colgate, Maryland, Amherst and Penn State ... etc. etc. I believe they had 3 HS All-Americans (maybe more). I'm not sure they ever lost a game, although they must have at some point over the middle school years into early high school.

This started back in 2005-06. You know, before the club team explosion and before you were paying attention.

Go ask MC if he remembers that team!

"The recent success of GC ? Where have you been or are you a Lax expert or critic because your kids play now."

I'm only referring to the last two years as "recent". GC is always good, but #1 national rankings are rare. And there's a reason the last two classes were so dominant.

And if I know what was happening in 2005, I've been around longer than most here, and likely much longer than you.