BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2026-5th Grade Fall 2018/Summer 2019

One of their little kids was a goon!!!!

I have a son on an older team. I watched and was very impressed with that Hawks teams skill level. I assume the core has been together for a while. Defense was great. Attack rode like crazy and a good goalie.

Me 3

Well it sounds like you watched the most perfect lacrosse team ever! May all others strive to be just like the 2026 Annapolis Hawks! We bow!

Crabs will beat both.

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Reclassifying is one thing, but I think that is less of a problem than people clam it is at the 5th grade level. If lacrosse goes to a birth year, then the focus of the complaining will be because a team has a bunch of early 2007 birthdays and their kids are 8-11 12 months older than our kids.

My son played with a big kid all through youth and HS. He was probably 6 ft in 6th grade, he's in college now and may have only grown 2 inches since then. The comments from opposing parents once they saw that he was also an excellent player were embarrassing. "Where's his birth certificate?" "Play with your own age!" "Did you drive to the game?" Some kids are bigger than other kids their age, some kids are better than kids their age, and some are bigger AND better than kids their age. That doesn't make them cheaters.[/quote]

What is the argument to having an age based system where kids move up on their birthday, meaning when a kid turns 11 he plays 11 and under? This way the kids progress naturally from being the youngest to the oldest and, presumably, moving up in importance to the team. I've heard the team cohesion argument and it's ridiculous given the age levels we're talking about. And since USL and tournaments require birth dates upon registration, it's easily policed.

Lol. Lax world wasn't any good last year and didnt even play AA.

Hawks hammered express. wasn't close. hawks best 2026 team out there

Crabs will win ....coach that throws the biggest tantrums award. Good luck with that !

You think Millon and Mclernan are bad.....watch out.

Did they add/lose any players?

Haven't seen them this year. They were good last year in HOCO though. I wouldn't have guessed that they would blowout the Express teams. Wonder if they got some PLC players.

If Express played in HoCo they would not be a top four team. Long Island is predominantly a public school area so they don’t have older kids like our teams do. That is why you rarely see Maryland teams participate in the WSYL in Denver. Our teams don’t have enough kids that meet the September 1st age cutoff to field a complete team with their regular 19-21 players.

Express is always one of the better U13 teams at WSYL.

Next Level even had to recruit age eligible kids last year to join their WSYL team that did not play on their club in the spring to help them be more competitive in Denver. They were an average team in HoCo last Spring.

Long Island teams at this age are skilled but are behind in size and speed. That of course will change in the next few years.

Fifth grade lacrosse means nothing. It will all change after puberty. Ask any Dad who has a son on a high school age club team. Over 50% of the kids that were on that team in 5th grade are no longer there.

This age should be about developing your boys individual skills and having fun with your friends so there is no burn out.

And yes, the Hawks are a very good 2026 team and playing them is always a great challenge.

Talking to one of the dads they have 8 new kids

""Ask any Dad who has a son on a high school age club team. Over 50% of the kids that were on that team in 5th grade are no longer there.""

This is true look at Madlax. The 8th grade team has maybe one player that was on the team when they were in fifth grade and he is not even a starter.

1 kid

For top teams this is pretty accurate. 50% of kids from 5th grade are gone by high school. Yet that won't stop parents from arguing who is the best 5th grade team as if it matters.

What is the argument to having an age based system where kids move up on their birthday, meaning when a kid turns 11 he plays 11 and under? This way the kids progress naturally from being the youngest to the oldest and, presumably, moving up in importance to the team. I've heard the team cohesion argument and it's ridiculous given the age levels we're talking about. And since USL and tournaments require birth dates upon registration, it's easily policed.

I personally thing grad year is smart in youth lax. My other son benefited from playing with older, physically bigger kids who reclassed to his grad year. It prepared him more for high school lax. He was able to compete with guys 2-3 years older than him. There’s good in everything. Some of you bozos just need to look for it.

Thanks for the wisdom holdback whisperer. Since it worked for your son it must work for all. #YourTruth #BozosKnowBest

Dad of a Senior is high school here.
He will be graduating at the age of 17. He will be signing a D2 scholarship in Nov.
He played with a top Club team 4th grade to 12th. I fully agree he got better playing with the older private school kids for sure.
But its hard not to sit back at this time and say what if I held him back? I am seeing what his body will look like by the time he hits the field in spring. If he had one more year what could he do?

I can sleep well at night knowing we did it the right way.

One thing to note is he started on the U11 system then into Grade year teams in what 6th or 7th grade. He also lived through the old rule of Sept 1st Jr year.
I am guessing this rule will help boys like my son because the spots will be open longer. But time will only tell.

My kid isn’t a holdback. You completely missed the point of the post stunad. Keep pounding that chest, one day it will get bigger.

That last part is funny. USL only provides insurance. They do not police anything. Tournaments have CYA waivers but could care less about birth dates. Grade based only means that a player is supposed to be in the graduation year 2026, 2025 ect... This could be interpreted as what the parents may do in the future such as re-class, holdback, ect.... Clubs that do this the most run the tournament. There is no enforcement or even a desire to do so. These programs feed private schools that benefit from holdbacks with an extra year of tuition payments. In other words, there is zero motivation to police anything. There are a few age based events but you will not see any top local teams at them.

I think for most kids it drives them out of the sport instead of toward it. I reference the study Malcolm Gladwell and many others have cited regarding NHL hockey juniors in Canada. With today's databases, there's no longer a need for a class based system.

Lacrosse should be just like Hockey. Play with other kids born in your birth year. That way the maximum guaranteed age difference is 12 months. Or like Youth Football that has a weight limit.

Aren't we the only youth sport doing it the grade way?

In the system we have now the age range in a given game could possibly be 24 months. On my sons fifth grade team the number of months between our youngest and oldest kid is 17 months.

Why not go back to an age based system? College coaches only care about High School Juniors and Seniors. At NLF this past spring in Long Island not a single D1 coach was on the 2021 (rising sophomores) sidelines. I was there. I saw it.

We went to grade based because of early recruiting four years ago but that is no longer relevant.

Go ahead and reply with your "its good to play older kids" viewpoint but maybe your son didn't get a concussion that had to make him sit out of sports and school for a month with dizziness, fatigue and headaches. And before you trash me my son is a high level player on a HoCo AA team and not a bench sitter.

Playing older kids in non contact sports is fine. In the case of contact sports like lacrosse it is completely irresponsible in the pre High School years and is not preparing your son for anything except injury.

What is it going to take for Lacrosse parents to make a stand on this. All it would take is to change HoCo and NLF to age based and the rest of the youth landscape will follow but we are the only ones that can make this change happen.

I wish this was a forum about making our sport better and safer instead of a place where opinions are ridiculed. I guess I'm expecting too much from anonymous posters.

I'm pushing the leaders of my son's club to be proactive on this issue. I encourage you to do the same with your sons club.

Your are missing the true reason that lacrosse is not like the other sports. It is a private school sport and the hold back schools get an extra $25 to $45K a year from parents that send kids to private schools from K-12 if they go an extra year. The clubs use almost rent free fields from the private schools and many also coach at the school. What % of top club programs have STRONG ties to schools? GP, Bullis, BL, MCD, even Spalding. Do not worry if you kid does not hold back and graduates a little too soon they will talk you into a PG or Post Graduate year at yet another $25-40K per year with another school they have a relationship with on the advice of a private college coach who they know. I am not defending it just providing the other side so you know where to place your frustrations. Good luck!

I love all the Crabs, Hawks, Laxachussetts nonsense. Kids dominate all... Funny how they never play or make WSYL.... oh wait, that is age based... Man up and play on age.

Lots of games today in Columbia. Three teams finished 3-0.

BLC - beat Sidewinders, Arden, and 3D Maryland
Madlax Capital - beat Roughriders, Sidewinders, FCA
VLC - beat Next Level, Roughriders, and FCA

Crabs at 2-1 were the only other team with a winning record. They only lost to FCA.

Unfortunately, with ten teams entered most teams didn't play each other. Surprise to me is that Diamondbacks went 1-2. I only saw 1/2 of a Diamondbacks game but they didn't look like the same team. Couldn't hang with Bethesda. One parent mentioned that they lost some of their better players to the Hawks.

Still - don't think you can draw any conclusions from this. It is a fall tournament, first *cold* day of the year, and the wind was brutal. Good day but not much to learn from it.

Anyone know who is playing in the Halloween Havoc next week?

Doubt you saw half the game because you weren’t there, Hawks dad. But thanks for letting us know you got their better players. Everyone was dying to know what happened 10yr old players.

Jeez - this wasn't even a post about the Hawks. I was there and am not a Hawks parent. I watched the first half because the Diamondbacks were arguably the 2nd best team last year and BLC is always a strong program. BLC was controlling all facets of the game against the Diamondbacks. Won most of the faceoffs and controlled possession. Either BLC took a step forward or Diamondbacks took a step back. Or it was a cold flukey game...which it might have been.

Want some level of proof I was there - BLC was in blue jerseys and the game was played on one of the turf baseball fields at Blandair Park. I watched the first half before moving to a different field for my kids own game.

There have been a number of respectful discussions on the top teams in 2026. (It's why there is a board discussing youth lacrosse.) I like the Diamondbacks and their coaches. It's a good program but they didn't look like the same team yesterday. Which was somewhat "confirmed" by a conversation that I had with a parent.

Thanks for the update. Its good to see a positive post about teams that were playing and how the competition was at Blandair

The Diamondbacks have gone downhill ever since they merged with API. I would stay away from that program. Daddy ball is rampant, and the coaching is horrific.

Random question from a relative newbie - does anyone know the general HOCO league schedule? When does it start and when does it end? Is there a break for Spring Breaks?

Trying to plan a large family vacation/reunion and hoping to avoid conflicts.

They won’t have games on easter weekend but will have games the weekend before and after. Start date may change, but should be last weekend in March maybe one week earlier. Championships will be weekend before Memorial Day.

Thank you. This is helpful.

Maybe top 10 in the B division. Halloween Havoc schedule out. HoCo in B bracket. Keep dreaming big though.

Cannons too. That's weird. I think they won it last year.

hearing a bunch about the Hawks being the top team at this age group in the area. how did they do in summer vs out of state competition?

They beat both Express teams in Delaware, pretty easily it sounds like. Hard to judge in October. Some kids are less involved in the fall while they play soccer/football. Plus they are 10/11 year olds so it's not worth it.

Top team is the old PLC team - beat Hawks twice last year and didnt lose anyone in the off season

How did Halloween Havoc end up? Did they get it in with the weather?