BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NEW JERSEY LACROSSE NEW JERSEY FORUM Top Boy's Club Teams in New Jersey

Not a huge fan of NLF, but the competition is excellent. Very true about certain clubs, they cannot keep teams going through high school, I understand that a kid here and there may leave a program for greener pastures, but some clubs seem to shed a whole team once high school hits. I find it especially surprising for Mad Dog considering that they have good players and a pretty large footprint with the MD West and select teams.

Mad Dog only pulls from a small area in NJ, major turnover with coaches. Within 3 years Mad Dog NJ could be dead.

So what about the Autumn Gold showcase this weekend at Townson? is that a B Tournament/showcase?

i always thouhgt BBL was a good club. Played them in field many times, and went 500 against them.Semi rec team. Good kids/parents. Smashed em, and everyone, at NXT box in PA. Bayhawks elite.

I think you got your answer at NAL

To what?

Tribal

Would still like to see BBL, Tribal, Mad Dog Black & 3d NJ in a playday at the '25 level. Leading Edge can host and hand out contact information for their High School program.

Are we still talking about Tribal, I thought that this was old news. You came on the forum earlier to get your validation, you got some positive replies and honest comments, and then came back on here tooting your horn because of one tournament...there is nothing gained by the constant promotion. Trust me, give it another year or two and your precious '25 team will be getting smacked around by the the big bad holdback teams...and if you don't believe me, take a look at what happens to 91 Bandits when they play teams like DC Dogs, Laxachusetts and the like.

South Jersey schools require students to repeat the 8th grade so they can be at the same academic level as the rest of the state? They will be a solid team as 8th graders!

You seem to be missing the point, the playing field will not be level in 8th grade. 91 Bandits is a solid 8th grade team now, and can beat any other on-age 2023 team, but outside of age-based, they do not dominate like they used to as 6th and 7th graders because the other programs are now full of holdbacks and reclassed kids. Nobody could touch Bandits at the WSYL, but look at what happens when they played the big NLF events. Also, it would be pretty surprising if the team stayed together through eight grade, especially with the draw of the Philly programs.

South Jersey really is not part of NJ, they just think they are.

Who is One More Lacrosse out of NJ? They submitted a team in the WSYL.

Where do you see teams signed up for WSYL?

Where do you see who is signed up for WSYL?

That is a pretty interesting qualifier, some very good teams. If that BBL 2024 is legitimately on-age, they will make a good run

Who is OneMore Lax out of NJ?

Thanks for that! Assume more will sign up as time gets closer. Freedom, Patriot, Maddog, 3d are teams that would seem to fit on this list.

How many teams from the region qualify? Is it set # or a % of entries?

I don't think that you will see any of those clubs entering teams, they would have signed up already. It is not an easy undertaking if you have too many kids that do not make the cut-off, plus you have to get the parents on board as well.

Agree, I know BBL and Tristate just announced their WSYL team tryout but they are teams that annually field a team so I am sure they preregister and I would assume the better/eligible players from the other NJ teams will tryout for those WSYL teams. It is very difficult to field a competitive team from a preexisting club because of the age cutoff and dispersion of talent across the state.

Only a couple of the NY clubs can typically field a WSYL competitive team with their existing club team. I believe the BL team is primarily their club team but they built it over the last couple of years with this tournament in mind. You absolutely need a stud FO and Goalie and at least 1 dominant (read post puberty) midfielder to have any success out there.

Plus as you said, you need all the parents willing to drop a decent chunk of change on a lacrosse vacation.

As for qualifiers, last year, 5 from the east qualified and I think 6 from the North. I would think its based on the # of entries/talent areas although if the Central had 15 teams enter, I am still not sure they would take top 5 since the depth of talented teams is not as great as the East or North. Last year you had 2 East teams make the playoffs out in Denver, 4 North teams, 1 International and 1 West Team.

Also remember that the East includes MD, DC, VA but literally NO DMV team play. We all know why.

Who were the 2 east teams? Either NJ?

No, Big 5 was a PA team and Next Level was a MD team.. tristate and BBL qualified out of the east and had a good showing but didn’t advance out of their pool

Cavalier is VA, last year they were 1 spot from qualifying, breakers are MD. API is MD and are usually pretty good..

I think the top 2 coming out of east are BBL and brotherly love and both could go far in Denver.

Cavalier was OK last year, Breakers team was not strong at all, API did not play. Other than the two bottom teams there was a lot of parity at the qualifiers, no real blow-outs among the top teams. Next Level was tough at the qualifiers, a couple of big kids, they looked really good in Denver (you can see the top NL kids on DC Dawgs now, they jumped ship right after Denver and played 2023 National Championship and NLF championship with DC). If the BBL 2024 team that played at Lehigh this fall is legit and on-age, they will be very strong at WSYL. I think, as in the past, you will see 5 teams come out of the East qualifier. Also, where you place in qualifier makes a huge difference when they do the seeding in Denver, if you finish too low, you have a very tough road.

Very exciting news for our sport and program! Our Select National Director and Recruiting Consultant, Jim Stagnitta, has been named one of the six head coaches of the Premiere Lacrosse League! Congrats to Coach Stagnitta and the rest of the pack for being part of a new era of lacrosse! Coach Stagnitta will be joining our East, West, and HS National Team for Sandstorm Jan 18-20 in Indio, CA!

Will Stagnitta do anything to improve Mad Dog's standing?

Can't really see how this does anything for Mad Dog, unless, however unlikely, he can somehow get the PLL players involved with the club. It's not as though kids are going to be knocking down the doors to play for Mad Dog because he is a PLL coach.

where does patriot fall in these rankings?

Very hard to judge. You can get a pretty good feel for BBL, LE and Tri-State teams because they mostly compete against the same programs, i.e. Annapolis Hawks, Freedom, Brotherly Love, 91's, Igloo, Express, etc.

I agree the BBL Team is excellent but I believe they have quite a few boys that are not eligible; otherwise I would have placed them in the top 5.

What age group are you talking about?

2024 Team. Excellent and very athletic but alot of overage boys.

Not true, maybe 2, 3 kids at most before the sept 1st birthday. They will do well at WSYL

They might do OK. Going 1 or 2 games over 500. WSYL will forever be a Long Island dominated event. They start building for the event in 5th grade and have two years of year-round practice so everyone can watch two Long Island or NY/CT team in the finals. Express CoachS will win, they will either play the Wolfpack or Primetime in the finals.

Parents and kids love the event but have realistic expectations. You are going to Denver to play a little lacrosse, eat Mexican food and drink. Not a bad 4th weekend.

Get your team into the NLF Club National Championship next summer and bring your summer birthdays. Rumor has it they are cutting out the "national teams" so it should be a good test for your full team.

I guess a lot depends on which 2 or 3 do not qualify. I saw them play, a very good team across the board, but there were 2 maybe 3 real impact players that really bring the team up a level. If they are the 2 or 3 non-qualifiers, that could be an issue. For example, the tall midfielder is very good, if he is not on-age for WSYL, that would be a problem in Denver.

Just out of curiosity, if most teams, if not all, that play in the NLF championship will have holdbacks/reclasses, why does the NLF have an issue with the national teams playing, is it because they are just make-shift teams that do not typically play together. While I have no love for the national team concept, why are they singled out. I am not trying to be controversial, just curious as to the rationale. For example, the DC Dogs team at the 2023 Millon national championship last summer included a few kids pulled from Next Level, and they also ended up in that NLF championship game against True national. Under the above rationale DC Dogs would be eligible, but True national would not. But that also begs the question, how would this be enforced, teams like True would just bring True "Illinois" and have a bunch of add-ons like DC Dogs. As we all are well aware, there will be no actual enforcement, and if there is, the effected teams will probably claim that the NLF "founding" clubs are just scared to play the top teams. I can definitely see teams like Express and 91 not being happy when they are excluded from the championship games.

Express wont make the finals

I can't speak for the NLF. My guess it is because West Coast Starz, Sweetlax National & Ture were in the finals last year with players from multiple states on their rosters, taking spots away from NLF teams. I don't think anyone is scared to play the top teams but they are running a business. I would bet their customers were pissed so they are making adjustments.
DC Dogs could pull in Next Level kids without anyone knowing. All live in the same area.
Love them or hate them, the one thing you can say about Dynamic Sports Management (the brains behind the NLF), it's not a bunch of lacrosse players that don't want to get a real job after college. They manage things like a real company.