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Couldn't agree with you more. But that said NXT does have the infrastructure and support to help kids reach the next level. While many of their teams don't win a ton and aren't very good none of the college coaches care about that. Only the parents are concerned with wins/losses. No coach in the country gives a garbage about that stuff. Not one.

NXT doesn’t have any advantage over any of the local clubs. No coach cares about social media either, and don’t watch the B bracket teams

It's not about the Ws or Ls, it's about developing and showcasing players. If your team stinks, it's hard to stand out.

Who said anything about Freedom? We are talking about NXT, BL Daddy.

I thought the demise of Brotherly Love was upon us??? 23 Zeus and 24 Hercules are solid
Once you get below those teams, which have been dominant for the last few years it gets weak.
25 academy was a supposed garbage fest
26 academy? Who and where did they roll out that team....would be interested to see how many other club kids made that stretch? How many of the top 26’s around tried it? 26Thor not very good, even with “guest”players week to week

Definitely an inside BL job. Their owner and parents love to troll this site. Not sure if anyone really cares this much about BL accept BL themselves. Not sure what there is to discuss about them at this point.

Zeus is solid if they bring in the Academy kids and still pay as Zeus

Exactly they have 2 good teams, the rest are weak. Bait and switch with the coaches, and the owner is person.

BL has tested a new business model with '23 Academy. It worked. BL Zeus will be vastly improved in the coming year with the additions recruited through Academy. Hate 'em or love 'em, they have transformed themselves from "one of the top teams in Philly" to THE top team. Don't know don't care about the other years, but it's a compelling proposition that will certainly be copied. As we learned first hand with Duke's, once a very good player gets a taste of elite caliber play, it's f'ing addictive! The kids gravitate toward excellence--they want to play up.

IMO, this is good for Philadelphia lacrosse. The top programs should be developing teams that can compete with the Crabs, the Hawks, the 91 and Express wherever versions. Of course, it remains to be seen if BL will step up and take on comparable competition and actually risk losing an occasional game, or continue to slum in club tournaments.

Ironic turn of phrase on this one given that I've heard the 25 team was SO worried about losing kids that they scholarshipped 5 kids on the Zeus team to get them to come back this year. You can try to spin it however you want but I personally know of at least 10 kids from that team who were at OTHER teams' tryouts the past few weeks. That doesn't speak to a healthy team/organization there.

BL didn't test a new model they copied the Dukes National model. Zeus improved because RR collapsed at the 24 age group and they picked some key pieces. Both the 23 and 24 teams are solid teams. Don't know if they are "the" top team and frankly don't know what that really gets you other than a tactic to keep mom and dad happy. There is nothing addictive about elite caliber play. Elite caliber training and seeing results at an elite level is addictive. What we learned first hand from Dukes is they prayed on the unknowing because there is nothing addictive nor elite about the Lake Placid tournament.

In defense of BL they definitely are not shy about playing anyone anywhere. Zeus played in highly tournaments this year which would suggest we've already seen their willingness to take on comparable competition. They certainly didn't hide or slum in tournaments.

The 23 team has been together and solid for years so i have no idea what now has all of sudden worked. They are exactly the same as they have been since they started that team, very solid on a national level. This academy concept has had zero effect except for their younger age groups.

I think the jury is out in terms of whether or not this strategy "worked". Sure, they got some amazing players from Mesa to move to BL, but as you said, where are they going to take that.

Two things - first, as you said, they need to play in higher caliber tournaments. And second, they are going to have to show that they can manage the high school recruiting process.

As for other teams copying this strategy, I think NXT was the first to offer "elite" training as a method for recruiting talent via NLA and Hype Night. Of course that's at a larger scale than Academy.

You need to have talent to attract talent. 23 and 24 have talent (thanks to earlier mistakes by Freedom and RR) all other teams are weak so no one is coming. NXT didn’t attract anyone with their Hype nights and media circus because they don’t have talent.

Freedom and RR mistakes?

Can't wait to watch that talent implode...good clubs don't worry about the posers. They just go about their business and act like they've been there before.

I find this discussion fascinating. Every team has some percentage of turn over every year. And given the landscape of entitled kids bred by stunad parents not sure player movement can be attributed to mistakes made by the previous club. When it comes to parents if you don't stroke them and tell them how special little Johnnie is 24/7 that club is evil and they look to move. Some clubs do employ the motto of having to have talent to attract talent while others develop it organically. Different models, different approaches each riddled with its fair share of draw backs and benefits which becomes illustrated by what parents enforce. Unfortunately you have a general population that know little about the sport, little about how to evaluate the right situation for their kid, and zero appetite to weather the storm of this long process.

25 BL Academy.... half the team threatened to leave after the other half trash was fighting and making a spectacle at Hershey. Panic time....for someone. Maybe selling your soul for a win at youth lacrosse might not be good for business.

Great Post

You know every youth lacrosse coach laughs at the argument taking place on this board. Your "great" 12 year old is never the "great" 15 year old. Even if you look at the best area high schools for lax...it doesn't always match up with the best club teams in that same area.

...testosterone. The great equalizer.

https://phillylacrosse.com/2019/keating-after-many-stops-returns-as-st-josephs-prep-head-coach/

The Prep named Dan Keating as new head coach. I'm sure this guy is great, but there was an odd sentence in the article. Sounds like he just left Stockton to be a volunteer assistance coach at Bryant? He's in in 40's, has a family (mentioned in the article) with plenty of collegiate coaching experience - why would he need to or want to take a position as a volunteer assistance coach?

I read the Bryant article announcing his hiring and found it ironic that the head coach at Bryant mentioned his loyalty...sounds like that only lasted 6 weeks.

Anybody know what the real story is with this guy?

Agreed. I had to read the article twice because his resume was so confusing. Maybe he simply wants to be in Philly.
Bottom line is that St Joes Prep needs help. Other than La Salle, the Catholic League is not good lacrosse and SJP has fallen a lot since the glory days. Why are coaches at SJP for such short periods of time? Eric Gregg left in 2014. Then German came in for a brief time, then Delaney, then Gilbert and now Keeting. That's a lot of turnover. sudents / families must be frustrated with lack of consistency.

Saw that Brotherly Love went 3-0 while NXT went 2-1 losing to BL 9-2 @ the Jersey Invitational.

Freedom played @ the Liberty Fall Classic (a weaker tournament compared to the Jersey Inv.) and went 2-1 losing to Blak Widow with wins over Black Bear 7-5 & Cavalier 7-2. Thoughts?

yeah...you have too much time on your hands. Go spend some time with your family instead of researching the results of Fall Ball Tourney's.

NXT had a very weak schedule at the Jersey Invitational. Their first 2 games were against low B teams. The preds team they played was the C team. The O2 team was horrible.

The Freedom team you are talking about is Freedom White, their B team.

PA roughriders went 3-0 at IL invitational. Congrats on the reclass find who went to 1 practice. Does the kids and coach know his name? We know the director does....

LOL @ the fall ball research comment. Freedom white (there B squad) was at Liberty. Thoughts, it is Fall Ball....not the best indicator of anything.

Seems so odd to me that Rising Sons hasn't posted one single kid signing their letter of intent, anyone else think that is super weird? Isn't the entire point of club teams to get kids onto college teams, and isn't this their first graduating class? And, don't they have all kinds of kids going to great schools? Why aren't they mentioning any of those kids?

says the inferior philly team

That has to be the oddest reply ever...

Why is ok one talking about Fusion? Saw their teams won a box tournament over the weekend. Even AA brackets!

They have always had excellent box teams.

3 of the Fusion Teams won championships in Richmond

Fusion is a good club....they get lost in the mix because they don't chase trophies and focus on improving their players instead of bringing in new ones each year. I think Freedom has a similar model and it allows them to develop players. I would probably put Team 11 in that same category as well.

They have a great group of coaches, but the rest of it is nonsense. They have open tryouts every year they just don't draw the top talent. Every club until the HS ages looks to improve there teams and would make whole sale changes to get better if the opportunity presented itself.

LOL just cause you call it AA bracket doesn’t mean it’s a AA Bracket those teams are very weak and are all fusion teams

Do not kid yourself, any club will take the best talent out there,,,whether it be Freedom, Team 11 or otherwise...and they certainly do not have any problem winning trophies...while every club would like to appear holier than thou and "develop" players, if they weren't hunting trophies or wins, they would skip tournaments altogether and just have play days with other clubs.

That's a ridiculous statement. You get better by playing other teams, especially ones that are a bit better than your team. Of course that is in combination with practices, etc.

Ok wise guy name a philly team top ranked in the nation? None

Brotherly Love 2023. By the way they beat the Annapolis Hawks and Dukes Nationals this fall.