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

You: Mommy, can you get me my water and carry my bag? It's too heavy. Wah, wah.

We don't forget about the boys in South Jersey and shore. We recently played Southshore in a play day last week in Wall Twshp. Solid team and the parents were all cool. Come to think of it, all the teams there that day were all cool.

BBL. Just sent out a deceptive email.

"Kylie Ohmiller Camp at BBL HQ This Week"

Yeah - but it's not a BBL camp.

Is the facility even owned by BBL?

Nope. They just like to run around and say it is.

Does anyone know if the Mad Dog 2024 team is folding? Apparently the kids on the team have been trying out a various teams across the state. I heard a few of their better players are leaning towards Blue Star and some of the other kids are going to Garden State Lacrosse????

Glad to see that The Real Housewives of New Jersey Lacrosse are back at it. Girls keep it up.

No skin in the game, but I would not be surprised, a lot of shore area kids have been gravitating towards Blue Star, not sure about garden state.

Their 2025 team is pretty good but going to fall apart just like the teams before them. The 2024 team is not that good. I saw them play and although they won they were playing what looked like recreation teams.

How do we know if their 2025 team is any good, did they play any games this summer? Parents can't be happy paying all the money for pratices. RFH players moving to Blue Star!

Played yesterday, almost lost to 02 and lost to Shore2Shore. Bulldogs out!

What clubs do a good job developing players? Does BBL do a good job with the Helix (B) team too?

I think it comes down to who is coach vs. the club imo

And playing the right competition at a young age. Too easy makes for bad habits, too hard can be hard. But I will take a good game and a L over a big win, because then my kid is at least learning.

I do wish there was standard LAX flighting similar to soccer as each tournament seems to be different and sooo many clubs.

BBL and Bluestar have the most options from a developmental perspective, they have teams to fit many skill levels.

Any turth to Mad Dog 2025 team breaking up? Rummor parents are contacting NJLC to take the entire team after their coach got sacked

Why NJLC, geography?....If it is a matter of convenience, they would be better off bringing a team to United. If the team is good enough, United will put them in good tournaments.

Its ture but the dad trying to move some of the players should get asked to leave the team after his behavior this weekend. Alcohol and youth sports don't mix.

That's very unfortunate, sorry for the boys and parents that have to deal with that kind of situation.

Lots of talk about the HS teams, but what are the best 2025 and 2026 NJ teams out there (7th and 8th grade).

2025 - Tri-state, Mad Dog, BBL Black and Jersey Express (formerly Tribal)
2026 - BBL Black, Jersey Express, and United

United lost a bunch of games last weekend. Not sure why they would be a top team?

Jersey Express. (Tribal) i believe the express program will help South Jersey Lacrosse. The program Tribal merged with Mike CoachC and Express program, he will have his finger prints all over the jersey program.

Was this listed made someone at BBL or Tribal?
Alot of 2025 Mad Dog, BBL &Tri-State kids at Jersey Express and Leading Edge tryouts. I guess the NLF does mean something

Seems like a lot of kids at both the 2025 and 2026 level are leaving BBL this year.

At the 2026, lots of BBL players at various tryouts.

Leading Edge making a push down to build teams before they get to 8th grade

NJ 2026 best team is Towermen.... not even a question

Towermen is likely getting better. They are getting several players including an attackman, a goalie and others from BBL

Why is this any different than other years, they just cannot seem to draw the younger kids. Perhaps parents would rather stick with local programs, less travel for practices, etc. before committing to LE. The other problem is that many are turned off by the fact that LE does not show a ton of loyalty when the teams hit high school. LE has had some great high school teams over the years, but they have had a lot of trouble recently competing with the other NLF programs, many of those NLF teams know how to play the re-class game very well. Go to any large tournament and look at the players that teams like the Crabs are putting on the field in high school. While most teams have two or three big kids, these big MD programs have the size and height across the whole roster, not to mention the guest players that tend to show up. As for kids going to several tryouts, this is exactly what parents should do if they are not happy with their current product, but the grass is not always greener on a big name teams.

L.E. does get some kids recruited. But why play there when younger unless there is some loyalty to current players. Good players can just play locally or for some other club and then if LE is good and they are good move over there in HS. I do not think LE is the only program without loyalty to current players, but it is a bad reputation for a team to have.

Amazing when people actually agree on these forums...and I do agree that LE is not the only club with loyalty issues.

Now that LE had their '24 callback yesterday, how many current players will get pushed out on a drop of a hat. Imagine how those families feel being discarded like used snot rag. LE does not develop youth players. They simply expect top players to join them in HS and act all arrogant about it. I'm rooting for their system to fail starting now. I'm confident they will fail. I can't wait to post back here how that team do against other Jersey teams where they will fail. I will bet they will not be close to being the top team in NJ. Forget NLF where they will be canon fodder. TLDR;LE <- Fail

I think everyone is missing the boat when it comes to 2026. Without a doubt it is a one player team but Tigers 26 has to be considered the best team in NJ. I saw them play several times this summer and they are the real deal.

Tigers 26 are based in PA.

Patriot Chrome and Steps also good 2026 teams. Both teams also offered spots to current players this year because of COVID as a thank you for sticking with them.

The callback is total BS, nothing but a money grab. They already know the kids that they want, but have the callback to get another $70 out of the parents.

Really bad job out of Patriot. Should have told people that the rosters were set from the prior year. A lot of new players showed up to the tryout (about 40 kids), paid a tryout fee to only learn after the fact that the teams were basically set. Don't tell your team that the team is set but keep that a secret from the people you are hitting up up for a tryout fee. Be honest and say we only have a few open spots and that tryouts will therefore be limited.

Does anyone know when LE tryout results are to be announced.

Probably pretty quick because they already know who is making the team. A few years back, they used to start eliminating kids at the callback. For what its worth, I know a lot of people that, in hindsight, are happy that their kids didn't make the team.

Their model is not sustainable. You can't rely on gullible families year after year. Word gets out. Especially with social media and forums like this. Eventually the scam is exposed. The collapse begins with this incoming freshmen team. I know the players they wanted did not come even when they held a callback as last chance. They will be surpassed by other NJ clubs in HS. I'll come back here to remind you.

That's because their tryout is late and kids are trying out as a "back-up".
Most of the people I know at BBL (both teams) are happy with everything.