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

Keep in mind that most Lawrenceville kids are not from NJ, so you can shorten that list a bit

BBL ZERO!

I am not surprised by BBL having zero 23. They are pretty loyal to their players. They don’t do the LE and try and replace the bottom 8 players. I believe with growth that is why they are going to try this national thing. Otherwise the non black team players will see there is no real chance to make the black team.

Based on this post BBL will never have 4 Star players when they get into high school?

Don't get it flipped...both BBL 23 and LE 23 are not very good teams...LE has 5 really good kids, actually borderline studs, not one of whom they developed.

It depends on how many LE can poach after their freshman year in high school so LE can say they put kids at D1 schools, facts!

So you are saying that any good BBL should leave from LE if they want to play D1?

Not at all you do not need LE for that anymore. They can stay and still go D1, just like kids at all Blue Star, Riot, Patriot, Tri State and all the others do. They all have kids that have went D1 over the years to the same schools.

There is a good player some years on BBL North Helix and I am sure same for south. BBL is hoping national team helps keep them with BBL. because of BBL loyalty to all teams and obviously black these players leave in 8th or 9th grade and the nort and helix teams go from high 70 to 100 ranking to 200 plus.

These players go to steps, prime time, LE if good enough, Blue star, riot or tri state.

BBL trying to change black only viable team in high school.

Riot on the rise..

That’s a false statement . The fogo/midfielder that just commit to Maryland has been a leading edge kid forever . The leading edge knock of not developing kids is only because a lot of really good players leave bbl or other programs and go to leading edge later on in their club careers because they want to get recruited .

Can the notIntelligent bbl and LE comparison just be done with already? All programs have good players. Some are developed within, some leave and go to other programs.

What is your definition of “developing a kid?”

If a kid goes to LE in 7th or 8th grade, and commits his sophomore/junior year … are you saying you credit the “development” when he was in 3rd-6th grade? What about the most important grades of his career, 8-junior year ?

The lack of lacrosse knowledge by some of you NJ parents is quite embarrassing .

Lack of lacrosse knowledge only topped by their lack of any understanding about the college recruitment process.

The 2023 NJ class is weaker than past years. For Leading Edge to have 1 2023 to boast about on September 20th is a weak year. And yes all other NJ clubs have zero on the 20th.

I really don't think the club develops the player. Club is a part of the development.

Formula:

#1 You are a great athlete and in more than 1 sport if possible.

Get on the best club team you can
Get on the best high school team you can
Reclass if you have to but colleges are catching on to this and committing to kids in their senior year.
Practice on your own a ton.
A lot of these kids on LE and Prime Time even have private coaches and that is a given for FOGO.

You can do all these and not be on a great club and get into a D1 if you have the size for that position.

Examples last year
John Hopkins in 2022 from Blue Star and 02 Lacrosse.
Princeton 2022 NJ Riot
Penn Steps 2022
Yale and penn state Tri State 2021 no Big 10 ACC Ivy in 22

No. They have a North Carolina in their 22 class. They joined all the Club.

BBL is a great club and very loyal to all their teams. They ride with their 4th, 5th and 6th kids as long as they want to stay on the black. I am just saying good North, Helix and now bbl south players will take the training to a certain grade and leave because they can’t crack the black team. The bottom 7 on a black team any year are not going to be better than all the north, helix and south players. Parents not on black get that after 1 year.

That is why bbl is trying national team to alleviate this elephant in the room.

Bbl had a 4 star 22 and it won’t be their last. 1 is a start!

A number of NJ players are starting to commit this week. Covid & the transfer portal have slowed the process for all. Rutgers for example has 15 players they picked up in the portal. The next 3 to 4 years are not going to be fun for parents and kids. What were 10 early commits is now going to be 3 to 4.

NJLC beat the rest to the punch with at ‘23 to Hofstra.

LE kid to Maryland last week with a couple more this week I would assume. Not a competition though. Hopefully NJ is well represented as a whole.

Terrific achievement for the NJLC kid, and a great example why many of the comments on this forum are from uninformed posters. I think that the action will be steady, but slow.

Did Rutgers really sign 15 players from the transfer portal? That number seems extremely high.

Its been over the past couple of years. Technically doesn't Charalambides have another year and could have come back if he didn't join the PLL.

LE kid to Navy

That is the wall kid. Very very good player. LE continues to do what they do. detest em or love em, kids get recruited.

LE is a good program and NJ 2023 still looks week. If you want to get recruited we really have to cross the river. 5 and counting at Prime Time. They are minting D1. Crazy.

The IL recruiting "expert" on twitter has talked about it being a slow recruiting year across the board. A lot less kids committed at this point than the past couple years. Every NJ club will have their time, no reason to panic and flee.

no

That kid would have got recruited on any team he played for. But kudos to him.

Tri-State gets on the board

The first wave of 2023 is the top boarding schools and top Prep schools and Long Island Catholics. Not the clubs. Would be great if high schools meant more than clubs.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/recruiting/commitments?class=2023&league=1

This is true, terrific player

They do recruit well, however, 3-4 years ago almost half the team was committed early on. I would say about 4-5 will be this fall. That's a big step backward. Not saying they are not a good option, but don't expect it to be automatic if you are on their roster.

There are a lot more players out there these days, along with the transfer portal and 5th year seniors.. might be more about demand vs. a step backwards.

LE put 2023 at Brown.. detest em or love em, kids get recruited.

Something really rare in this world happened last year if you were not aware. There was a virus that hit and really changed a lot of things. One of those things actually happens to be college recruiting believe it or not.

Like someone mentioned , college programs now have a surplus of 5th and 6th year players, as well as a crazy transfer portal of pickups left and right. The nature of early recruits is impacted by this, mainly because some of these big time programs don’t need to jump the gun or bring in as many kids.


Facts.

Anyways, there will be a couple solid recruits for every program in NJ I would guess. Leading edge track record just happens to be better than most and continues to show that they still are a great program option for an elite kid to have the opportunity to play at the next level.

I agree something changed. The BBL kid to Brown is from a boarding school. A lot of boarding school kids and LI, Midwest and West private schools off the board first this year. I imagine the figure these schools could play more even during covid.

Yes, the pandemic also impacted the 2022 class and they were much further along than the 2023s. So that can’t be the same reason for the slowness this year.

Difference between 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes

1. Coaches were taking 2022 players sight unseen- there was no opportunity to personally evaluate prospects at summer tournaments and there were no prospect camps. Unlike last year, the 2023 players experienced a “regular” recruiting process.

2. Last year’s transfer portal wasn’t as stocked with college players looking for new landing spots compared to this year.

3. For the 2021-2022 season, a lot of college teams seem to have even more 5th year players on their rosters compared to last year

Was it me or did it seem like coaches were rushing to sign 2022 players, most they had never seen in person, before their competitors could get there first?

Maybe it’s a combination of things responsible for the slower rate of offers this year?
1. Fewer team roster spots available compared to last year
2. More and better choices available in the transfer portal
2. Buyer’s remorse from last year. Rushing to take players wasn’t a smart strategy. Better to take their time with their decisions this year.

That’s debatable. No one will know though. The 2023 class as a whole could be a little weaker?

2 years post pandemic could be worse because of the learnings after year 1?

Transfer portal is much more active now , than it was last year around September of 2020.

All of these things could be true .

I tell you what though… if a nj club program can commit 6-8 kids to high level programs in Sept/October/November.

That’s pretty darn good, no?

Yes, that would be good if a NJ club got 6-8 committed kids by November. The question is whether that will happen this year.

Not really. The top 7-8 kids were ALWAYS going to go to a top school. They are born that way. The true question will come with what you, the director, will be able to do with number 8-15 and then 15-25. 2022’s 15-25 are struggling to commit based upon all the above listed circumstances.

LE should have more in the next couple of weeks. Their top 2 poles are still out there.