BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NEW JERSEY LACROSSE NEW JERSEY FORUM High School Boys Lacrosse - New Jersey

Maybe Summit doesn't have a ton of D1 studs is because they are a relatively small town that can only produce so many kids with the size and speed to play D1. I think that makes their success even more impressive. The reason they can beat teams like SHP with high level D1 kids all over the field is BECAUSE of their "boring" offense and defense. I don't think that "boring" system hampers the development of potential D1 players . . . it enables a team with less D1 athleticism to beat teams with more D1 athleticism.

Two sides to every coin. You could also say that their coach does more with less relative to other programs, especially private schools and bigger public schools. Think the biggest example of this is ML, who to their credit, has churned out two big time players in Smith and Cuccinello over the last 7-8 years. Lack of depth and talent has forced Summit to play a more deliberate brand of lacrosse on offense than most people would like to see, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it. To that point, Summit and Davidson and are in a similar boat to Flynn and ML, while also losing a handful of the best players from their town to the private schools in the area each year (and more than just about any other town that is competitive).

All true and I agree with all of the above, but the offense stifles creativity and is boring to watch IMO. And not one D1 offensive player in the last 10 years who made any noise in their college careers could be a result of that. ML regularly turns our D1 offensive studs with less players than Summit.

Q: This year being the last year for TOC, do you think good players from publics like ML and Summit would look more to private so that they can play in competitive environment since there's nothing left to play for besides States which in ML's case is terribly not competitive at all.

Why? ML and Summit still play the best teams in the state and will win their state titles.

#1 ML beats Delby yesterday. Much better game to watch than Summit. The way ML moves the ball. Fun to watch.

The word of the year for NJ lacrosse is Parity.....at the HS level and from the 2023's and below in travel. Enjoy the ride, we have a lot of talent spread out thru this state!!!!


https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports...-is-secure-in-this-season-of-parity.html

This is exactly right. I can certainly understand the competitiveness with the high school teams when it comes to rivalries, but the constant back and forth about which team/club is better is mind numbing

Down go the Hilltoppers. Scotch Plains pulls off a crazy win.

Trap game for Summit for sure but SP is a very good team this year so not as surprising as you might think.

Everyone is beating everyone this year. Yogi Berra

Let's hope this continues the rest of the season and into the future.. it's good for everyone in the state. Saying this, I still think Bosco is ahead of everyone and will win the last ToC.

RFH was impressive yesterday. Is this the year they get past Summit?

They may beat Summit, they may lose to Summit...c'mon with these questions.

Random question but what happen to the top boys clubs forum chat. It has been deleted. Very "sus" as my teenager says.

It probably got bored of the who's better comments and simply deleted itself

Pingry cancels a game because their goalie is sick and they don't want to play a freshman. Wall's faceoff kid is a freshman and Prigry's is 19 but the public school was ready to play.

Their goalie is very good but they could have still won the game with the Freshman.

Do you have any insight into why anyone might care about this?

I don't know the story - but that's not what happens in the real world.

I think he is just complaining that Pingry cancelled the game at because they did not want to use a back up goalie because he is a freshman and then he compared how Wall's face off kid is a 14 year old freshman who would have been going against a 19 year old Duke commit. Probably just venting.

You cared enough to ask the question

Outside of the goalie vs. FO comparison, this is one of the more interesting posts on this forum. If the goalie story is true, Pingry should be pretty embarrassed, and not really great for the freshman goalie's confidence. It also would have been a great opportunity to challenge the D players to step up and support their goalie.

Agree. Just play the game. Don't overthink everything. Coddled.

Posted in another forum:

AS high school comes to an end, which is more fun for your kid (or you), Club or High School lacrosse?

Most favored high school citing factors such as:

-Games meaning more to them especially wins and losses. They didn't care as much about W-L's in club
-More team camaraderie with high school. These are kids they (obviously) go to school with and know better. Club sometimes feels like hired mercenaries
-If you are the better player, then you play more whereas with Club, since everyone is (presumably) paying the same, playing time is split more evenly
-Spring lacrosse after a barren Winter season feels more refreshing where summer club can be a slog sometimes
-High school coaches care more than club coaches about the kids?
-Cheaper than club (unless you pay for private school)
-Less traveling
-Playing against a team of holdbacks may be less prevalent in high school (except Prep schools)
-More emotional investment in the town you live in or (the school you are paying for for Prep). True rivalries seem to mean more in high school and thus,there is more emotional investment

Those who favored Club cited factors such as:

-the level of competition is better and teammates are usually better, at least at the higher levels of Club lacrosse
-traveling around the country with your kid is a (sometimes) rewarding experience
-some like the national exposure of some of the high level Club lacrosse
-even playing time as some players may get buried on a high school bench

Recruiting-wise, it was a wash but I feel that High School recruiting is better than Club recruiting. I have heard stories of Club making a million promises but never delivering when it comes to recruiting, unless you are the superstar of the club. I have been told (but could be mistaken) is that colleges value the high school coach opinion much more than the club coach.

There seems to be a temporal nature to it. Youth club was much more rewarding than youth town lacrosse but as the kids get older, high school becomes more important to kids. I would even venture to say that club has much less meaning to 22's, 23's and maybe 24's.

It also seemed that this logic does not apply to the outliers such as the top national high school teams in the country or the bottom lower clubs. In addition, most of this logic may not apply to the superstars (top 0.5% of players in the country).

Just curious to everyone's thoughts. There truly are no right answers as it is only an opinion that can be formed wholly dependent on your own experience.

Is there any possibility they didn’t have a 3rd goalie to be a backup? That could be the only reason I could think of.

I agree with most of the benefits of HS. And I would add the benefit of playing in front of fans (extended family, other students, etc) and playing against kids you know from neighboring towns.

I don't necessarily agree with the recruiting comments. It depends on the reputation of your HS program/coach vs the reputation of your club/coach. If you're playing for Leading Edge/Tri-State/BBL and a HS team not in the top 20, the college coaches are going to value the opinion of the club coach. If you're playing for Delbarton/ML/etc, the college is going to respect those coach opinions over some B level club coach.

Actually I don’t care at all. I was asking because it seemed like a meaningless game in the bigger picture of the season. Was I missing something?

I think that this is right on point.

TOC Predictions:
Group 1 - ML
Group 2 - RFH
Group 3 - SPF
Group 4 - HC
Non-Public A - DB
Non-Public B - None of these teams would 2 games in any group outside of maybe Group 3 & 4 South

I mostly agree but Pingry is better than usual this year and can win on a given day.

They are Non-Public A..

Pingry beats Delbarton on Wednesday.

TOC: Summit wins Group 3 again. RFH is very good, but so is Summit when they play there best. Too many Summit haters out there. In TOC most years and will be there again until proven otherwise.

Had to toss in 1 South School.. the top south public schools are all in group 2

i agree that the only chance the south has of getting a school into the TOC is with RFH. i wouldn't be shocked if they beat summit. the rest are pretty accurate - Bosco in A and either Gill St. Bernards, Rutgers Prep or MKA in the B.

Summit beats RFH by 5 or more.

Watch out for RBC, they might close out B. Still not sure how they are a group B school.

You obviously do not have a lot of background regarding the Shore Conference, RBC is definitely a Group B school

Pingry was totally outclassed today. The score doesn't tell the full story. It wasn't that close. Their excellent 2 players (Duke/Rutgers commits) can't do it all for their team and shouldn't have to. They will do great in the next level. I give Pingry credit for moving to NPA.. group that's miles ahead of everyone else.