BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

One of the big benefits of a club-level league like HoCo is that there are no realistic excuses of why "normally we would have won that game." The competitiveness is as transparent as it can really be through the season. All players and coaches from AA to Elite should be blocking off those 7-8 weekends as "in season" for lax. Yeah of course, "well, a school conflict" and "but COVID," family emergencies etc, but those things happen to all teams at all ages, and a good club and good coach (from AA to Elite) can adjust for 1 kid being out on a random HoCo sunday. But absolutely, 100% of contributing players will be there 6 of 7 HoCo games.

Compare that to summer and fall tournaments and winter events (box, 6v6 etc) where there's always an excuse of "why we didn't have our top 5 guys." Or "we didn't win because the other team flew in 6 kids from TX who played entire games in tryout pinnies."

And yes, it's very ironic that the clubs who so vocally claim to "develop players" also stake their pride and their rankings on summer tournament wins where they are flying in guest players. 91 and Crabs immediately come to mind, but even FCA White used FCA Blue players in their tournament last week.....though that's hardly "flying in a player" I suppose. At least those kids all work out together all year.

I love HOCO but summer season tests a team far more.

One of the big benefits of a club-level league like HoCo is that there are no realistic excuses of why "normally we would have won that game." The competitiveness is as transparent as it can really be through the season. All players and coaches from AA to Elite should be blocking off those 7-8 weekends as "in season" for lax. Yeah of course, "well, a school conflict" and "but COVID," family emergencies etc, but those things happen to all teams at all ages, and a good club and good coach (from AA to Elite) can adjust for 1 kid being out on a random HoCo sunday. But absolutely, 100% of contributing players will be there 6 of 7 HoCo games.

Compare that to summer and fall tournaments and winter events (box, 6v6 etc) where there's always an excuse of "why we didn't have our top 5 guys." Or "we didn't win because the other team flew in 6 kids from TX who played entire games in tryout pinnies."

And yes, it's very ironic that the clubs who so vocally claim to "develop players" also stake their pride and their rankings on summer tournament wins where they are flying in guest players. 91 and Crabs immediately come to mind, but even FCA White used FCA Blue players in their tournament last week.....though that's hardly "flying in a player" I suppose. At least those kids all work out together all year.

This forum is getting stale again. The Madlax vs Hawks banter gets old. On a new topic....will there be any movement among teams/players/new coaches or perhaps a new team.

How many Next Level players did Madlax invite to play Naptown next week?

LSU wants to win the SEC championship a lot more than the galleryfurniture.com bowl or whatever.

Same with HoCo and these tournaments to me.

Couple of good games in Vail today. FCA and Next Level won their pol games against weak opponents, but some great matchups with Mad Dog West Elite and JM3 today. I suspect Mad Dog West beats FCA, and NL beats JM3 in semis. NL with the tourney win

Heard NL didn’t even make it past the semis.

Heard NL didn’t even make it past the semis.

Heard NL didn’t even make it past the semis.

Timeout. NL won HOCO. I thought that made them the best team in the country. How could some random team from NJ beat them?

Timeout. NL won HOCO. I thought that made them the best team in the country. How could some random team from NJ beat them?

Timeout. NL won HOCO. I thought that made them the best team in the country. How could some random team from NJ beat them?

5th or 6th loss in less than 2 weeks for Next Level. Some of these elite teams haven’t lost that many in 2 years.

Next level got lucky and won HOCO. They aren’t even a top-10 team or program nationally.

How many NL players did ML invite to play at Naptown? I will tell you the exact number: 2. The two that you can't afford to lose who have also expressed interest in playing for ML and have a lot of friends on the team. While they aren't going to play because of conflicts (to the best of my knowledge).....you can think about who as fall tryouts approach.

5th or 6th loss in less than 2 weeks for Next Level. Some of these elite teams haven’t lost that many in 2 years.

Next level got lucky and won HOCO. They aren’t even a top-10 team or program nationally.

"Some of these elite teams" obviously doesn't include MadLax, which has lost twice to NL alone in the past *three months.* Any Hawks parents want to do this board the courtesy of tallying up the MadLax losses to your squad over the past year or two? I'm putting the over/under at 5. My point is that there's a lot a parity and good competition in the 2028 age group. Hawks are a consistently great team. NL and MadLax are both very good teams that have the talent to beat anyone--and also the tendency of 12-year-olds to be inconsistent. But we're doing this little history lesson because NL losing to a couple of national all-star teams in summer competition has apparently stirred the MadLax trolls who can't handle NL's recent domination of them and insist that it's "lucky."

Madlax lost to NXT (what would be a 4A team in HOCO) at Naptown. Lucky for them pool play didn’t matter as much at Naptown

Madlax lost to NXT (what would be a 4A team in HOCO) at Naptown. Lucky for them pool play didn’t matter as much at Naptown

I'm gonna regret this but I will take the bait - what position are the two NL "can't afford to lose" players?

HAWKS AIN'T BEATING THE VENOM

A little early to be boozin...