BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls 2024-10th Grade Fall 2021/Summer 2022

Just an FYI........Under Armour is not affiliated anymore with the All American anymore, I am pretty sure they are getting out of Lacrosse equipment manufacturing as well. All these regional events are not make or break for anyone. To answer your question, every team had a staff of 2-3 usually club coaches who typically took many of their own club players and a few of the standouts from the tryouts. College coaches know this and take the rostering with a grain of salt. I assume American Select is much the same from what I can tell. It looks like they have some regions with multiple teams. Anyone who thinks these All Star regional events carry any significant weight are kidding themselves. They are just another showcase. For standout players on lower tiered teams it offers them a chance to play with some upgraded competition to see how they stack up. For average players on any tiered teams it gives their parents something to chew on and show their friends & family. For standout players on top tier teams it gives them a chance to show why they are special. Not really sure why they make a big deal out of the "selection process". Anyone who has been to more than a few tryouts knows how it works. Very political with very few breaking thru to the rosters. Spare me the your kid didn't make it nonsense. I am not a disgruntled parent. I have 1st hand experience with all the above scenarios I outlined. Bottom line is there are many kids who should be at these events that are not and even more that should not be that are. Does that make it a money grab? I don't know or care, I'm sure everyone that play gets some benefit, great experience, meet new kids, play with different kids etc. IMHO the bottom line is I doubt that participating in these events impacts an individuals recruiting prospects all that much for the majority of the kids that get selected. Chances are they have already been vetted by their club coach and college coaches during their tournament games.

I evaluated for the Midwest earlier today. UA is still sponsoring the event and we were all directed to not wear competing brands—staff were provided with UA gear to stay on brand.

These events can get political and it depends on who signs up to evaluate the players. It’s important to go in and choose the best players and sadly, some people have serious blinders on.

I can tell you that various players from Long Island and other east coast areas that didn’t make their local teams tried out on the Midwest.

I can also tell you one of the two teams was actually fairly picked and will compete well. The other will most likely fall on their faces due to some club coach shenanigans with some picks.

The one team will have a varied roster, with kids from all around the Midwest. The other will be 95% comprised of players from 3 clubs. That roster will look much like the Midwest AS roster. One team wants to go out and win, the other wants to reward their devoted club players and tout how many they can get into these events. Should be a beautiful train wreck.

For evaluations, here’s how I approached it. You really need 4, maybe 5 dedicated Defenders, 2 Goalies, 6 Attack, then the rest are mids. Criteria for any Mid or d is you must win you 1v1 matchups to start—you don’t need mids that cannot defend. If you signed up as a defender but there’s a Mid that has better D? Sorry, you probably lost your spot. Athleticism, speed, stick skills, and field vision are prized traits. If your lax IQ stinks, you don’t make the cut.

There are many players that end up on teams, like UM, etc, that never make UA. It isn’t necessary, but it helps with evaluating players if you’ve made it. If you’re playing good teams at the right events, it isn’t really necessary. Is it a fun event with some amazing lacrosse? Yes, it is. M

Coaches will evaluate players based on what their preferences are. If you know your coaches you’ll know what they recruit, what is important to them, and how to get your kid on those teams, if possible.

Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll try to answer them.

The 2021 Midwest Command Team went 3-2 overall.

The 2022 team is up. I’ll help you out. There are 3 kids from MN that made it this year. 2 players from the HC’s team made—that’s it. I believe he had about 6 that tried out but didn’t make the cut. The Command team is very diverse—check out the roster.

The Highlight team went exactly as stated with 9 players from the True IL team making it—they aren’t even the best players on that team. This team will get killed, as they didn’t select properly.

I’m a HS coach and had no skin in the game for the Command team.

The command team may be more diverse, but they have 4 Lou Fusz girls on their team (including 2 26s) , who oh by the way have one of the three coaches on the squad. Both of their 25 and 26 teams routine play in the bottom divisions of midwest tourneys and get blown out by B teams of the top clubs.

How many Lou Fusz players made the highlight team without a coach? Yup, zero.

Juniors Open was one of the biggest money grabs I have ever attended.

Add the USA Lacrosse U16/U18 tryouts to that as well. Went to the Jersey one when we were down for Lax 4 Cure. NO evaluators, or those running drills evaluated without clipboards?. U16 and U18 girls combined in drills and scrimmage together. Great for competition but not split evenly and you should be evaluating the age groups separately, that is how it was done last year. Understand very selective but girls deserved a fair evaluation and they were obviously short staffed probably due to Worlds coming up. Just another item in addition to our US lax membership that funds the blowouts we are watching through Worlds. Yes my kid go the email she did not get selected for the combine and yes I'm disgruntled, just wanted a fair tryout for the money shelled out and really didn't get it. Curious how the tryouts were run in other regions.

Agree, my daughter went to the one on LI and it was poorly run as well. US Lacrosse was totally disorganized. We did not receive an email. We were told we would get one last week. Anyone else hear anything?

Guess the wipe out at genesis threw 91 into a c bracket as usual. Going from playing top 50 teams and gettin smoked to playing teams in the 100s. In true fashion they will blow out bad teams and beat their chest that they went 4-0. Why do teams do this? To get a win? It doesn’t make sense

Thanks for the offer to answer questions.

A couple questions around positioning. I appreciate your perspective, did the other evaluators share it? I noticed the number of pure defenders varied alot by region.

For next year, my daughter is a speedy midfielder on a top-25 club team who is outstanding at D, but probably just very good at attack. Would you recommend that she register as a defender for this event's tryouts? We've already been told she will likely move to D in college.

Add the USA Lacrosse U16/U18 tryouts to that as well. Went to the Jersey one when we were down for Lax 4 Cure. NO evaluators, or those running drills evaluated without clipboards?. U16 and U18 girls combined in drills and scrimmage together. Great for competition but not split evenly and you should be evaluating the age groups separately, that is how it was done last year. Understand very selective but girls deserved a fair evaluation and they were obviously short staffed probably due to Worlds coming up. Just another item in addition to our US lax membership that funds the blowouts we are watching through Worlds. Yes my kid go the email she did not get selected for the combine and yes I'm disgruntled, just wanted a fair tryout for the money shelled out and really didn't get it. Curious how the tryouts were run in other regions.

Not the original poster...

If your daughter is fast and athletic with great footwork and a defensive mindset I would have her tryout as a defender. Coaches understand that not every player has the right mentality or the willingness to play defense. When coaches identify a versatile athlete who has the mental toughness required to play defense they are usually all over the athlete. In the women's game, defense is really a thankless position to some degree but good coaches realize how important it is. Athletic and fast HS Midfielders who are selfless players who do much of the work in the middle of the field and excel defensively will many times be ranked very high by college coaches and have their pick of schools. IMHO, the reason you see some of these players receiving early offers from Top 5 - 10 programs is there is a relatively limited number of this type of player.

YJ Kildare abs Ramos go 0-4 at g8 … how’d that happe

When you play better teams like YJ, TG, Jesters, and legacy do then you don’t win your bracket all the time. Fact is that it’s better to play up and lose by a few goals then play down in a c/d bracket and beat everyone.

YJ Weiner is a great example from g8- almost every game came down to 1 goal. That’s a competitive bracket for them. More than 3 goal differential you’re in the wrong place

YJ Wiener had Wiener back coaching and they played like the team of talent they are. Some great wins and great team playing. Plenty of coaches watching some very good lacrosse. That team redeemed itself from L4C.

YJ Wiener had Wiener back coaching and they played like the team of talent they are. Some great wins and great team playing. Plenty of coaches watching some very good lacrosse. That team redeemed itself from L4C.

I don't think there will be many. They haven't promoted coaches attending in any correspondence. Coaches have seen the girls a lot already this summer. My guess is it will be similar to Best in Class attendance.

Not quite. Playing a showcase is different than playing a do or die type tourney.

Not quite. Playing a showcase is different than playing a do or die type tourney.

Not at this age group. Every summer tourney was a showcase recruiting event for the 24s.

So since their 25 and 26 teams routinely get blown out, it's impossible they could have 3 or 4 good players that showed well at tryouts? There were some really good kids that got washed out for different things, such as not hustling back on D, being so right-handed dominant they never switched sides, or other items. I think some of those kids could have beaten out the LF players if they didn't have those flaws.

I think some of the kids, regardless of how good they are, will be in for an eye-opening time when they step on the field in Maryland. The margin of error gets smaller and the details matter a lot more. This may be more of an issue with the goalies, but that's a hard position if you haven't seen shots like they will see out east. If the players don't do well, I'm certain they will see less playing time, as the Command HC is most likely playing to win (as they did last year).

For the Highlight Division, I honestly do not know any of the LF players that are 23's or 24's. I do know of other players from other clubs that didn't make the team and one could speculate it is because they weren't part of the same teams as the three Highlight coaches. (A couple players that didn't make it were multi-time UA150 and AA participants with some not even making callbacks.) I think at least one was a personal slight to a competing club coach. It's hard to overlook there is a lot of competition between club coaches and not all club coaches have good relationships with each other. Some hold deep grudges when their teams get blown out repeatedly, some have thin skin and take everything personal, some are jerks, etc. You really see it all on the club circuit and at these events.

Its tough in the midwest. There are pretty much a handful of clubs who devleop national-level talent. And then you are basically dividing up the talent in half. Since it seems half the top clubs are blacklisted at American Select and the other half are blacklisted at UA, it is nearly impossible to put together a competitive team.

Looking at rosters, i think only one club (Lakeshore) placed more than three girls at both UA and American Select. Until that changes, the midwest team won't be competitive at either event.

Its tough in the midwest. There are pretty much a handful of clubs who devleop national-level talent. And then you are basically dividing up the talent in half. Since it seems half the top clubs are blacklisted at American Select and the other half are blacklisted at UA, it is nearly impossible to put together a competitive team.

Looking at rosters, i think only one club (Lakeshore) placed more than three girls at both UA and American Select. Until that changes, the midwest team won't be competitive at either event.

In the Highlight division Midwest went 3-2 last year and lost a close one to LI who won it all. Not saying we were top 3 team there but LI cruised most games and we hung with the best.
Just don’t get why we don’t pick the best players; why don’t they want to represent the MW, not True Illinois.
I know everyone has their own politics when it comes to selection, but when I look at LI roster, the girls are from all different HS’s. maybe couple kids from same school.

Not the original poster...

If your daughter is fast and athletic with great footwork and a defensive mindset I would have her tryout as a defender. Coaches understand that not every player has the right mentality or the willingness to play defense. When coaches identify a versatile athlete who has the mental toughness required to play defense they are usually all over the athlete. In the women's game, defense is really a thankless position to some degree but good coaches realize how important it is. Athletic and fast HS Midfielders who are selfless players who do much of the work in the middle of the field and excel defensively will many times be ranked very high by college coaches and have their pick of schools. IMHO, the reason you see some of these players receiving early offers from Top 5 - 10 programs is there is a relatively limited number of this type of player.

In the Highlight division Midwest went 3-2 last year and lost a close one to LI who won it all. Not saying we were top 3 team there but LI cruised most games and we hung with the best.
Just don’t get why we don’t pick the best players; why don’t they want to represent the MW, not True Illinois.
I know everyone has their own politics when it comes to selection, but when I look at LI roster, the girls are from all different HS’s. maybe couple kids from same school.

Some long island battle at the grind…Most were shocked with the team that won but those girls played together as one not a bunch of individuals looking just for them and their old teammates

To be fair, last year's highlight team probably had 3 of the top 20 players in the country. 1 Maryland Commit, 2 Notre Dame commits and a goalie going to Duke. This team doesn't even have 1 player at that level.

If All American or American Select is that important to you, your best bet is to get your player over to the club that will be coaching the event. Its not rocket science and has been proven year after year after year after year....

Who are you talking about?