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Thoughts on Hoco alignment for 2030s?

Looks like the DC area teams have aggregated the top kids amongst BLC MadLax and Next Level. Any changes? Any other teams paying in Hoco? VLC?

Seems Annapolis talent was split between Hawks, Mesa & True with mediocre results in AAA. Is Mesa still around? If not are the kids now on Hawks or True?

In Baltimore many of the kids are staying with their Rec/Club programs. Crabs were bottom 3rd of AA. FCA and 91 2030 teams are new for this year. LTRC beat Kelly Post in championship. Hoco Blue Claws not far behind. Any of these teams move up? FCA a top upper level team? Guessing some of them were playing with their 29 team. Crabs get better?

Can't wait until spring.

2030 AAA
1 Madlax Capital
2 Next Level
3 FCA
4 True Annapolis
5 Annapolis Hawks
6 Bethesda Blue
7 LTLC
8 Team 91

2030 AA
Wolfpack
Kelly Post Grey
Baltimore Swarm
Blue Claws
Crabs
HoCo
True Severna Park
VLC Cleary/Kilgannon
Sidewinders

2030 A
Madlax DMV
Zingos
Cannons Select
ALC Bay Raiders
Kelly Post Green
Bethesda Orange
Arden Diamondbacks
Ville
BAYS River Dawgs
Team Maryland

In Baltimore, if your kid is on a AA or AAA rec club squad (at this age) and they aren't having massive player/coach defections, there is no reason to leave. Cost is low and the teams bond well over the years. That said, LTLC is going to get hammered this year. Team 91 as well. The problems with rec clubs can be seen at LTLC....while the 2029 squad is fantastic (and keeps getting better), the 2028 squad just has not developed and is in the bottom 10% of MD clubs. That's why I say if your son is a 2030 or 2031 and the rec club team is already good, it will probably get better. Don't bail.

In Annapolis, Mesa is gone. The 2029s went (overall) to Koopers but unsure about the 2030s. Maybe that's "True Severna Park." On the other hand maybe True is just trying to position itself to buy out Diamondbacks and/or Sidewinders.

DC talent, in order, is Madlax, NL, BLC, and VLC. True DC could not get a roster together at 2030.....and barely has a roster at the older age groups.

API will no longer have lacrosse - the owner of API says there are too many lax programs in our area and the amount of complaining outweighs the profits

When any business owner says that, I always encourage people to do the math to help you reveal their priorities.

With several clubs at the middle school level charging above and beyond $2200/year, netting the club $50-60K/year per team, gross rev.

Assume: club is a nonprofit, as almost all are (no taxes).

Revenue:
$52,000 dues
$3,000 optional "winter training" dues
$1,000 kickbacks on licensed gear, cleats, sticks, etc/partnership deals
Total: $56,000 income

Costs:
$20000 to club director (API in this case)
10000 head coach (contractor, no taxes paid by club)
$5000 asst coach (contractor, no taxes paid by club)
$1500 for an assistant to run the teamsnap, book tournaments etc (contractor)
$2000 HoCo League registration
$8000 tournament registrations (6)
$2500 uniforms (if you don't make the families pay extra),
$4000 in field rentals (often half field, split with another age group)
$2000 assorted supplies, goalie pads, balls etc
Total: $55,000 costs

So if the API director fields just 4 teams, and outsources 100% of the work to coaches and admin staff, he would have $80K income per year guaranteed, in addition to his other businesses and ventures. Boo hoo?

LOL plus technically he is paying himself for some of that field team, by paying club dues to API.

I am not sure what API is or why even we should care. As stated, there are ample programs and opportunities for kids to find a fit. If profit is the motive/end game for a club owner, not sure I would even want to put my kid in that program.

Dude. Every club owner is doing it for the money. Under the guise they want to grow the game. But if any of them wanted to grow the game they would focus on rec where all the other kids who can’t afford club have to play. But there isn’t any money in that so why bother….🤷‍♂️

API used to have a good program - the market has become saturated.

That's certainly part of it. But they've had backyard competition (Sidewinders, about 5 miles away) for 10+ (I think) years. Sure, the failed Mesa-MD effort and "True Severna Park" (lol) is less than helpful. But it is not awfully difficult to have a "decent lacrosse product" (from Elite to A to Rec) and have it be a profitable enterprise.

The owner's comment of "too many complaints" tells me that it used to be easier to recruit a good roster (at whatever level) and parents' expectations were lower. Again, take a look at the Sidewinders page, it discusses coach:player ratios, average practices per year (85), touches per practice etc.

As a business owner I look at the API owner's attitude about this and kind of write it off as, "It used to be easy for me to net $90K/year out of this, now it takes 3x as much work to net $200K." His choice as the head of Diamondbacks I guess, but I hope he does not expect anyone to feel sympathy that parents today expect a better product (and more of it) than parents 10 years ago.....and today's parents are being charged to the hilt for it.

For those of you new to Back of the Cage.... the owner of MadLax loves to post anonymously ... shocking he suggests ML is top in DC talent. 2030 ML couldn't beat Lutherville-Timonium Lacrosse Club, best case is finish 4th in HoCo behind BLC, NL, and Hawks. DC Express has taken over the top spot in DC for the older ages.

Don't worry Madlax is not the only one. 91 does the same.

Does anyone know why Crabs is playing down this year. They are beating other teams by 10+ goals.

My guess is because they went 1-6 last season. They were listed as a 2030/2031 team in 2021 but looks like they are a true 2030 team now. They will be moved up a division next year.

Does anyone know anything about the Baltimore Swarm. I have not heard of them before but it seems like they are very competitive in the AA division.

Used to be perry hall Rec. Rebranded and raised dues and are now a club.

Decent place for players playing for the fun of the game. Think LTLC.

Swarm is club team for Perry Hall, like Blue Claws are part of Belair

Any other reason to play in 4th grade other than "fun of the game" ?

That should be the only reason any kid plays.

Totally! When kids are having fun at something, they want to do it more! When they do it more, they tend to get better and have more success and accomplishments. It’s So important to make it fun at the younger ages.

Most Parents make it too serious too young, Then, it becomes a job for the kid. I See so many of those kids on the older teams and usually their parents are the screamers in the stands! Kid looks miserable

Baltimore Swarm 2030 team will be having tryouts at Concordia Prep 7/25/22-7/29/22. This year The Swarm 2030 team won MYLA club division and came in 2nd in HoCo AA division.

https://baltimoreswarmlax.com/

My son is fairly new to playing club lacrosse and we are new to the landscape on the boys side in terms of all the teams/levels in the area. Can someone give a general breakdown of local clubs and levels? I know I can look at the GHCL for the 2030s, but as they get older, there seems to be more teams/clubs and what becomes more competitive or is it all age based? Also, are there clubs that don't have parent coaches at some point? Thanks!

At this age there is AAA is the highest level, next one down is AA and so on. Tons of clubs at all levels, just have to decide how far you’re willing to travel. I’m unsure of any clubs that don’t have parent coaches, unfortunately. It’s a shame how much better some teams would be if not for Daddy ball and Buddy Ball.

What position does he play? Where are you located?

Goalie. Howard county area

If he is a goalie and is really good. Half the teams out here will take him.

If he's not that good yet and still developing and shows potential, the other half will take him.

No need to jump on the top level teams at this moment in time. Let your goalie develop. Best thing for him is to play on the worst possible team. That way he’ll see all the shots and work on his mental toughness. A lot of these top level teams will cut all the deadweight by the six grade. By then your goalie should be elite level. And will make any team. Now granite there’s a lot of politics, for example the crabs. And the only reason I picked them is because they seem to be the closest team to you. If you don’t plan on going to one of the powerhouse teams in the area MCD and BL for example then chances are your son will be cut unless he’s one of the best goalies in the area. Part of their business model is to use kids status on private school teams. They make people believe that they had something to do with your Kid going to one of those schools. As if they develop them. Play on the worst team in the elite level that way you develop and you can observe. Take these two years to scout each team. Beware of the teams with the highly social goalie moms and dads. If your son is better and tries out for their team they will turn all the parents against you and make your life miserable until you find another team.

This.

What are considered "top half" and "bottom half"?

When looking for a team I would suggest you look around and find a coaching staff that you agree with and feel comfortable with. Maryland lacrosse is a garbage show. Seems like new programs pop up and fold every season. You basically have 2 choices:

Real clubs:
Crabs
91
FCA....

Club Rec:
Ville
Balt. Swarm
BlueClaws.....

Real clubs will cost you a bit more but will provide things like Goalie training, nice facilities, and as you get older the Name which will help with recruiting. The negative of Real clubs is the Bottom line is important so if they find better players the existing players get cut.

Club Rec is often times much cheaper because the county recs pay for their field space. Their coaches are often dads and specialty training is usually poor.

Either way at this age group most of the coaches are dads. There are tons of drama in both.

I suggested finding a coaching staff because the kids will jump all over the place because parents are crazy. But having good coaches, dads or not, will encourage you child to learn while having lots of fun.

Remember the kids are 10 so the only reason they play is because the like the sport and want to have fun.

This is the time to start looking for elite clubs to play for. No matter what is said like above, the sooner the better to play elite.

I know this is a sore subject, but if you haven't done a prefirst, might want to consider holding back a year. Especially if you want to be a starter in private schools or MIAA HS's and beyond. Major benefits from it at early age, getting on better teams, more playing time, more maturity. It works no matter what is said, I know

Really, You think it is a good thing to hold your kid back for any other reason than they need additional help in school. Holding your kid back helps them Dominate in their early years but as soon as they Mature all the kids are the same. Holding your kid back is for the parents to feel better when they watch their kids play.

This persons kid will probably be burned out by the time he gets to H.S. from all the pressure.

Hardly, Most MIAA starters are either prefirst/heldback or born between Sept and Dec. It is what it is. Not the greatest look for lacrosse with the amount that is heldback now.

Cant tell you how many people have said, they wished they held their child back to give him a chance. If you want your son to play elite, Hold him back or you will regret it. Most MIAA parents know the drill now, you must be public school or one have of the lucky Sept to Dec ones .

Holding kids back for sports is ridiculous. The only reason this should be done is for social/academic reasons. Here’s a secret, there is no professional lax to pave a financial future for your kids. If they don’t have academics then lax won’t take them very far on its own. But hey, they can brag for the rest of their lives about playing in the MIAA, which I guess means something to people around here.

Anyone know of any teams looking for a goalie?

Your best bet is to try out for a bunch of clubs and take a chance at one you like

Anyone know anything about the predators 2030 team? They didn’t play in hoco league.

They didn't have one this year

How much religion is infused in FCA? Realize it’s an “elite” club but curious about that aspect.

Some the coaches have high school sit in groups and do "huddles" where they talk about religious stuff. I am not really religious at all and I don't mind it. My son actually loves it and they are one of the only teams that incorporate high school kids in their practices. In this age group FCA is not elite they went 0 -6 in the AAA hoco league. I am sure they will get better since in a year of 2.