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McDonough may need to score 20 goals a game to win. Defense graduated. One man team million will be the down fall of the team no repeat sorry

McD defense reloads internally and adds top rated 2023 defenseman in country. #repeat

FOGO and watch-em-go offense is a weakness. Might not be enough to dethrone, but tis certainly a weakness.

And McD has a habit of underperforming bigly when they should win it all.

Did McD get the GP little brother too?

Does the implosion of Looney's hurt LB's recruiting going forward? Do they have enough talent in their incoming 2026 class and coming up from their underclass teams to improve their record? What can and will the new AD do to enhance the Program's recruiting efforts going forward?

I’m not sure is Looneys was populating LBs roster with many players who actually contributed - so the short answer is little to no impact.

That said I’m not sure how Loyola rebuilds it’s lacrosse identity. They have to do a better job recruiting middle schoolers.

Loyola had the strongest 8th grade squad I saw this past spring and presumably all of those kids will continue at Loyola. Gilman was a close second. Both had lots of talent. McD didn’t even field an 8th grade team - that’s who really needed to recruit incoming freshman.

McD has the crabs lefty attack, Hawks Middie and FOGO coming; all top tiered players at their respective positions. They’ll be fine. CH may have the weakest 26 class of all the MIAA teams.

LB's JV team was not full of Looney's kids. Had a mix of FCA, GT, DCE, True, freshman that saw plenty of field time. That being said, coaching was an issue, alot of constant changing of players so the kids could not get in a good routine/flow.

Former players from Loyola who are now at UMD coached the team. They did a great job and the kids had a blast.

Sure, being ranked 8th in the MIAA is FUN! All good for the Maryland player but what about the rest of the team?

"Former players from Loyola who are now at UMD coached the team. They did a great job and the kids had a blast."

That was only at the NHSLS for the "JV" team that was all incoming frosh (although a number of players were not able to make NHSLS). That team was coached by the Koras brothers. hey did not coahc the regular season JV team last year - the younger bro was on LB's varsity and the older one was at UMD on his way to winning a natty.

The LB incoming 2026 class is very strong, particularly on D. The existing 8th grade class was already strong but lots of great additions coming in.

Relax Dad they’re Incoming FR we are talking about here.

Had a blast? Loyola's JV team loved being shuffled around? Not what I heard.

They had 5 new (non starting) defensemen go on the field whenever there was a penalty. Then they then swapped all 3 defensemen on quarters.

When you start random substitutions on that level, you have too many players. And players can't get any rhythm.

Good for the staff, trying to get these kids a scrap of playing time. But defensemen were held down on JV with the promise of "getting game experience. " Playing a quarter or at most, half a game, just isn't helpful.

You have no idea what you are talking about. That incoming frosh team at NHSLS did not even have a couple of their best defenders (Jumbo Lump wouldn't let them play in NHSLS because Crabs had a tourney that weekend). Those boys had never even practiced together before showing up for the first game. The Koras brothers had never even met most of those kids before they showed up for the tourney. None of those kids was "held down", lol. They had 4 goalies (only 2 of whom are good) and each took a quarter. They rotated everyone as the two Koras boys figured out who could play. By the final games, they had a good handle and played the better players in important situations. That tourney team was only to get the incoming frosh players together and have fun. It was not put together to try and win. FFS, the Seton Hall Prep team showed up with almost all Juniors and mowed down the all-frosh teams from other schools. For LB, that NHSLS red team was just about meeting each other and having fun. There are a bunch of kids who were there that will have a hard time making the F/S team at LB next Spring.

This happened in the spring MIAA JV season too. Lots of unhappy kids/parents

Those incoming McD kids will help with the JV. They might have a good JV for once.

Don’t know what you are talking about. CH has a great 26 class. They have two Crabs middies and one exceptional attack from HOCO.

Enough talk about "Don Squad". Teams & schools can go through years of rough patches based on the decisions they make. LB alumni, your football team is back in A. That is something to be excited about. Why are parents giving Lumbo Jump the power to decide if their boys play in NHSLS? He is really claw or special meat that spent to many hours in the sun and has turned rotten. Tell him to lay off your high school team.

Weakest class CH has had in years and definitely one of the weakest classes in the MIAA. Out of state kids will be all that can save this lax class of freshmen.

This is incorrect please check sources

Maybe some impact in the short term (2025s-2026s). Most Loyola 2027s on Looneys had already moved on to 91, FCA, Predators. Most Loyola 2028s (never a Looneys team for 2028s) are on those same 3 club teams this year.

I would expect when LB changes coaching staff in the next 11 months, new HC will have an interest in keeping some boys on a club roster.

That’s a long drive, HOCO dad.

Enough talk about "Don Squad". Teams & schools can go through years of rough patches based on the decisions they make. LB alumni, your football team is back in A. That is something to be excited about. Why are parents giving Lumbo Jump the power to decide if their boys play in NHSLS? He is really claw or special meat that spent to many hours in the sun and has turned rotten. Tell him to lay off your high school team.[/quote]

Let's hope the lacrosse program can finish higher this upcoming Spring. Let's hope the new AD can get it done.....

Has there been any talk on MIAA doing sort of a premiere league type of relegation taking the A bottom teams and transferring them to B? I guess it was done with bringing John Carroll up in the past but shouldn’t some go down? Curley and Friends have done well in recent years wouldn’t be fair to bring them up. The A has been dominated for years by McDonogh, Boys and CH.

JC beat CH this year.

They should at least even the numbers of members. The bottom teams last year were John Carroll, MSJ and Gilman. I don’t ever see this happening [quote=Anonymous]Has there been any talk on MIAA doing sort of a premiere league type of relegation taking the A bottom teams and transferring them to B? I guess it was done with bringing John Carroll up in the past but shouldn’t some go down? Curley and Friends have done well in recent years wouldn’t be fair to bring them up. The A has been dominated for years by McDonogh, Boys and CH.[/They should at least even the numbers of members. The bottom teams last year were John Carroll, MSJ and Gilman. I don’t ever see this happening. Gilman has at least won but that is over 10 years ago. I don’t think MSJ has won in last 15-20 years and JC won B a few times

MSJ has never won the MIAA unless I'm mistaken

MSJ finished last in the A conference this year and beat Curley, the B conference champs, by 11 goals. Moving teams up and down sounds good on paper until you realize that the talent gap between A and B teams as a whole, not standout B players, is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

I’d rather lose in A and play the better competition than win in B and not grow as a player because of no competition.

It's the best league in the nation, top to bottom.

It takes a time for teams to acclimate.

McDonogh took it's lumps for years after moving up from the B. Then after a decade of struggle, it finally committed to supporting a coach and players and has seen a ton of success. But it was total buy-in to get there.

Spalding was a B team that had almost two decades of losing in the A until it finally found some money and support the past couple years. If that money keeps flowing, they will be in very good shape. If it doesn't, Spalding is a tough school to recruit.

John Carroll was the winningest team in the other league all those years ago and it took them what, 3-4 years to get good footing and the arrow pointed up? And they still have work to do.

Severn was a long-time B team too. They are at a crossroads. Their location is fantastic. They have a good core of young talent. But they are always competing with 2 conference foes and 3 public schools for top local kids. I think their price-tag and small size puts them at a disadvantage. Their future depends on the will of school leadership.

MSJ has been in the A league forever but has always been run and recruited like a B team. They play with whoever enrolls. That said, they do well with the talent they have and are still regularly ranked in the top 20 MD polls.

It doesnt happen with luck. Gotta commit time, energy and resources if you wanna win in the A.

There are probably 30 public schools between MIAA A and MIAA B.

Both Crabs middies are JV players at best.

Exceptional attack?

Maybe MSJ and/or Gilman should go to B and not bring a team up. That should level amount of teams.

I think Gilman is going to improve the coach has a history of winning at public school level. MSJ coaches needs to learn how to adapt in games so they can stay in conference A and they also need to build their internal pipeline. s

Would not equal anything out. Leave it alone!!!

Everything is fine the way it is.

But the playoffs need to move to 8 teams.

8 out of 11 teams need to make the playoffs? Why have a regular season at that point? LB at 4-6 should have been awarded a playoff spot? Earn it.

I agree and want them to "earn it." Adding those 2 spots is just adding a formal play-in game instead of leaving it up to the 5th-6th tiebreaker rule.

Based upon how each of the last 3 real playoff seasons (non-covid) played out, it actually makes sense. Each year there were 2-3-4 way tiebreakers where the last teams in were decided by an arbitrary rule.

If you look at the scores from those seasons you'll also see that ALL of the top 8 ranked teams (except LB the past 2 years and Severn in 2021) defeated a quarterfinal, final four or championship game teams.

If the league didn't support it, I'd say no.

But those top 7-8 teams are all extremely close. Shame to leave it to a rando formula.

All it does is make the tournament more fun and compelling. You add a bye or play-in game. More excitement for the kids, another lax game for the fans.

Want to make the playoffs????? Play better. Coach better.
End of story. Stop trying to give each team a playoff spot. This is not the public school conference where no team is left behind.

MiAA A is the best league in the country for a reason.