BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2027 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

The 2027's are not a typical MadLax team. MadLax typically gets 18-20 players recruited per class. But among the local 2027 players, this team only has roughly 2 attackmen, 3 middies (at most), 3-4 poles, and no goalies, worthy of college interest. And they are unlikely to pick up good, new local players from NextLevel or DCE, because families on those teams know about the culture issues. expect the ML 27 team to be flooded with players from Dallas, Kentucky, NC, etc. over the next couple of years.

Not a Madlax defender/supporter, but how on earth do you know who will and will not be recruited at that age/grade?

detest to say it, but going to practice and paying the fee doesn't guarantee anyone playing time at the AA level and above at any club.

I agree with the previous poster, that I don't really know how you can tell who will be recruited at that age, but you just listed 8-9 players - which sounds like a lot to me.

You don’t.

By MadLax standards, 8-9 players on track to be recruited is extremely low. And yes, you can predict in 8th grade which players will be of interest to college coaches. Coaches begin making their lists at showcases and prospect days in 9th grade, and then watch closely in 10th grade, because commitments begin on September 1 of 11th grade. It is not hard to watch an 8th grade team play and predict which players will be worth watching in 9th and 10th grade.

Can we please go back to hating on true ,hawks and crabs? Or complaining about holdbacks. Just about every team has parent and coaching issues especially with parent coaches. Still confused about the draw to play for these teams in hoco when none of them can win a legitimate summer tournament! Some of you need to chill on the recruiting just cause your kids good in 8th grade doesn’t mean anything.

Naively perhaps, I've never given much thought to how "in-town" parents and players feel about "out-of-town" players joining their team. I personally don't see the problem if the out-of-towners are paying the same fees and making a legitimate effort to attend practices. I assume most of those out of towners are coming to places like NL, ML or DCE because their local clubs aren't as strong, and they want to play with and against better competition in an effort to get better themselves.

I suppose another option for kids in less lax intense areas is to try to join one of the national programs, but there aren't that many of those - especially if you're not already affiliated with a big club like Team 91, True or Sweet Lax. It seems the downside with the national programs is that they don't practice as a team that often, so most kids who play for national teams have to stay with their local program as well - and I would imagine playing for two programs might be costly and time consuming.

Curious what people's thoughts are on this? I've heard plenty of folks complain about the national all-star teams, but parents or kids complaining about out-of-towners taking their playing time is a new one for me.

Easy answer to this question if the kid is from out of state and only flies or drives for the weekend practice and Hoko games and there’s an issue. He’s only there half the time why should he start or take someone else’s position

Because he's better and is paying the same fees as everyone else

Is he and does he? Ml guest players don’t pay as much.

Exactly what a out town parent or coach with out town kids would say. So kids practice all week without that kid and he gets to just come in and play? The problem is out of town kids are held to different standards.let a local kid miss practice all week and only show up on weekends. should he start cause pays same money??? Also what is your club really playing for king of hoco? None of you have been able
To beat hawks since 3rd grade and they have zero out town kids. Can’t wait for answer to this one

What are the local kids told? Are they rolling up to a tournament excited to play then see Johnny Texas on the bench and never see the field? Are they told before the tournament that they are now third line?

I think the only way it is even remotely acceptable is if very early in the season, even better if at tryouts, they are told that often they will be on the bench when Johnny Texas shows up. Then they can decide if that team is the right fit.

Each program has a different model, and none of them are perfect, but families need to ask these questions BEFORE joining the team and decide what works best for your son.
If you want an old fashioned model with the same roster all season and no out of town players, go with VLC. They are not 100% pure in that respect, but they are close. That approach yields uneven results on the field; for example, the VLC 2026 team is on par with MadLax and DC Express, but the VLC 2025 team is behind those two, and their 2027 team folded altogether.
MadLax is at the other extreme, and they do not really try to hide it. They will draw players from around the country on both short term and long term basis. They have players fly in every week for HoCo and for tournaments, and some families move to DC for parts of the year for lacrosse. (Covid made that easier). And then for big national tournaments like NAL and NLF, they will load up with even more Johnny Texas players. If they lose a key player and the next man up is not good enough, they will offer the spot to an out of state player whose family is willing/able to get there. The model starts in middle school and intensifies in HS. It works great for student players from around the country who want exposure on a bigger stage, and works great ($$$) for MadLax. But if you are the #15-25 man on the local roster, you will perpetually be displaced by out of staters. Even if you are top 15 on the roster, you will never know when Johnny Texas will show up and share time with you.
NextLevel and DC Express are somewhere in the middle - they used to be like VLC, but tip-toeing toward the MadLax model.
True is even more like MadLax than MadLax itself!
Buyer beware!

I can't see the sense in playing an out of town kid over a local kid if he's not better. And there's a big difference between a guest player and an out of town kid who actually pays to be on the team and attends most of the practices. I'm not a fan of guest players, but usually the only people really upset about them are the parents whose kid gets displaced - and the other team. The kids just want to try to win.

But I do think guest players should probably be illegal, but if an out of town kid pays his way and makes the effort to be at practices, I just don't see how anyone can complain about that. Maybe he shouldn't "start", but if the kid is good, give him the minutes.

I’m not quite sure why you talked about VLC so often in your post when they don’t have a 27 team.

I’ll put together a staff and rebuild a 2027 VLC team. Who makes the decisions there? Are they still managed by the crabs?

Because the local/national debate is not limited to any one class, and VLC is a good example of a program that relies on locals. But you're right that this is a 2027 thread, so let's go with Hawks, since they too rely on locals, but they do have a 2027 team, which consistently humiliates MadLax 2027, even with its out of stater's.

It is so obvious which former Madlax parent is writing so much of this. It's sad.

Let's hear it. Is it the "quitter" parent, or the IG parent, or the parents of the cheating 26 parents (2x), or one of the 10-15 parents whose kids left the program because of the BLC merger and then the ridiculous guest players from KY, TX and Richmond? Lot of targets out there.

ML exists because there are no other options inside or even near the beltway anymore. DCE is in Germantown and fading, BLC has become completely parent ruined after they almost folded during CV, VLC is slowly folding after the ridiculous merger with Crabs and Cavs, Team MD is in Olney and NL has consistently grown their teams and rosters since the Mitchell's bought the club.

From what I am reading, Madlax has one out-of-stater from KY and a couple kids from Richmond. KY is ridiculous, but Richmond seems reasonable if the kids are going to practice. They are just doing what they can to stay competitive, and I don't see what the big deal is.

Someone on here clearly has a grudge against Madlax, but the kids seemed like good sports and the parents and coaches were polite when we stomped them at Hoco last spring.

grudge = yes

This will be the first year for DCE so how are they fading?

DCE isn't fading. Madlax Grudge Guy ... let's refer to him as "GG" .. has no idea what he's talking about. Bitter and angry. I believe it's the same person who was suggesting earlier that the team has only 8 kids "worthy of college interest." What an absurd statement. They're in 8th grade. GG has no idea what he is talking about.

DCE's 25's are very good but that's most likely due to the efforts of the founder making his son's team really competitive. The 2026's started off well and ramped up their level of competition but had some tough results as the level of the teams got better. The 2027's barely attracted players to their summer prep camps and summer tournament. I think they were really bailed out by VLC folding and some Team MD players looking to get away from parent coaching. What tournaments are the 2027's playing in this fall: NXT and NAL again? I woiuld imagine if VLC got its act together, a lot of those families would head back across the river.

Take this convo to the ML page, please.

please ask GG to do that -- otherwise his ahem .. "insight and feedback" need to be fact checked so i'd be happy to do that on this thread :-)

It's so interesting that this daddy coach keeps bringing up VLC ...

This ML bloviating is exhausting.

Let's skip it and get to the real heart of 8th grade lacrosse - all the ridiculous claims about how "X coach at X school is really interested in bringing in my son as a 9th grade varsity starter, he's been calling us!"

Although to be fair, I will probably be begging to get back to ML vs NL vs BLC vs DCE vs VLC drama by December 15.

Poll question. - In the Fall, how many days a week is your son practicing with his club team? If you can tell me which club, great, if you prefer not to, which division in HOCO did they play in last spring.

Elite, 4 days a week and 2 shadow days

AAA, 1x

Are you being serious or just sarcastic? What's a shadow day?

If you have to ask..

Yes. Let’s rush back to talking about holdbacks.

Elite 1 time a week.

Play another sport in the off season ffs.

Elite, 2 days a week with club. 1 day private session.

3 days a week Football.

I'm not insecure about asking questions on something I haven't heard of before. I'm going to guess it involves the fresh/soph or JV team at the private they are going to attend. If that's it, we didn't have that when I went to my private in the 80's.

AAA, 2 days a week