BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls 2024-11th Grade Fall 2022/Summer 2023

I watched the UA Midwest team beat Upstate. They were a two girl team and had a very solid goalie. A great powerful draw girl and a super shifty small middie/attacker who were the best two players on the field by a mile. When you win 80% of the draws and only win by 2 goals, it is not a roster of a better roster process.

At least a third the girls on the UA Midwest team probably shouldn't have made the team. (Probably more since 1/3 of their roster didn't see the field). Fromwhat i heard most of them played for Lou Fusz and Triumph. Let's not pretend that the Command selection process was any less flawed than the Highlight one.

Also, even though Highlight went 1-4, they were competitive in all five pool games, unlike the Command team who got blown out twice. Reality is that since American Select divided the talent pool for the midwest barring a situation like 2021 where the midwest has 4 of the top 15 players in the country, the midwest just doesn't have the depth of talent to be competitive in both events held at the same time.

High light LI was the strongest team there except for Baltimore. Would have liked to see that championship game.

Don’t lose to Philly if you are the ‘strongest’.

We spoke to directors last year. They don’t change anything when it comes to him.

Not even my team and I know Philly got very lucky at UA.

Teams that underachieve always say that.

Looking at the Command roster, Triumph had two players on there. I believe Lou Fusz had 3 or maybe 4 players (one is a goalie). I think Lacrosse [Censored] managed to get more players on both teams than either club mentioned.

This is not just a jesters problem. Clubs refuse to pay non parent coaches what they need to to get them to coach. Majority of non parent coaches won’t coach for scraps and loose change unless you’re a college kid.

Who ended up winning at UA for Highlight and Command divisions? I Can’t find the results.

Baltimore won both

Not surprised! Congrats to Baltimore. AS was perhaps, one of the reasons the LI teams didn’t do better. Needed some of that talent that went to AS to make championship teams.

LI lost to Philly. So at best the rankings would be 1 Baltimore 2 Philly 3 LI

If all the best LI girls played in this game they would be the top team.

Or if the coach put the best girls on the field and not the club favorites, game would have been won easily. Coaching was the problem

To be honest the Highlight team was dominated by 2023s, I don't think any of the 24s at AS would have really moved the needle much. Now command probably a different story.

That could be said for all teams including Baltimore. The best LI 25 was there. Maybe the kids that keep supporting AS get left out of Senior game. Those parents will cry politics then too. UA should pick the girls that have supported their tournament.

Stop. Let me guess, your kid didn’t get the minutes she wanted? We watched all games and the Coach did a great job. You forget that same coach won it all last year. Maybe your kid should have done more when she was put on the field to help her team. Try self reflecting.

UA had all the LI top kids on Highlight and Command from what I saw, including one of the best 24’s I’ve seen play.

And will someone please satisfy Philly dad and tell the him they can be #2, even if both 1&3 are actually better teams.

Lol, bad coaching cost the game. Draw losses and inability to pass the ball being up by two with a few minutes to go. Ugly loss. Different game and players when LI beat PA handily on day 1. Sorry, bad coaching

I doubt it, because the top LI 24s were definitely at AS. Maybe if not, that could have been the difference maker to championship at UA?!

You mean the great 24 TG player who was benched along with the other AA during the semi? Head scratcher! The starting lineup was coaches favorites and a joke. Can’t win a tournament with politics. It went from YJ to Jesters. Bad look for LI

The li 24 that didn’t even make a championship at As?

The LI 24 team they put together was played evenly. The Team had a few girls on it that Maybe didn’t belong? If they put the team together they should have, people would have screamed politics towards a certain club.

If team there was coached to win it, I think they certainly could have. Lost games by 1 point. Team was being coached like a showcase with girls getting even playing time. It was after all, a showcase event.

The team that went on to win championship, played to win a championship. Played in the B bracket for easy ride to finals, then played best players in semis and championship games. LI did not do that.

UA needs to find coaches from LI that do not have such a vested interest with specific girls on the team. Find coaches from other LI age groups. Pay them if you have to. Then no one can complain that the coaches club girls were favored. Not sure if that was the case?

All the top 24 will try out for UA. There is no top age for AS. The 24 age group at America Select didn’t really get recruited at tournament. The coaches had seen them play all summer. If the coaches really cared they would have stayed to the end to watch all the playoffs and championship.

I just got back with my kid from Lake Placid Summit classic tournament. It was a last minute add for us so I hadn't paid a lot of attention to the rosters/schedule until I was there.

In addition to the regular local-ish New York, New England teams (Spallina, Storm, 3D, Salt City, etc) I noticed that there was an entire division of teams for college hopefuls/commits from all over the country. Teams like Baby Blues (UNC), Baby Saplings (Stanford), Ydogs (Yale). Given that each college only recruits a handful or two of players each year, how are there enough recruits to field an entire team?

Can anyone shed light on how this works - are girls on these teams selectively invited and coached by the regular lax coach? Is this seen as a potential way for college coaches to actually coach and interact with high schoolers? There was absolutely no evidence of any official recruiting (coach zones, VIP coach tent etc), just a thousand or so high school lax players.

UA needs to find coaches from LI that do not have such a vested interest with specific girls on the team. Find coaches from other LI age groups. Pay them if you have to. Then no one can complain that the coaches club girls were favored. Not sure if that was the case?[/quote]

Everyone is just trying to advance their own interests.

Is it to advance a club? Is it to get certain players awards? Is it because of favorable player, Coach relationships? The answer will always be yes in the current system. There were multiple girls that were having a good tournament, some played a little and some didn’t play at all in the final game. They played as a team up until the semis and beat everyone handily.

Some players were micro managed and others were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Resulted in selfish play, turnovers, bad shots, bad defensive rotations and silly mistakes down the stretch. Nature of these tournaments in this format. The girls tried hard, very talented team and tournament wasted in the end.

It is easy to say “play better to see the field” but the fact of the matter each line made plays to win games throughout the tournament. Even in the semifinal game the 2nd line took a 7-7 game and made it 10-7 before the eventual 11-10 loss in the 3 minutes they played the 2nd half. All could use some self reflection.

Was there any college coaches in Lake Placid doing recruiting?

No recruiting in Lake Placid. This tournament is a celebration of lacrosse, what its all about.. Youth and HS teams play Mon-Wed and then adults play Thurs-Sun. Its by far the best tourney i have been to in terms of location, quality of fields, friendly vibe, off field activities. Cant wait to go back. Maybe the toughest tournament in the country to get a team into as well. The spots in this tournament are highly coveted.

Lake Placid is not a recruiting event. Coaches are not allowed to recruit there. The college teams do it for team building. It’s a no pressure fun event. Same for the other age groups. It is a beautiful town, and all the kids hang out together at night. Only negative is that it is extremely pricey

Everyone is just trying to advance their own interests.

Is it to advance a club? Is it to get certain players awards? Is it because of favorable player, Coach relationships? The answer will always be yes in the current system. There were multiple girls that were having a good tournament, some played a little and some didn’t play at all in the final game. They played as a team up until the semis and beat everyone handily.

Some players were micro managed and others were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Resulted in selfish play, turnovers, bad shots, bad defensive rotations and silly mistakes down the stretch. Nature of these tournaments in this format. The girls tried hard, very talented team and tournament wasted in the end.

It is easy to say “play better to see the field” but the fact of the matter each line made plays to win games throughout the tournament. Even in the semifinal game the 2nd line took a 7-7 game and made it 10-7 before the eventual 11-10 loss in the 3 minutes they played the 2nd half. All could use some self reflection.[/quote]

Yes. Best players need to be on the field to win games. Not the case. Favorites were left out too long, and made crucial mistakes at the end of the game leading to an ugly loss. Like watching a slow motion car weak. A shame that this is yet another event ruined by politics.

Actually they won last year in spite of the coaching. Ask the 2022 players on the team.

Also, the team that won was basically a club team. All but three girls play on the same club and none of their top players did UA instead. As long as the format stays the same, Connecticut should always be the favorite at the upper age groups.

If you include "guest players" Triumph had 7 or 8 on the roster. Lots of the Ohio players guest played for Triumph the weekend before. Coincidence or not?

Yes, you can basically say the 24 Grizzlies won the championship. It was mostly their A team for CT. They were also playing to win and not playing girls evenly. With that said, LI only lost to them by 1 playing showcase format and with a mixed club team.

Your mistake for thinking this is a showcase. It’s a championship tournament. Play the best to win. Cut roster down to 20 and 2 weaker players are gone. Makes everything easier. You play to win the game. The Grizzlies did.

Somebody should have told the LI coaches that. I think they wanted to make sure all the 24s had an equal chance to play in front of the college coaches. Because, we all know the college coaches do not care about the scores.

The Grizzlies did play to win. They started by putting themselves in the B bracket to play weaker teams to get to the finals. That wasn’t fair to the B bracket teams or the tournament . That shouldn’t have been allowed! Shame on them. Steps did it to. At least LI played in the hardest bracket right from the start.

Is it because Levy’s daughter plays for Maryland?

It is a showcase. There really should not be a championship. It’s the last chance girls get to impress college coaches before September. That why people pay $700+. How would you feel if you laid out all that money and your daughter was benched because the coach wanted to win a game, and the coach of the college she wanted was sitting on the sidelines? Now you are correct that Grizzlies play to win, they did last year too, and brought their whole ‘23 group who are all committed back to do it again. I believe the joke is on them because they paid ridiculous money to win a tournament that doesn’t matter for them. Maybe that money could have better spent to help a worthwhile charity than to win a tournament nobody cares about. Many regions including LI didn’t even have a ‘23 group because it was a total waste of money. Now for the 24s, the black team was virtually all YJA, so you really can’t complain that the Connecticut won because they had their whole Grizzlies team because LI did the same thing, they just were not as good. It really doesn’t matter who won AS. Only thing that matters is how your daughter played in front of the coaches. Good luck on September 1!

Not sure if it would’ve mattered cutting the roster down. Team LI is a good team. They beat everyone except upstate which is monsters essentially and barely lost to CT (grizzlies). CT goalie was a beast. She stopped everything. This team was better than Weiner alone but probably not powered enough to win it all. LI was fine as a team. Just got unlucky. They could’ve beaten CT if their goalie was not made out to be a wall. Li outshot cT easily.

It is a showcase in front of the coaches. But he championship playoff bracket is about the medal. That being said, I think most if not all of the parents were happy with the way it was done. Everyone played equally. No one felt that they wasted their time and money coming to this event. Everyone felt they belonged on that team. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen parents pissed off about not getting playing time and what a notIntelligent event such and such was cuz they didn’t get their kid on the field. Did some kids make mistakes? Sure but it happens.

Also I can’t tell you how big of jerks the CT parents were on the sidelines. STFU. Even the ref was getting pissed at them. I thought I got passed this in 5th grade lacrosse. Didn’t expect to see this at this level of lacrosse.

No,It was not virtually all YJA (check roster). The YJA team has beat Grizzlies before and prob. Would have again if it were play to win. I think that AS / LI team would have beat them as well, if it were play to win.

LI lost by 1 goal. If it were championship play where you left your “finishers” in more, It would have been a different game. The CT goalie was very good, and it does come down to who is shooting on you. At least LI parents walked away feeling their kids had a chance to play and be seen and seemed happy with that. The CT parents were obnoxious and entitled acting and prob. Went back to the country club to celebrate.

Again, CT and Steps should be embarrassed entering themselves in the B bracket to beat up on some teams to look good in front of college coaches. Very, very selfish and entitled move!

It was advertised as a Championship.
Tryouts to make the best team for each region.
Have you ever asked a college coach if they like seeing kids play to win or just play in a showcase ?
Colleges have seen these kids all summer and my bet is got no new evaluation of anyone.
Save your money next year and go to a camp of the school you want to be seen at. Just cause you go to camp doesn’t mean they will offer you and neither would playing 5 more minutes in a game.
Watch the girls that played the most for all teams be the first recruited from all areas.
What will you do when your daughter doesn’t get on the field equally in college?
These kids need to figure out there are no guarantees and no equal time. I never read this was promised anyway.