BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Anyone know where the weird True shakeup ended with the 28s?

Is there only going to be True Chesapeake and True Baltimore now or does True Annapolis still have its team? And What is a true DMV?

You guys are so, so, old.

The kids see each others social media and take every opportunity to roast each other for stuff like this. Eventually the parents get let in on the joke after the whole team is clowning the kid who is 2 years older. It's the rules, so, who cares, but also......all the dads and granddads trying to deflect for your 5'10" 7th grader with a mustache, guess what, we all know.....and we know that you don't want us to know, which I think the "coach" (lol) was pointing out in the first place on this thread.

Who else is playing at NAL besides Madlax?

What would be interesting to see is actually how many 28's playing in the NAL are age eligible for the WSYL. My guess would be 25% of the kids.

Keep telling yourself that's why little Johnny isn't playing on a top team or competing in tourneys like NAL. "Every kid from Elite to AA are holdbacks Johnny, so don't feel bad your on an A team"

My kid is an on age kid competing at NAL and will also be competing at the World Series. 90% of his teammates are in the same boat. There are a handful of kids on the team that are too old. I'm sure some NAL teams have more than a handful. But to say 75% of the kids are holdbacks/too old is ridiculous.

Truthfully, while it isn’t fair, the on age kids who play at a high level, particularly in Elite, don’t care. It is what it is. My son plays elite is on age and will be playing at NAL.

Literally no one cares how old your kid is. You are either good enough or not.

The biggest complainers are parents of kids who are not very good and are using holdbacks as an excuse as to why their kid plays where they play talent level wise.

It’s sad yet predictable.

A few things from both sides-
Yes MOST kids are on age. Yes other than 2way last year it’s all “legal”. Yes in high school you have to play other age groups, whoever lines up.

But to say the complainers are parents of kids not very good is a cowardly argument. 2 things- in grades 6-8 the holdback situation poses a legit injury potential risk. And 2nd the complainers are of those many of whom kids are good- and if they held back would dominate 2029’s.

Wrong holdback mom

Go ahead and hold your good 2028 back and watch him get dominated by the on age 2029s. lost…so is your kid

I agree with holdback mom. My son is on age and plays elite. He never complains.

So sounds like the complainers have three choices.

1. Holdback and go ‘dominate’ 2029s
2. Be quiet and play
3. Rage post on botc about cowards, country clubs and kids IG posts

Can we move on? Again - no one cares how old your LEGAL child is. You get no trophies for being on age. You get no demerits for being born before 9/1/2009 as long as your in the 7th grade.


High school coaches don’t care. College coaches encourage it.

For the most part The kids do know how old the kids the are playing against are. Some Parents to like to avoid talking about it. But in general , no one cares enough to do anything.

Agreed

Come back in 1 or 2 years and see how your son feels. It’s going to “hit hard” in about another year. Then we will see how you feel.

The organizers and rule makers need to change to birth year already! Just like other sports. Make it more fair from the youth age on.

Some people making arguments on here that it shouldn’t be LEGAL and it is getting out of hand! I totally agree. Whatever is going to happen in college , is what it is.

However, they need to get it in control at the youth level and make it a fair and an even playing field for all youth to have same opportunity age wise to develop!

Lies. Everyone cares - this is all anyone talks about.
Every single person on the field knows when your 11/2008 kid is playing against the 9/2010 kid.

I didn't know the only reason kids played lacrosse was so they can play in college.

Congrats to the Team 91' '27 Machine on being honored at halftime of the PLL Championship game for winning the WSYL. Great to see the kids who play on age and who's parents didn't scam the system get recognized.

Looks like this fella is going with the rage post on botc option.

Funny, I thought the same thing. For all the T91 MD holdback hilariousness, pretty impressive that 91 LI went and got it done, on age.

And I don't know about public school kids, but the private school kids care A LOT how old each other are. They care too much, probably. The athletic kids are (for the most part) competitive with each other in academics as well, and if they are pretty talented at ferretting out information from each other about why (in their genius opinions) one kid is great and the next kid can't catch with his left. The sports-focused 2028s are currently 4'8" (if they're fast) to 6'2" and some look like little kids and others have mustaches. If you don't think the kids talk, you should probably spend fewer weekends at the Red Eye Dock Bar T-Shirt Contest (you know the one, you're there all the time) and renegotiate your kids' weekend visitation with your ex.

Biggest issue with holdback culture in my opinion is that it pushes on age kids out of the sport and perpetuates the same families whose fathers and grandfathers played (and are way more likely to holdback) at the center of the sport. Game will never grow that way. Telling that the top recruits each year are disproportionately sons of former players and coaches. On age system with more local teams would clearly be much better for the game. But none of that will ever happen and lacrosse will remain a niche sport that gets a 1/3 of the ratings of NCAA softball. But will work it well for the war stories of the future generations of Millons, Spallinas, and Petros.

The holdback issue in youth lacrosse is singlehandedly crippling the professional league and any future the sport has.

It can't be that the only driver for these kids to play lacrosse is to help them get into college.

My sons MS team had over 200 kids try out for the MS Football team. I'm certain that only a handful of them have any thoughts of playing football in college.

Hopefully the PLL can come in and help clean up Youth Lacrosse.

I hope that was sarcasm. The average public school 12 year old will tell you that his intended career is professional athlete, YouTube celebrity, video game developer or rapper. To be fair........the average private school 12 year old wants the very same things but has been conditioned to lie to adults and will say "a doctor probably" or "entrepeneur."

That was cool. I'd be curious to see how a USL age team in the DC area would do against those teams if they practiced for an extended period. Black Ops and NL both made the final 4 of the WSL when they formed an age-based team and practiced all of 6x.

Machine plays as a team year round and it does add players for when they play the club tournaments. That's why they change the name for the rankings. Very good team.

Sarcasm? You're telling me the average 12yr old knows he wants to play football in college?

I don’t think machine does guest players.

My point was that the average 12 year old doesn't know anything about anything including "thoughts of playing football in college" which about 2% of middle school football players will actually achieve.

Why is college used as the primary driver for youth lacrosse?
It's not used in football or soccer and they have 10x the amount of kids playing.

Last fall at a tourney the big push was the large amount of college coaches that would be there watching.
No college coach cares about your 11 yr old.
Of course the shady private school parents cheated and play their 13yr old's down against the 11 yr old's so their kids look good in front of these "college coaches"

Why? Because most (I didn't say all, overly proud dads from the Annapolis area) kids in youth lacrosse aren't elite athletes even if they are on so-called "elite" teams. It doesn't draw the top caliber athletes like basketball, football, soccer and track & field. It just doesn't. It tends to be a pampered private school kid sport, despite what anybody else says on here.

Colleges have to field teams and the vast majority of college lacrosse players are full pay. You may get a little break like room and board, but not much after that. So, if you are a good student and a decent lacrosse player it is a leg up because the schools need you. It's a major loophole for kids to get into their reach schools or a school they wouldn't get in otherwise.

A lot of the kids on my son's team play football (it really interferes with the fall season btw) and I am 100% certain none of them will play in college at any level.....but more likely than not, could play lacrosse at a very good school.

What team does your son play for?

Interesting summary.
What % of kids would still play lacrosse if their parents college fantasy wasn't the driver.
Would parents still holdback their kids to dominate the younger kids?

Oh man you are going to hurt feelings and break hearts by insinuating that the #9 middle, #3 goalie, and #7 defensemen on (each of) Hawks/NL/ML/FCA are not elite! Eliteness works by association, haven't you heard?!

Agree with the other poster about continuing on in college at lax vs football. Between D1 and D3 there are enough spots for more than half of varsity lax players every year. Especially D3 which has teams still publicly advertising for roster spots in Feb-March of HS senior year. Let's call it 50-70% placement.

Compare that to football.......6.5% of varsity players advance to college.

And a data point that isn't a real statistic
1) Number of 2024s who ran a sub 4.75 40 at the Iron 44 Lax Combine: 0 (best time in the entire event was 4.79)
2) Number of 2024s who ran a sub 4.75 40 at the Nike Football Combine (or whatever it's called): 75

Your son may be a Mad Lax starter all the way through HS but he's not playing D1 football at any place you'd want to brag about to your PG County Country Club Adjacent pals.

I don’t know what team cut this guys kid but he sure is taking it hard.

Hope it works out for your son. You are unhinged.

In this area? Probably a lot since it is a popular sport particularly in the private school set.

I think a fairer question would be -- "How many people would continue to shell out $10-20k a year for 3 seasons of club lacrosse+travel expenses if there was zero value add getting into college?"

Rec would be king and would look a lot like youth flag football in the DMV.....

hit the wall

Anyone Know Anything About The Red Hots Lacrosse Club National Teams? Judging from their social media posts they are putting together a loaded team to play in The Circuit.

Would the rich private school parents still holdback their kids so they turn 20 freshman year in college?

I think it's a new venture for Red Hots but I could be wrong. Like all the national / mercenary teams there is a mix of elite talent and "another decent guy" throughout the roster. A good mix of 2028s are playing, similar to the Nationals squad for this age group. Is it worth it? The difference between the national clubs in my experience is:

1) consistency of coaching
2) team building & trust to run plays / sets / schemes (practice monthly vs "whoever shows up for the tourney")
3) ability to train and coach all positions at a high level vs "whichever coach shows up." (kind of goes back to #1)

Those variables change whether your kid really gets anything out of it, whether you're a satisfied customer as a parent, and how much the team wins.

While the on age kids have to hot the wall, the holdback private school kids are out on their parents boats.
He's a real drink from a garden hose type of kid.

Couldn't be more true. Same applies for hoops. My kid is a good player on a top 10 lax team. He played AAU bball on a pretty good team, not great. Took him to a mid-tier AAU hoops tourney and he went from being one of the more athletic kids on his nationally ranked lax team to just another guy with apparently mediocre athleticism in a mid-tier hoops tourney.

The level of size/speed/athleticism required to play D1 football/basketball is a whole different world from D1 lacrosse. Nothing wrong with that. Same applies for golf and fencing, but I'd happily send my kid to Harvard on a fencing scholarship if that's what he was into.

All you have to do is hold him back a year or two and he can be the top fencer on the team.