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

Couldn't cut it at their own level so they had to hold back

If you aren't used to this yet, and your kid is somewhere on an elite roster, get ready lol.

Actually— their holdbacks were very good at the 27 level, particularly #14. Which begs the question, why the need to hold back? Little Johnny couldn’t spell H O L D B A C K and need another lap around the 7th grade? Or just wanted to be a dominant player?

They were very successful as 27s.

Isn’t the entire hawks starting attack and midfield former 2027’s

Not even close to "all." And the "several" include a fair mix of starters/non starters at all positions:
1) kids who played up, and no longer are successful playing up, no shame in that game.
2) kids with summer 2009 birthdays (holdbacks in strictest terms). No shame there except for how spooky/evasive the parents are about it.
3) actual holdbacks (winter/spring 2009 birthdays). No comment.

ML parent. We played FCA this summer and they had a lot of new talent. Always good, now excellent. Holdbacks or not, they are the team to watch, IMO. Should be a fun spring season. Looking forward to it.

It's the system. Use it to your child's benefit both academically and athletically if need be. Let the whiners whine ... and they dominate this BOTC forum. Too bad. But if your kid is a real student, reclassing will actually stunt their development and create bad habits. Play at age and play up if possible. They'll get even better, quicker.

Get ready is right.

IMO, if you have a concern with your kid playing against older kids, the Elite division is not for your son. Even if he can ball. It's an unfortunate reality. And is a couple years from changing.

And if you don't like it in 8th grade, don't send your kid to any MIAA, DC, or Philly private schools.

If anyone is interested in what's going on nationally at 2028, Mad Dog hosted a tourney out in Santa Barbara this weekend. Texas Nationals won it all. They lost to Kings CO on Saturday 7-6 but turned around and beat them 8-3 on Sunday in the semifinals. Field was Texas Nationals, Kings CO, Mad Dog West Elite, True Illinois Premier, ADVNC, and some team called Mountain West All-Stars that made it to the championship game after beating Mad Dog West Elite in the semifinals.

Did any of these teams play back east this fall?

I'm sure most of them will be at Sandstorm in Palm Springs in January? Any local MD/DC teams going out to Sandstorm?

TX Nationals played in MD this summer. They are good.

And the new goalie and the new FOGO (old FOGO was so disgruntled he quit lax for a year and is. Is at FCA and thriving

All of these teams played back East in one or more events— Naptown, NAL, NLF, etc. ADVNC not very good. Mad Dog West pretty good but not up there w the top east teams like Venom, Madlax, Hawks, etc. (Madlax haters are about to chirp, but Madlax has beaten MDWE all 4-5x they’ve played them in Vail, NAL, etc.). Kings are exceptional at 2027, but haven’t been on the 2028 scene back East as far as I know. Tx Nationals is a super team of kids from 3-4 clubs (Sentry, 3D TX, Iron Horse) who can’t compete as those, but come like a WCS team and are legit.

Definitely a ton of talent coming from out west, but they need to create super teams from like 10 states to compete with the best team from a town in the East like Annapolis, Garden City, Towson, Bethesda, etc.

Be nice if there was an actual tournament where all of the top teams showed up and played.

Naptown, NAL and NLF are the closest to that I guess.

TX Nationals is not a super team. It's just the top local Dallas club with a notIntelligent and confusing name. No different than Hawks, Madlax, Next Level, etc. Its players just play for TX Nationals and have nothing to do with Sentry, 3d TX, Iron Horse, etc. Their players used to play for those clubs before Ryan Brown founded TX Nationals, started a 2028 team, and stole all the best players in town. No players from Houston or Austin. All Dallas-area kids. I've got a college friend whose son plays for them.

They're playing NAL, Crab Feast, and Naptown this summer, so we'll know if they're really any good by the end of the summer. Hawks beat them twice at Naptown last year.

You just sent a shiver down the spine of the MadLax folks. If TX Nationals are playing in those tourneys, that means that their student d-pole will be playing for them instead of ML. Uh oh.

No need to worry. We'll be on age by the summer.

BTW, TX Nationals are not a "national team." It's just a poorly named team. The poster above is wrong.

Incorrect about TX Nationals.

Garden City?

Yeah, there’s more talent on the town of Garden City than all of TX

Glad to hear that good lacrosse was played, but these are not real teams. They are conglomerations of all stars that recruit from everywhere, and for a December event, nobody would have their full "team" in any event, so they rope in more players to fill the holes and get an edge on the competition. All good. The best things about these tournaments is that they give a chance for great players who do not live in the east coast corridor to begin making national names for themselves.

2028 Texas Nationals are very good. If they competed against kids their own age I’m not sure how great they would do though.

Facts. In addition, all the Garden City kids are on age.

While we don’t know who is on age or holdbacks— we do know this. Small towns in Long Island, Baltimore, and DC put forth teams, sometimes multiple teams, that compete with these west coast and national super teams. Garden City, Manhasset, Bethesda, Towson, Annapolis, etc. Towns with 30k people beating these super teams from 25 states west of the Mississippi. It’s wvident by the Nationals All Star events with the older groups— DMV (northwest suburbs of DC), Maryland (Baltimore kids), Nassau County teams dominate that event. I think DMV won 2 of the 3 divisions last 2 years, lost in the final of the other. The Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest teams get rolled.

No question more and more talent coming from out west as the game grows. But the top high school teams in CA and TX can’t compete with those from back East. Further anecdotal evidence of this statement— Mater Dei HS (the top team in Ca last year) came back East for Spring Break last spring and played a few middle to bottom level teams in the MIAA. They get rolled (Archbishop Spalding 9-2 and MSJ who finished 10th of 11 in their conference).

I know we’ve digressed from TX Nationals and other 2028 teams competing at 2028. Point is, outside of these super teams (not sure if TXN qualifies as super team of not), local west coast / Texas teams are simply NOT competitive with East Coast teams unless they band together. That’s Ok. If somehow the 2-3 teams from Bethesda rolled up one super team— they would stomp TXN, WCS, JM3, or any of these nationals teams from out west. Same goes for Annapolis, Garden City, etc

Water Polo or Football? CA and TX wouldn’t lose to an East Coast dream team either.

Is Bored Maryland Dad serving time? Need him back for a pre-season rundown of HoCo

You would think with that many old backs they could at least make it to HOCO championship game!

who was in the championship game last year, and who are the favorites for this year?

I can't figure out why FCA is getting so much heat on this thread. We like playing them. - ML parent

Are they getting heat? I like their coach, seems like a decent guy, obviously a strong pedigree. Their parents are OK, some very obnoxious. But the kids seem like good kids, very talented, and with the new 2027 kids— they’re a legit top 5 team in the nation. Before the new kids arrived, they were a pretty good team, not great. Now they’re great.

WORD.

Q for FCA parents: Were the "new kids" (2027s) playing with them this summer in Vail and elsewhere?

HoCo bored lax dad.....give us the lineup for Hoco Elite and AAA?

Kelly Post is probably AA now.

91 will probably get the chance to play elite instead of Team MD. Not sure that they should but probably will.

VLC and Preds might/should move up to AAA.

You don't know what you're talking about.

OK so the kid who is playing Fogo with the Hawks two years ago did not take a year off and is not currently with FCA and doing well? Because that’s what all the parents said

Annapolis was best known for its Naval Academy, now it may be best known for its number of holdbacks.

I know everyone you’re referring to. You are wrong and mixing stories. why don’t you just stop talking about kids you don’t know. You are creepy.

Fun fact, the reason the stories maybe mixed-up is because there are so many former Hawks on FCA 😂

Agree with this.

2023 AAA in order of likely wins
Team MD (likely champ)
FCA White
VLC or Cavs, whatever drama is happening there.
Team Money
Sidewinders
Predators
Blue Claws (defections have begun)
HLC (defections)

2023 AA in order of likely wins
Hawks Black (likely champ)
Forest Hill (defections)
True DC (if they exist)
Cannons
Catonsville
Kelly Post
No order: MDLL, NL Red, or ML DMV depending on who lobbies the most to avoid A and B league.

2023 A (no order)
ML DMV / NL Red, MDLL (2 spots)
BLC Orange
True Annap/Ches B? C? team
Rockfish
LTLC
Top Caliber VA
Diamondbacks 2028/2029 or Hoco Black

2023 B (no order)
Diamondbacks 2028/2029 or Hoco black
Swarm
VLC B team
Zingoes
Green Hornets
Blue Claws B team
True Baltimore
Breakers

Anticipate folding: Baltimore Elite, FCA Orange

Hey dad, can you get off this and come hang out with me?