BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2026 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

My guess is Glen Burnie

Helps recruiting when you’re the clear #1 team in the nation. Kids want to go to SJC. Even though it’s a [Censored] school overall. Better off sending your kids to public than paying for that.

Unless you’re not paying.

SJC will not be rank #1 in DMV this year or for the foreseeable future; they lost too many seniors and don’t have the depth. Their 26 class is good but there are other schools with equally good 26 classes.

All went quiet quick about Madlax and NL. Do we have a new "it" team or not?

What are the other schools?

Feelings so easily hurt......man, is that ever on-brand for BOTC. The prospect that someone, somewhere knows one iota of info/intel more than you is just burning you up inside!!!!! I detest to tell you, but the elite talent pool "box" from QA County, to Annapolis, west to Laurel, north to the PA line, and east back over to Stewartstown/York, then east to northern Harford County (the subject of the "MIAA 2026 talent" subthread), is pretty well known if you have coached at anything but the rec level over the past several years and watched the 2026s grow. If you only know the players on your son's team, that's fine but you'll have to reconcile that you are not the Dr. X of 2026 MIAA lax.

And yeah, neither am I, because I haven't seen the new BL boarders play yet. See how easy it is to admit that someone else knows more than you?

I have a bad feeling that you're a dad who believed his son's new coach "recruited him" to "make an impact all 4 years" but "can't give him a scholarship until he makes varsity, hopefully 9th grade!" "We'll develop him into a MIAA monster." Get ready for a trip to reality in 4 weeks. 140 kids at tryouts, 40 spots on varsity.

Where is all the noise after the " invite only try outs" is this the next NL 2024 team that Madlax feed them?

The dust is settling, families trying to figure out what to do. What has been said here for the past two days did happen.

I feel bad for the players who lost their spot. I guess that’s just the way it goes.

Dear club coaches,

You don’t like the way your team is performing, the team YOU chose at tryout time, then do YOUR job better and coach better instead of taking the easy way out by replacing half your team. YOU chose your team. You expect loyalty from them, you demand respect from them. Give them the same in return.

☝️

FACTS!!!!

The clubs are really hurting their reputations doing business this way. Everyone reads this site and other sites like this one now. These forums have changed the landscape. The good and especially all of the bad are shared, not just amongst small circles anymore in phone calls or text messages or happy hours at the bar, but out there for everyone to read and judge on the internet. Clubs have expectations which they expect their players/parents/families to adhere to. Club directors and coaches should have the same. I have quite a few kids, and they have played different club sports over the years at every level. Never has a coach/director pulled stunts like the ones pulled in club lacrosse lately. Your players talk. Your parents talk. Treat them better. There are at your club because you asked them to be there. Just my $.02

Perhaps the reasons clubs act the way they do is because there are no legal contracts between the club and the parents paying for their son/daughter to be a member of the club. Think about it, parents just pay without a legal expectation of what they are getting in return. If there were contracts signed stating the membership is from this date to that date, the team their child will be playing on, the number of tournaments/events, the number of practices, and the expectation what will happen at those practices (develop players), the clubs would NOT be pulling the shenanigans they do. As it is now, clubs receive funds and use them theoretically to pay down payments for tourneys/events, rent fields, pay salaries, buy uniforms, etc. Then they push players down a team or kick them off the team because they hold fixed-tryouts in the middle of the season. There are no refunds, because they've already spent the money! Wake up parents, demand contracts, know your rights, protect your child from clubs who think the grass is greener on another lacrosse field.

My son plays on a top team in the area. A few years ago there was mutual interest in a very good player from another local team. The player's current team was going through a coaching change and the player's parents said they wanted to see how things went and would decide after the fall if he would make the switch. Coach told him that we dont work like that. You're either in from the start or tryout next year. I knew my son was in the right spot when I heard that.

I completely agree that the club chooses the team during tryouts and should stick with that team until the next tryout. However, the club wants to win games and will take the best players that come out to join the team.

YESSS! What a thought.

Spot on. That is how a club should act and how a family should by representing themselves by respecting the club/coach and other players. If the clubs would just have an adult understanding about team construction but we all know they don't and what we get is the wild wild east. If we could have more parents

[quote=Anonymous]Perhaps the reasons clubs act the way they do is because there are no legal contracts between the club and the parents paying for their son/daughter to be a member of the club. Think about it, parents just pay without a legal expectation of what they are getting in return. If there were contracts signed stating the membership is from this date to that date, the team their child will be playing on, the number of tournaments/events, the number of practices, and the expectation what will happen at those practices (develop players), the clubs would NOT be pulling the shenanigans they do. As it is now, clubs receive funds and use them theoretically to pay down payments for tourneys/events, rent fields, pay salaries, buy uniforms, etc. Then they push players down a team or kick them off the team because they hold fixed-tryouts in the middle of the season. There are no refunds, because they've already spent the money! Wake up parents, demand contracts, know your rights, protect your child from clubs who think the grass is greener on another lacrosse field.[/quote

The problem with this argument is that none of the players were cut. Some of them probably just fell further down the depth chart but they were not actually cut from the team. So even if they did have a contract it wouldn’t have language that would protect them from riding the bench.

Does anybody know and care to share what actually was offered to the kids potentially displaced in this situation?

They could put language into the agreement limiting the number of roster additions during the year to like 3. That could be a good marketing pitch but most parents will still care more about the perception of how "good" the club is (their rankings and #recruits).

10+ kids were told to either go to the B team or become a "practice player" with no option to play in a game this summer. Next Level Red (B) is ranked #226 in the country. Wonderful option for the kids who can't do anything about it in Feb. They are better than the B team by quite a bit. I dont care what people say about "maybe they should have worked harder". NO. These are good players who deserve better and are way better than the Next Level B team. Horrible decision made by the club owners.

☝🏻

I'm sorry some of you need to realize your kid just isnt that good. Change clubs, jump ship and blame the coaches the club directors and everyone else. Go look in the mirror

Typical BOTC dad response. Dude, you totally missed the point.

Agree. Plus, it’s February and there’s no Spring club season. These guys will all play HS lacrosse and get better and can use the time between now and the summer season (four months away) to either earn more PT on NL Blue or find another club to showcase their talents in front of college recruiters this summer.

10+ kids were told to either go to the B team or become a "practice player" with no option to play in a game this summer. Next Level Red (B) is ranked #226 in the country. Wonderful option for the kids who can't do anything about it in Feb. They are better than the B team by quite a bit. I dont care what people say about "maybe they should have worked harder". NO. These are good players who deserve better and are way better than the Next Level B team. Horrible decision made by the club owners.


Looneys is looking for a few good players!!!

Did they offer a refund if you didn't want to be a practice player or move to Red?

Madlax is always a target here because of CM and he brings it on himself, but this move by NL is pretty low character.

There's a reason the Mitchells' HS teams will never amount to anything, HS coaches actually have to develop and coach the players they have. Can't just swap your roster with another school.

The NL 26s were not very good. I think they were ranked 65. They have not been competitive with the other elite 26 teams kn the area. I’m not sure why people are so surprised that the club owners made this move.

Check out the CBLaxers UnD1sputed Showcase here! https://cblaxers.com/und1sputed-showcase/

Check out the CBLaxers UnD1sputed Showcase here! https://cblaxers.com/und1sputed-showcase/

Did they offer a refund if you didn't want to be a practice player or move to Red?

To my knowledge NL doesn’t have you pay up front for the summer. You pay for each season so I would imagine that they haven’t paid for the summer yet.

Wouldn't be nice if it was that clear cut. Before clubs make these roster decisions they check to see who has siblings in the club, who is in what friend group, etc. The quiet kid gets cut because he is less likely to take players with him to a new club.

What are you taking about? An elite quiet kid doesn’t get cut. This is about how talented the kid is. Are there back from deals? Sure. But at the end of the if your kid is talented and a difference maker, they aren’t getting cut. Clubs want to win.

Check out the CBLaxers Mid-Atlantic Elite Showcase here! https://cblaxers.com/girls/mid-atlantic-elite-showcase/

[/quote]

What are you taking about? An elite quiet kid doesn’t get cut. This is about how talented the kid is. Are there back from deals? Sure. But at the end of the if your kid is talented and a difference maker, they aren’t getting cut. Clubs want to win.[/quote]

The quiet kid could get cut but more likely they won't receive the playing time they deserve when pitted against all the promises and back door payments being made.

The quiet kid could get cut but more likely they won't receive the playing time they deserve when pitted against all the promises and back door payments being made.[/quote]

If the quiet kid is truly an elite player they can make most teams. They don’t need to stay.

True colors shining through. Notice what team stayed in tact in all of this - DCE (which counts plenty of SJC guys on their roster). NL should have been classier about all of this.

A weak player will sometimes NOT get cut because of connections and other families that his parents can influence to leave. But an elite, quiet player is never getting cut - those are the players who coaches love the most.