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

Have to love the guys who want to gossip about others kids - and clam up about their own.

Fwiw— he’s a single holdback. And he’s the only kid on Madlax 2028 who has ever been in the grade ahead. Meaning, yes, he’s the only “reclass” on the team. Couple kids started kindergarten late, technically “old,” but not technically reclasses

Highly doubt there are 15 year olds playing 2028 HoCo this year. Which team has one? Madlax does not, and not even close to having a 15 year old. I don’t think any of those reclasses on Hawks or FCA are 15 either. That’s ridiculous, so stop throwing that [Censored] out there.

A smart MIAA coach who isn't recruiting the best players on his feeder teams simply isn't doing his job.

I believe they reach out to coaches.

Thanks Double Holdback Dad

Yet the net net is the same. You can’t actually be serious with that explanation.

Right but that’s mainly CHC, BL and STM/AS right? With FCA, Crabs and Hawks.

My son plays on a AAA team. Realistically we are looking at some of the bottom third (recently anyway) A conference schools to see if he would actually have a chance to see the field.

Not interested in being the 49th man at BL or McD. But trying to see how to get him a chance at maybe a school with a smaller roster.

He will be 15 by end of year.

Kid is in 7th grade. Projecting if he will be good enough right now is like investing in crypto - pure speculation. To each his own but why would you short-change your kid??

Guys. He's a good kid and, oh yeah, he's a kid. He's been older for years now and it's all going to be okay. Your focus is better spent on something more productive, or at least on something more productive until you play FCA.

Sigh. Everyone in this discussion (who's being honest) calls "reclasses" any player with a include late (before 9/1) birthday who:
1) Repeated kindergarten
2) Started kindergarten or 1st grade a year late (this is a common PA thing with upper class athletes).
3) Took a Pre-First grade (common MD thing with upper class athletes)
4) Repeated a grade (could be athletics, developmental, or academic)

There are a million valid and less than valid reasons to do the above. But don't try to separate them out into groups based on sports validity. Nope, they get lumped together, partly because some lax parents use late starts intentionally for sports purposes, yes, even at age 5-6.

uhh sure. maybe at zingos and carroll county public schools. show me a sub five footer stepping foot on the field at hoco elite or boys latin or landon.

If your kid is a 'reclass' and he's not doing it for sports then why aren't isn't he playing 2027?

I mean the majority of 91 poles came from Swarm (rec club) and Kelly Post (rec club) so is he wrong?

And the majority of lax dads even from NJ to DC never played the game so that accusation is always a safe bet.

A fair amount of MIAA players are of the AAA variety. There are only so many elite level players out there to divided into 10+ teams, plus some of the elite players go to public schools. I would guess that most of the players on JC and MSJ are is AA and AAA. Also, some of the AAA players will grow and train to become very good college players.

FACTS!!!! The “lacrosse families”. Know how to play the game and it starts pre K!!! It’s all very calculated by them in hopes to gain advantages! It’s not rocket science what they are doing! Rules should be changed to age based to stop the unfair practice of this and unfair advantages it can have. Period!

Don't forget a lot of the kids playing in HoCo league also feed IAC and WCAC schools so it's more like 20 teams they may go to. If you figure 8 elite HoCo teams with maybe 15 elite level kids each - that's 120 kids for 20 teams or an average of 6 for each. Plenty of room for AAA and AA kids to make teams and get playing time. They should be top 2 or 3 kids on their AA/AAA teams to have a reasonable shot though.

This is a serious question not a troll post. Unless your kid is a superstar on an elite team in eighth grade, what is the point of going to a private school for sports? (I get it if you have religious or education reasons.). It would seem to me that instead of spending $40,000 a year at Landon your pocketbook and your kid would have a much better time if you just bought a house in Bethesda and your son played for whitman or Churchill.

FACTS you want FACTS. The FACT is that it is within the current rules period. No amount of whining will change that current FACT. If you want an age based sport then have your little kid play hockey. If your kid was good enough you wouldn't be complaining about this FACT because he could compete regardless and would want him playing against the best to get better. Some folks game the system, some don't get a choice. Some play their kid up to get better, some don't have that option. Don't let your kid play HS lax though. You won't be able to handle the age disparity.

There are plenty of reclass kids who don't stand out and many have no idea they are reclassed. This ML kid gets repeated attention because too many errantly equate reclass with dominance which is not the case. The ML kid just happens to be extremely talented so he's a target of the spiteful reclass complaint crowd. As I've mentioned previously, I remember him scoring so many against my son's team when he played 2027 that a bunch of clown parents complained he was a reclass 2026 even back then. My much older son had a teammate that was similar, received all the spite from jealous parents, played big time D1 and never let it bother him. Here's hoping the same comes to pass for this kid and all like him. Kid hating trolls on parent forums are the lowest grade of humanity.

I mean it seems like you answered your own questions.

When it comes to real estate, not everybody wants to buy a $900K split level house wedged inbetween two houses in Bethesda, so they can sit on 495 twice a day to go to a similar job they already have in Baltimore or Annapolis. And many lax parents (stereotype) are business owners and their business is "where it is."

Add to that, many parents already took that bait and got stuck in the trap of buying a $700-900K split level house in Severna Park, Towson, Lutherville, Columbia for the "amazing public schools" that have decreased in quality quite rapidly over the last 10 years. So even if the move to MoCo was a smart one, they'd hesitate to make it.

Then on top of it, the school experience is fundamentally different at a high level private/religious school vs a high level public school, although there's an argument that the large, co-ed Catholic HS environment is pretty similar to a good public HS...with very similar problems too. So.... I didn't say better, I said different. And different parents want different things. Different kids are successful in different environments.

You’ve clearly never seen a HoCo elite game. I’m not a ML parent but their attack line is tiny. They are all scrappy and effective.

Other teams have smaller kids as well.

This is a joke. I know for a fact there are kids on AA/AAA HoCo teams that are better than Elite team starters. Parents know not to waste their time at try-outs, maybe can't drive that far, don't want their kid sitting behind dad coach's son (See FCA Blue and White, 91 and even Crabs), and the holdback movement is why you see elite players playing in AA/AAA. But hey.....my son plays elite for 3 minutes a game until his spot is gone next year.

There is no financial reason for going to a private school for sports and paying full tuition. What you are paying for as sports are concerned are:
1) opportunity for your kid to play against the highest level of competition available (both on their own team and against other teams)
2) more professional and committed coaching
3) year round organized team activities and training
4) nicer facilities

It all just depends on if those things are important for your kid. In our case, my son would be basically playing rec lacrosse with mostly kids who never picked up a stick before if he went to the local public school. I don't think that will be a great experience. We're lucky enough to be able to afford it so I'm willing to sacrifice so my son has a better HS experience. It will be a huge net loss financially for me.

You are a bitter dad.

I hope your son has a great season. But boy are you out of touch.

Here's the Hoco Week 1 schedule. Let's have some predictions:

BLC vs FCA
Crabs vs Team 91
Next Level vs Hawks

Bye: Madlax, True Chesapeake

Not sure how the schedule will look, most teams are scheduled right now for seven games, some teams scheduled for six, True scheduled for five. I assume there's some TBD games in there.

Lots of variables here:

First, take a deep breath. If your son likes playing the sport, is seeing the field at an Elite, AAA or top half AA team, and finds school relatively easy, he's on a good path to play in HS and probably beyond because the lax "product" overall across the country is hot [Censored] compared to even, say, Sidewinders or Cannons. And yes, there are only so many "elite" kids and roughly 1/3 of those are really AAA athletes on elite teams.

Don't know about VA but in MD about 20% of elite players and 50% of AAA/AA players will attend public HS. There is plenty of room on private ROSTERS for your kid if he performs at tryouts.

Now......moving between Varsity - JV - F/S rosters, and securing playing time at an MIAA-A program is not really a meritocracy, and if a coach tells you it is, that's just false. The math becomes unpredictable until your son has been in the system 1-2 years and you figure out, "Oh these 5 kids are making varsity regardless" and "Oh the varsity HC is the program director of X club, so the tiebreaker is the kids' club team."

Or as the dads of the Short Kings keep complaining, you learn (hopefully before the 1st check clears) "Oh the coach has never rostered a DEF under 5'11" in 10 years, or a FOGO who runs slower than a 4.8 40." Man, if you are cutting checks for private school and you didn't know those facts ahead of time and adjust accordingly, that's on you. Same thing if your kid is a "Great FOGO" but also the coach's son and the principal's son are both FOGOs. What do you think the outcome will be. Be in the know. Prepare your kid.

And yeah, these things happen at public HS as well. Maybe not quite as out in the open though.

No dog in this fight, but the smallest starting middle on my 2028s AAA team is probably 5'6" and the starting D is all 5'10 - 6'2". All 3 goalies are 5'8 - 5'11". I think we can allow for the possibility that some kids are "too short" in some positions / systems.

As a A-level coach with a AAA kid.........yikes with the bitterness. Wildly incorrect about moving starters from AAA to elite starters. Yes you could switch out an elite team's 3rd line with AAA starters with no impact (or in some cases, do even better) but seriously, talent separation exists. You can measure it in reaction times for goalies, % groundballs and/or FO % for middies, and shuttle drill speeds for defensemen. There's far more overlap than Elite Dads would have you believe, but elite talent is a real thing.

As far as the teams you listed, yeah, you're not wrong about coach's kid's quasi-elite talents.....but.....again with the bitterness. For simplicity let's say all those coach's kids are attackmen. Sure they may be featured as the #1 ATT on the roster but I'd argue in all 4 cases, the kid would still be the #6 ATT or better on that same roster, without Dad weeble wobbling on the sideline. They are basically where they're supposed to be, talent wise. And to say that your AAA starter attackman is as good as FCA's Blue's or Crabs' top 3 is silly.

Why wouldn't Madlax and True just go ahead and play.

FCA beats BLC 13-4

Crabs beat 91 8-7

Hawks beat NL 11-5

Madlax is prob on spring break or something

Yep some IAC private schools begin spring break on Friday.

FCA beats BLC 13-4

Crabs beat 91 8-7

Hawks beat NL 11-5

Madlax is prob on spring break or something

I’d also wager some of the True kids will be playing at the World Series Qualifier in Delaware.

They sure do happen at public schools!

Not a holdback parent, but this is a good roast of the guy who thought his !!!! exclamation points after every sentence made his points FACTUAL.

Just stop it. The Madlax kid gets repeated attention because he hit puberty 3 years ago and is 2x the size of anyone else. He wouldn’t be “extremely talented” if he played 27’s. He’d be good, but not what he is on a 28 roster. He’s such a physical mismatch that it actually shocks me he doesn’t want to play 27’s. That’s where he would get better. Beating someone half his size does ZERO for his development. No shade to the kid, he’s a kid. But, if the Madlax guys really had HIS best interests at heart, he wouldn’t be playing 28’s.

It’s also so obvious to everyone with eyes that he’s older that it makes the whole “7th grade team” a joke. Kid would be a big 27.

I’m sure this isn’t a popular opinion but you can’t say I’m wrong.

Just stop it. The Madlax kid gets repeated attention because he hit puberty 3 years ago and is 2x the size of anyone else. He wouldn’t be “extremely talented” if he played 27’s. He’d be good, but not what he is on a 28 roster. He’s such a physical mismatch that it actually shocks me he doesn’t want to play 27’s. That’s where he would get better. Beating someone half his size does ZERO for his development. No shade to the kid, he’s a kid. But, if the Madlax guys really had HIS best interests at heart, he wouldn’t be playing 28’s.

It’s also so obvious to everyone with eyes that he’s older that it makes the whole “7th grade team” a joke. Kid would be a big 27.

I’m sure this isn’t a popular opinion but you can’t say I’m wrong.[/quote
FWIW— he’s not bigger than everyone anymore, he may have stopped growing. You’ll be challenged to pick him out of a lineup until you see his 90 mph cannon. Puberty is closing his size gap very quickly. But still a beast… interested to see if he’s noticeably better than the rest by 10th grade. I’d guess not.

Holdback daddys have so much anger.