US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2029 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

For the 2024-2025 club year, Age Verification applies to 2030 and below.

Yes that is correct 2029 becomes the Wild West next year You will see freshman and sophomores in high school playing 2029. Head over to the 2028 forum and read about Leading Edge who has kids “thinking of doing a PG year”… Thinking! Absurd

Where is that from?

not true. 2029 is still age verified until high school.

Really doesn’t matter because kids are still reclassing and will be showing up to showcases and taking scholarships away from the kids in 2029 class.

More posts on this on the 2028 thread. Tryout pages for some of the clubs including 91 affiliates (who are members of NLF) reference the 2024-2025 Age Guidelines for grad years 2030 and below. Like it or not, the holdbacks come back in 8th grade, which means we will get to read all about it here for the next year.

link to tryout page please?

https://www.ghclacrosse.com/

Front page of hoco league makes it pretty clear no holdbacks next year in 2029 division.

Look at Team 91 Charlotte and Team 91 South Tryout pages where the grad years where the age limit is in effect are listed. They are in bold on those pages. Starts at 2030. 91 is an NLF member. Talk to the 29 parents of holdbacks playing 28 right now. They are coming back down.

100% not true

Next year Hoco is 6/1/2009. This year it was 6/1/2010. Most on age 2029s were born 9/1/2010 to 8/31/2011. So this year they made it a 15 month window. Next year it is a 27 month window. So yes. The holdbacks comeback.

Nice. Before Hoco season is over next year, some of the 2029s will have their learner's permits.

That is not what it says. It says the opposite

Just to follow up. What HOCO and Team 91 are proposing flies in complete contradiction of what US Lacrosse stated last May 2024.

In the FAQ, US Lacrosse specifically states (https://www.usalacrosse.com/nlf-usal-partnership-faqs)

How is the Class of 2028 impacted?
The 2028 class will not be impacted by the new age rules as all players currently playing on a 2028 team will remain 2028 eligible for the 2023-2024 season. Current members of 2029 or younger teams who do not meet the new age requirements will need to play on their age appropriate team as of fall 2023 and remain with that age appropriate team until they begin classes in high school, at which point they can play with their high school graduation year team.

Here is the chart listed going through August 2024.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.usalacrosse.com/sites/default/files/documents/Games/USAL-AgeGroupChart-15-23-24.pdf

The chart "goes through August 2024". Meaning competition would be under these rules. Tryouts being held in July are for teams who will be competing (against other teams) after August 2024. So, a new chart, like the 2025 Hoco chart the previous poster sent the link to, will be in effect.

This holdback talk is exactly why lacrosse parents, kids and now the entire sport is labeled as weak. Congrats to the .10001110101% of kids that successfully complete it. There are deceitful parents misleading their children in all sports (and in life). Not saying it’s right, and it can easily be corrected by doing some sort of ID check before each game. It takes 2 min away from warm ups and would clean up the sport, but still chosen not to be completed by the powers that be. I guess a kid has not been injured bad enough yet.
Do your kids play any other sports? Have you been to any basketball tournaments, baseball tournaments, wrestling matches, or football games? These are the sports the real athletes are playing. I will assume your sons aren’t able to compete in the other sports, so you are all in on lacrosse which leads to all this whining.

This holdback talk is exactly why lacrosse parents, kids and now the entire sport is labeled as weak. Congrats to the .10001110101% of kids that successfully complete it. There are deceitful parents misleading their children in all sports (and in life). Not saying it’s right, and it can easily be corrected by doing some sort of ID check before each game. It takes 2 min away from warm ups and would clean up the sport, but still chosen not to be completed by the powers that be. I guess a kid has not been injured bad enough yet.
Do your kids play any other sports? Have you been to any basketball tournaments, baseball tournaments, wrestling matches, or football games? These are the sports the real athletes are playing. I will assume your sons aren’t able to compete in the other sports, so you are all in on lacrosse which leads to all this whining.

Please stop this pointless conversation. Reclasses will not be allowed next year. The rules are the same as this year for 29s and everyone else in 8th grade lax and lower going forward. People will still cheat. Kids will be bigger than other kids . This conversation stinks and is boring. Same blah blah over and over.

Which contradicts the US lax language.

The new chart, through 2025, is right on the front of the HOCO page. The older kids can come back. Can we move this on? (My kid is not a holdback and I’m tired of this discussion.). What teams will benefit the most under the rules that are now in place, and how much of a s-show will the third week of July be?

Age Requirement: No Player born before June 1, 2009 may participate in 2029

Please tell me it's a typo.........last year they made everyone change 6/1/2010. Now in 2025 they are going to allow an entire year older? Why would they do this when every other Age Verified tournament is enforcing 6/1/2010. If so it's going to be fool watching Crabs, True, Next Level, and probably Red Hot fly in players from all over just to try and win HOCO.

Enough of the holdback @ChillLaxin please. Can we focus on summer tournaments? A lot of top teams playing in Crabfeast and Naptown. I believe both are "age verified" events.

Latest Rankings showing top teams.........

11. Madlax
18. Next Level
20. Hawks
22. True Chesapeake
46. FCA
49. Crabs/Legends
62. Team 91 MD
77. True NOVA Black
91. Preds

These rankings are so flawed:
- On face of it....Crabs 2029 had a great weekend. Beat number 5 team in country twice (Red Hots) and Eclipse "b" team over past two days. Deeper dive shows the Red Hots were a shell of themselves probably due to most of their players being with their primary clubs this weekend. Red Hots lost 12-2 today to ADVNC and both FCA & Preds handled Eclipse easily whereas Crabs struggled to squeak by after trailing the entire game. Crabs benefited from a very easy draw at their own tourney -- and will climb in rankings. But there doesn't appear to be any real difference between FCA, Team 91MD, Preds & Crabs. On any given day, any of those will beat any other - although there is a very wide range in the rankings between them.
- True NOVA is number 77. But they have only played two teams ranked in top 100 (numbers 61 & 86) - and lost to both. They have feasted on teams ranked 150 - 390. Would love to see them play someone more competitive - does anyone know if they have any more tourneys?

This is not a deep grade year. Rankings are embarrassing for MD teams. Long Island owns this group.

Red Hots Black (not National) is ranked 57th. No telling what flavor of Red Hots were there, but it definitely wasn’t their national team. Sorry Crabs, you didn’t beat a top 10 team twice.

Surprised ADVNC won it, but congratulations.

What ??? Anyone born in June, July, August could easily be a Holdback . A Prefirst or late starter born June, July, August is a Holdback. Sept 1 is age requirement of MD schools to be on age. Majority of students start Sept 1 . Really simple. Holdbacks are allowed at HOCO in all grades, and Wow , especially in 8th grade.

Now 8th grade HOCO you are allowed to be a full year and 3 months older than the Sept 1 age cutoff of students in MD schools. Now that means it is possible to have the famous Double Holdback playing in 8th grade !!

So that means at the worst case scenario, which is a 8th grade holdback or double holdback born June 1 , 2009 . He could be playing against an on age player born in August 2011. A 2 years and 3 months difference !!

HOCO keeps its place in Hall of Shame of Lacrosse and the reputation as the provider to MIAA holdbacks looking to play down against younger players.
And all their other leagues are still based on school age, but not lacrosse !

HOCO ruined age based lacrosse in MD when it started and frankly most of east coast as other areas had to catch up with MD older players playing down.

Go HOCO !!

Please explain why this is a problem? Hockey both here and in Canada follows a 2 year age bracket. Same with box lacrosse. Seems like they are doing just fine. I blame poor coaching. Unless a coach has the same kids for years to drill in plays and make them seem good, they can’t do a thing. Coach fundamentals and how to play and the 2 year model works just fine.

I would argue DC/Annapolis 29’s are strong
It’s Baltimore that is very weak

Well, much like all the pro-holdback arguments, you example is a poor one. in that type of grouping, one year you are the younger kid and the next year you are the older kid. In lax, you are always the older kid picking on younger kids. In the old days, good kids played up against older kids because they wanted to challenge themselves. Now, it is about sinking to the lowest common denominator.

For having it all figured out among “4 equal teams” you guys sure make lots of excuses for continued losing and focusing on the crabs. Rather than excuses we (baltimore) should be worrying about building a team that can compete with the southern strength at this age group. Eyes wide open, talent needs to consolidate, and it’s not going to consolidate anywhere but the crabs (still essentially legends btw). Those wheels are in motion.

Even considering a start up squad (red hots, shuckers) if your kid wants to play in college is incredibly reckless, they may fold in a year especially ones with corporate sponsorship.

As for excuses, crabs was without their primary fogo and 2nd best middie this weekend since margin of victory plays into your echo chamber. A few carried the load playing multiple positions in the heat but got run down in the process, probably didn’t have anything for ADVNC either way.

As a observer, who was at Crabfeast, I first want to mention that the heat was unbelievable. I overheard that at one point the turf temp reach 150'+. Doesn't matter how good you played or your team was it affected your teams play. Tournament play is a completely different animal. Especially when they are quick 10 minute quarters to begin with and then suddenly they are cut to 8 minutes. Fast play is a must and scoring had to be quick. I happened to chat with a parent from red hots and they mentioned that they were the Pittsburg based team and had about 3-4 national team players with them. ADVNC invited everyone in their program to travel with them team since they played in other tournaments. The local teams didn't seem to add any guest players that I noticed. I guess I just have to take the parentsandplayers word for it that told me. Coaching and planning played a bigger role in these games than normal, Good lacrosse was played and the perseverance of the players really showed especially when noon hit. Please share how other local teams made out at other tournaments?

How Local teams faired.
FCA 2-0-1 Winning 2 consolation games. 4-0-1 overall
Team MD White 0-3 Losing 2 consolation games. 0-5-0 overall
Preds 1-2 Winning 2 consolation games. 3-2-0 overall
Crabs 3-0 Losing first round of playoffs. Winning 1 consolation game. 4-1-0 overall

fca was 2-2-1

The heat must have gotten to you too. FCA was 0-2-1, then won 2 consolation games to go 2-2-1.

FCA counting moral victories all season

You are correct. My fault my typo.

Crabs beat Red Hots Pittsburg not Red Hots National... this is the same Red Hots that Predators MD beat the weekend before.

LTLC/Crabs hasn't beat a quality opponent yet this summer. In fact, they barely won games against teams ranked 80+....

hahaha... ok King Crab... noone is coming to crabs/ltlc this summer... You've been exposed as the typical overhyped product that you are. The current roster is full of kids that will be cut or ride the pine in favor of flyins come high school.

Crabs played teams ranked 152, 56 and 86. They had a giant cupcake schedule in pool play. They then got to play #56 again in the playoffs before losing to Thunder Blue who was ranked 43. Miraculously, they dodged Eclipse Black, Leading Edge and Resolute Black.... Color me shocked.

Show me someone else in that tourney that drew the #1 ranked team, the #17 ranked team and #43rd ranked team in pool play...

Who of note is playing in Naptown this week?