BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2030 Midatlantic

No just stay away from st Mary’s dumpster fire.

What is the St. Mary's Dumpster fire?

Looking for a solid team for my kid without Daddy ball- New to the area

Gotta love how many “new to the area” people there are on BOTC. Almost as common as “word on the street…”

Nothing more than a change from parent coaches.

Please explain. Did Hawks just acquire the kids from TC, and quadruple the daddy ball coaches with their non elite children?

There were quite a few TC helmets suiting up for Hawks during Naptown, so my guess would be at least 5-6 are going there

For the better players, True is a temp home until they make Hawks, Crabs, FCA , ML, NL, DCE, .. Nothing more.

Every year will be loses until HS when the public and third string MIAA players settle on True.

How did the Baltimore Elite tryouts pan out? Sounds like FCA, Crabs and 91 MD are almost finished.......

Thanks Mr. Elite Club Owner. To the actual parents:

If elite club directors and coaches really believed that, and it wasn't just about the money (or at least mostly about the money), they wouldn't be carrying B-teams through 8th grade. Crabs, FCA, ML, NL, Hawks, Clippers. Those teams rarely "feed up" into their elite roster, because it's not about development. It's about perceived brand value (elite wins), which is achieved through *capturing and coaching* (not truly developing) high level talent. As rosters bloom to 25-30 in HS, at $5K per kid, that's $150K gross per team. Don't kid yourself that this isn't a motivator for club ball. Once your son plays for his middle school team, on a field with 5 coaches, 8-9 hours/week, you'll realize that the 3 hours of line drills and 3v2 per week of many of these clubs, with 1 or 2 coaches, was not really developing anybody.

So what's the value of elite ball? It's that practices and reps are run at much higher speed. It's that the average player is doing work outside his school and team practices, and your kid will notice that and ask for it. It's that about 1/3 of the coaches (instead of maybe 1/10 at lower levels) actually know how to coach age-appropriately for talented athletes. It's that having your kid on one of those teams, normalizes (culturally) his ideas about sports with other motivated kids. We live in a world where performance still matters and this is not the worst pressure cooker to have your kids in. For about 2/3 of the elite kids, this will be a positive force in their life. The other 1/3 usually quit lax, and ultimately, quit all sports.

All that being said, each of these teams will keep *at most* 5 kids from the youth team, into 9th grade, and probably cut another 2 of the 5, before 10th grade. None of these kids have hit puberty or ever faced a 19+ year old defenseman or goalie. Especially at private schools, this is a different animal. How will your son respond? You don't know and neither does he. Many elite level kids, every grad year, end up picking a college that doesn't even have a varsity lacrosse team. And everything older parents have taught you about recruiting is now ashambles due to the transfer portal.....your son at 16 has to compete with 21 year olds with D1 academic and lacrosse experience. Don't overthink this process or let it make you lose sleep. Your son will end up where he's supposed to be, primarily based on his genetics, his age relative to his peers, and his work ethic and love of the game. If you can get him into private school, that's a factor too.

So much to say but none of it makes sense.
If you believe elite is t for your kid, don’t have him/her do it.
Make a decision that’s best for your family. Once you’ve done that, stop worrying about what decision other parents make, stop judging. That is their prerogative.

Too much Daddy ball at most of these clubs! The only way for your kid to get better and develop is in private training with the proper individual that knows how to push them but also improve and coach them. I have seen most of these Dad coaches don't know how to coach. Don't care where you played b/c that does not determine if you can actually coach, motivate and develop kids. Dads coach because if not their kid will not play because other kids out work them but are held back by the daddy complex. It is a shame that most of these teams have 3-4 Dads coaching. Just let your kid play where they are happy and hopefully it is not filled with Dads prioritizing their kid and his friends over the hard workers.

@ChillLaxin. Ask the kids on the team. By now the kids have all practiced and competed against their teammates in multiple sports and can tell who the real studs are and who should be on the field. Don’t worry, you can rest easy knowing you and your son are on the correct AA team! Try to enjoy it while this short window lasts!

Sorry your son didnt make an elite club and get the proper training, That is on you two! Elite Clubs have a team full of D1 players for a big reason, sorry you dont understand that

Have you seen all the kids from the Elite local clubs committing to Kenyon, Anderson, Williams, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg, Mount St Mary's, Bates, Tampa, CNU, Flagler, Hamilton, Colorado Mesa? Not to say there is anything wrong with the choices these young men are making about their future but don't believe the Hype from all of the club lax directors. For every D1 kid on "Elite" local rosters there are 3 Not D1 athletes. Know before you buy.

Some of those aforementioned schools are too academic institutions. Believe it or not, some leaders choose to attend better academic schools vs playing lower end DI. Some kids want to study abroad, something DI doesn’t allow.
While I wouldn’t bundle all of the schools together, at least the ones mentioned, I’d be a proud parent if my child chose to play at some of them listed…

I bet it matters to the "sorry your kid didn't make an Elite squad" guy. Didn't pay all this money and waste all this time to go to college for academics...I bet that dad is the laughingstock of his country club

And it's also fun to point out that for many of those d1 kids who are rostered on a mediocre to bad d1 program, there is a third kid actually playing meaningful minutes at a good D3 program that values athletics and will be competing for a conference championship/ncaa bid and Natty Ship.

Just don't get sold on the "elite" club promises. Particularly at the youth level. Find a club where your kid can play and the coaches care about him and his teammates.

Correct. You only get better and have more fun, if you're playing!

Good Lord ! Elite is Elite for a reason, Most of you with your , I want to play on lower club, I want to be on a D3 team and play will get your wishes. The elite players and teams are for a different breed of player. Just the way it is.

Wrong. Look where all the elite teams are placing players...at non-elite schools.

Elite Clubs are for MIAA players ( Best League in Nation ) And where do these Best in Nation players go...You got it D 1 ! Real simple except to people not in their world. Sorry that is the way it is.

That list includes some of the finest schools in the country. If an athlete can use lacrosse as an advantage in the admissions process to gain entry to Williams, Kenyon, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Bates, etc., he/she will get a far better education than at most schools with a D1 lacrosse program.

Geeting a good education is not as important to where you go. I will take prestige over education any day.