BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Long Island Yellow Jackets Lacrosse

Maybe the younger siblings join early because most likely they will be at those fields anyway so why not play. Maybe those young ones join because they idolize some of the older kids and want to be like them.Maybe they just like playing lacrosse and hanging out with kids their age at these tournaments. Please tell us because you know whats best for our kids and all of our reasons for having a kid play lax what age is the correct age for every kid to start playing travel.F and F only applies to TG coaches as far as I see. How many college boys are going to coach at TG , I hear they are bringing hammocks so they will be more comfortable during the games.

Your colors shine through with every post you write.
This well discussed topic is not a YJ vs TG fight as you always try to make it. You said maybe.......(readers can review your post themselves). To those points I say maybe your right. However maybe (most likely) many parents place their kids out of fear as several posters already eluded to.
Now if you want to beat the perverbial YJ vs TG battle to death you can be my guest but most people want to discuss the actual issues and maybe she'd some light on the injustices that have and continue to take place. Since this is the YJ thread these discussions are more than appropriate and frankly way over due.

Your colors shine through with every post you write.
This well discussed topic is not a YJ vs TG fight as you always try to make it. You said maybe.......(readers can review your post themselves). To those points I say maybe your right. However maybe (most likely) many parents place their kids out of fear as several posters already eluded to.
Now if you want to beat the perverbial YJ vs TG battle to death you can be my guest but most people want to discuss the actual issues and maybe she'd some light on the injustices that have and continue to take place. Since this is the YJ thread these discussions are more than appropriate and frankly way over due.


Talk about colors shining thru , you are obviously anti YJ everything. I use "maybe" because I do not presume to know any other parents motivation to have their child play travel in that only a self righteous loser with an axe to grind would do so.You talk about discussing actual issues but you talk about nonsense,"injustices" , thanks drama queen. Feel free to deny you are a TG parent who feels your daughter should have made a team she did not and blame CR for it, its so obvious.If your daughter does not play YJ why do you care so much.

No objective person can argue these points-
Being part of F&F helps your new kid.
Having a sibling or siblings that have already paid big money helps.
Starting early gives you a better chance of landing on blue.
It's easier to hold onto blue then to earn your way on later.
Camps, training, clinics, luncheons all help with blue.
Being a parent advocate for YJ helps your kid.
Kissing up to directors and coaches helps too.
And objectively, we get it. It's a big business with lots of cash but you have to concede that many times there are other factors besides ability that comes into play with team placement.

I am trying to keep the conversation above the line, so perhaps I need an id to differentiate my posts from all of the negative, name calling folks on this thread. It appears my experience has been so different than the folks with what appear to be legitimate concerns. I cannot verify them and must take them at face value. However, I am neither friend or family, have only one daughter to put through the program and my child will not attend any of the schools represented by LIYJ directors and/or coaches. We joined in 4th grade because my research on top programs lead me to YJ and to date the 2021 blue experience has been fantastic. No parent coach, equal playing time for everyone in almost every game for two years and no drama that I can see. Like I posted earlier, 20% of the girls changed year over year so there are opportunities to make the top team if you do not join in 4th grade. There were also two players with older siblings in the YJ program that were not back on the blue team this year. Perhaps a F&F list exists somewhere but I cannot discern how you qualify yet. As for girls on the team, it is not for me to judge their talent level but I have seen the 2nd team play and only a handful at most currently could be considered on par with the current blue roster. That will change as the girls continue to develop and I expect more changes in the years to come. As for cronyism and nepotism, it exists on every team, club and sport I have played, watched or coached in during my 35 plus years of experience in competitive athletics. That in no way justifies it, but find me an alternative program where it does not exist and I will stand and cheer for their integrity. Absent that option, my personal experience has been so much more good than bad with YJ and will continue with them until I see otherwise.

"you're", "proverbial", "alluded", "shed"....you're welcome

I am trying to keep the conversation above the line, so perhaps I need an id to differentiate my posts from all of the negative, name calling folks on this thread. It appears my experience has been so different than the folks with what appear to be legitimate concerns. I cannot verify them and must take them at face value. However, I am neither friend or family, have only one daughter to put through the program and my child will not attend any of the schools represented by LIYJ directors and/or coaches. We joined in 4th grade because my research on top programs lead me to YJ and to date the 2021 blue experience has been fantastic. No parent coach, equal playing time for everyone in almost every game for two years and no drama that I can see. Like I posted earlier, 20% of the girls changed year over year so there are opportunities to make the top team if you do not join in 4th grade. There were also two players with older siblings in the YJ program that were not back on the blue team this year. Perhaps a F&F list exists somewhere but I cannot discern how you qualify yet. As for girls on the team, it is not for me to judge their talent level but I have seen the 2nd team play and only a handful at most currently could be considered on par with the current blue roster. That will change as the girls continue to develop and I expect more changes in the years to come. As for cronyism and nepotism, it exists on every team, club and sport I have played, watched or coached in during my 35 plus years of experience in competitive athletics. That in no way justifies it, but find me an alternative program where it does not exist and I will stand and cheer for their integrity. Absent that option, my personal experience has been so much more good than bad with YJ and will continue with them until I see otherwise.

Excellent post ,except why would you say that the posters have legit concerns when your experience tells you differently? All this F&F name calling is just exactly that name calling with no actual facts to back it up.I know of many siblings in YJ with each sibling on a different level team so explain that if you are automatically placed on the top team.The whole F&F name calling started with a group who no longer on on the top team.

This begs the question; Why is M&D playing town teams?? Did M&D beat Elevate and everybody else? Yes, does the score matter? Not really. Don't disparage a team because of one game. Also consider all of the facts....

Great contribution to the discussion. Posted by someone with absolutely nothing to contribute. Pathetic

I love how elevate likes to throw themselves randomly in these conversations, hoping to grab some unhappy YJs by passively aggressively promoting the elevate program. Pretty funny.

Posts like this and we wonder why us YJ parents aren't loved?

M&D plays town teams? Can't really imagine them wasting their time and probably suffering the wrath of parents who pay to have their kids play for a very competitive club. Wouldn't it hurt the brand? Name one town team they have played.

Maybe just read what you wrote before you click Submit and you won't feel so stupid when someone points out your embarrassingly limited grasp on the English language.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

Passive aggressive?? Did I say anything about YJ? Not a recruiter, want the teams to remain and battle for years to come.

M&D plays spring ball in the most competitive league in the country (a far cry from PAL), Skywalkers, Hero's, NEMS, etc. all play spring ball in the same league. This is the reason LI continues to lose ground to Maryland, they will have had 30 practices and played a competitive spring schedule of 10-15 games before YJ, TG, etc play in their first tournament. It's amazing how well the LI teams do considering most have had 4-5 practices by the time National Draw starts. In a nut shell the Maryland clubs aren't as fixated with making money as the LI clubs are - go to M&D or Skywalkkers website and look at the year round programs they have in place, including off season speed and agility training, compared to what we're getting for our money it's not even close - also, rosters tend to max out at 18-20 players!

The fool here is you. BTW it's "grasp OF the language" you dope. Hahaha you are so stupid trying to be an English professor. Time to go back to work at Poop Be Gone. Lol

Don't bother getting all top team happy at this age. Go 3,4 or 5 years down the road only a small handful of the girls will remain on top team. Every year it is so funny to watch the new parents bust on the scene full of brovadro, talking team supremacy smack. Settle down, most of you will be off these top teams within a few years.

I guess you are not close enough to understand how it all works but I will give it a shot. Three of those teams were 2021 and two were 2022 playing up an age bracket as most teams do not have a 2022 program. As for the top 2021 YJ team, they have won Lax By The Sea and Lax For The Cure with the National Draw loss to M&D coming at a 3-5 score. I cannot speak for M&D, but the YJ team has accomplished these results with absloute balance in playing time, even in the loss to M&D. Great results and doing it the right way. The time will come soon enough to have a focus more on results and I will take my chances against anyone with this group!!!

Yj never play girls equal playing time in playoff games or big showcase games against arch rivals. A FACT. dont kid yourself.

You're cuckoo . There are girls on blue who do not belong but because of siblings they got on. The rest of the team is good, but there are about 3 that carry the team. If you took off the top 3 you would be equal to the second team. There are girls also training year round with directors. Now those are facts.

If your goal is to be against all things YJ, than I guess a rational discussion just will not occur. When you use words like never and fact, you are talking about every team in every age group and you are simply wrong. As I have said, my experience is with the 2021 Blue team only and we have played equal time for the past two years in every tournament. This includes this year's National Draw when playing M&D Black to a very close 3-5 loss. At half time it was 3-3 and everyone continued to play equally for the remainder of the game. The focus was not to win at all costs.

You got it! Looking forward to getting rid of some of the chump change on the bottom!

It's not hard to "grab" unhappy YJ players, you can find one on every corner as there are so many of them. In fact, TG has many of the unhappy YJ players on their teams right now. The real challenge is, finding a HAPPY YJ player and parent. Even if the parent is happy, most times, the kid is miserable.

That's not true.

Thorn might be an excellent coach, I have no experience with her but the results so far do not support your comments. I will take Skakandi any day and that is in support of her as a coach, not a shot at Thorn. The first game between these teams would have been a 20+ goal differential if not for the sportsmanship showed by a fellow member of the same club. Again, not taking shots at the kids or the coach, just supporting Skakandi as you attempted to tear her down.

Be careful what you wish for. It may be your own daughter.

yes , you did. you said they did not play all the kids , but elevate did. Read your post for clarification. That is , passive aggressively , putting down the jackets.

and the long island ducks would love to play the Yankees everyday too . If you knock other programs , expect some truth back at ya. I think you get the picture .

The parents will be unhappy when they turn around in a few years and look at their bank accounts and realize all their money is sitting in CRs account. For the 90% of YJ kids that don't get partial scholarships - maybe CR will give you low interest loans to borrow back your money to pay for college.

And the Yankees would only beat them 3-2 - same result as the last 2021 game between YJ Blue and Elevate.

the only thing Thorn is schooling anyone on is how to curse at refs, belittle your team, and play head games with players. If Thorn is lucky she may win a handful of games next year and that's not bc of her ability to coach it's bc the girls are being coached by better coaches outside of ESM. More then half the girls don't even want to play for her the younger ones will soon feel that same angst too! She has some GREAT players but doesn't know how to get the best out of anyone this was her year to go all the way but instead her lack of coaching abilities caused her a loss!!!

As a TG parent this is exactly why people have issues with YJ and their culture. The 2021 Elevate team beat us and it was a good game and we would like to play them again as it is always good to play strong competition. The YJ team beat Elevate at the Cure 3-2 but uses the analogy that Elevate playing YJ is like the Ducks playing the Yankees? Why couldn't a 2021 YJ parent admit that it was a good game that was decided by a goal instead of putting the other team down and making it as if it wasn't competitive. Is that the culture that the YJ club breeds? Why would anyone want to be part of that?

Please stop with your sour grapes about the ESM season. She's a great coach and you're just bitter. Kids have to do work on their own too-stop blaming coaches. Have your kid hit the wall every day, get in shape and not blame every one else. She didn't get Coach of the Year because she's a horrible coach. Start taking responsibility and stop blaming her and everyone else. Of course you're probably the best coach out there or know more about the game blah blah blah

If you removed 1 attacker,2 midfielders, 1 defender, 1 goalie , from Skakandi it would be hard to differentiate from Thorn .Really not much difference.

As a YJ parent this is exactly what is so annoying about TG , they believe every comment is written by a YJ parent when many are written by other club parents acting like children starting trouble. Every club has crazy parents who just post on these sites to make trouble.That being said the 2021 YJ parents are still in that delusional " we have a special team " mode much like your 2020 TG parents.

You have me confused with someone else. I guess your the Yankees??!LOL. Nobody needs to sway people you do it all on your own!

I agree the comparison and belittling of another program is not necessary and I am a YJ parent. That being said, the prior posts on the Elevate and YJ 2021 games were not accurate and made excuses for the three losses. The excuse was YJ played only it's "top" players and that is simply not true. I watched all three games and YJ had balanced playing time, has been that way for 2 years and 12 plus tourneys between the summer and fall seasons. All the girls played 40% or more in each of the three games, again, balanced. Just leave it as three competitive games, hopefully it will continue as it is good for the development of both teams and do not make excuses. At the end of the day, 0-3 is what the issue is and had to be because YJ played a win at all costs style and we did not. Unfortunately the above YJ parent took the bait and went below the line.

This why Long Island needs a Club league similar to the NYGPl in Maryland. They play a ten game schedule before the tournament season starts, and it shows. It would benefit all of the clubs and girls. Any takers??

Folks, did you watch the game at LFTC? It was not competitive, could have been a 20+ goal differential but a sister team showed good sportsmanship and I am glad they did. Some players are better than others, but to say 3-5 girls carry the team is just not accurate.

If you removed 1 attacker,2 midfielders, 1 defender, 1 goalie , from Skakandi it would be hard to differentiate from Thorn .Really not much difference. [/

Yep the three-1attack and 2 mids make the difference. Goalie is good too.

Your comparing a team that has played together a year with one that is new. And there was no sportsmanship, both teams played until the end. Your goalie saved you. Your defense is weak. Watched your girls run to goal and miss shots, I thought they just weren't that good, I didn't know that was sportsmanship.

not true my kid did not get equal time.