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If you are a suburbia Maryland 5'7 prep school 9th grader at the age of 16 and drinking creatine shakes three times a day to get up to 160 pounds, what other sports can you go D1 in? Soccer and cross country running. Lacrosse has not grown enough yet where this sport is not a sanctuary for athletic but undersized white prep school kids. Makes sense parents want to keep the Camelot going by repeating junior in school. Soon that won't matter. Think 6'0+ and 200lbs+ football players undersized for D1 football coming into this sport.

I have been saying that for years. You take a all-county linebacker that is undersized at 6' 190 lbs and cannot get a sniff at D3 college football - put a long pole in his hand and in two years he is killing it. I have never been involved in a sport where there is such an assumption that the kids are all going to play college lacrosse. I guess it has been a given for a long time in the Baltimore lacrosse scene.

ALL sports are going the route of bigger stronger athletes! The days of 5'7 160lbs D1 lacrosse players is almost dead and will be done soon. The smaller players will have to be twice as good as the bigger stronger players to earn the spots that they used to own.

What is bigger stronger going to do for you when you can't touch another player on the field without a penalty being called. Days of being a tough lacrosse player are over. I think there is a new rule if you say the word "man" when going for a ground ball it is a penalty. Quicker faster is the new lax player profile. Soon you wont need any pads there will be no more checking at all. They are killing the game

[quote=Anonymous]What is bigger stronger going to do for you when you can't touch another player on the field without a penalty being called. Days of being a tough lacrosse player are over. I think there is a new rule if you say the word "man" when going for a ground ball it is a penalty. Quicker faster is the new lax player profile. Soon you wont need any pads there will be no more checking at all. They are killing the game [/quot


That argument does not work to save the undersized prep school kids. Bigger, stronger, faster and better athletes will prevail over twerpy Maryland prep school kids every time. Saying Maryland kids have higher lacrosse IQ does not work when a new breed of athlete comes in and puts in the practice to get stick skills, and then runs right by junior.

[quote=Anonymous
That argument does not work to save the undersized prep school kids. Bigger, stronger, faster and better athletes will prevail over twerpy Maryland prep school kids every time. Saying Maryland kids have higher lacrosse IQ does not work when a new breed of athlete comes in and puts in the practice to get stick skills, and then runs right by junior. [/quote]

Obviously the bitter janitor at Boys Latin or Prep

Obviously the bitter janitor at Boys Latin or Prep [/quote]

Wrong, just a comment from a realistic lacrosse parent of a public school "new era" athlete who smokes you Crabby Patties every time on the field. Enjoy what is left of the dying breed, or in-bred.

While the clubs have no control over all these hold backs they encourage it. I was at the Crabs tryouts last year for U11 or 5th grade and the head guy said and that the team would be grade base not aged and he would actually encourage our children to stay back a grade if needed for development. This was said to all the parents.
He isnt the only club director that thinks this way. At the youth level I find all this whole back and grade based teams against all the things we constantly hear about fair sportsmanship at the youth level. Letting a select groups of kids play down goes against fair play at youth level no matter how you spin it...Dont you just love the same people who have no problem with all these holdbacks talking about the spirit of game..yep created said hold back that child and get a edge...

Crabs said from the start (even on the website) that the 2021 and 2020 teams would be grade based - not sure why anyone would be surprised

Get your jabs in now, because once school starts you will have some cleaning up to do

You stay classy Baltimore.

Not surprised at all that Crabs do it.I was responding ""that clubs just deal with all holdbacks""..It is more than that when certain clubs encourage it. Of course they encourage it as they get the majority of holdbacks . And the most holdbacks on a team will result in most wins at the youth level. Most wins more prestigious the club...Levels out somewhat once players get to HS but at youth level makes a HUGE difference. Maryland and its reason for grade based teams should be on the HALL OF SHAME of youth athletics. Why USL doesnt come out with some strong statements is beyond me??

Spot on. NPYLL voted to stay age based this coming year. Crabs and Hawks vetoed it and NPYLL is going grade based. Why? So Crabs can continue to field teams of overage players. Crabs are at the heart of the problem.

Very naïve. I understand your point related to the Prefirst year, but that doesn’t explain the huge numbers reclassing in 8th grade. Funny thing, coincidental I’m sure, that these players mostly play for the Crabs

"Maryland and its reason for grade based teams should be on the HALL OF SHAME of youth athletics."

where are you from? when my kid 1st started playing just 3 years ago all balt area club teams including Crabs were age. Looney's, Green Turtle, Breakers, Rough Riders - all went by age. Just about all MD tournaments were too and still are - LaxSplash, beach Lax, Summer sizzle, summer exposure, green turtle, capital classic. When we ventured north to PA and NJ the tournaments mostly went by grade and the NY, PA, NJ teams mostly had graduation year in their names. Not saying MD prep schools don't have their fair share of holdbacks and reclassing in 8th for lax is crazy -- but it seems as the clubs down here followed the lead of our friends to the north

Take reclassers away from the Crabs==weak sister VLC!!

Except that the weak sister VLC also has a number of reclass kids

There is a HUGE difference in Teams up North as grade based. All the teams we played from NJ and NY were grade based. But they could have easily have been age based as all the players were at the proper age for tournaments. At least that was the teams we played from up North. The Long Island parents looked at me strange when I asked about how many holdbacks were on their team. Maryland has gone grade base for ALL club teams at the youth level this year and one of the BIG reasons is the HUGE amount of children held back at the many private schools in Maryland. If you think that isnt the reason than your head is in the sand. Once again Maryland should be in the "HALL OF SHAME" for youth athletics for this movement to accommodate these selected children of holdbacks...Letting your children play down at youth level goes well with all this character education at the private schools in Maryland that is all the rage now...

The 2 best Madlax 2017 kids are kids who reclassified.

I thought reclassing was also fairly prevalent in NJ and Philly where there are also a lot of private school kids. It doesn't happen as often in LI because most kids go to the public schools.

I'm not in the middle of this, but my understanding was that New [lacrosse] public schools placed kids in grades based on the calendar year. So that, for example, a kid with a November birthday would be in the same grade as a kid born 6 months early in May.

By contrast, U.S. Lacrosse uses a September 1st cutoff, which is I think is pretty similar to the breakpoint many parents use for which grade their kids attend. (Although I understand it is more common now for parents to "hold back" a boy born in July or August than back in my grade school days.)

This would explain why New [lacrosse] would field grade-based teams, so they aren't splitting up kids from their friends in their same grade. This would also mean that NY grade-based teams are, on average, a little bit younger than most grade-based teams.

That's quite a different purpose than going to grade-based teams so that you can have pre-September 1st kids on your team and not have to worry about U.S. Lacrosse age rules. While I doubt anyone cares about a kid with an August 28th birthday "playing down", it makes a pretty significant difference if a kid is born much earlier than that.

Besides eventual recruiting issues more pertinent to LI and Md, my non-hotbed program going to grade-based teams in order to let more kids per grade be on the "A" team, keep kids together and, most significantly, offer the best and safest competition by playing kids your own age. Stacking your grade based team with older kids takes away from this last objective, but it's still safer for my 6th graders to play "old" 6th graders than it is to play 7th graders - so it's hard to care too much.

I agree that I think it's ridiculous to hold back developmentally-normal younger kids for athletic reasons, but it seems incredibly prevalent as kids jump to private HS's across the country, certainly not just for lacrosse. I have to think many of those parents are not paying "retail" tuition.

Yes NY School cutoff is an added source of disadvantage a kid who was born December 1, 1999 could be:

A natural 2017 if born in NY
A natural 2018 if born in MD
A holdback 2019 if born in MD and reclassified for Private School

According to US Lacrosse youth age cutoffs this kid should be 2018.

Landon doing Fall season and holding a Nov HS team tournament. PVI, SSAS, Gonzaga. Well, that pretty much puts a pill in VLC and Madlax both, and 3d too for that matter for kids who went there. HS teams are now playing Summer and Fall seasons.

Bye bye club lacrosse.

Bye-bye to the high school teams, but not 2nd thru 8th grade. From what I could see, the high school club kids were just all-star teams pulled from where ever the clubs could get them. They were not really representative of the kids the clubs actually coached and developed. I could be wrong.

I just hope the public high schools do not start having summer and fall teams. This will hurt the top level public school kids who should get the chance to be seen with the best kids in the USA. The PVIs of the world will have the talent to play anyone.

This is a example of people not looking out for whats best for the kids. The high school coach cares about his team and his record not whats best for the best player or players on his team. There is nothing worse then a low level team with one or two players who are supper studs and the coaches are not telling these kids to leave there program and play at a level and team that they should be playing for/on. I blame weak parents who know there kid is playing with a weak local program but they do not want to upset there local friends so they keep there son stuck on a crappy team.

Is that an argument that clubs care about the kids more than the D1 commits list for their programs to attract youth program kids shooting for the same? Come on.

Hyperbole much? This is hardly the end of club lacrosse. Some HS teams have been playing summer ball for years, and it did nothing to end club lacrosse.

I think when you get to the varsity level, more HS are attending tournaments as a HS team. The Crabs makes it clear in their sign-ups that you have to clear with HS coach that the schedules won't conflict. In the past that was not an issue but the more tournaments that HS participate in, the more conflict. My guess is any smart kid will choose to play with his HS team over club if forced to choose. Most club's will understand the decision

This only holds true for the top HS teams - most public and 2nd tier private play with their clubs

How were the turnouts for the first round of Crabs tryouts? The FCA tryouts had a ton of kids. Heard Breakers was stacked too.

110 at Crabs 15U

The top club teams are not holding a kid back from getting the best looks that kid should be getting. I do not mind paying money if its for my kid to play with the best and be the best. The best kid or two on these mid to lower level club/high school teams need to play for the better AA top club teams. That is whats best for those stud players. They should not be held back by some local big mouth high school/club coach telling him he needs to play with his friends/high school teamates.

Couple hundred kids at 2018/2019 tryouts.

Multiple kids trying out for several teams!

It is ironic that you combined the two age groups. There are as many as 7 boys that played for the 2018 team last year that are trying out for the 2019 team this year.

They were combined because they tried out on same days so I saw both groups.

How can that be if you played 2018 last year and are trying out for 2019 this year??????

Two separate sessions on the same day. Session 1 - 2019, session 2 - 2018. They were back to back. My son trying out for 2019 team and the 2018 players were right after us. Not sure why this is so hard to understand. If you want it broken out there were about a hundred at each.

Above poster out it best, "Crabs are at the heart of the [reclassing] problem"