[quote=Anonymous]There are three club teams in Baltimore and they each operate the same. If you want to play in the MIAA and hope to have a chance to play in college you need to play for one of them. What’s happening now only gets worse. It’s all about being seen!!
This is fundamentally false, and conflates all kinds of aspirational Daddy assumptions. MIAA-A Varsity and JV hold accommodate 600+ players. Let's ignore that "playing in the MIAA" could be expanded in definition. And let's look at the "3 Baltimore Club Pipeline" filling those 600 slots.
HS age roster for those 3 club teams is 3 teams x 30 kids x 4 years = 360 players "available for MIAA" in these 3 clubs, on their "real" elite teams (aka no FCA White, Crabs Hardshells, 91 Practice Team, etc).
360 - 40 kids who can't get in academically (or Spalding / John Carroll is too far) and also are 3rd line, non-recruited players = 320 elite club kids for 600 MIAA-A roster spots
320 - 20 kids whose parents have been led to believe through elementary and middle school that their elite club play will get them a "scholarship" and have no intention of paying MIAA-A tuition = 300 elite club kids for 600 MIAA-A roster spots.
30 kids who, despite the Elite Shiny Helmet, get their lunch stolen on day 1 of MIAA tryouts by random kids from Sidewinders and Team MD = 270 elite club kids for 600 MIAA-A roster spots.
80 kids who are OOS fly-ins for the 3 elite teams with no interest in MIAA = 190 elite club players for 600 MIAA-A roster spots.
40+ MD/DC/PA players will attend a public school or non-MIAA-A private school = 150 "elite club laxers." for 600+ roster spots.
Then divide that by 4 years, and explain to me how the only way for my 2027 son to grab one of these 600+ roster spots is to be one of those 150 kids.
The math ain't mathing.
My advice to parents is, ignore this [Censored], and do what middle school kids at Gilman and Loyola do - borrow a friend's elite helmets for school tryouts. You could walk the roadsides of Towson for 20 minutes and find a Crabs, FCA, or 91 helmet around, in a dumpster or [Censored] can or at the Goodwill on Joppa Road. Because the kids have such great memories of playing for those clubs. Buff it up real shiny and then all they have to do is play better and more coachable than the supposed "elite club kids" at MIAA tryouts for 3 total days. It's a model that works. And I'm not even joking.
