US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2026 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Yes, fantastically on brand.
The smugness and tone-deaf quality was impressive.
Except the pudgy, red-faced dads only played lax in high school, not college.

How do I get my kid to tryout for a AAA club ?

DCE didn't lose any player to another club.

really... did they just not get invited back the middie and the pole? Last time i checked they are both now at ML.

THIS IS THE MOST FACTUALLY CORRECT ANSWER IN 449 PAGES OF POO

All caps responses shows more insecurity than Crabby Daddys. Also shows you to be a Hawkward stunad.

Correct

Exhibit A.

They’re handing out cheese on the YMCA tomorrow night. Better get there early before all the block American is gone.

Yes, I have noticed that the GA and VA teams our boys have played against, both the players and parents had no shame openly talking about their sons being 1-2 years older because basically "our coach said it was fine." When you combine this issue with a 2 year age bracket at a tourney is where I worry though. You could have a small 13 year old playing against a mix of 14/15/16 year olds with very sketchy officiating. Someone could (and probably has been) seriously injured due to these mismatches.

Please tell us what happens when little Timmy gets to high school and is playing against juniors and seniors. Go to the AD and principal and tell them its not fair. Do you want a participation trophy? Life is never fair. Someone always will be bigger stronger and faster. So have you kid work harder, train in the off-season, and stop complaining

The fallacy with the "little Timmy" argument is that high school teams, by design, consist of players in four class years. If a freshman plays varsity, he is choosing to play against kids 3-4 years older. Not so on a 2026 team.

When I was a kid, there was a word for kids whose parents arranged for them to play down. I bet that little Timmy and his friends use that same word when they talk about your son!

Certain southern all star team has a 2024 staring.

OK Hammerhead.

There's a lot of deliciously hilarious and absurd things I savor about this forum.

One of them is the Hive's belief that all your sons are going to:
1) Make varsity at a decent school next year in 9th grade
2) Actual get playing time at Varsity @ 9th grade

I don't savor how much I *know* you'll scream at your kid for "only" making MIAA JV in 9th grade and for "being weak" for getting his 14 year old collarbone broken in practice by a 20 year old Goon Squad senior.

Please tell us what happens when little Timmy gets to high school and is playing against juniors and seniors. Go to the AD and principal and tell them its not fair. Do you want a participation trophy? Life is never fair. Someone always will be bigger stronger and faster. So have you kid work harder, train in the off-season, and stop complaining[/quote]

OK Hammerhead.

There's a lot of deliciously hilarious and absurd things I savor about this forum.

One of them is the Hive's belief that all your sons are going to:
1) Make varsity at a decent school next year in 9th grade
2) Actual get playing time at Varsity @ 9th grade

I don't savor how much I *know* you'll scream at your kid for "only" making MIAA JV in 9th grade and for "being weak" for getting his 14 year old collarbone broken in practice by a 20 year old Goon Squad senior.[/quote]

Puberty is the great equalizer. If you look at a 2026 team and there aren’t at least 3 or 4 sub 100 pound boys, the team probably doesn’t have many on age kids on the roster. The size difference of a pre pubescent 13 year old and fully grown 15 year old is immense and a total safety issue. When kids enter HS however they will typically play for the frosh team and those who play up on varsity are probably the larger ones. My point is that the holdback issue is one of safety at the middle school level.

Puberty is the great equalizer. If you look at a 2026 team and there aren’t at least 3 or 4 sub 100 pound boys, the team probably doesn’t have many on age kids on the roster. The size difference of a pre pubescent 13 year old and fully grown 15 year old is immense and a total safety issue. When kids enter HS however they will typically play for the frosh team and those who play up on varsity are probably the larger ones. My point is that the holdback issue is one of safety at the middle school leve

Look at you. I guess the work harder, train in season and stop complaining doesn't apply to you holdback parents whose son couldn't compete against children his own age. Your solution is to hold them back and play down against younger children, LOL

You holdback apologists are Hilarious with your lame reasoning. Its always be tough,,,but your child cant be tough, he is a little whatever who plays down,

Sounds like you need to find a solid AAA team to play on and keep your son safe.

Isnt that you?? You are the one who needs his son to play against younger less mature children. We play against on age and you holdback apologists children, who is the one looking for shelter ?? lol

Hold em back Mac… best nickname on this forum

Sounds like this thread needs to be renamed to the 2025 thread. At this point, any on age kids are playing up.

Weak people are always looking for a way to even the playing field. Lacrosse is a great sport for the weak and less fortunate to think they are competitive by hiding a less skilled player who is older. Those parents know what they did and their kid couldn't compete with kids his own age. I feel sad for the kid, I really do. His friends know he is slow, teachers know he is slow other parents know he is slow. Let them enjoy there leg up on the lax field as everyone is routinely laughing at them and their parents to their faces.

No seriously, if safety is your main concern then you should drop down to AAA…let’s be honest your son probably plays on one of the lower tier teams anyway so there won’t be much of a difference.

I was the poster about safety. Actually my son plays on a top 5 nationally ranked team and has no problem playing against holdbacks but it isn’t safe. Fully developed holdbacks who are 15 years old are an unwitting danger to 13 year olds who haven’t reached puberty. I unfortunately predict a permanent injury one day which will lead to a major lawsuit and national media attention that will end this holdback era for good. It is sad that nothing will likely change until a tragedy like that.

Tricky issues, with emotion on both sides. The aspect that stirs the pot the most are the bragging Dads of holdbacks, who want to pretend that there is not an advantage to age. You are proud that their son is a contributor, or maybe even a stud, on an elite team and you let everybody know (on this forum and in real life) how great he is. And then when somebody points out the age advantage, you fall back to the patronizing Little Timmy or hit the wall arguments. Here is some advice to holdback Dads - be proud of your son, but at the same time, remember that he is going against kids a year younger and be more humble?

100% Agree...well said. To each his own but have some discretion.

holdbacks have neem going on forever and this hasn't happened. Its not going to happen

I couldn't agree more. I come from a family of tall people, and my wife is of above average height. Our kids are bigger than most kids of the same age - always the tallest kids in their class. My son is a foot taller than many boys his age (6 foot/165 pounds at 14), and entered puberty sooner than most of his peers. To have pre-pubescent boys playing with kids who are a foot taller and outweigh them by 50 pounds (or more) is flat-out unsafe.

My son also plays hockey, and a couple years ago a kid skated off the bench during a line change as my son was skating by with the puck - moving too fast to avoid the collision. When they collided, the on-age but much smaller boy bounced off my son, pivoting at his feet, and his head hit the ice so hard he was out cold for close to a minute. Thankfully, the boy came around and recovered, but it could have been much worse - and that was in an on-age hockey game. Hockey uses on-age rules, but with the two-year age groupings there are still unsafe situations.

USA Lacrosse could put a stop to all this, but the club system that encourages holdbacks is like the tobacco lobby when it comes to USA Lacrosse exercising some common sense.

Maybe the answer is to implement an on-age system for kids through a certain age - like USA Hockey prohibiting checking until kids reach age 13 - and that doesn't go far enough. The American Academy of Pediatrics' policy is that body checking in hockey should be prohibited until age 15 to significantly reduce injuries, including concussions. I hold out hope that USA Hockey sees the light and follows the science.

Once boys reach HS age, there will be fewer mismatches, so maybe implement an on-age policy through age 14 - that would be a good start.

Agree

This is a good post.

This

holdbacks have been part of life forever in the private school area, but not in the world of youth lacrosse until about 7/8 years ago. Prior to the explosion of clubs due to supposebly ER, the best teams were either U15AA or U13AA..Age based ..Even the King Crab himself had two great age based teams in U15 and U13.

It is a good post, but bottom line , at Youth Lacrosse , age based is the right thing to do, not even close. No one believes that certain kids get an advantage that the other kids dont get with same exact birthday.

91 commits yesterday

1 - Rutgers
1 - Bucknell
1 - Loyola
1 - Utah
1 - Ohio St
1 - Virginia
1 - Maryland
1 - Sanford
1 - Syracuse
1 - Boston U

That's just day one. What other Clubs had committed players yesterday? Please advise.

This is a 2026 forum. Are you saying that kids from older 91 teams committed to those schools, or is this another delusional/joke post about the 2026 91 team, like saying they are going to roll through HoCo undefeated?

Most clubs

[quote=Anonymous]91 commits yesterday

1 - Rutgers
1 - Bucknell
1 - Loyola
1 - Utah
1 - Ohio St
1 - Virginia
1 - Maryland
1 - Sanford
1 - Syracuse
1 - Boston U

That's just day one. What other Clubs had committed players yesterday? Please advise.[/

Yawn 91 is irrelevant and no one cares.

There is not one Team 91 at the 2026 level that can beat a top 10 team.

Playing your son down means that as a father you had either a son who was either not smart enough to do schoolwork on age, or not athletic enough to compete on age or likely both. Instead of hit the wall, hit the books. Teach your son challenge himself to be better, instead following the path of least resistance to playing an age down. It is ironic that the same dad posts condescendingly (that means "talks down to" for you holdback dads) about kids in AAA & AA but can't see that their own son was not only not capable of playing against the top level; but that they had to drop them down a whole age group to make them feel better about their competitive chances. I bet you can also dunk a basketball on a 7 foot rim. But so what?! Be a better human. Stop blasting kids who are actually trying to succeed, at the same point or above where you already gave up on your son There is a reason that Long Island lacrosse makes fun of Maryland. It is you.

You can make fun of MD all you like. Long Island children would benefit from the approach taken by most MD independent schools in offering a pre-first year to those kids who need one.

My son did a pre-first year, and now by your logic is considered a "holdback". His pre-first year allowed him time to mature from a boy who wanted to play all day into a boy who began to understand the difference between classroom and playground and act accordingly. He is now an A student. Were we wrong to allow him time to mature? How does our decision affect you or anyone else?

Read the science - boys and girls mature at different rates. Many more boys do a pre-first year than girls.

Many parents struggle with deciding whether to do a pre-first year. I have spoken with a number of families about the decision, both before and years afterward. The parents who decide to have their child do a pre-first year never (NEVER!) regret it. At five years old, it isn't done for athletics, at least not by most parents; it is done for well-being and gives the child a chance to mature academically and reach their potential as they progress through school. I wish I had been granted the opportunity as a child.

Are there some kids who move from public to private schools and repeat ninth grade? Sure. Do some do it for athletics? Yes, of course. The large majority do it for academic reasons. Should USA Lacrosse be actively trying to change the system to protect smaller players from being hurt while playing against larger kids who are older (and in some cases much larger) yet in the same grade-based division? Absolutely. The problem isn't the kid who did a pre-first year - the problem is the grade-based system that the clubs and some high schools perpetuate.

It has nothing to do with smarts. It has everything to do with what is right for the child.