US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums PENNSYLVANIA LACROSSE PENNSYLVANIA FORUM Main Forum Philadelphia & Vicinity

It is not a donation to a non-profit, it is support of deserving athletes. There are lots of folks who love the sport and want to see kids of all background play. I would think some clubs would discount or provide scholarships for deserving athletes which can't afford the dues to help themselves. All of the private schools are subsidizing cost for talent. This may or may not be for altruistic motives.

The idea that there are angel donators out there that would pay club fee tuition for a player seems far fetched and cannot be accurate. Would love to know the name of one such donator. If a club wants to discount or full-ride a tuition, that is certainly one thing (and most certainly not altruistic in any way). Can we stop the narrative that there is altruism in Club lacrosse?

I know the better players on club teams do not pay the full price (or nothing at all). I never heard of a "donor" paying for another player based on the "love of the sport". I am sure it can happen but lacrosse is going down the same road that club soccer has done....if you can't pay to play on a club team, you don't have the resources to get as good as the kids who can. It is really that simple and that is why REC and High school lax is more important.

Listen, if you’re looking for equity/equality (or whatever you leftists want to call it), move away from sports entirely. Kids train, some more than others. you can put all the money you want into this sport, but your kid is either good or not. At some point, DaddyBall goes away and the best person wins.
If you don’t like where this sport is heading, make a change. Get philanthropic and help better the game. Otherwise, get off the lax train and go protest something.

Let’s get back to actual lacrosse talk. What teams had the most changes post tryouts?

Second year in a row Radnor had a kid walk in graduation than play in the UA games.....you think that UA would do a better job

What age group are we talking about?

You mean NB, UA is no more. Sadly you could tell this year, nothing like it was for the last few years. Radnor wins again.

80% of the team were holdbacks. What does it matter?

Obviously not the 2027s as every time people talk about that class others on here get upset that the 2027 talk is taking over the chat

From what I heard, NXT 29s had a ton of change, fool as they were/are a Top 20 team…some went to fusion, duke’s,
Team Ten. Guess we’ll see if they’re still a top team

It is very easy to get disenfranchised with the NXT cult. Particularly since they sold off to 3 Step. people outside the program dislike it and increasingly people inside the program don't like it.

Perfect! we'll talk 2027's then! Team Ten continues to be the clear favorite in this age group. Sounds like Mesa lost a lot of players and problem will not be as good as they were last year. Brotherly Love, Duke's, and HHH seem to have picked up a bunch of players that will probably greatly improve those teams (compared to where those teams to where they were last year - I'm not saying they are going to be challenging Team Ten). Other clubs mostly unchanged. Should be fun to watch it all play out.

So did the Mesa 27 team break up as predicted here? Seems fool that strong teams like Mesa 27 and NXT 29 are losing kids.

What’s the issue with nxt in general? Recently moved to the area and trying to understand the club dynamics around here. I’ve heard some people say nxt is a great club, others say there are a lot of issues.

Make no mistake, they have a team. Its just a different team. It always come down to the same thing. Every parent thinks their kid is "the man". When the team isn't soley focused on "the man", feelings get hurt. Other teams promise the world, and they flip.

Pros:
Very organized and professional
"Professional" coaches meaning no dads (more later)
Great Facility (Proving Grounds)
Access to High End Tourney's (NAL, Naptown, Etc).

Cons:
Coaches are usually just kids just out of college.
Great practice plans, that get stale very quick
Heavy focus on Isolation Offenses.

Generally they put together very solid teams ranked around 50-60. But everybody wants to be ranked in the 10-20 range. This leads to some fairly insufferable sideline experiences and the coaches are just are not equipped with the team building skills to get players AND parents on the same page. Clubs have personality. NXT's personality can best be described as Dry Toast. You don't really want it, but it gets the job done when you don't have any other options. Then you end up choking on it and dying with nobody around

Only because there is a group that lets Mesa, NXT develop the players only to steal them in middle school. It will be ugly later on.

All very good points regarding NXT; parents all think their kid is “the kid”, play nothing but iso ball and coaches may not be Dads but lack the local club feel…
Good teams, not great

Steal is a bit of a strong word, don't you think? At the end of every season, families are allowed to reevaluate their current club as well as all the other clubs in the market. They are allowed to switch clubs.

Every club states that they develop players. But do they really? One practice per week clocking in at probably 90 minutes. Versus how many hours are the kids putting in outside of practice working on the wall, dodging, shooting, and all the other little things? I think parents are giving way too much credit to the club teams for player development and not enough credit to their own kids and the rec teams and coaches in the spring season who are actually teaching the game.

We know where the players gravitate to in High School (and for obvious reason that program should be avoided for youth). Where are they gravitating to in Middle School?

What I don't understand about the Mesa 27 team, is they were a great team. Every parent thinking their kid is "the man" would explain a couple of departures. I think they lost the vast majority of their strongest players. With some moving to clubs where they will be competing even harder to be the man. Some other teams had minimal changes. Why would they not have the same issues with parents thinking their kid is "the man." I am not saying Mesa is not a great club; I think it is. However, there had to be something seriously wrong to cause the magnitude of change in that particular team this year.

Or club’s promise this and promise that and it never happens so after many promises are broken they leave and the laugh about the new coaches FB posts asking where the loyalty is.

That is also a fair point. So we have a system where parents have unrealistic expectations to begin with, coupled with club leadership piling up those unrealistic expectation. It makes everybody miserable. We are in quite a conundrum here. At least we don't have to worry about it for another month or so until it starts back up again.

If you were on the Mesa 27 team or closely associated then you know exactly what happened. No players were “stolen”. Look back at all of the good club teams entering high school every year and you’ll see teams breaking up and coming together somewhere else. It almost never has anything to do with the clubs but rather the parents that organize these situations.
Keep an eye on Freedom 28 and Dukes 28 teams. The top 2 teams in the area at that age group. Lots of reclasses have hit both teams and parents will be upset. Freedom is coached by all dads I think and that’s never good. I’d be shocked if you don’t see big changes with those clubs going into high school.

I thought they were doing away with the "reclass" kids starting next year? You have to play your age, not your graduating year.

Not Freedom 2028… daddy ball with even more reclasses than last year

The reclass thing ends with the 2029 age group.

I am not on the Mesa 27 team or closely associated with it. I would like to know what happened. Please divulge.

^^^^how about you back to your life^^^

Pull back your claws there kitty cat!!! Let me guess you were one of the Mesa parents that didn’t know everyone else’s plans….

That last message was a total waste of the CAPTCHA Verification system. This is a message board. We are supposed to share information. It would be good for this information to be distributed so the parents who care enough about lacrosse to come in the site get a feel for what these clubs are like.

total waste of the CAPTCHA Verification system...made my day

Please do not talk about Mesa 2027.....to anyone not associated with the program.

Think of all the new Mesa players. Go through tryouts, super excited to make the team, only to find out the cupboard has been raided and they are a totally different team. Doesn't seem fair. Best of luck to them.

Thanks Mark! Nothing to see here!

Where did all the Mesa 27 kids go? Can’t all be to Team Ten and hard to believe you’d leave a top 20 team for a team ranked in the 200s like HHH or Dukes.

Brotherly love, HHH, team Ten and freedom 2028

Freedom... 2028s.

Your guess is wrong Sally

HHH had to do something. When a program (not a team, but an entire program) goes 0-for-the-spring-league, they have to do something, right? Might as well inside a mutiny at the 2nd best team and provide a soft landing for them. As for the kids/families that suffered through that spring season, might as well start planning for your next team. They will turn over 90-100% of their youth rosters just in time for high school when it really matters. Be realistic about what is going on there. They will accept anybody at the youth level for that tuition check and a full team, then feed the underprepared teams to the wolves all with a coke and smile.