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

Sounds like a good minor league system they put together. Good for them.

It will be interesting to see who goes to ALL and who goes to NLF. Last summer NLF really tried to limit Summer Championship to NLF teams and affiliates only. So there are still a lot of teams out there to go to ALL.

For the US Club lax championship they pushed that to club lax is over. It may interfere with All America games though. So older ages might not fair as well. And people may not want to travel to Richmond that time of year.

different weekends.
That being said, the US Club lax national championship will never thrive. summer schedule is already full. This thing is supposed to be in august. After club tryouts have already occurred and musical chairs have already rotated around. OK idea, with just really terrible execution plan.

Maybe I'm wrong. Let me know if I am.

I would think by having the same college coaches and better facilities. The coaches will go where the kids are. Plus with NLF blocking some of the better teams, they won't be at NLF anyway.

What’s NXT going to do? 2028s seem down? 29s went to Futures? 31s went to HHH?

They sold about 2 years ago? I'm sure the founders contracts are coming to an end shortly. Website isn't getting updated. Teams will diminish and they'll just be a tournament/event organization within a few years.

NLF needs a farm league.Good idea!

My son played in the summer championship for NLF as a guest player. The fields were horrid, refs didn’t want to be there and coaches acting like [Censored]…NLF will be dead soon.

US Clun lax Nationals was changed to July 19thish. But still in Richmond. Yes, lacrosse try outs will have started for the younger kids but this is only the weekend after NLF Championship so I don't think it is out of the realm for the younger kids. Older kids maybe...unless you can guarantee a huge college draw.

I wonder if it was just a money grab.....nah.

NLF dropped the ball. The Alliance League will work because so many teams were burned by NLF. The founding members kick out the good teams that are local to them. A couple of founding member clubs on the ropes also not good programs any more.

Big4HHH (3rd best program now at best in philly area)
Express usually not a top 5 team in any division
91 Long Island is strong but really does not like to be challenged
Crabs (not usually a top 10 team in any division)
Leading Edge (solid but not top )
Laxachusetts very strong in younger groups but heavily reclassed teams so top out as get older.

I think a couple of Affiliate teams already said going to the circuit or will play both. Also I think Circuit will be strict on rostered kids which stops national teams from entering.

I don't see NLF staying near as strong. Plus anyone that has been to NLF tournament knows not best facilities usually and not easy logistically with hotels.

The circuit is a total money grab by 3Step/NXT to cash in on families who's self worth is tied to playing on the "national" level. NLF in middle school is similarly pointless.
NLF's attempt at creating exclusivity at their events is really backfiring as their teams are slowly turning over and tanking compared to other clubs that have stayed hungry and have been hustling keep on par with the NLF.

The Circuit is almost all National teams..BPG Nationals, Nationals, Nations Best, Red Hots Nationals. There literally is only National teams so not sure why you said Circuit would stop Nationals teams from entering.

I think a tag line for the Circuit is "Where national teams come to play".

Got a good chuckle from this ALL infomercial. Will be a lax failure meme in a year.DOA. Bunch of farm teams playing on the same weekend as the single best tournament in the country. Classic lax blunder. Going to cause defections of the best players to NLF to accelerate. Of course lesser talented players need tournaments to attend to. But professional groups like BPG and real marketing are going to use this parent storm to raid all the other clubs.Worse US Club lax lost all ranking credibility overnight jumping into this mess.Inside Lax and NLF will own the ranks forever now.

I don't follow why the ALL would cause players to defect to the NLF. Please explain further.

good post,,,explains why in uscl fall ranks are so bad & many bad ALL teams are ranked in golden 16,,, when they shouldnt be,,,look at 2028, 2029 etc etc etc,,,

Interesting take...ALL has some pretty good teams associated with it that have alot of talent. The NLF as well. I think you forget the NLF championship was all NLF teams and B teams because they didn't want alot of the ALL teams in the tournament. Most college coaches will tell you they attend a few of these tournaments. They were at NLF, NAL, Naptown, Sweetlax...you don't need to be an NLF team to get recruited. This is such a falsehood made up by the NLF. Why can't we just sit and say that we have lots of good teams in the PA area and our kids will more opportunities now for exposure. And yes my son was a starter on an NLF team and chose to leave for another team. So don't go "hit the wall", "sorry he isn't good enough for NLF".

The rankings are all numbers based - W/L, Goal differential, strength of schedule. US Club Lax can't manipulate that. The only they said they would do was remove National teams. And where is everyone getting that US Club lax is with ALL? Their tournaments are two different weekends.

So he got cut huh. Hit the wall and maybe next year he can make Mesa or HHH.

Pay to play model is pretty sketch. But when you are desperate you are desperate. Maybe ALL will take a page out of the X football league. Gimck it up everywhere. Play 7s lax, 2 pointers, 1$ hotdog _ beer sections real Gilligan like tricks,

NLF INSTAGRAM AND WEBSITE SAYS THERE WERE OVER 350 COLLEGES AT NLF TOURNAMENTS. MOST OF ANY TOURNAMENTS. PEOPLE DO NOT TRAVEL TO EVENTS AND SPEND MONEY UNLESS THERE IS VALUE. WHATS THE DEBATE?

BPG will have their affiliates playing, not the national teams you dunder. Meaning, BL and Duke’s (maybe even a Delco and some of the smaller teams, not sure).
As for the NLF, they are desperate; my son guest played for one of the teams, as did a ton of players, proving the current talent ain’t that good. Sorry pal; your son stinks

Hhh youth teams will not win a game all season. Which age? Any of them !!! Total joke of a program.

Well you are the one HHH detractor here. Few posts up HHH was called the premier program. Only way to get recruited is to be on HHH.
HHH youth programs are fine. The families that are a part of it are getting what they want...low key, fundamentals based, team fun. Not everyone is looking for 2-3X a week practices year round for a 10 year old where your kid can be recruited over. Been there done that, learned from it.

You are the guy that buys diet products off of informercials, aren't you? What's with the all CAPS? Do you think it makes your point more compelling?

If that is the case, then that is great the kids and parents. Just as long as you know your run with HHH will end in 8th grade when the real talent starts rolling into the club for high school.

Let’s be honest. Philly is a great lacrosse market. But there is really only one good team at each age level. 25’s are basically out the door at this point. 26 it’s TT. 27 it’s TT, 28 it’s Freedom, 29 it’s Futures and 30 it’s Dukes. To try and say any other team at these ages is close is just not true. Who cares if they play in the NLF or ALL it doesn’t matter. Both leagues have a big tournament now at the end of the season which benefits the kids because it makes it easy for coaches to go to one place and see the players. Win Win for everyone.

“My young kid stinks now but just you wait…also, NLF!”
Clown show

I feel like this is pretty fair take. Too much for this website… must be a bot.

There was a good turnout for the Eastern University HS Tournament this past weekend. It's a good opportunity for PA teams to get some games against NJ teams and those outside of District 1. It's amazing to see teams like Manheim Township getting better and more talented players. Very impressive.

HHH is the only program that comes on here and consistently says two separate things.
1. All the best kids will come to HHH when they are in HS for NLF!

Also…

2. We build and train all our players from a youth age and grow our program the right way.

Which is it?

Their big issue is what just happened with the 31s. They now have two 31 teams. One of kids that have been with the program a few years and haven’t won many games. And another of kids that were all recruited from different programs.

Doesn’t matter if you do that like everyone else. But don’t act like you aren’t actively trying to bring kids in especially at HS levels that will take other kids spots who have been with the program for a while.

So, rather than integrate the new kids into the program, they decided on creating a separate team?
That can’t be right - you sure?

It's correct. It's HHH Birddogs 2031. It is more of a National Team. It is kids mainly from GA and Wissahickon. But the kids play for HHH, NXT, Team 91 MD, Stars and Stripes, Nationals. It was set up without the 2031 team knowing anything about it. BM has a son on the team.

It's good for the program. They need to start building elite youth teams to feed into their elite high school teams. This is the first step. Sounds like the motivation is there for this group. If I'm a '31, I'm trying to land a spot on that team.

All those HHH parents on the 29, 30, 31 non birddog teams should be paying close attention to their return on investment. I don't think they even have a 28 team at this point (sign of a solid program for sure).

BM has put minimal effort into the youth program for years. Now he's forming his next crown jewel team for Lil Tom Cruise. As he should. Everyone not on that team will probably see an even greater drop off in effort from BM. The HHH Birddogs 2031 will be practicing all the time and playing in every major tournament. My guess is there are a lot of scholarships for players on that team. Everyone else in the program is just along for the ride.

Yeah, it kind of [Censored] when your club team forms an elite team and doesn't tell you about it. It means that your son just doesn't have the stuff they are really looking for. Hey, at least you know where you stand with the program. Might be time to start looking at lower tier programs like Team Ten and NXT.

Daddyball at its finest

The Birddog team is probably a National team, clubs have more than 1 team for each age group, 1 standard 1 National.
The test will come when they play tournament; let’s see which team players where

Sounds like the birddogs are mostly local. Just handpicked.
Do we really care about a 2031 team they much at this point? I had to count backwards on my fingers to determine that this is a fifth grade team. People need to get some perspective here.