Lets face it MIAA parents. While the MIAA is still a very strong league and produces many D1 players, it just isnt the same as even a few years ago. Lacrosse is becoming centered around true blue athletes with lacrosse skills. MIAA while having stick/IQ skills, is lacking the abundance of true athletes. The 5-8/9 skilled player is losing ground.
Most D1 top programs are overlooking some skills ( still need to be good) if you are a true blue athlete.
I still enjoy watching MIAA as it is only HS . and still a good game of HS lacrosse.
Too many long benches most years @ Spalding, CHC, BL, Loyola, St. Paul's & St. Mary's to develop depth. These coaches with all the players they have standing around are scared to death to play anything below 8th or 9th offensive player. Overall approximately the same 17-18 players see the field. So the kids that play are not challenged enough to get better because they know their spot is secure. Not enough practice reps to go around . Just watch tomorrow's games....
However well intentioned they were, Maryland politicians, public health officials and educators hurt our kids' educational and athletic development through their Covid policies. Lacrosse impact: this translated into lesser player development for younger players. Programs like CHC, who have a phenomenal track record of recruiting/developing lacrosse players vis a vis their Conference counterparts, were more handicapped by Covid than others. Bad public health policies have brought them back to the pack lacrosse wise. Nothing else has changed but the learning environment. Look for them to rebound in the next couple of years. Regarding larger rosters, varsity coaching staffs invest the most developmental training time into the top 25-30 players as they will drive the varsity team's success. Other younger players will be developed by the JV and FS coaches. FYI, I've seen tenth graders who were on JV teams their sophomore year in high school go on to great success in college lacrosse. Likewise, I've seen kids who played a lot on varsity as freshman plateau and never hit the field in college.
The comment about long benches and its effects well predates pandemic-started happening YEARS earlier...
No doubt, long benches predated Covid. CHC has a well oiled training program and perennially recruits 10-15 top lacrosse players. However, due to the pandemic, they couldn't train or develop them, Other Schools especially the smaller ones, have no player development programs to speak of. They count on picking the right 3-5 recruits per year and rolling the dice with these kids. If I'm running a program, I would like to pick 15 (maybe there's 10 top recruits there) and train/develop them for 1-2 years and see what happens. Invariably due to the law of averages, I will have a better and definitely deeper team than my competitors. See three straight championships. Now due to Covid, I've lost some of my competitive advantage albeit temporarily. Two big outcomes when you don't have a deep well defined bench: 1) it lessens competition (steel sharpens steel) and 2) you don't weather injuries as well. Hence smaller programs can knock you off because your ability to run a deep well developed team (4-5 attackmen, 4-5 close defensemen, 3 keepers, 3 FOGOs, and 9 strong middies (counting SSDMs)) has been diminished.
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