Madlax 2028 should change their slogan from 'Run DMV' to 'Ask Us About How Good We Were in 2nd grade.' And for some of their kids, 2nd grade was like 6 years ago.
As much as people have personal issues with the program, it's impressive how competitive ML has been with a group of kids that has been largely stable since 2nd grade.
But the odds are against any program accurately identifying 15+ kids who will be amazing middle school athletes when they're in 2nd grade, and ML doesn't seem to be able to draw 90+ kids to tryouts like Hawks. Maybe that's MD vs. VA or maybe it's reputational, but at some point a shallower talent pool seems bound to catch up to ML unless they can figure out how to bring kids in at positions of need.
This is spot on. They have a very difficult time taking players from other top programs, they’re lucky to get one new kid every year— for whatever the reason. Their team is essentially 90% intact from 2nd grade. And your point nailed it, puberty hasn’t hit yet and some of these kids will simply get left behind…. If they don’t find some new talent, they’ll suffer the same fate as the 24 and 26 teams. The 24’s were flat out best in the nation from around 5-8th grade, then lost a bunch of kids to Next Level (and St John’s HS). Now they’re barely top 10, if they even still are.
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