I am the Madlax poste from earlier. Here is my second post. I have an older son who is a 2017. I truly believe that a watershed event for Crabs was my son's 8th grade year in the spring. That spring the U-15 West Coast Stars came east and beat Madlax soundly and played Crabs to the buzzer. That summer Crabs U-15s lost frequently and only won one summer tournament. Madlax Capital U-15s my son played on did not win a summer tournament. Come fall Ryan McClernan pushed very hard for grade based teams for all youth levels and he stuffed it through within the next year. Nobody around DC or Maryland got in his way and most of the other club owners including ours went along with it. Ryan's reasons were primarily that his age based teams were starting to lose. I think with the growth of lacrosse that happens over time anyways but around here nobody believes that. Ryan basically runs the NPYLL and controls the best summer tournaments including Young Gunz or Crabfeast. Get in his way or on his wrong side and your club is out of these leagues and tournaments. Very powerful person in Mid-Atlantic lacrosse. I doubt you will see a return to age based teams without a fight.
