Dukes brought several teams to play Express teams on Sunday at Cedar Creek Park in Seaford. Their supposed 2023 team played the Express' Haugen team (2nd team). Dukes team had several players that had recently participated in the WSYL, as was clear by some of the gear they were wearing. This years WSYL event was for 2022's, not 2023's. It was crystal clear for anyone that watched the game, that several of the boys that played for the Duke's were older. Regardless of whether they were holdbacks, reclassifications, etc., they were noticeably larger and more physically mature then the Express' team. The Dukes program has to have victories to market their program and concept, and if it means that they need to stack a team to do so, it's what will sell the program to the parents that are looking for that result. Unfortunately it is the state of youth lacrosse today, that victories are more important then the development of the players, and organizations that are competing for players and revenue will do what they have to accomplish their goal. At the end of the day, these were exhibition games played by young boys that probably spent their afternoon at the pool or beach, and gave it far less thought then most of the adults that spend their time on these threads.
