Every team in the Elite division has holdbacks. If you are going to callout teams you might want to call them all out . Right or wrong the playing field is fair . Every team has them. Every team choose to play in the Elite division and every parent agrees to let their kid play on these teams. Right or wrong its the nature of the beast.
Not exactly level. Rough Riders (hoco) and API (crofton) rely on public school kids because of their location (2 holdbacks) and the other clubs are surrounded by private schools (Baltimore, D.C., Annapolis) and take advantage of all the pre first and holdback kids (8 or more holdbacks)
API has more than 2 and unsure about RR- However they both have them and choose to play in this division. 8 holdbacks? Lets not start by lying on 2 teams and want to believe you on the others. Half of API and RR go to private schools. Again, All these teams agree to play where they do. If your team has 1 or 5 it really doesn't matter. Teams all have try outs and every coach that had an opportunity to take a hold back they did. Certainly don't agree with any of it as the majority doesn't. It is certainly not the way youth sports was meant to be played. But I agreed to have my kid play at this level with and against holdbacks. I agreed to the team and the league and tournaments they play in. After watching end of summer and this fall the competition level seems to be very level at this elite division. A lot of good lacrosse from a lot of teams.Looking forward to high level lacrosse this spring. Lacrosse that we agreed to be a part of.
Every coach will take every holdback they can, but the Baltimore / Bethesda / Annapolis clubs have 12 at each tryout while API / RR only have a couple because no one wants to drive to the boonies during the week for practice. They want clubs that practice close to the schools the kids go to.
The Yankees think it is a level playing field for them as well.
