Teams are choosing to skip Nationals because the competition is just not there anymore. There is no recruiting going on. Igloo 2023 will go because they want to defend a title (I guess I understand that). YJ will go because they convinced the parents that it actually means something (what it actually means is $$$ from parents in the YJ Bank Account). Just look at the low turnout of teams this year. The US Lacrosse goal was to take the top 16 qualifying teams in each age group. The most they have for on e age group is 10. So many teams were invited to participate, but declined. Let's be clear, it's not just the teams with major travel issues/expenses that are declining. Several of those declining teams are from MD, NJ, DE, NY, PA.
To the person who posted earlier, it's not an player "age out" thing for some teams. In fact a few of the clubs last year were guilty of "tweaking" their rosters, by bringing in guest players from their other teams. YJ was a big offender with their 2021 team. CR summoned a 2020 to play, that happened to fit the U14 age parameters set by US Lacrosse. CR wanted that publicity for her club when they won, and she got.
CR summoned 1 2020, TG had several. Didn’t matter as YJ walked through all teams with or with out the 2020. The only time that this tactic ever worked was the one year Top Guns actually did win, it was Sam Apuzzo playing a year down. But not really she, just like every other player who has ever done it, was age eligible to participate, and made the difference in a one goal game. Tournament is becoming less popular every year, you ask teams to come from all across the country to get their butt kicked, probably worse then they have ever had before, eventually those teams stop coming. Used to be a much better tournament when it was a 1 age group event, expanding to multiple age groups has also killed this thing. My older kids it was one year and done, and everyone looked forward to it, now we dread this thing as it plays out for multiple years.
