Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Pride 25 is one of the top clubs in the area. The dirty secret is average playing time per player on the team decreases as the girls get older in competitive tournaments, thus they have a lot of showcases. The 6th or 7th midfielder, 5th or 6th attacker, or defender on a top club would be wise to move to not another "big 3" but a close to the top club say in the top 10 in the DMV. Talent spread out among multiple clubs would be better, not worse for the area. The trend of the super club laying waste to all before it is self-defeating if you want an area rich in lacrosse you want talented teams spread about widely In the area. More opportunities for more girls to play competitive games with other competitive teams and get meaningful minutes in said games. The real problem is tryouts and they being compressed over a few days. These just out range starters with the big clubs or not should be afforded the chance to try out for multiple clubs to see how they would fit in the pecking order of the potentially new club. The obvious advantage to going first in tryouts to look at all girls first, see M&D this year, causes all clubs to cluster their tryouts and make it near impossible for girls just to go on speculation to join a new club. It is such a minefield to navigate. It would be so much better if instead of the "big 3" we started to talk about the big 10 clubs in the DMV for the players and the families. That would be 230 girls per year. I think this area easily could support that level of play and closer games to boot. Movement and stress to find a spot on the big 10 teams in the area would lower the stakes tremendously. So we should be encouraging- Pride, HoCo, Stars, LBC, Md United, Coppermine, 3D, TLC, etc. to continue to improve.

You make good points and good things to think about. However, I just don't see it as realistic. The top girls on say the immediate DMV teams, Pride/Stars/NL/MCE/BLC get frustrated with the talent/skill gap across the overall team for that year. They are stuck in a sense as going from 1 of those teams to another club is really just a lateral move and not helping. For the "mid pack" players as you say, again, jumping from Club to club doesn't seem to be a solution. Less clubs, then yes, more talent on a smaller pool of clubs and those A teams are really a true A team top to bottom. Those teams you all mention aren't getting better to compete at the top. They just fight for the same talent. Some players who may not play as much on Pride may switch to Stars or vice versa. However, there's probably a reason those "mid to lower" players on say Pride aren't playing as much. Moving to Stars isn't the "solution" or whatever clubs you want to use as an example. There are too many clubs, not enough talent, rec programs are suffering for #s and in the end, you have a bunch of average to maybe good DMV teams.

It's a good goal to have in your points, but just doesn't seem realistic, just more idealistic.


The big question is do any of these teams listed have parent coaches?

The Stars do not have any parent coaches at any age level. Can't answer for the other clubs.