Is this a money grab ($499) or was it good coaching and good competition?
If you have the money to waste and don’t get bent out of shape easily, then go for it, however do not expect team play of any kind. You are paying $500 for me ball
Good coaching and good competition. We just came back from UMASS Amherst for the Brine AAG. I think the comment about "me ball" is a fair criticism as the Yellow Jackets dominate the girl's team rosters, and while I respect the YJ program, their players do not seem to acclimate very well to team based situations (outside of their own club) with players from other programs who they do not know. The Brine All America is a day shorter than the Maverik, so there's less time for chemistry building. In the final two games there were glimpses of team ball coming together, but the LI girls made much of the games look like tryout ball. Don't expect your pass or your feed to be reciprocated, and while attackers worked hard to cut and be open, the only time you saw midfielders glance at attackers was when the girl on attack was a YJ player.
One team was predominantly composed of LOMO players with some Team91 girls mixed in. Our daughter's team was a mix of mostly YJ Spallina and YJ Janelli. There were also a few NH Tomahawks players, an AIM player, an All Lax player, 1 BBL Black player and a CLC player. One team our kid played against was predominantly Laxachusetts girls. The tournament organizers could exert more effort to break up the team distribution to ensure an even playing experience where players have to acclimate to team ball movement. The coaching was actually pretty good. It is always good to throw your kid into the mix with new and different coaching methodologies. One of our coaches was a coach from a D3 program, and the other was a club coach. We saw a few D1 coaches we recognized at the games.
Some of the players seemed to have tried out the year before. With regards to the level of play and competition, when I glance at the AS regional team rosters I see the same player names from our Brine AAG team. Very talented, high level players. A few of them are ball hogs, but talented none the less. Very aggressive and physical play, and all the players were elite club players, especially the goalies. The goalies were some of the best we've ever seen. Just need to work on the insularity of the YJ players who need to learn to play with non-YJ players. The M&D black and LBC players were moving the ball and making sure everybody around them ate. The YJ players were exclusively looking out for their own. A little attention to breaking up those kind of insular monopolies would go a long way. But, still it was worth the trip/time/resources. There was some real from the Midwest, Texas, DC/Virginia, NY/NJ and New England. We had fun watching some fast moving lacrosse, meeting other lacrosse families and cheering on the players.
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