"Long Island doesnt have a shortage of players like other regions and should be treated a bit differently." WOW! You are really full of yourself. As for the 6th and 7th graders, this is a learning experience for them to see what they need to improve on. Past years have proven that very few of the 6th and 7th graders are selected but it was something the returning kids used knowing what is expected. I think you feel your child didn't perform well and now using the younger kids as an excuse.


Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
The middle school tryouts were a joke. My son was on team 1 which spent the whole time on the second field. And for the last two hours, no evaluator had a clipboard in his hands. Not one. The evaluators were yelling instructions to 91 and express kids they know. As one expected, my sense is a majority of spots were/ are predetermined. I get it (to an extent...if a Xtreme stud sucked at tryout, he probably should get a spot in the Pride of LI by reputation). But evaluators....at least try to present that it's a fair tryout. Hold clipboards as you yell out the kids whose names you know. At least parents may think our kids have somewhat of a fair chance and may pony up money again next year.


The joke to me were people that bought down their 70 lbs 6th graders to tryout for this team. My son is in 8th grade is 5'6" and 145lbs and I would not bring him down last year as a 7th grader because I thought it was a waist of time and money and I also felt that he can go as an 8th grader and experience the event once (if he makes it) and if he can't make it as an 8th grader he certainly wasn't going to make it as a 7th grader. Parents need to stop setting your kids up for failure, they need a reality check - people are complaining about the evaluators when half the kids couldn't play. There is no 6th grader on LI that could make Xtreme or Terps and probably not too many 7th graders that could. Do you really think that Per-Puberty Paulie is going to make a Long Island all-star team made up of 8th graders? My guess is that you had 25 kids that will be playing JV this year and probably a couple that will be on their varsities by the end of the year so keep complaining about the evaluators and ignore that your kid is not good enough or is not ready yet.


How many 7th and 6th graders showed up?
I know of a limited amount of towns that are fortunate to have both a 6th and a 7th grader who can physically match up to 8th graders and could've try out. (size 5'4"+ 150lbs+) Many of those boys play on some pretty good travel teams. Would they beat out an Extreme Player or Terp; not sure, doubt it. I just hope next year we don't have a replay of the same issues as in the past 2 years.





There were a number of 6th and 7th graders that were there that should not have been. They truley adversely effected the tryout for the 8th graders. A zip pass in the stick gets dropped and next group is going. A hard check is avoided by just backing in and taking too much time and the drill stopped. When touches are limited like they were on Sunday. Having a few weak 6th or 7th graders in your group hurt you. It also could make players look a lot better than they are going against these players. Just either break the tryouts into age based groups then combine them or eliminate the two younger years. Long Island doesnt have a shortage of players like other regions and should be treated a bit differently.