Originally Posted by Anonymous
The best way to "evaluate" a club is:

do the kids get better?

do the kids enjoy playing with their teammates/coaches

does it match my kid?

what is the reputation of the club in terms of developing impact HS players?

if my son wants to play in college, how successful is that club in getting their players recruited


Any of the above is much more important than wins, losses and/or tournament finishes.

And no, the work you did took a lot more than just 30 minutes. Come on.


Look, I agree with you 100%. It is not about the wins and losses and being on a club that struggles makes those Ws that much sweeter when they are the result of the time and effort put in as individuals and as a team. I realize most kids (mine included) will never play D1, D2, or D3 ball so trying to ride the coat-tails of the dominate team is no answer.

Also - some of these clubs are in regions without a large rec program feeding them. MD elite (Emmittsburg), MD Xtreme (Olney), and Storm (Eastern Shore) don't have nearly the same number of rec clubs (and lacrosse dads) getting the kids ready at the youngest ages as the Baltimore and Annapolis area clubs.

The big question is : Where do you go to get honest unbiased answers to your questions.

A lot of these questions can't be answered by the club or the families associated with the clubs - they will all tell you the same positive responses. They can't be answered by the families that have left the club (willingly or otherwise). You can see by reading this forum, for every post praising a club, there is a response bashing it.

Unless you spend a couple months with the club, you really can't tell if it is a good fit.

Do you think the high school coaches would be the best place to go for unbiased assessments of the clubs? I'd love to see a poll of the high school coaches ranking the different aspects of individual clubs.