Let's change the topic and maybe stir a new pot. I am a Maryland parent of a committed 2017 with an older and a younger sibling. I have come to a few conclusions about MD lacrosse and the 2017 class.
1. I think lacrosse is declining in MD at the club level. The strong prep programs can develop players, but now clubs don't after U-13. 2. I think the 2014s were the last "great " MD HS class. MD and DMV areas are very good for 2015, but not great. It falls down and apart after that. 3. I think MD wise and nationally the 2017s are a weak class despite the novelty of this class's early recruiting notoriety.
The Crabs 2014s were possibly the greatest club team of all time. The 2015s Crabs are awesome and have company at or near the top (Dukes, Leading Edge, WCS, etc.). These 2015 teams are GREAT TEAMS with at least very good players at every position. There are no great 2016 teams and there is one great 2017 team (LI Turtles). The other first tier 2017 teams are very good, but none are great and only the Turtles deserves any comparative to the great 2014 and 2015 club teams.
Great players...I saw many 2014s and 2015s in MD / DMV where you walk away thinking wow...that is a can't miss future college star. I have not seen a single 2016 fit that bill and have seen only one 2017 kid in MD / DMV I would make that statement about.
The 2017 rankings and class notes emphasize how deep this class is on talent and especially at poles and goalies. The poles in this class are less than average and there is not a single goalie in this class who does not need to improve A LOT to see the field and do much anything in D1. This is a class where poles who can't stop a sneeze and goalies who are either horrible against high heat or are midgets get ranked because they committed, and that is a joke. This is a TERRIBLE goalie class. This class is top heavy with a few good FOGOs from LI, and I have seen three attackmen who get my eye as exceptional including the one kid I mentioned above. There are no elite middies in this class, but there are a ton of very good ones. Pick seven out of the 300 or so good ones and you will blend into the decent D1 recruiting classes at that position.
That is pretty harsh but I also think the causality is not that there is an ebb and flow of talents by year, and that the 2014s-15s were the outliers and the 2016s-17s are the down years. I think it is permanent at least here in the MD DMV. Clubs stop instructing and start prepping only game play or showcasing too early, and the players don't develop. With some exceptions, mostly the strong prep program kids, the committed 2016s and 2017s are the same players they were at U-15. And that won't cut it at a high level. I'd love to see more instructional / developmental emphasis in our local programs my oldest son had all the way through HS. That does not exist here anymore. This is where non-hotbed kids will step up. A kid in Florida can't afford to stop grinding away at fundamentals or can his program because harder to get noticed and can't take for granted like we do.
