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Long Island Express Barracuda's won the Madlax tourney this weekend beating the Looney's 10-7 in the championship game.

Madlax.com has a picture of the team taken after the Championship Game against Looney's.
http://www.madlax.com/index.cfm?action=pages&p=61

The Express 2016 Barracuda team is one of the most talented U-13 teams we've seen this year. The Looney's who had been on a torrid winning streak looked over-matched at times by the depth of talent on the Barracuda squad. Saturday's convincing 9-3 loss to the Cudas shocked the Looney faithful. At the outset of Sunday's championship match, the Looney's looked like they may have regained their winning composure but each time the Looney's went up by a goal the Cuda team answered. The Cuda's managed to go up three goals at the half and were able to coast to the teams first championship in their short history of one week. Congratulations to the players and coaches for a job well done!

Barracudas are NOT an Express Team I've seen before. Watched them beat the Looneys to win the U13AA Madlax championship- determined, hard fighting and focused- these kids approached the field like they had an important job to do and when the game was over they walked off like humble, albeit excited, champions. Athletic,powerful,classy. What's the scoop? What a find!!

Any 2016 Express Orange folks here? Was anyone from the Orange team included with the Barracudas? If yes or no how is it sitting with the Express base?

The barracuda team will be remaining intact moving forward. If there were some Express Orange kids on the team i am sure they will remain with the barracuda's. Don't worry the Express is the finest club program on Long Island I'm sure there won't be a problem reloading the Orange team.

The 2017 teams have the Turtles but also the 2017 Orange which might be just as good.

Things work out just fine in the Express World, they always do. Kids want to eventually play with the top program, especially as it gets closer to college recruiting age.

One late summer U13 tournament win is nice but doesn't mean much. I'm already hearing some kids not coming back. Lets see what happens when this team steps up to U15AA next year at Tri-State and some of the other tougher tournaments where they start playing against older kids. We'll be able to properly evaluate this time next year...not now.

Some kids not coming back? I think not. They will be back maybe less 1 player. They would be crazy not to return. Not when they have the reputation they have gotten from 1 tournament

How do you get a "reputation" from one tournament?

Good start for the Cuda's but don't get ahead of yourself. I'm very close to the fl$ program and believe me, they thought coming into this summer that their 2015 team were the chosen ones based on how they played in U13 the summer before. Lets just say this summer didn't work out the way they thought it would. Stay humble my friend...there is tons of talent in 2016 on the island.

I'm glad the kids handled themselves in such a manner because the adults on here sure aren't. I congratulate the boys on their win but some of you should be ashamed of yourselves for the obviously transparent posts from parents and the Express directors. One of the posts in this thread and the 91 thread are exactly the same and a cut and paste job.

LOL! I love reading posts from parents living vicariously through their kids. If you are so desperate to suit up, join an adult league.

Pretty sad that the Express kicked their own kids to the curb and assembled a "super team" by poaching players. And for what purpose? To win a meaningless t-shirt.

From what I understand, the 2016 Express team was last in pool play at Tri-State. So instead of coaching these kids up, Express assembles an All-Star team in the hopes of plucking these kids permanently. Sad.

As for the reputation this team has gotten after one tournament, on that we agree. The Express definitely has a reputation after this stunt.

The Express Orange/Central teams always manage to win regardless of age. The top high school players all migrate to club teams like Express and fl$ because those teams play in the top recruiting tournaments. The Barracuda's are ahead of the curve in terms of selecting the best talent in their respective grade.

Yeah, but I would not want to be on the wrong side of a scorned HS varsity coach. Good luck.

HS varsity coaches play the best players period. Their job is to win and they know that.

Conflict of interest

LOL - talk to the kid's high school coach to see what he thinks and then get back to us. They are human beings...if the talent is close, these factors will come into play. Trust me, I've had these conversations.

Absolutely. I don't like it but it is a reality in some town that some parents will have to accept and explain to their kids.

Im sure that most of these boastful posts are being written by people looking to knock the team by getting others worked up or from those club directors worrying that they blew it with many kids because they "fumbled the ball" this past season. Don't put to much into posts that are from anonymous, including this post. Its just food for thought. Who knows who is writing these posts pro or con this barracuda team.

Hopefully your kid is not from a town where this conflict exists and you don't have to worry about it. Others may be in a tougher position.

Obviously you have not yet to gone through the high school experience. I've seen plenty of instances in HS where the slightly better kid sat on the bench - sometimes seemingly because the parents were nightmares. Don't worry about it...until you have to.

Fascinating thread! Keep it up. What's fascinating? The real emotion in thses posts because this is about rising 8th graders (let's keep that in mind). As for Express winning at all age groups? What happened to the 2016 Orange then? Does Express conduct a tryout? If so, when did the Barracuda tryout happen? If not, does Express just answer that this is a business and anything goes? If the Barracudas are that good and it sounds like they are I guess the fun factor in this team staying together is the joy in 17-0, 10-0, 9-3 , etc wins. Could players take anything out of playing in tight games? What happened to competition? Is loyalty a consideration? Fascinating! As for HS kids migrating there because of recruiting tournaments, it seems like there are new programs not only popping up but also getting invites to these tournaments as well? Enjoying both sides make their cases.

Interestingly enough, this thread serves as a marvelous microcosim of the behavior---in general---of Long Island parents at their daughters' lacrosse games.

We have played 10 games against LI teams in the past two summers and I have never observed anything quite like the sideline antics of a LI parent at a girls lacrosse game.

Humorous, just like this ongoing "debate."

This is not about rising 8th graders. It is about the kids that weren't asked to play Cuda and the parents who haven't stopped whining!! It is mostly the Team 91 parents that thinks the boy is a stud be he's not. Also the Directors are very upset the season was a disaster at this age/ group. Lack of steady coaches for Oyster Bay who missed the start of the game and didn't know the kids. Tournaments that had coaches who never saw the kids before or practiced with the kids. The list is long, now its time to move on the damage was done by 91 and now they are back tracking. Oh yea no communication for tournaments, I could go on and on but these are now Cuda kids

I've heard the Maveriks are run by a HS coach and I think there are 3 or 4 kids from the Maveriks on the Cuda team. Any other clubs (91, fl$ etc..) poached by the Cudas that are run by HS coaches? If the tables were turned on the Express, do you think a St. Anthony's kid playing for say the fl$ would see much of the field in a St A's game? All coaches are human...this stuff happens...

These are 13 year old kids who could and should play wherever they want. I don't know of any respectable HS coach who would black-ball a kid for choosing to do something he wants to do in the summer. Kids get better in the summer by learning from different coaches and playing with different players. Besides isn't it a conflict of interest for a HS coach to expect a kid to play for his town team or else he will not see the field on in high school? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Express sounds like a great program but I've heard that if your kid does not plan on going to St Anthonys or Chaminade then he will be nudged out of the program at some point. I'm sure there have been exceptions for some All-American caliber players but otherwise could this be generally true? Please only answer if you've had some (or know someone who has) experience with the Express in the 9-11th grades. Thanks.

What sideline antics are you talking about, examples please.An example of the parents from Maryland would be when the father who was missing multiple front teeth and clearly did not believe in personal hygiene attempted to defend the behavior of his daughter who had dropped her stick and goggles and was chasing a much smaller long island player around the field trying to have a fist fight, class act.

No body has been crying foul at the turtles. Now scorned parents are crying over a very talented team. For the record express did not put this team together it was handed too them. They would be foolish not to take this team. They went to mad lax and dismantled long standing deep programs of marylands best teams. I raise my hat to these KIDS not parents. These kids stay together the whole team signs to D-1 schools the high school coach can do nothing about it. Maybe Jonny should practice more

Do you really want us to believe that a HS coach will bench his best player or players because they play for the Express rather then his town team. We are not talking about marginal role players we are talking about arguably the top players on the team.
That doesn't happen, if it happened to your child then maybe you need to take a look in the mirror and stop making excuses why your son wasn't get play time and face the facts maybe he didn't deserve it and it had nothing to do with what club team he played on.

Oh my god! YOU ALL SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!! THESE ARE 13 YEAR OLD BOYS. THIS IS VERY DISHEARTING TO READ THESE BLOGS. FIRST OFF I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE THE BOYS FOR AN OUTSTANDING WEEKEND. BOYS, THE STATISTICS DON'T LIE AND MAYBE THESE PARENTS SHOULD GO TO THE MAD LAX WEBSITE AND CHECK IT OUT BECAUSE ALL THESE NASTY COMMENTS ARE USELESS.

All I'm saying is that if you have two kids that are roughly equal at the same position and one plays for the coache's club and the other doesn't, who do you think will win the tie breaker? Instead of guessing, you should go ahead and ask your son's HS coach. Please post his answer here. Thanks. Also, ask the director of the Express if he'd play an fl$ or Jesters kid over an Express kid in a HS game.

What nasty comments are your referring to? None of what has been said here has disparaged what the boys have done on the field. This debate is all about organizational decisions made by adults. Nobody on this forum is criticizing the kids. Relax, take a deep breath and dont follow this anymore if you are going to take it so personally.

If the Express didn't put this team together then who did? No parent has enough time or connections to pull together kids from 5 or 6 different programs in a short period of time. If there were parents involved ...they need to get a life and a real job!

"...the whole team signs to D-1 schools..." ... Are you kidding me? I feel sorry for your kid if your expectations for him are that high at this age...do your kid a favor and don't let him know thats what you expect. Good luck with that.

It may be hard to believe but it is true. A single parent is responsible for putting this team together. This parent should be commended for doing an outstanding job of drafting a highly talented and well respected group of lacrosse players who all have the same common goal of competing at the highest level.

If this team was "handed" to the Express then who was qualified enough to make the evaluations of who should be invited and who shouldn't? Some random parent with an agenda who couldn't possibly know all of the kids on all of the teams that were poached? The Express can correct this problem by holding an open tryout for all of the excellent players who were not known about by these self-empowered parents.

express did not put this team together. There were people put alot of time and energy. If this was your kids and it was duke virginia hopkins this would be great. They whipped up on some great competition. Give them their do let them play only the best and excel all big schools will be waiting playing at their level. Any other team would have scooped these kids up. Stop blaming the express if you knew what really happened you would be shocked. It is you who needs to do his homework

Are you suggesting that the Manhasset Mavericks are run by the Manhasset Varsity coach and the Manhasset School district permits such a conflict of interest? That its "line my pockets with summer gold or wear splinters in your bench warming arse next year"?

they beat the best team in the country twice if that is not talent i dont know what is when you can pick a team and go 5 and 0 61 goals for 10 against and three shut outs enough said