US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2022 - 8th Grade Fall 2017/Summer 2018

Saint john’s and DeMatha very strong

Yes they are both soaring with talent this year

Ryan strikes again. 2 more new players. They'll be at 30 kids very shortly. So much fun for those in state kids. Thanks for joining and paying me the money to fly in the players that will keep you on the bench.

You must be new to this club lacrosse game. RM has stacked teams and tournaments from day 1 10 years ago. It's what they do. Crabs saw what the competition was last summer and know what they have to do in order to compete and win. If you are on that team and have blinders on it's your on fault. Please don't come on here crying the blues. Hey , at least your kid gets a cool helmet out of it. And as far as IN STATE kids go, if they were up to snuff they wouldn't be bringing in OUT OF STATE kids.

Any decent player can find a spot on another team. Why put up with it?

Sorry...but that Crabs 22 team isn't even that good. Without the "guest" players like the Petro's, they're actually awful.

Awful is a stretch. Not being a top 5 HoCo team means you are awful now? Get a life.

Crabs will be a top 5 team this year for sure. Even with the crabby parents on the sideline.

To many "big name coaches" need instant gratification to stroke their egos. Its not about developing individual players or positive coaching for them, its about building the best team as fast as possible, so they can pat themselves on the back and say "look what I did". There is no magic in their coaching. The magic is in their marketing and the stud athletes they are able to convince to play for them. A lot of parents drinking the kool-aid while their kids sit because they think some meathead coach is going to fix that issue through some type of playing/coaching osmosis. A lot of parents with great athletes look the other way when these guys act like complete jerks in front of their kids. The psychosis that comes with struggling under one of these guys is not going to make you kid better. Playing a lot for a decent coach that actually cares about all his players will make them better.

This guy nailed it. A lot of these teams pad their numbers with practice dummies and convince parents that their team’s elite record will rub off on their kid if they just “trust the process”. All the while, the process is to give the ball to the stud kids in games and everyone else should know their role, because God forgive, a kid who practices hard but isn’t a go to guy take a shot in 8th grade lacrosse. It could cost the team a W! Please. The sad part is so many have bought into it and the kids get to HS and have never been given an opportunity at the youth level to go make a play when it counts, as if any of this counts for anything more than reppin’ the club and stroking the coaches’ egos when they can say their team is “elite”. Give me a break.

C'mon. They aren't awful. There is a lot of talent there. The problem is that they haven't really been coached in the 4 years they been in the program. As is evident this year more than ever, the Crabs model is to bring in better kids, not to develop the talented kids that they already have. There are a few good coaches in the Crabs program. Unfortunately for this particular team, they've never gotten to play for any of them.

This is such B.S. and many of you winey parents obviously never played the game. The coaches don't give the ball to the studs the top players go get the ball and earn it. Coaches may design an offense but the players execute and make plays. You get better playing with great players. I know many players that may not have been a the top of the stat chart in 8th grade who went on to become D1 players. The key is talk to your son if he is enjoying the team great if not don't sign up and pay. Many kids learn and push themselves at practice to get better and learn by playing with other great players. It sounds like you get bitter on the sidelines if your son is not the leading scorer on the team but it is not about you. No one cares about you. If your son is not happy than yes move to another team.

You ain't kidding. And the kids that they are bringing in from Texas are well known and are STUDS -- particularly the left handed attackman that has been regularly playing at the 20/21 levels from his local club. He (and the other recruits) have made frequent appearances in our area and nearby courtesy of NLF events. They will be very competitive (and potentially the best in the elite division) IF all of these kids make it in on game day.

Flying in for a weekend for a summer tournament is one thing. Are people really flying in from Texas and Florida for a single game on a Saturday afternoon in the spring?

They better fly, train, bus ,Uber everyone they can get because they will need it! I hope one of them is a goalie too.

Where have you been hiding? Millon hands out Southwest Airlines credit cards at Team 91 Texas tryouts.

^Spoken like one of the aforementioned type coaches defending yourself, or just a super gung-[ChillLaxin] parent that truly has no clue what goes on in some of these clubs. The guy that replied with the quote "Trust the process" clearly knows whats up and has experience with one of the absolute worst of these youth coaches.

"Trust the process" and watch an unscrupulous club take your money and then recruit once the team roster is set. Hey, what's to stop a top club from doing what the D1 HCs do, put 50 on a roster. In the recruiting wars its more about I want the top 50 guys so you can't have them.....

So if you had a 22 who should they play for? Is anyone "doing it right?"

Any good early season scrimmage games or tournament games coming up?

You’ve come to the wrong place to ask that question.

DC Express!

Next Level event on 3/11 should be an early indicator for some teams. DCE Club Blue NL Madlax VLC and others will be there

every club has a crazy coach, uses holdbacks, flies kids up from Texas and has the worst parents...i think that covers about all of it.

Where is this being played?

No brainer...If good enough...Crabs! If not...any of the rest

What teams are playing in the league at St.Pauls?

Poor business practices. Nice practice facilities. Mainly nice parents. Average coaching. Formulaic. Subject to replacement at any moment due to brand centric nature of business plan. Agree that before club expansions, they WERE the Mercedes Benz of clubs. Now a very good "import" but made in Japan.

Lots of good competitive clubs at all levels. I would suggest that you not subject your son to mindless driving great distances for a club, but try to stay local and support his educational requirements, while at the same time giving him the opportunity to compete at an appropriate level. If you son is able to play for an MIAA-A team in high school, that will be his most direct path to success in terms of numbers of opportunity to play in college. Club is no "guarantee" of placement, but can help if the program director is "respected" by college coaches approached which is a big "if" these days. College coaches generally dislike clubs and their growth and are staging a sort of rebellion against them by running their own camps, evaluations and events outside of the club circuits. No club organized recruiting events are a good means of assistant coaches to earn a fee without doing much. A VERY complicated world has emerged. MIAA-A schools have superior guidance departments and awareness of enrollment requirements and can exert influence in process. Need grades and test scores -- of course -- but can be a great resource to place your son both academically and athletically. Clubs used to be the way, but that is now changing somewhat. Will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out in the next few years. (Same analysis is applicable to WCAC and other "power" conferences).

I agree that playing for a MIAA-A school is the best bet for college placement. Same for some other Private school leagues. But what is the best way for a Public high school kid with good grades on a avg high school team?
Top Club team, Prospect days, or showcases or all of them.

Top club team and targeted camps/prospect days.

Coaches will find great players even if they aren't in the MIAA. They need to be on a top tier club that exposes and promotes their kids. They need to be on a team where they can showcase their talent, not ride the bench. Showcase and prospect days, but not for another year or two for this group.

Agree with all of this. Though whether a public school HS coach or a private school coach, all of that community/fraternity know each other, and can send video and commentary to ANY coach on behalf of a potential recruit -- as effectively as any club coach or organization. Case in point is a kid from a very average HS that I know that did not play on a club, but who had the full endorsement of his head coach -- a veteran of 25 years coaching at every level. These guys know each other and operate in a very small community/fraternity as can easily be observed at the several conventions held each year in Baltimore. This Coach reached out through his contracts to the service academies for the kid and he was eventually able to steer him into a USMA invite to campus where he worked out and was recruited.

There are so many ways to expose a prospect. There is no one right or more effective path. Point being that club lacrosse is just another and very uncertain path. It has yet to demonstrate supremacy of the process. I still contend that if you play in a power league in HS, every coach of note will know that you play, for example, in the MIAA-A or WCAC or in a public school in AA, Baltimore, Montgomery or Fairfax counties. Cheap to research, and even cheaper to send an email to the HS head coach. Of course, you should have a video available and sell yourself once introduced by making a trip to a college of choice and working out in the manner that such college of choice wishes you to workout. Showcases = crap shoots. No demonstrable metrics as to results at this point. Prospect days are similar. They each represent trying to find the "diamonds in the rough". Guidance office + head coach + campus visits are as effective as you can get at this point, though alternatives, as noted exist. Truthfully tougher for kids that don't play regularly in the "hotbeds" which force a good number of those kids to schools that board, or attempt to gain attention through a willingness to transfer or perhaps do a PG year.

Any thought on miaa B or C schools? Quaility of lacrosse?

When you say visit I agree but I would say a visit followed up with you playing for this schools prospect day is a great way to get on that roster. Because no coach will go all in from Video and other coaches saying he is great. They will want to see your son up close and personal. So I guess I am saying step 1. Get video step 2. reach out to schools you think you fit 3. If they reach back schedule visit and inform what prospect day you are coming to there school. These steps are what I would say work best for the D2 and D3 kids for sure. The D1 kids are found because they are who they are. They pop out on every field they play on at all times. Its like Po*n you know when you see it. There is no definition.

Why did 3d 2022 disappear? They did well in Hoco AA league. Seems like club was on way up and not the way out. Where did kids go? I know Brooks left, was that what killed it?

RM will have his team ready in the Spring. He's importing key components from TX and is drilling the rest of boys hard. Look for only the best to play and the rest to ride the pine. You're either part of the future or you're not. No one cares how much you paid. This is about the brand (club and personal). A lot of these club coaches will be shocked how much this Crab team has improved.

Shocked? Everyone is expecting them to be legit as they always are for 8th grade year. This is the time RM makes no bones about what he is willing to do to win games for his brand. If by future you mean this spring> because he will have a completely different roster for the summer. Its never about the money for Crabs or their parents , they want to win by what ever means necessary . With all that said I hope your kid is one of the studs if not he will not be around come summer. I think most will feel shocked if they don't win everything this year. It will be very disappointing when they lose. In fact it will be a SHOCK'

Spring Tournaments / Play days
Whose doing what?

They still don't have a FOGO which has been their biggest issue all these years. Hard to beat good teams when you never have the ball.