Back of THE CAGE Forums NEW JERSEY LACROSSE NEW JERSEY MAIN FORUM WSYL Feedback

Hello what is the likelihood of this happening. My son is considering joining a team that is going for this.
Any advice appreciated.

The qualifiers for New Jersey are much easier than Long Island so if the team is strong you will have a shot at going. No doubt - the winner will be a team from Long Island. Personally, I would save the $10,000 it will cost to go out to Denver and put it toward the first year of private high school or private training. If you are looking for a fun vacation enjoy.

You have to say the team. For the 2026 team, BBL, Tribal, and Towermen have a chance to qualify from Jersey, depending on the PA and Maryland teams. To join a team like Tri-State at the 2026 level solely on the fact they go to the qualifier is probably not worth it as they will likely no qualify at the 2026 level.

Take it from someone who actually went to one and not from these fly by night shops who has never gone before and making up stuff here. 1) It's only worth it if the team you're bringing is competitive which means having decent chance of making the playoff. 2) Your family is not strapped financially and can make a vacation out of it. If you don't have those 2 things covered, then you most likely be disappointed.

Due to the fact teams can not use older kids / hold backs the qualifier competition is not as strong as you would think, especially when you have to face the Maryland teams. Its actually quite refreshing to see kids that are of normal size and/or normal maturity during this particular time of growth. This is coming from family who had positive WSYL experience.

Going into, I was not so excited due to expense, never ending opportunities for lacrosse to take your money, and comments from what I have learned are just negative people. However, it turned out to be a great entire family experience. It was well run. Everything about it was just well done - from activities to the venue. It served as family vacation with lacrosse. My one son who doesn't even play lacrosse absolutely loved the experience. Actually made stronger connection with brother who played and the team in general. Just book airfare early and stay at convenient hotel! Expensive,yes, but so are any nice vacations!

Ok thanks! Any team has to qualify. We are making a decision on training first and foremost.

Did your family enjoy it?

Don't sleep on United in NJ.. they have a very solid team. Rumor is LE is thinking about sending their 2026 & 2025s.

can an out of state town team go to long island qualifier?

WYSL has a distance rule on how far you live from the club's HQ. A kid from Philly area made LI Express in the last WYSL bec he lived within that radius.

This is the reason clubs like Annapolis Hawks and Madlax will never go to WSYL. If it wasn't age based, they probably would dominate it every year. This is why LI is king. I believe NJ will have a shot at winning it all in the near future.

No sleeping on any team necessary. Just qualify and compete and have fun while there. All of NJ lax community would celebrate a club that wins it all.

I think I read your question wrong. WSYL splits up the qualifiers by a set of regions. North region where NY(LI) is in incl CT as an example. CT cannot choose to qualify in the East Region nor can a NJ team try to qualify in the North Region.

LE has the NLF championships which are comparable!

Apples and oranges. NLF is not age based. Your kid can be competing against HS aged kids. And teams with most holdbacks are almost impossible to beat. Something LE is all too familiar with.

Holdbacks at this age are an enormous advantage. Most kids get their growth spurt at 14 which 8th grade for on age kids. That’s the year when most go from little boy to “man” where 6” in height and 35-40 lbs in weight in one year is commonplace. So quite literally, these holdback teams are “men” playing little boys. Holdbacks are mostly the product of boarding/prep schools. Long Island has very few holdbacks, relative to most other areas, most notably MD, simply because LI doesn’t have any real prep schools. MD, CT, MA are all loaded with them. That’s why when your sons on age LI team plays a MD team, that MD team likely has 80% of the starting lineup as holdbacks. I’m familiar with one 2024 MD team that played only one on age player, which, you guessed it, was the coaches son.

The funny thing is, even though the holdback advantage At this particular age is nothing short of flat out cheating. These MD, CT, NY, NJ teams need that “man” advantage just to be able to compete with on age “boys” from LI. Case in point: The 2024 91 Wolfpack team had one team, in 2019 when they went undefeated in the WSYL and crushed Legacy in the championship. That same on age team played all the holdback teams of the NLF and NAL that year, without a single holdback, and went undefeated that entire year. So don’t tell me the holdback teams are impossible to beat. They are inferior teams, with inferior players, from inferior regions that need to cheat by competing against boys, with teams of “men”, just to be able to compete with LI “AA” teams.