US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums PENNSYLVANIA LACROSSE PENNSYLVANIA FORUM Main Forum Philadelphia & Vicinity

Freedom seems to get the philosophy of developing their players. This isn't a shot at Brotherly Love but they cycle players in and out of their program in an effort to chase trophies. I'm not sure who the top central PA team is.....we have played a few but you never know what you are getting. Many of the kids end up playing further south in Maryland but are PA players.

agree with consistency of freedom, they do it well.[/quote]

LOL....you can ask Freedom who is #1 at 24 and they will tell you....[/quote]

Please keep the PA board civil and let us be classy unlike the other boards. Even though everyone in PA has a spirited rivalry let's keep sportsmanship.

Agree with the civility. This entire ranking thing to me seems like a fools errand. What I can't resolve in my head is what exactly is the benefit of being #1. Coaches recruit individual kids not teams based on their ranking.

You clearly have no clue what you are talking about...the 23 and 24 BL teams have had the same core kids for years. Freedom 23 would be an example of cycling players to chase W's...

Better teams will draw more coaches to there games ...you will see a lot more coaches on the sidelines of a 91 team than (add any team not in the top 20)....

Both Brotherly Love and Freedom have open tryouts each year through high school. It's not unexpected that some players will leave (whether on their own or not) and new players will take their place.

Stop BL 23 has replaced more kids in the last 3 years than Freedom 23. Same 18-20 kids on Freedom over the last 3 years.

The same holds true with BL 24. And the same holds for EVERY program in the lacrosse business. It's a function of the environment that every club at every age group in every geography deals with. BL isn't special or different. heck not just the core but their entire 22 team up and vanished. "Core" and all.

Bottom line: parents find and choose the the program that they feel comfortable with and fit in. My son could change programs and get more wins - but he is happy, getting better and I feel good about the coaches. There are a lot of good clubs to choose from in this area. I thank God my kid isn't on any "Team 91" team. But that's me.

Exactly. How many of us grew up with the "all star" 12-13 year old who would not even start on their varsity high school team because they never developed in the game.

Also...didn't BL '24 replace half their players last year to make a run in the WSYL?

I heard HHH lost some key pieces on their 25s who went back to their original clubs. Anyone knew how many total left or if it was just a one off type thing being overhyped?

Wrong and no....

Posters in this forum are basically just BL and Freedom parents go back and forth about who lost players to where. I'm assuming this is just a Freedom parent stirring the pot. Pretty transparent. NEXT!

My son doesn't play for BL, Freedom or HHH. His team added a known kid who left HHH and I was led to believe he wasn't the only one. My son asked how many others were leaving HHH and the kid said his dad told him not to talk about which I respect, but wondered if anyone on here actually knew it there were others.

Kids leave teams all the time. What's the big deal? General year-to-year grass is greener churn or is there a problem in the program?

Ok so your son plays for NXT which is cool. HHH had a bunch of kids leave there last year and showed up at NXT. Every program has warts and every program isn't an ideal fit for everyone. Some kids are leaving NXT, some are leaving BL, some are leaving Freedom..etc etc etc. I know a bunch of kids left HHH because of distance to practice, bottom line this is just the general churn that happens every year at every club.

Any fall league planned for PA lax? Anyone involved with NXT on here who can say if they explored playing the Mid-Atlantic spring league this fall? So many football leagues cancelled that conflicts would be low. We have many solid clubs within a short drive, it seems like it would be possible to organize a league.

I sure hope there's a fall league. I've heard rumors, but nothing even close enough to concrete to make me feel comfortable that something happens. Parents will pay up in this area if anyone has the ability and resources to run a league.

3 PA teams in top 25 of national rankings out today. Tigers at 8, Freedom and Roughriders back to back at 23 and 24. Questions: why do Tigers have a 2026 and no other teams? How are the consistently so good? Why is 2026 the only good PA RR team? They have a few other descent ages, but not strong in general outside their 26s and definitely none near top 25 nationally?

Tiger XXVI was a lax player, became a dad and wanted a team for his son, no interest in the drama of running a full club. They have very little turnover on that squad which leads to consistency on the field. PA RR 2026 is just better than their other teams, not sure what you're asking. Not as good an organization overall as Freedom, BL, NXT in the area just happen to have one nationally legit team.

2026 is an odd age in PA as NXT and BL have never had strong squads nor have recruited much for that age (at least yet). Team 10 fell apart at this age after being strong a couple years ago. Mesa was much weaker this summer and will slide even further going forward. Dukes has become laughable as they played one tourney and got blown out in all 4 games. It’s kind of sad Freedom and RR are the only teams who can hanging without out of state squads at 2026.

No offense, but no one cares about 2026s yet. Give them another year or two before taking it too seriously in terms on records, rankings, development etc.

No offense, but no one cares about 2026s yet. Give them another year or two before taking it too seriously in terms on records, rankings, development etc.[/quote]

Why do people feel the need to post things like the above if they don't have a kid in a specific age group? World doesn't revolve around you HS kid, and someone was posting decent insight on who is doing what.

Why do people feel the need to post things like the above if they don't have a kid in a specific age group? World doesn't revolve around you HS kid, and someone was posting decent insight on who is doing what.[/quote]
Agreed, if you don't care about a post just ignore it. I don't have a 2026 but still like reading about any Philly area lax and appreciate the info. This is a great area for lax that gets ignored too often before the high school level. Its nice seeing some youth teams in the national rankings.

Did the LSM move on from HHH? That kid is going to contiue to dominate until he is a rising Sophomore. He will always be a great player just not contorl the flow of the game like he does now.

What age?

How about the Philly board talks up its good teams and players and does not devolve into petty boards like these New York and Maryland ones? Let us be better.

Ummm, no one posts on anonymous msg boards to be only nice. Kind of pointless to not reveal your name unless trying to overhype your own kid/team or provide good info that you don't want attached to you/your son. Thanks though, Snowflake.

As the previous poster said, let's keep the Philly board open and mature - lots of good discussion to be had, a lot to be proud of.

Is the best kid on the 2025 HHH still there or did he leave. Don't see an LSM on man up to often, even at 7th grade. Is that better?

Will there be Philly area lax tourneys in the fall or will we have to keep trekking down to Delaware? I assume the use of school fields will still be an issue.

Keep talking like that and you'll be walking into an impromptu interview with Chris Hansen.

US Club Lax Updated 2026 Rankings, congratulations to all the local teams...way to represent the area!

6. Tigers XXVI
23. PA Roughriders Elite
28. Freedom Red
30. Big 4 HHH
38. Mesa
39. NXT Black
54. Dukes Young Guns
63. Brotherly Love
69. Rising Sons Navy
80. HEADStrong Lehigh
84. Team 11
89. Team TEN
95. iM3 Lacrosse
100. Team Money

I am not familiar with a couple of those clubs, but congrats to all, keep representing for SE PA on a national lax level.

Echo the sentiments, particularly on this somber day in America's history- God Bless the USA! Surprised Freedom is not > than RR as Freedom beat the RR this season. Both good teams.

Played in college long time ago and my daughter played right after the Tigers tonight.We got there 20 minutes early and what I saw was a high level D1 practice for 7th grade kids. Ball was moving.Wish my son was on their age group and 7 world class coaches for one team? One of their parents said that was not even half of the coaching staff and the kids play all the time. It felt like Friday Night Lights but for lacrosse with parents watching like it was a college game,WTH is going on.

2025 ranks great in PA:

6. HHH
7. Team Ten
16. BL
18. Tribal (close by)
40. NXT

PA Youth Lacrosse strong.

USA!!! Let's keep things positive and misinformation off the Philly board please. At 2026, RR and Freedom have not played this year. It doesn't even look like they were at any of the same tournaments (Freedom at Meltdown, Million and Philly Middle School while RR played Summer Slam, Platinum Cup and Blue Hen). Agree both teams are very good, but RR probably ends up higher as they beat two top 20 teams FCA and VLC. Too bad we don't have a fall league for all these good locals teams to square off.

As a Freedom dad I agree we should be ranked higher, but we didn’t play RR this year. I think they beat us last year, but that shouldn’t come into play for 2020 rankings.