Back of THE CAGE Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM Girls 2024-9th Grade Fall 2020/Summer 2021

Gotcha. That is what we gathered based on the 2019 US Club Lax final rankings as well as the level of play on the field.

We definitely noticed that the Eastern teams had excellent game IQ and stick skills, certainly compared to the Western teams. Probably because so many of our players are converted soccer players who are getting a bit of a late start to lacrosse. In general your teams play a more sophisticated offense compared to what is played out West, where many teams will give the ball to their one or two fastest players and have them try to score off isolation.

That makes sense because some of the teams you played have top level coaching where "me" ball is frowned upon. You also got to play both Maryland teams and a Long Island team which have different play styles.

Here, the top athletes with top level stick skills will concentrate in a few clubs. Those clubs will attract talent regardless of coaching, so the players themselves may be fantastic but their team ball may or may not be great depending on the coach assigned to the team. Regardless, they are generally very competitive because of the level of talent on the team. The next tier down will attract girls who are either great athletes but have moderate stick skills or the opposite, great sticks but moderate athletes, and lastly a few parents or girls who are tired of the top tier politics. Those middle tier teams usually survive on good coaching, because without it, they can't compete and would end up in the B tier and then have a mass exodus of players. The B tier is generally considered the "money grab", coaching is a hit or a miss, they get poor tournament selections and lousy brackets and players who for one reason or another are less committed.

Sounds a lot like the soccer landscape in SoCal. The elite clubs like Surf, Blues, Slammers get elite talent regardless of which coach is assigned. The next tier clubs get girls with high ceilings and/or average athleticism with excellent fundamentals, and coaching is what keeps them knocking on the door for the "super brackets" that everyone is striving to get accepted into for recruiting purposes.

I am hopeful that some of the better Western teams (Mad Dog West Elite, Team 180, Tenacity, Grit Dallas etc) can make more trips out East and have some success so that they might change the perception a little about Western lacrosse, and also get them an occasional invite to play against the M&D Black/Hero's/YJ/Monster (ie top 10) caliber teams. Right now it seems the best we typically gain access to is the top 10-20 teams, which is still awesome and significantly better than what we routinely see west of the Mississippi. The problem is that historically, other than the handful of Western teams mentioned above, there is not much depth, so typically when an average Western team comes out it either gets smoked or is placed in a very weak bracket.

At this point, I believe you will rarely, if ever see all the "Dream Teams" in the same pool. Most of the tournaments at 2024 and older are a "showcase" structure with the pools looking like they were seeding for a playoff bracket, except there isn't any playoffs. Therefore, you'll see one or two higher caliber teams in a pool with substantially weaker teams. I believe much of it has to do with politics and money. You cant have Super AAA Club beating Rockstar AAA club and then losing to Jedi Masters AAA - it's bad for business for all of them so the clubs don't want to risk the loss. They'd rather play weaker teams, go 3-0 and claim they're the best without ever having to put their money where their mouth is. At least, that is my opinion on what the girls lacrosse landscape looks like.

The Super Rockstar Jedi Masters Club - LOL

Such nice sentiments - Im glad you enjoyed your trip East!
As for the teams you played - MDU, Legacy, MDred were the good teams. Not sure about the others enough to say anything. Teams by year can really vary at these clubs. But to go 6-0 is excellent! Im just asking, but you had more than one or two girls score all of the goals right? Because that can happen in lacrosse - you can have one girl take care of most of the scoring and its crummy. She leaves for greener pastures in grade 7 or 8 and the team deflates.

Also Ive noticed- my daughter is older- that girls that dont make the A team dont accept the B team, they go to another club (if possible and not geographically undesirable- i.e. traffic, rush hour) to get on their A team.
As for playing style, the West teams are built around a few good scorers and the rest it can be up in the air, skills wise, but still very athletic. Playing basketball is an excellent segway to lacrosse! More than soccer! Ive got all three sport in my girl and I love BB the best.

When weve played at national tounaments (where we had to leave MD) the faraway teams all had a few great goal scorers but we always capitalized on unforced errors and rookie mistakes. I see it a lot when I look at film too. Its always a good idea to have a good film against good competition.
Faraway girls are also more hungry to suceed. My daughter has been playing since Kindergarten and shes a little tired of it to be honest.
You should check out SDSU. A lot of girls from Baltimore were going out there to play for a few years, they may have some girls who would love the extra money coaching a bit.

We were also there and the competition was tough . Skywalkers, Top Guns, Capitol and Monster. Capital and Top Guns had some impressive finishers. . They are heading in the right direction. Always nice to play competitive teams. Look forward to mid atlantic.

Got to see team 180 play at Mid Atlantic. They played Lakeshore a s really good players on both teams. Team 180 24 scheduled games with Md United and both M&D teams. Great experience for the girls. They too have some really good athletes that could play on top clubs in the East.

Is LI Top Guns Black their A or B team? Same question for Hero’s Green and Capital Blue. Also who is Cav Lax? They looked very good.

TG Black is A, Purple is B

As a point of reference, the top teams based on summer and fall results would be M&D Black, Monster, NEMS, Hero's Green, CT Griz Navy, Sky Walkers Blue, Team 180, Capital...Yellow Jackets Wiener is in the mix, but was not able to play anyone in 2020

TG Black looked very good at The Chesapeake. Their team put up points, but like many of the Long Island teams it was 2-3 girls doing the scoring. What happened to that team at The Mid-Atlantic? They looked like 2 different teams. Looked like TG 24 team from the past couple of years They couldn't get anything going on offense or stop anything on defense. Seemed like a different coach at Mid ? We definitely heard coach at Chesapeake.

They didn’t play anyone good. They are not close to competing with top A teams.

Those teams were good enough, take your negativity to another thread please.

Not negativity. It’s truth. Play the top teams and then beat your chest