US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NEW JERSEY LACROSSE NEW JERSEY FORUM Top Boy's Club Teams in New Jersey

Everybody gets it, let them enjoy the moment

Is it that they cater to the west coast, or is it just that those kids are better? Seems like the NJ Mad Dog kids jump ship to other NJ clubs but only a few are actually elite level players. Mad dog at the high school level has been doing very well. Usually better than most NJ clubs.

Great question for the MD 2021 and MD National 2021 kids from NJ....all very good players....and what MD team at the high school level is better than most NJ clubs, other than 2021,, or are you referring to the MD West teams. MD West has been very successful because they were early into the market and aggregate a lot of good west coast kids for their National team.

Not sure they cater but Mad Dog NJ only pulls from a small area of NJ. Difficult to build a competitive team from a few shore towns. MD high school teams are National Teams. They have the best players from Texas to CA, they should be better than everyone.

BBL vs Team 91 for WSYL U14 Championship. LFGNJ!!!!

How do you watch the game today?

Games on tomorrow on ESPN "U" and "2" or the APP.

Thoughts on 3D Garden State their 2025 team looks strong. Does anyone know anything about them into highschool.

They have some good teams in New England, and a pretty decent national team, but not a strong presence in NJ

BBL played very well on ESPN. Nice Jersey represent

Awesome to see Jersey break through on the big stage. Getting closer. Trophy is next.

Does LE ever take back kids they cut at a young age- middle school.

LE will take anybody that they think is good enough...question is, why would you ever go back when there are so many other options

I have no info specific to LE. But would assume any club would take a player back if they would improve the team.

This assumes the following:
1) The player improved relative to his peers and/or addressed any issues with attitude/coachability.
2) The player wasn't cut because his parent(s) are toxic.

It’s rare but Possible. Not worth it in my opinion. A lot of kids left/got cut and went on to play in college via other programs. The bottom half of LE teams are not really recruited and you’d be better off elsewhere.

[quote=Anonymous]Does LE ever take back kids they cut at a young age- middle school.[/quote

Don’t bother. Club is trending down and not worth it. Gonna be a Team 91 of some kind soon. Stay where you are and be great.

Thanks, club director. LE, not the only game in town anymore. It really depends on what you want in a club. LE is more for a lacrosse-only kid. TriState, Blue Star, and Riot are putting kids in college.
If your son just wants to play, keep him where he is. if he is going to be 6'2" or 5'10" and runs a 4.60/40 LE could be a good fit.

Team 91 NJ needs to combine its teams, I believe there are three of them not including Leading Edge which is separate, into one central location and make a more competitive team. It is ridiculous to have so many separate teams from one state. If you have enough players just have an A&B and hopefully the kids can move up. The 8th grade thru high school kids parents will be more than willing to drive, LE and BBL are examples of this, if the teams are better.

Most ages have south, west and north teams. Plus LE which is a Team 91 team but has been permitted to keep the LE name. It is simply another local team for A to B level kids. LE is the only AA team and all the good kids will gravitate to that teams once they get to 9th grade

I think that the issue is that high school is a completely different experience at LE, their youth teams are not a strong feeder program. While I am sure that they find a few kids from their youth teams, which are not typically strong,, there is absolutely no loyalty, they have no problem cutting their own kids.

I do see what you are saying, but you would hope that if a kid on the current team is equal to a kid that is trying out, they most likely would keep their own.

At the end of the day, if a club is cutting weaker players to add better players that tryout at the high school level, how can you fault them? Damned if you do damned if you don’t. It’s probably better then demoting them to a B team to collect your check and play in B level tournaments to feel good about yourself, right ?

BBL partners with Team United.

Team United has agreed to become a member of the BBL Club system - bringing all of their players over to BBL Shore in a transformative moment in NJ club lacrosse.

Rough day for NJ 2023 & 2024 at the Lax Nationals. Those teams are basically 80% Leading Edge kids, which explains the poor showing. Most overrated club in NJ.

Interesting move. I guess someone’s got to pay for that nice bubble facility. BBL Helix and now south teams.

Even worse for the 2023s today.

Fogo was not there. Few others had injuries.

Interesting point brought up in another NJ forum. Thought it would be better discussion that Leading Edge vs BBL.

High School to Club relationship…what high schools are repped heavily on which clubs?

I think LE always likes “fresh players” if a team isn’t performing.. But I think depending on the year they already know who they want to add before the tryout unless a kid walking into the tryout is lights out. Or at least they are “encouraging” some kids to try out or have them guest play later in the season. That’s what I hear but who knows.

Heard bbl is losing their youth director but trying not to say anything until after tryouts….

We’ll if you’re that reliant on a FOGO, you’re not that good.

[quote=Anonymous]Interesting point brought up in another NJ forum. Thought it would be better discussion that Leading Edge vs BBL.

High School to Club relationship…what high schools are repped heavily on which clubs?[/quote

Top clubs- HS teams, in general:

Tri-State: Seton Hall Prep
Bluestar: Westfield, Pingry, Shawnee, Rumson, Christian Brothers
Leading Edge: Various good players but no real affiliation, seems like a shift toward shore like Wall lately.
BBL: All north jersey top youth programs
Riot: Bergen Catholic & Don Bosco
SouthShore: St.Augustine, etc
Patriot: Delbarton, sort of

There’s more but that’s the majors.

Heard the same. Tyler Russell is out as youth BBL director.

LE has number of Delbarton kids

Florham Park Sports Dome is owned by Conklin.

Hey do you have the particular position the director that is leaving holds? Communication has been horrible for the parents and they are getting very frustrated to say the least. I think the Club is getting a bit overly ambitious and losing sight of what got them to this point!!!!!!!! I'm good with comm as I have personal phone #s but it's not cool that these parents are out there with no direction on TeamSnap trying to get answers and no direction from any representative from the club especially the coaches, crickets!!

Sorry meant to be more specific in my first post. When you say youth director can I assume you mean the "central" youth director??????? To my recollection the "north" has a YD as well. Thanks just a parent trying to figure out if I should keep my kids in the program. Like I said it's getting pretty crappy on the BBL side of things as far as dealing with the parents concerns and questions as well as tournament logistics (BBL didn't register our team for a tourney and scrambled last minute and provided a subpar alternate tourney) also canceling practices due to WSYL for teams not in WSYL cause I guess those teams don't matter and now not making up the practices but yet going to tourneys when the boys haven't practiced in 3 weeks. All to say we got ROCKED by some nationally competitive programs, just embarrassed!!!!

All their website indicates is he organized events, training, and player development. I’ve heard great things about him and how he ran the youth. Big loss imo

Best kids at Delbarton are not on Patriot. That ship sailed. Steps is probably better than Patriot now.

BBL is running into what Tri-State did multiple years ago. Too many teams and spread too thin. They have to cover the costs of the full time coaches and employees. Do they have some talented teams ? Yes. That 2025 team is very good. But it is a matter of time before kids head for the hills to other clubs in NJ. The wheels can fall off rather quickly. For us, it is time to find a different club.

BBL also went to most of their players and told them they cannot try out elsewhere or there would be consequences. That is ridiculous. Essentially you can be cut or moved to the Helix team, but don't dare try out for another club.