Back of THE CAGE Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND MAIN FORUM Boys 2030 Midatlantic

Thoughts on Hoco alignment for 2030s?

Looks like the DC area teams have aggregated the top kids amongst BLC MadLax and Next Level. Any changes? Any other teams paying in Hoco? VLC?

Seems Annapolis talent was split between Hawks, Mesa & True with mediocre results in AAA. Is Mesa still around? If not are the kids now on Hawks or True?

In Baltimore many of the kids are staying with their Rec/Club programs. Crabs were bottom 3rd of AA. FCA and 91 2030 teams are new for this year. LTRC beat Kelly Post in championship. Hoco Blue Claws not far behind. Any of these teams move up? FCA a top upper level team? Guessing some of them were playing with their 29 team. Crabs get better?

Can't wait until spring.

2030 AAA
1 Madlax Capital
2 Next Level
3 FCA
4 True Annapolis
5 Annapolis Hawks
6 Bethesda Blue
7 LTLC
8 Team 91

2030 AA
Wolfpack
Kelly Post Grey
Baltimore Swarm
Blue Claws
Crabs
HoCo
True Severna Park
VLC Cleary/Kilgannon
Sidewinders

2030 A
Madlax DMV
Zingos
Cannons Select
ALC Bay Raiders
Kelly Post Green
Bethesda Orange
Arden Diamondbacks
Ville
BAYS River Dawgs
Team Maryland

In Baltimore, if your kid is on a AA or AAA rec club squad (at this age) and they aren't having massive player/coach defections, there is no reason to leave. Cost is low and the teams bond well over the years. That said, LTLC is going to get hammered this year. Team 91 as well. The problems with rec clubs can be seen at LTLC....while the 2029 squad is fantastic (and keeps getting better), the 2028 squad just has not developed and is in the bottom 10% of MD clubs. That's why I say if your son is a 2030 or 2031 and the rec club team is already good, it will probably get better. Don't bail.

In Annapolis, Mesa is gone. The 2029s went (overall) to Koopers but unsure about the 2030s. Maybe that's "True Severna Park." On the other hand maybe True is just trying to position itself to buy out Diamondbacks and/or Sidewinders.

DC talent, in order, is Madlax, NL, BLC, and VLC. True DC could not get a roster together at 2030.....and barely has a roster at the older age groups.

API will no longer have lacrosse - the owner of API says there are too many lax programs in our area and the amount of complaining outweighs the profits

When any business owner says that, I always encourage people to do the math to help you reveal their priorities.

With several clubs at the middle school level charging above and beyond $2200/year, netting the club $50-60K/year per team, gross rev.

Assume: club is a nonprofit, as almost all are (no taxes).

Revenue:
$52,000 dues
$3,000 optional "winter training" dues
$1,000 kickbacks on licensed gear, cleats, sticks, etc/partnership deals
Total: $56,000 income

Costs:
$20000 to club director (API in this case)
10000 head coach (contractor, no taxes paid by club)
$5000 asst coach (contractor, no taxes paid by club)
$1500 for an assistant to run the teamsnap, book tournaments etc (contractor)
$2000 HoCo League registration
$8000 tournament registrations (6)
$2500 uniforms (if you don't make the families pay extra),
$4000 in field rentals (often half field, split with another age group)
$2000 assorted supplies, goalie pads, balls etc
Total: $55,000 costs

So if the API director fields just 4 teams, and outsources 100% of the work to coaches and admin staff, he would have $80K income per year guaranteed, in addition to his other businesses and ventures. Boo hoo?

LOL plus technically he is paying himself for some of that field team, by paying club dues to API.

I am not sure what API is or why even we should care. As stated, there are ample programs and opportunities for kids to find a fit. If profit is the motive/end game for a club owner, not sure I would even want to put my kid in that program.

Dude. Every club owner is doing it for the money. Under the guise they want to grow the game. But if any of them wanted to grow the game they would focus on rec where all the other kids who can’t afford club have to play. But there isn’t any money in that so why bother….🤷‍♂️

API used to have a good program - the market has become saturated.

That's certainly part of it. But they've had backyard competition (Sidewinders, about 5 miles away) for 10+ (I think) years. Sure, the failed Mesa-MD effort and "True Severna Park" (lol) is less than helpful. But it is not awfully difficult to have a "decent lacrosse product" (from Elite to A to Rec) and have it be a profitable enterprise.

The owner's comment of "too many complaints" tells me that it used to be easier to recruit a good roster (at whatever level) and parents' expectations were lower. Again, take a look at the Sidewinders page, it discusses coach:player ratios, average practices per year (85), touches per practice etc.

As a business owner I look at the API owner's attitude about this and kind of write it off as, "It used to be easy for me to net $90K/year out of this, now it takes 3x as much work to net $200K." His choice as the head of Diamondbacks I guess, but I hope he does not expect anyone to feel sympathy that parents today expect a better product (and more of it) than parents 10 years ago.....and today's parents are being charged to the hilt for it.

For those of you new to Back of the Cage.... the owner of MadLax loves to post anonymously ... shocking he suggests ML is top in DC talent. 2030 ML couldn't beat Lutherville-Timonium Lacrosse Club, best case is finish 4th in HoCo behind BLC, NL, and Hawks. DC Express has taken over the top spot in DC for the older ages.

Don't worry Madlax is not the only one. 91 does the same.

Does anyone know why Crabs is playing down this year. They are beating other teams by 10+ goals.

My guess is because they went 1-6 last season. They were listed as a 2030/2031 team in 2021 but looks like they are a true 2030 team now. They will be moved up a division next year.

Does anyone know anything about the Baltimore Swarm. I have not heard of them before but it seems like they are very competitive in the AA division.