US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys High School

What exactly is being the best at all costs IN HIGH SCHOOL?

Is the assertion that folks want your mediocre to terrible kids to get on the field because alumni daddy was a second string tight end back in 93 and bought a few bull roast tickets?

When you are top 15 in the nation - at any sport - the objective is to win and to get the best players possible.

Seems like folks are advocating for participation trophies at the highest level of the sport.

Just send your kid to whatever C conference school or whatever but stop whining.

Winning at all costs means building dorms for athletes and recruiting from all over the country to compete in a league located in Maryland - it is as ridiculous as it sounds. The win at all costs national recruiting model schools should play a national schedule similar to St Francis football. And, alumni can affect change (like it or not) when the schools direction goes off the rails - see Gilman football.

Not the first School to have a narrow field. Hargadon Field was 7 yards too narrow (and very close to the stands on the hill side) before the turf was installed. Cozy grass "band box" for a 10 man ride.

Nice long way to spell “entitlement”

If your son isn’t good enough to play on XYZ team, take him to someplace appropriate to match talent level and playing time.

You’re basically saying “play my kid at all costs” as opposed to “win at all costs.”

Lets keep this simple. The sport needs a reset-mainly by the parents so that approximately 90% of freshman turn age 15 sometime in their freshman year and 90% turn 18 in the year they graduate. Then and only then let the chips fall where they fall. Compete for your spot and move on. Then we have a level playing field. All this stuff about trophies for all-knock it off, nobody is asking for that and you know it....

Hargadon is a dangerous old relic. Hopefully they start using the new back field.

Your ringing the holdback bell. Which is fine and I agree with it.

But the previous post was about out of town kids taking “spots.”

It’s nuanced but IMO out of town kids who are on age are different (and don’t bother me) than your standard issue holdback (who I’ll always think are weaksauce).

Most parents that actually see their kids know what level they can play at. Unrealistic parents are the ones crying about playing time in HS. Everyone should play nonsense.

Can’t wait for Severna Park and Broadneck to destroy St M and Severn next week. It’s gonna be glorious. The Quarter zips around here will be making lots of excuses.

Not going to happen. Hargadon is the performance field. Fans are on top of the game: ie the students can impact the outcome. That and BL are the two best fields in the Conference.

April’s Fools day was a few days ago.

All the Chad’s on here are cringing at the thought of losing some poor public school kids.

Valid point and still only lost by one.

Losing some poor public school kids? Did they miss the bus when the drunk bus driver finally showed up?

St M will win by a minimum of five goals and most likely more. It depends on whether Severn's top offensive players are back yet or not. Those games would be closer but I would still bet on Severn. Different universe of training and competition. The recent past was an anomaly. SM has one of their stronger teams in recent past.

Don’t think any player from either team would start for Severn or st Mary’s

All the Travises on here are cringing at the thought of someone pointing out that their $900K homes in the nation's wealthiest school districts in Anne Arundel, Howard, and Montgomery Counties (to say nothing of Fairfax, Arlington, or DC) doesn't warrant their "my kid is tougher and had to work for it - you know - public school! " chip on the shoulder.

Median home prices are in excess of $1M for all us qtr zips. Maybe you need to “go hit the wall…”

You talking this year? 🤪

SP’s goalie starts for anyone isn’t that right dad

When in doubt - HIT THE WALL

Both SP and Broadneck have 2-3 that would start for Severn. Maybe 1-2 at StM. These games shouldn’t be close. But something tells me they will be.

Won’t be close. These publics schools should play other public schools or MIAA B and C teams. MIAA A is the strongest league in the country.

post of the week right here

St Marys is by far the best MIAA team we’ve seen this spring. They will roll Severn. And we’ve played both teams, trust me when I tell you that StM is legit!

Bottom line is some schools in the MIAA feel like they need to recruit nationally and board players to compete and others don’t. Perhaps, schools like BL are looking at the local demographics and feel it is their best economic interest to attract students from outside of Maryland to fill their classes. I always thought BL was a solid niche school with a strong lacrosse tradition and this would not be necessary. But, times are apparently changing and good for them to make strategic move.

Troll alert!

Severna Park and Broadneck will give their private amigos tough games. StM and Severn know it. The kids know it. But the trolls are looking for bulletin board material.

So all four games will be like an intrasquad scrimmage, the #1s vs the #2s. Another question: Over the past several years, Gilman and SP program boosters have posted that they're young and re-building. Is the re-building process a perennial one or will we actually see these programs make the semis in the near future?

They are both taking a cue from the Orioles "Always Rebuilding!"

Seriously though, I think it's more true for St. Paul's than it is for Gilman. Gilman is heavily recruiting middle school players like I've never seen. I think their "rebuilding" hasn't truly started yet. However St. Pauls as a B level team seems to be experiencing some positive growth, traction, whatever. Let's see how it shakes out in another 6 weeks.

Gilman already has a very strong 8th grade class. Probably the best in town this year.

Because they’re really 9th graders.

A lot of them definitely are - Gilman splits their Kindergarden class into 2 and holds a decent amount back before 1st grade each year I believe

St. Paul's & BL pull that pre-first stuff as well. I have to say that because middle school feeder programs give the attached high a leg up, it is rewarding when a schools like CHC, MSJ, Spalding, Curley, John Carroll etc...
have success in whatever sport it is. There road to success can certainly be a little more windy.

Good for them.

IAC starts up this week with Bullis vs St Albans (4/7); Prep vs Landon (4/8); and SSSAS vs Episcopal (4/8)

Predictions:

Bullis by 2-3
Prep big by +5
SSSAS by 3-5

Severna Park and Broadneck have nothing to lose. They just want to play competitive games. All of the kids know each other, the families are all friends, and it should be a great two days of games. I think St Marys will handle both teams and the Severn games will be closer with the possibility of going either way. I could be wrong, but who really cares. It will be the best teams in AA County playing and competing!

St Marys and Severn goalies are really good. Broadneck goalie is good too. I think there is one kid at each position on the public teams that could compete for a starting spot on St Marys or Severn.

One think that is for sure Severna Park and Broadneck would beat Spalding and have done it in the past.

You're talking about pre-school. Kids repeat pre-school instead of starting kindergarten because they are not ready academically, socially, and emotionally; not because there is a grand plan to have older kids playing lacrosse against younger kids in the future.

Yeah, that's why I clarified when they repeated. I wasn't suggesting that it was a scheme to have an older lax team 10 years later.