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

Recruiting is much more than entering a good tournament and a coach watching your game. There has to be a real reason that BBL kids tend to leave every year. Most of their 2024 team stuck together but they’ve been struggling as of late.

That’s not really great for the kids who have been there for years and will now be moved to the back of the line. But I guess that’s the business of club lacrosse these days.

Unfortunately, club lacrosse is basically just that. Entering good tournaments and coaches watching your game. There are some validation done by the club coaches but all of the reputable clubs do the same thing. Having just gone through it, I can say it is way less important which club you play for than you think.

Just saw on instagram. LE had the Player of year, D Player of year, and Mid of the year? That is crazy.

They also have half their 2023s uncommitted, so…

Exactly its a business, these kids and their families made a move to another club. The new club offered the customer something that the old club did not. What that is/was is solely their discretion. It could have been coaching or a money decision. Only they know, They are the consumer and they choose to spend their money elsewhere. One way or another they saw value in moving clubs. There is no poaching, that's like saying Home depot poached Lowes customers. If you go to Lowes instead of Home depot, its your choice.

Couldn’t be further from the truth. There are 2-3 kids uncommitted.

Do any clubs have all of their 23s committed?

We have a Leading Edge Hater on our hands! Almost that entire team is committed with a couple more that are probably looking at high academic D3s. Take a look at their instagram or website closer and you'll learn. You are probably looking at Inside Lacrosse that has kids on the roster from over 2 years ago and is incorrect.

But yea, you're right, not enough commitments on one team.....

Maryland
Notre Dame
Bucknell
Villanova
Villanova
Denver
Monmouth
Brown
Middlebury
Salisbury
Yale
Navy
UMBC
Lehigh
Fairfield
Hofstra

Maybe team 91. In NJ, probably not.

If a recruitment year player is looking at a non typical college like Robert Morris, would the coach or director not go to bat for a kid if that college coach inquires, especially if the main players on the team have not committed to the "BIG" schools?

Second question is if a school comes to a coach with interest in a kid, but the kid is not one of the coaches favorites, does the coach still try to help that kid get into that program?

I am assuming the coach try's to give the positives of the kid as it still is a commitment to a college but I am interested to hear what happens.

My take…
1. Its not as clear cut as “schools get to pick in order of how good they are.” Directors SHOULD treat every kid individually. If RoMo wants info on a kid, the director should facilitate no matter where other kids are in the process. It should be best fit, not best school/lacrosse team.

2. Double edged sword. The director has to do right by the players and the college coaches. If he acts like a used car salesmen and tells a school how great, hardworking, etc., a kid is and then it turns out to be a complete lie, that coach won’t trust the club/director in the future.
I would anticipate the director is positive where he can be, but won’t compromise a long-term relationship with a school/coach.

I seriously hope no club director anywhere so petty that he won’t help a good player based on “not being a favorite”

I agree with this take.....I would like to ad to this by saying I wouldn't think a coach or director would actually down play a player even if he is on the bottom of the barrel as he obviously has some talent and maybe he will fit into a program that's not a big name as the others. Likewise, I hope they would not hold someone back to commit low level, just to get their stud to Harvard first. Just get them all committed if possible esp. if the college coach came asking.

I do not disagree with anything said above, but I think the college coach coming to a club coach is more likely in the initial stages of the recruiting process (i.e. 9/1). Theses coaches have to work somewhat fast in order to get their top prospects and probably want a read on a kid because of timing. Since they cannot really engage with player and get them on campus before 9/1, I suspect that a lot of the due diligence involves the club coach or director (or high school coach if a top lacrosse high school).

We have an LE jock sniffer on the board!!!

I guess the other kids reclassified to 2024 or left the team.

Of course not. But those other clubs don’t claim that 80% of their players go D1.

LE ‘s numbers are impressive. Do they actively help get players recruited or do they have the best players who are east to get recruited ?

Both with emphasis on the latter.

Did tri-state 2026 have a lot at the tryout?

Yeah, curious about Trisate 2026. They are strong in other grades but didn't even field a 2026 team this past year. Normally I would say they can build a good team, but Towermen dilutes the available talent in this grade. MadDog probably does the same with the top short kids.

Not sure the exact story on what happened to Tristates 26 team last year, but heard they had a mutiny after one of the coaches left (at least that is the rumor). But was at their tryout last night and looked to be 40-50 kids trying out for 2026 team which is impressive given there was no base to start from last year. They looked to have at least 50 kids trying out for 24, 25, 26 and 27. So huge turnout across the board. The older two grades looked to have 70-80 kids.

Wonder where the kids came from? kids that got cut from LE, BBL? Any Towermen leakage?

Only 1 kid left towermen and that was because he is going to play on a 2027 team and is reclassing.

There is no doubt that they have a lot of committed kids, they do a great job aggregating very good players on to their teams, but as you can see with most of the better NJ clubs, they are regularly putting kids on the same teams. One of the big differences that I have noticed with LE, as compared to the other NJ clubs, is that they have a very demanding practice and game schedule, not a negative, but definitely a grind, and not for everybody, but I guess that it really gives your kid an idea of what the D1 life is like.

And Prime Time won it while having to compete with Express and Eclipse for players for the NLF. LE having no development and poaching BBL, NJ Express, Mad Dog and True less impressive. LE let's another team in north Jersey into NLF and they will have to adjust that.

Tristate model...If you get enough of the best 2 or 3 kids from each NJ teams like, Mad Dog, Thunder, Riot, BBL non black, Patriot, steps, Team 91 NJ, True and Blue start you have a Team in the top 20 Us club every year.

Tristate model is poach in 9th and 10th LE model after LE poaches. LOL

You're looking at it from the perspective of the teams those kids are leaving. You could look at it from the perspective of the kids that move to Tri-State . . . they are moving from B programs to a AA team that allows them to compete in the best tourneys, against the best competition, and in front of the best coaches. It's a great opportunity for those kids. And the Tri-state HS coaches are legit and help take those kids to the next level.

Yes my son was a recent defector from a B program to a Tri-State HS team and it has a huge impact on his college prospects.

How do you feel about BBL “poaching” Riots recruiting director mid-summer?

Gorman (Bosco) also jumped to BBL North 2025 from Riot this summer. He's taking ~14 Chaos kids with him. BBL North kept ~8 kids, cut the rest of the team. I think they also picked up two kids from Patriot Chrome to round out the team. BBL North has a legit AA 2025 team now.

Poached from Riot north for BBL north. I am sure he will do recruiting for central but BBL is having trouble establishing itself in Bergen County. Every club thinks they are going to be the one that figures out Bergen County lacrosse. Bergen County has a huge population and therefore a huge athlete pool but no clubs can get it to work for them at scale. Riot, BBL and Mad Dog are all trying to make Bergen work. And O2 and Patriot tried, struggled and gave up in Bergen.

Ok that makes sense about the Riot move to BBL. When I heard it , I didn't understand why bring a college recruiter to BBL North. No one on BBL North can play in college. At the BBL tryouts they did tell the parents they wanted to make 2 AA teams. Didn't see how they were going to do that. No one on Black team would stay if they moved them. Maybe take Helix, North and poached kids to North? North has never caught on.

NJ Riot has a bunch more commitments than LE at the 2023 level. And wasn’t one of the Villanova kids already committed with his other club? Sounds like you’re trying to take credit for something somebody else did. Pretty familiar theme with LE.

No, the kids are moving from Chaos to BBL North.

Bbl is amazing k to 8th black or helix. Lots of practices all year. They want to be good in high school but LE and Tristate hurt that goal. BBL black does not turn over the bottom of their roster so helix and now north and shore kids can’t break in to black so they go to mad dog shore and tristate.

What team did he move from?

^^^^ this

Gorman coaching the 2025s explains why their top kid is going to Bosco next year.

That is spot on. By the time you get to HS at BBL it is clear that you don't have a shot at the Black team, so everyone leaves. I don't think they have a Helix team in HS and not because BBL doesn't want the business. Pretty dense. Just fuels Tristate, Riot etc's business.

LE gets bashed on this forum for having no loyalty and cutting kids. BBL is now getting a hard time because they don't cut enough kids to make room for Helix/North/Shore kids? It's hard to balance when trying to be competitive.