US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2028 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

No one cares about the “World Series” which no longer exists in its original form. The best teams are at NLF, Naptown, NAL, etc. in the summer. World Series being on age is interesting in theory but in practice it’s a pretty bad product so no one attends. If the WS was the gold standard tournament the mid Atlantic teams would send teams. Out of area teams often don’t know the circuit as well and prioritize random pointless tournaments with weak fields. The best metric of what area is best is the number of recruits to high level college programs and it is still overwhelmingly MD and NY dominating like they always have. Numbers haven’t changed much in the last couple of decades.

The product is fine.

That’s not why MD teams don’t attend.

You know that. You should also know why an on age tournament is a refreshing change once in a while.

Just because it doesn’t fit your clubs players doesn’t mean it’s a bad product.

Stop the propaganda.

Agreed - plenty of people “care” about the tournament. It’s a U13 tournament should have nothing to do with graduation year. There are plenty of excellent players within the hawks, Madlax, next level etc born after 9/1/09.

If most of the HoCo teams took there on age kids from 28 and pulled up the older 29s from their clubs they would probably do fine.

In fact Hawks and Madlax and maybe Next Level might win it based on how strong their 29 teams are.

There are 8 dozen reasons why this won’t happen but it would be fun for the kids.

Is the World Series of lacrosse only 13 U? Are there other age divisions as well? If not, why not?

Remember the last time the parents actually decided which tournaments their kids Tim would play in. Frankly, I think parents should have some influence on that, but clearly they do not.

I think if HoCo league just had a bye-week for that age group during the qualifier they might get some more MD teams.

You guys won’t send your teams because you know you would get crushed and it will hurt the club as a whole. Be honest with yourselves.

Boston Blue Jays was formed with the on age kids from the MA clubs like Laxachussetts and 3D NE and go play.

That could have happened with the MD teams also.

Black Ops from a few years ago did it down in this area if I recall.

Rumor has it a couple 28 Hawks will be playing at the WSL.

Fact.

With which team? Is there a local team being formed of on-age 28s from clubs in the region?

That would be the sensible thing to do, but they are back against the wall to get all the games played assuming there are no cancellations at all.

That doesn’t work. The World Series of lacrosse rules explicitly outline that you cannot form a team from multiple club teams. They do not want a “national“ team of kids from all over the place or even all over one specific area. Defeats the purpose

Ok, then I'll ask the question again to "Rumor has it" Dad: With which team are these 28 Hawks rumored to be playing?

As the Dad of a 2026 and a 2028, trust me when I say that all of you guys are chasing the wrong ball. Try not to get distracted by all the smoke and mirrors that other teams do in order to win, and that other families do to position their son for success (ie, holdbacks and reclass). Focus on YOUR SON and ask the basic questions - is he getting good coaching, are his teammates good players and nice kids, is he getting ample playing time, is he developing as a player and does he love the game. If another team has a ton of holdbacks (whether rumored or true) or they are borrowing Hawks players for the world series, or they are changing their name to bolster their ranking, or their parents are clowns on the sidelines, or the owner calls people ungrateful quitters, or whatever stuff goes on, who cares!
In two years none of this will matter and your son will be focused on making his HS team, and getting on the radar of college coaches. It all depends on how good a player he is, not what shenanigans other teams, coaches, or players are doing. If you doubt me, go over and look at the 2026 BOTC board right now. Two years ago the accusations and whining about holdbacks were as rampant as they are now on this board and the vitriol was flowing. But today, crickets. Parents have matured from 7th grade to 9th grade and realized that the holdback who you think is hiding around every corner is not where you should focus your attention.
Hope this perspective helps.

True Maryland is playing and had an open tryout to fill out their WS roster.

My kid played up [I know that's a novel concept to the MD/DC dads on here] at the World Series last year, and he had an absolute blast. He says it's the most fun tournament that he's ever played in.
My kid played up [I know that's a novel concept to the MD/DC dads on here] at the World Series last year, and he had an absolute blast. He says it's the most fun tournament that he's ever played in, and it's the tournament that he's most looking forward to this summer. Maybe we should all care less about what the dads think and more about what the kids think. It is still 7th grade after all.

But I understand how embarrassing it might be for the MD/DC teams and the holdback dads to play on age; you'll all still be safe staying at home.

Hi CM

I can’t tell if this is guerilla marketing or people really care about the World Series. My son is an on age player on a HoCo elite team and the last thing I’m interested in is another tournament. His team already plays in 7-8 high level tournaments each year. The holdback situation is never going to change for recruiting so the grade level is his competition and no single age based tournament is going to change that so I don’t see why anyone bothers. Out of MD/NY clubs can compete in normal grade based tournaments. Texas Nationals which is a Dallas area club is very good. You CO dads should focus on trying to be like them rather than whining about holdbacks all the time.

[quote=Anonymous]My kid played up
The 2026 hawks haven’t recovered from their lackluster on age showing.

The problem with True MD 2028 is that it was designed to be 10 kids from Cutters who actually play, and a few kids from True Baltimore who ride the bench/pay the fee. But 100 miles from Moose Club covers a lot of geography, and they could pick up a lot of kids who otherwise wouldn't touch the WS event. Good for them!

Dukes reached out to us and others to confirm if we are >100 miles from their home field, and thus ineligible (we're at 115ish miles, so, not eligible). They then put a tryout together to add to the eligible kids on their roster, which acc to the coach is 12-15 regular kids and looking to add 5-10 more. Same model as True MD basically.

Hawks roster covers a huge geography, but other AAA/elite teams in MD, not so much. Yes there are out of state kids and holdbacks on those teams, but not so many YET that you couldn't form a team from an existing roster and charge your parents even more money to play in the WSYL. Unless they are afraid of losing and damaging their brand on a large stage. Which.....could be the case.

Next Level, FCA Blue, even 91, even FCA White, even the New Scourge in Town Predators would lose maybe 5 kids each due to distance/holdbacks and field "just fine" WSYL teams at 2028 with just a supplemental tryout.

Exactly like DMV parents to ruin the 1 tournament that is supposed to be on age and for kids that actually are a TEAM, by trying to form a super team of kids that never play together, are on separate club teams and never will play together again after this 1 tournament. The adults as usual ruin everything.

The Crabs could probably field a team is they wanted to.

dense.

With all the issues around holdbacks ruining youth lacrosse - you don't see a value in having a fair on age tournament?
Do you really believe any of the 7-8 high level tournaments your 12yr old is playing in matters?
Aside from your college recruitment strategy for your 12yr old why wouldn't the only event that fairly plays on age with local kids not be a exciting?

Either your a holdback dad or the majority of your sons team consists of holdbacks and you know you can't compete on age.

If you are good, it doesn't matter if you are a holdback, if you are on age, or what team you play for. Coaches will find you.

Nah, here in the DMV we just retroactively change the team name if we get crushed to preserve our rep. Easy peasy.

Several teams in the area had underwhelming fall seasons.
It’s fall it is what it is.

Most just said we have to get better and will be fine come spring - while taking nothing away from the opponents. A LOSS is a LOSS.

One team in particular cemented themselves as the biggest whiners, crybabies and excuse makers in all of the quarterzip galaxy.

Lose gracefully and show some character - or do what we saw a particular group of parents do on this board.

Bring on the spring.

It might be interesting to watch, but I don’t think it would be that different than other tournaments. They are all of little importance. I have an on age son (Feb. 2010), but the holdback issue is not as all-important as you think. If your son can’t compete in the regular tournaments, it’s probably just that he isn’t that good. The best teams tend to have a few holdbacks and that is annoying, but kids that can actually play still compete fine with kids a little older. The good athletes do fine either way so I don’t think seeing a purely on age tournament would be more exciting or show anything new. If your kid is marginal now it’s not the holdbacks, it’s lack of skill and athleticism and whining about holdbacks won’t change that.

My kid has played in a bunch of the big tournaments include the WS and the WS was far and away the best experience. No other tournament comes close. It is VERY expensive to participate though.

Agreed. My older son participated in the original version of the WSYL in Colorado.

His youth team was fortunate to win a few of the larger tournaments (NAL, Naptown), however that was his favorite youth lacrosse experience.

Agreed. Not sure why all the detest on WS. My son participated last year and it was a great experience for him, even if it was different from the original WS. There is no other "high level" tournament that I know of that will give you the same experience (the welcome ceremony, banquet, pin trading, parade of teams before the final game, etc). And bonus - cheaper because it was in MD - no flights or hotels needed.

Woah a parade? Must do event.

I know you are into youth lacrosse for your own personal edification of your unfulfilling youth athletic career.

But the actual children who play like that sort of thing.

I’m with you. Maybe we could get them to hayrides and petting zoo?

The on age can and do compete with the holdbacks.
I have never heard on age kids ever complain about the holdbacks. If anything they laugh about it.
The detest comes from the parents that can't stand the fact that there are weirdos out there that want their older kids to play down against younger kids.
That's it.
It's lame and soft and we see through it.
Tough kids play up. Weak parents play their kids down.

Your 15 year old 2028 probably isn’t into parades, we understand. That’s what happens when you hold them back, they’re peers are much younger and have different interests. On the bright side he could drive himself to the World Series.

If there was a tournament that offered hay rides to the winners kids would infinitely enjoy that more than your standard gilden t shirt.

Gotta love some of the parents on this board. Their kid could be 12 yrs 11 months and 25 days old and they will call him "12 years old". Someone else's kid could be 13 yrs 4 months old and they will call him "14".

The on age, 7th grade ,12yr old's competing will probably enjoy the zoo and hayrides.
Your 15yr old 7th grader will probably not.