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

Very difficult putting together rankings for national teams when their rosters change from tourney to tourney. I can tell you that the Team Eighteen team that was in FL last week would have crushed the Nationals team that was there . . . but Nationals beat Eighteen in Oct in Philly. Futile exercise.[/quote]

Yeah that's all true. Noted a few Madlax helmets, Hawks helmets, and tons of Crabs helmets as somebody mentioned.

The MadLax helmets on the national teams is proof of just how thin those teams have gotten. MadLax own model is to have a local DC team in every class that they call their Capital team, and then pull in 3-6 players (or more) from around the country for certain tournaments like NLF and Club Nationals to upgrade their roster to a National team. So MadLax players have a "national team" built into their existing team. The only reason why a madlax player would look to one of the other "national" teams is if he were not good enough to play on the MadLax nationals. if Madlax second stringers are able to make these so called national all star teams, it shows how diluted the teams really are. If everybody is an all star, then at some point nobody is an all star - it is just the same players being recycled through different teams.

Sweetlax Navy went undefeated at club nationals and won it so I suppose they have to be deemed the best national team.

Beyond that, at full strength JM3, Red Hots National and Mad Dog National are probably the strongest teams. WCS Gold is always very strong. I have no idea what True Sewer Rats is but in the past True National Black has been very tough. Nations Best has also been very good.

100%. And based on the # of HoCo AAA helmets at these "elite national" events, it goes to the point made on this board many times that:

2nd/3rd line MD "elite" lax kid = MD "AAA" starter = "all star lax kid" in every state except MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, GA, IL. AZ, TX, CA, FL are getting there, but it's 5 years away. That leaves 38 states where the 500 MD boys who ride the bench at elite or start at AAA would be "all star" laxxers.

I don't detest the national team models but you make a great point about talent dilution.

Another factor is the cost. No many households can afford the travel and club expenses ($2k+) for a two day tournament at Christmas time with school tuitions due soon.

You are overlooking that most of the teams at the circuit would literally take any kid who would show up. They were not all star teams by any stretch.

About four of the teams were actually selective in what kids they asked to play.

100%

My son's team (AAA in HoCo last year) had 4 boys from his team playing the National Teams and none of them are starters.

2028 Crabs kids or program wide?

Sandstorm brackets are up on Tourney machine. JM3 Nationals, Texas Nationals, Mad Dog West Elite, True National Black are in. Should be good.

What I don’t understand about the national teams is how many MD kids play. My son is only a local elite team. They play about 40 games a year between fall, spring, and summer. That is double what any college team plays. Why would anyone waste money playing even more and risk the injury. If you aren’t good playing 40 games, it’s not like an extra few games will make you any better? And if you are good why waste the money and risk injury playing the glorified pick-up lacrosse that happens at all the club tournaments? I mean the lacrosse is not particularly sophisticated at these national events. My son’s middle school team runs more legitimate sets.

Yawn

The point here is simple the Circuit is a B level tournament. The above statements about cost are realistic. The Circuit, Club Nationals, and Sandstorm (another B level tournament) are all pay to play. If you look at all the different helmets it’s not the best players on those club teams it the dads who pay to watch their kids mop up B level talent and come back Home and brag how great his kid played.

Yeah, B level talent, ok. Then why'd Madlax finish 7th?

I love how the quarter zip lax dads poo poo on everything that doesn’t assuage their pretentious mid Atlantic holdback lax superiority.

Your mighty “HoCo elite” is looking like HoCo average.

Let the kids have fun who want to have fun and keep your trap shut.

Enjoy the awful grass of annapolis high school and the wasteland of Frederica- all in 100 degree heat this summer.

The Circuit and Club Nationals are two different events for national all star teams, competing against each other, which is one reason why neither event had a deep field. MadLax is great at 2029, but pretty weak at the older ages so 7th is about where they would expect to finish at 2028.

This is very true. No reason to leave Hawks, Madlax etc to go play these things. Unless your Club team never travels outside the DMV— gotta spread the wings a little. But yeah, between HoCo and summer events, there’s plenty of elite level laxrosse in the DMV. Out west not so much, they need to pull from 20 states to compete and get their kids elite level exposure

[quote=Anonymous]Yeah, B level talent, ok. Then why'd Madlax finish 7th?[/quo

A- they finished 5th. Went 4-1. Only loss was to JM3 in the quarters who they led with a minute left, man up, with the ball. Terrible end game execution, but they should have won that one You’ve gotta be a NL dad who never finds his way out of his little DMV box.

WCS, MD National, Sweetlax were also great teams.

"Every player below my kid's ability is B level talent, and everyone starting with him and above, is A level talent" lol.

A not insignificant # of kids who will be ranked in the top 25 and top 50 prospects are at these events. Yeah, also the slowest middies on ML, Hawks, and NL. So what? The idea that those kids are B level competition is hilarious. They're good enough for your vaunted "elite team."

I love how out of state dads desperately track what HoCo teams are doing. You follow them, they don't follow you. Keep your trap shut and let the kids have fun. Lacrosse is played all over the country in hot weather. Keep making excuses for why your kid can't compete. It must be because of holdbacks. It must be!

Most of the out of state dads I've met at various events (unless the kids are legit ballers, which is only a few dozen 2028s in 30+ states) are very nice guys who have been sold the local version of the "True Sales Pitch." Which is basically to say, "I've been led to believe my kid is awesome because:

-we have former D1 players as coaches (thinking this is unique, or that it translates into good coaching automatically)
-we have our own field
-my kid leads our team in goals
-my kid's goals (against some poor goalie) are featured on the club's IG constantly

Then they see a 2028 team like 91MD, FCA White or Predators play and they're like "Wow this is really high level ball!" Which it is, compared to Idaho's most elite club team lol, but not compared to the HoCo elite teams that have wiped the floor with all 3 of those teams routinely, and all practice within 30 miles of each other.

In reality, what they have is very insufficient coaching, not a lot of boys who were taught to play young by dads or older siblings, many areas don't even have a talented lax stringer or a shop that can responsibly advise them on gear.

That's why these dads come to sites like BOTC to snoop around. They're starting to see that there's a pretty big, competitive lax world out there and their club director's / middle school coach's talk about "D1" for some Nevada or Arkansas kids may be a bunch of nonsense. Because maybe Madlax stinks compared to 91LI and JM3, but Madlax doesn't [Censored] compared to 175 of the 200 ranked 2028 teams. And all the teams that Madlax beats by 5-10 points.....turns out those teams are pretty good too. And I love nothing more than to see Cabell's ML program fail, but them's the facts.

anyone see where the mic dropped?

Yawn?? These are big teams with great players. Super fun tourney as well.

Not interested in flying to California to play youth lacrosse on a pick up team. Considering there’s a plethora of talent on the east coast within driving distance this seems like a massive waste of time, money and energy.

How does one get on JM3 National? Do you need to be a JM3 athlete or work with Jamie?

My son plays on one of these teams, and the club director was *shocked* we said no to a July tournament in Nevada and a Dec 15 tournament in CA.

As you said, plenty of great options from NC to MA, year round.

It's funny to me that the Circuit figured this out as well......75% of the kids come from east of the MS River so maybe not Oregon for a site?

No,,,A BIG YAWN

People have to remember this is kids sports. Flying for
your 7th grader to play lacrosse multiple times a year is ridiculous.

Totally agree. No one gets recruited in middle school.

☝🏻

Your kid is obviously not good enough for one of these teams.

Wrong as usual. He’s on a top team and the national model is more useless than nips on a bull.

Says the dad whose kid plays for 3 National Teams and rides the pine in HoCo.

I don't think the goal for each kid joining a national team is necessarily to get recruited (maybe for some but not in general). Exposing your kid to different coaches and kids is a great part of the experience whether they are on a winning team or not. Extra reps never hurt especially if your kid is asking for them. Also, it is Palm Springs, I can think of a lot worse places to be on a holiday weekend.

You’re not getting on JM3 unless (1) your kid is an absolute student at the elite level and (2) you’re already friends with one of the dads whose son already plays on the team. Munro coaches the team but doesn’t control the roster—the dads do. And the roster size is small. Mainly 3d NE, a few Hawks, a few Long Island kids, and a few from TX and CO.

what's up holdback dad! keep pretending to be your son on insta. you are fooling us all

Cue the whining of "OMG you looked at my...I mean...their....IG profiles? How creepy! <<returns to posting on kid's IG in the first person, and DMing other kids in first person>>"

The 2028 kids' IG profiles are entire group of "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" hardo dads (and if you don't get that reference, you're waaaaay too old). My favorite yet was a mid 2021 13th birthday post, posted by 2028 kid, erased a few hours later by dad lol.

None of it is as bad as the “Apex Youth” money grab… 99% of the kids are from second and third tier teams, but their dads are happy to fork it over so they can be “Best Middle School players in the US.” LMAO

March Kickoff invitational has red hots mad dog and potentially 2way playing plus NL BLC potentially madlax and more that could be a great tournament for the 28's

Just to piggyback on this I saw the game between BLC and NL, NL won by 2 goals with a score of 4-2 I was later informed they were missing their dominant FOGO, Fast middies, and their new big attackmen broke his collarbone, what I'm trying to say is this rebuild of BLC seems like a joke and that there was also b team next level players who were playing great and scoring on the BLC new goalie.