US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums MID-ATLANTIC LACROSSE MARYLAND FORUM Boys 2026 Grads - Mid Atlantic Region

Maybe. We will see how many players tryout for this new and improved NL team this summer if they perform well and rise in the rankings.

Put your keyboard down. Go help your kid get ready for his next two JV seasons.

I think they also got some others as well.

4 middies
1 lsm
1 pole

Man those NL kids just got pushed down to 3rd line.

Pretty telling re the Madlax parents too. How do they think they’ll be received by the 15 families who just saw their friends get hosed? This team is gonna struggle Bigtime on the sideline for the foreseeable future

Thanks for your input Bobby

They are being received very well by the best players and their parents. The ones that are sick of losing,

I believe that previous NL 26 team was pretty tight. They’d been together for many years. It will be somewhat awkward to say the least.

They should not call Looneys/FCA parents for advice.

Like I said, if this team starts winning kids will flock to it. No one will care how it was formed. Hard to blame the owners when parents are just as bad.

It’s not like ML 2026 exactly has a reputation for winning. They embarrassed themselves in HoCo last spring. In tournaments they typically get the traditional easy MadLax first day pool and then get killed in the playoff round. And these particular players’ families think that it was their former coaches and teammates holding them back from success. Sure, if I was a NL family I would love this bunch to be my savior.

LOL! Maybe at the 7th grade level. These boys will be rising sophomores at end of summer. No one is flocking anywhere for wins their sophomore year when it’s showcase format from here on out except for maybe one tournament.

Perhaps you are correct. People will still praise the team and it will raise the standing of the NL brand. I can hear it now, all the D1 commits that have come out of the amazing NL 26 team. People are already doing it with the 24s.

Some of these kids realize the school they were fortunate enough to get in to because of lacrosse will take them much further then winning club lax games. The ones "flocking" to teams simply for the sake of winning club games most likely have parents that care more then the kids do. Moving for development is one thing, but if you are at this age and jumping club teams to get W's. Good luck

So are you saying club is not they way to go to be seen at the college level? It doesn’t matter who your son is playing for?

Clubs did to go to the top tournaments so they need to be good.

Finally spoke to a parent friend on NL26s. Thought I would share what I picked up. So, please feel free to add/subtract. It's not exactly linear....I'm just sending out what I heard.

Roughly 11 kids from NL26 were moved to a "practice squad" after DM's latest attempt to poach-to-win (and make money!!) after the ML kids decided to move over. Many of these 11 kids were original to NL and some had already paid. Needless to say, there are a lot of ticked off parents and my take was that they aren't going to let this go lightly. People on BOTC like to hammerhead on CM, and much of it is deserved, but this latest by DM & Co has really hit a nerve with people.

Several of the ML kids who are moving to NL attend St. Johns, and their parents were the ring leaders. Most schools of value in the DMV would frown upon using your position at the school to make money in your side hustle, but SJCH does not care from what I am told. If a club tried to pull this at Prep, Landon, Zaga there would be serious problems.

Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't because both ML and NL 26 teams were weak to say the least, but I sure would like to see the tension on the sidelines this summer between the newbies and NL leftovers.

If you are relying on lacrosse for the future success of youreducation and life at this point and not focusing on your grades and high school team. Yes, you are right. Club is very important. Then after dumping 4 years away at a college you picked to "get W's" in lax. You will have plenty of time to sell your Aflac priduct at Swallow at the Hollow or Hero's Pub. If you are lucky you can subplement that pay with some lax lessons as you realive the glory of lax in your parent's basement. Lax is awesome to help get kids in school. But where is it taking you when real ife begins. Congrats to you and yours on this club lax journey, just make sure he has his shovel ready in 8 year. Lots of ditches to be dug

Thanks for sharing. Agree CM is a piece of work and has done the same thing the DM and Co. are doing as well. Agree, also the parents/players where ring leaders but they clearly where not happy with CM or the team. As for the school SJCH they will do anything to screw CM so no surprise there. Unfortunately, the bottom 11 kids from the NL 26 got screwed and that would lax me off as well. Based on what was posted on DCUM the following is where these players come from and it looks like it is all over the place. I would say they are mostly from Landon.

2 attack (Prep, SJC)
1 attack “Free Agent” (GZ)
4 middies (3 Landon, 1?)
1 lsm (SJC)
1 pole (Landon)

Maybe undecided

2 poles (Prep)

Those practice players should head for ML or make the Red team really good and compete in the same tournament Blue does this summer.

It all [Censored] to be clear.

Anybody else been hearing a lot about this looneys comeback?

No skin in this game but I bet that other than maybe the top 5 of those ML players, the other 5 are no better than the NL players being replaced. DM chose the package deal blank to CM over his own players. Seen it before. The ego v loyalty.

THIS, but 5 is generous.

Can you really say top 5 since it depends on position.

No

New menu looks great. Do they have larosse teams anymore?

you are correct. package deal.

Have not heard anything. Unless someone new takes over the name and other assets, I don't believe there is any way to come back from what SA did to the club.

You might get a few kids who are just starting to play to attend a tryout, but I don't believe he could attract enough to restart and sustain a club. Anybody who knows local area lacrosse would not consider trusting him again.

Having said that, if a new director were to take over and show a plan that included competent leadership and coaching, there could be a comeback. The name is known. Looney's was once a large club, with teams for both boys and girls.

The bigger questions is, does the area need yet another expensive club lacrosse team? My answer is no. What the area needs is for the clubs to work with and support the local rec board teams that develop little kids. The cost to get started is too high for many families.

Clubs ought to help to feed and grow the sport, rather than adding younger and younger teams each year. Do we really think it is worthwhile to pay a couple grand per season for elementary-age kids to learn the game? I don't.

It really makes this all the more disgusting. Can we now all agree DM is the biggest Xbag in the area?

Also, CM should have seen this coming. Is the SJC parent who led this the same one who led the 24 defection?

Especially considering that even those 3-5 are over-rated. Talented but selfish. Don't like to practice. They were in sweats on the sidelines at the "tryout." MadLax 2026 consistently underachieved for a reason.

Clubs ought to help to feed and grow the sport, rather than adding younger and younger teams each year. Do we really think it is worthwhile to pay a couple grand per season for elementary-age kids to learn the game? I don't.[/quote]


100% agree. The current system of True buying a local rec team then charging 4x the price for the same rec coaches is fool and just [Censored] for kids and families. These kids went from getting fields for free to paying $200 $$$ a hour for exact same field. All for nicer new logo and chance to be on national team. Grow the game don't price people out. Ever notice it only works on families who parents didn't play lacrosse growing up. All that did run away and know better......

Madlax just had spring tryouts and NL has had spring tryouts for the high school teams for years. There are literally teams like Red Hots dm’ing kids to join their all-star teams in grade school. This is not a DM issue nor is it a lacrosse issue. If your kid was a better athlete and played good basketball, you would really see the dirty side of teen sports.

My impression is it was a joint Landon sjc move.

Except the Landon coaching staff was not behind, nor did they like the move. The Landon staff expressed their dislike to some of the kids.

It was.

I think you are being a little disingenuous. NL has had supplementary practices to fill rosters in the past. Primarily for their Red teams. This is different. I’m sure the kids placed on the practice squad are not looking at it like a normal occurrence.

Facts

Looneys ain't coming back any time soon. The youngest team they ever had were 2027s, who all fled to Predators and I think FCA. If I were running Looneys I would try to set up a loose alliance between myself, LTRC, and TRC/Kelly Post. Which would mean, to an extent, shoving True Baltimore's corpse out of the Towson lax-o-sphere.

Some of the new additions to NL are upgrades. The 3 attack (gz, sjc, gp)and 2 mid (landon, deerfield), lsm (sjc) and 1 pole (landon)are talent upgrades.the rest of the additions are a wash, and were added either because of a package deal or political reason. If it was a true open tryout not all of the ML players would have been given spots. This was not a supplemental tryout, but a merger in whole.

As a whole, the team will be better, once they can learn to play together. The biggest change that will cause growth with the team is the addition by subtraction and no longer having DS (gc coach) in control of the team.

I’m sorry about your son. Not too late to try another sport. I heard Track is a no cut sport.

Pretty easy to figure out that your kid goes to Landon and was one of the kids on NL that was negatively affected by the move.

So how many teams has he been cut by now, I'm counting 3-4